OTHER ESTATES.
The CHISWICK
HOUSE estate, to which much neighbouring
property was added in the early 19th century, was
chiefly copyhold of the Prebend manor, (fn. 57)
Chiswick House itself being enfranchised only
in 1910. (fn. 58) The estate belonged in the early
17th century to Sir Edward Wardour, (fn. 59) son of
Chideock Wardour and active in local affairs. (fn. 60)
After Sir Edward had moved to Turret House, (fn. 61)
his former house was apparently sold to James I's
disgraced favourite Robert Carr, earl of
Somerset (d. 1645), who paid church rates from
1624 and whose wife died at Chiswick in 1632. (fn. 62)
Later owners were Philip Howard, earl of
Pembroke, in 1638 and John Poulett, Lord
Poulett (d. 1649), from 1639. (fn. 63) In 1651 Poulett's
sons surrendered all their property in Chiswick
to their mother Elizabeth, by then the wife of
John Ashburnham. (fn. 64) It was bought by the king in
1664 for his son James, duke of Monmouth, (fn. 65)
and by Charles, Lord Gerard (later earl of
Macclesfield), in 1668. (fn. 66) By 1677 it had passed to
Richard Jones, Viscount (later earl of) Ranelagh,
and by 1682 to the Speaker Edward Seymour
(later Sir Edward Seymour, Bt.), who sold it in
1682 to Lord Ranelagh's uncle Richard Boyle,
earl of Burlington (d. 1698). (fn. 67)
Lord Burlington was succeeded by his grandson Charles Boyle (d. 1704), whose son Richard,
statesman and patron of the arts, also leased
Sutton Court manor (fn. 68) and died at Chiswick in
1753. (fn. 69) The earldom then became extinct and the
property passed through the marriage of the last
earl's daughter Charlotte Elizabeth, suo jure
Baroness Clifford, to William Cavendish,
marquess of Hartington and later duke of Devonshire (d. 1764). It descended to William
Cavendish, duke of Devonshire (d. 1811), and to
William George Spencer Cavendish, duke of
Devonshire (d. 1858), (fn. 70) who acquired much
neighbouring property, including the Corney
House and Heathfield House estates, (fn. 71) and held
655 a., covering half of the parish, in 1847. (fn. 72)
Although his successors sold many sites for
suburban building, which was planned as early as
1867, (fn. 73) they remained Chiswick's chief landowners in the late 19th century. (fn. 74) Some 200 a. of
riverside meadow were sold to the U.D.C. in
1923 by Victor Christian William Cavendish,
duke of Devonshire (d. 1938), (fn. 75) leaving Chiswick
House itself with c. 66 a. to be bought by
Middlesex C.C., with smaller contributions from
other local authorities and subscribers who included George V. The property was leased to
Brentford and Chiswick U.D., which opened the
grounds in 1929 as a public park. In disrepair
before the Second World War, the house was
transferred in 1948 to the Ministry of Works,
together with the garden buildings and statuary. (fn. 76)
Restoration of the main building began in 1948
and ended in 1958. (fn. 77) Both the house, maintained
by the Department of the Environment, and the
grounds, leased to Hounslow L.B., were open to
the public in 1979.
The 17th-century mansion, assessed at 33
hearths in 1664, (fn. 78) was probably enlarged both by
the earl of Burlington (d. 1698) and by his
grandson (d. 1704), who added the stables later
called the Grosvenor wing. (fn. 79) The 3rd earl
(d. 1753) further altered the exterior, in the
Palladian style, and built a summer parlour on
the south-west side, a few years before building
the villa which survives as Chiswick House. His
new villa stood some 18 m. to the south-west
beyond a 'link' building, which was connected
with the summer parlour and the villa by low
walls, the western (fn. 80) or garden fronts of all three
structures being aligned. Apart from the twostoreyed Grosvenor wing, which survived until
1933, the old house was pulled down in 1788,
when James Wyatt was employed to add twostoreyed north and south wings to the villa, in
keeping with its style. His work was demolished
in 1952, revealing the link building which had
been engulfed by the north wing and allowing
overall restoration to the original proportions.
The surviving Chiswick House was built between 1725 and 1729 as a temple of the arts
rather than a residence, Lord Burlington continuing to live in his father's seat near by.
Immediately celebrated for its architecture and
setting, Burlington's villa won further fame after
its enlargement by Wyatt, when it served as a
country annexe of Devonshire House, which had
become a centre of London society under
Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire (d. 1806).
Charles James Fox died at Chiswick House while
foreign secretary in 1806 and George Canning
while prime minister in 1827. (fn. 81) Tsar Alexander I
and the king of Prussia were welcomed there in
1814, Queen Victoria in 1842, and Tsar Nicholas I
and the king of Saxony in 1844. (fn. 82) Under the will
of the duke of Devonshire (d. 1858) Chiswick
House passed for life to his sister Harriet,
dowager Countess Granville (d. 1862). (fn. 83)
Although later dukes did not live there, it continued to have distinguished tenants: Harriet,
duchess of Sutherland, in 1867, (fn. 84) the Prince of
Wales, who entertained the Shah of Persia there
in 1873 and whose children were often at
Chiswick, (fn. 85) and the marquess of Bute by 1881. (fn. 86)
Not until the end of Lord Bute's tenancy in 1892
were the duke of Devonshire's art treasures
moved to Chatsworth (Derb.) and was Chiswick
House leased as a private asylum by Dr. Thomas
Seymour Tuke (d. 1917). (fn. 87) He was followed
by his brother Dr. Charles Molesworth Tuke
(d. 1925), whose widow remained there until
1929. (fn. 88)
Chiswick House, as restored, owes its outward
appearance and its rigid internal plan to Lord
Burlington, although much of the profuse
interior decoration is by his close collaborator
William Kent. It is modelled mainly on the 16thcentury Villa Capra near Vicenza, although less
closely than England's other chief Palladian work
at Mereworth Castle (Kent), designed in 1723 by
Burlington's mentor Colin Campbell. The main,
east, front, approached from Burlington Lane,
has needed little repair, unlike the north and
south elevations masked by Wyatt, which have
been wholly reconstructed, and the resurrected
link building and the summer parlour. In the
18th century the villa was not isolated, in that it
stood close to Burlington Lane and had neighbouring houses to the north, in contrast to a treelined vista across the meadows south of the lane
as far as the Thames. (fn. 89)
The main villa is almost square and of two
storeys, the lower dressed in Portland stone and
the upper one rendered, and is surmounted by a
lead-covered octagonal dome, flanked on either
side by 4 obelisk-shaped chimney stacks.
From the main front projects a two-storeyed
Corinthian portico, reached by a balustraded
staircase which, like one on the western front,
forms a Baroque deviation from Palladian
severity. Similarly, Burlington departed from his
models' symmetry in the arrangement of the
rooms, although on both floors they surround an
octagonal hall, the lower ones corresponding to
the upper ones. On the ground floor the three
compartments along the western front form an
apsidal-ended library entered from the hall and
from lobbies to the north and south. At the
north-western corner of the library a doorway
leads to the link building and summer parlour.
On the upper and principal floor a passage leads
from the portico to the octagonal dome saloon,
hung with paintings returned from Chatsworth
and richly decorated, the octagonal panels lining
the dome being a repetition of Kent's device for
the cupola room at Kensington Palace. Around
the hall are six ornate rooms and, on the west
side, a gallery with a central Venetian window
opening on the garden staircase and, like the
library beneath, an entrance to the link building. The vases in the windows and one of the
statues in the apsidal end compartments are
original; eight of the ceiling panels are by Kent,
the ninth and central one having been ascribed
to Veronese but perhaps being the work of an
imitator, Sebastiano Ricci. Skilful gradations
in the many elaborate features of the gallery
make it 'an outstanding example of grand
architecture in small compass'. Similar judgements have generally been made on the villa as
a whole. Lord Hervey sneered at it as a useless
miniature (fn. 90) but Pope, in admiration, dedicated
the fourth of his Moral Essays to Lord Burlington (fn. 91) and Horace Walpole aspired only to make
Strawberry Hill, like Chiswick, a model of its
kind. (fn. 92)
Whereas Lord Burlington's architecture was
an adaptation from the Italian, with few English
parallels, Kent's garden opened a new chapter in
the history of landscaping. (fn. 93) While still affording
vistas along straight avenues, he laid out the
intervening thickets with winding paths and
curved the edges of the pieces of water to produce
the first ambitious design in the style of the
Picturesque. Despite later changes, the main axes
can still be seen: a forecourt between Burlington
Lane and the portico; a grand avenue to the
north-east, continued north-west on the far side
of the link building to a semicircular exedra;
three straight walks radiating from the exedra
through a wilderness, the westernmost leading
to a bridge over the canal, whence radiated
further walks; three more walks radiating from
an obelisk in the south-west corner of the
grounds, one to the bridge, one towards the
villa, and the middle one to an Ionic temple,
visible from the villa, and another obelisk in
a pond within an amphitheatre.
A gateway given by Sir Hans Sloane was
brought from Beaufort House, Chelsea, in 1738,
when Pope celebrated its move, and installed
north of the summer parlour, next to the 17thcentury mansion. Designed by Inigo Jones as
a round-headed archway in rusticated masonry,
it is linked by a wing-wall running west past the
site of Lord Burlington's former orangery to the
18th-century deer-house, beyond which stands a
Doric column once surmounted by a copy of the
Venus de Medici. Other ornaments or buildings
of Kent's time include statuary around the forecourt; urns and sphinxes in the avenue from the
villa to the exedra; three Roman statues in
the exedra; the rustic house at the end of the
northernmost walk from the exedra; the southwestern obelisk, whose base contains a Roman
tombstone, reputedly one of the Arundel
marbles; the Ionic temple and second obelisk;
and a rusticated cascade over the southern end of
the canal, with a nearby rustic bridge. Pavilions
terminating the other two avenues from the
exedra, one of them Lord Burlington's first essay
at Chiswick, have gone, as have two sheets of
water with curving ends, which flanked the Ionic
temple.
Changes were made by Capability Brown for
Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, who also had
Kent's wooden bridge replaced by the existing
stone one, designed in the Palladian style by
Wyatt. After the acquisition of Lady Mary
Coke's (formerly Sir Stephen Fox's) house to the
north-east, (fn. 94) formal Italian gardens were laid out
on its site, with a large greenhouse reputedly
designed by Joseph Paxton, protégé of the duke
of Devonshire (d. 1858). The same duke erected
lodges and gates by Decimus Burton in 1835, (fn. 95)
planted lime trees along Duke's Avenue, forming
a drive from High Road to Chiswick House, and
moved part of Burlington Lane farther south,
extending the lake in place of the cascade. (fn. 96)
Exotic trees and animals were displayed in the
park, including an elephant, which in 1828
impressed Sir Walter Scott, and later some of
England's first giraffes. (fn. 97) Wrought iron gates
from Heathfield House were installed at the
northern entrance in 1837 but removed to
Devonshire House (London) c. 1897 and to
Green Park in 1921. (fn. 98) Sales of surrounding land
by the dukes in the late 19th century did not
much affect the landscaped grounds, although
part of the canal was drained for building (fn. 99) and
by 1896 the houses of Paxton Road pressed close
to the tree-lined drive. Trees in the south-west
corner had been cleared to make the existing
cricket field by 1915, when Park Road bordered
the estate to the north. By 1935 Staveley Road
formed the western boundary and there was a
sports ground north-west of the conservatory. (fn. 1)
Within those limits the local authority maintained the gardens and by 1979 had restored the
main part to its original form.
The GROVE HOUSE estate originated in a
tenement called the Grove, with lands in Sutton
and Strand-on-the-Green. They were acquired
from the feoffees of John atte Wode in 1412 by
Thomas Holgill (fn. 2) and were possibly held by
Robert atte Grove in 1352 (fn. 3) or Robert de Grava
in 1202 x 1216. (fn. 4) William Holgill, described like
Thomas Holgill as esquire, (fn. 5) occurred in 1458. (fn. 6)
The Barkers perhaps held the land when they
were first recorded at Chiswick, in 1537. (fn. 7)
Anthony Barker leased Grove farm of c. 170 a. in
socage from St. Paul's in 1597 and left an interest
to Anne (d. 1607), widow of William Barker of
Sonning (Berks.). Anne's son Thomas Barker of
the Middle Temple (d. 1630) was active in parish
government and apparently was succeeded at
Chiswick not by his 17-year old eldest son
William (fn. 8) but by a younger son, probably
Thomas, a royalist killed at Lansdown in 1643.
Thomas was followed by his brother Henry, (fn. 9)
who was admitted to further copyholds of Sutton
Court in 1655 and whose seat was called Grove
House by 1664, when he ranked with Thomas
Kendall as the second largest ratepayer after Sir
Edward Nicholas. (fn. 10) Further lands were added by
Henry (d. 1695), who owned much property in
Berkshire, (fn. 11) and by his eldest son Scory Barker,
also of the Middle Temple. (fn. 12) Scory's son Henry
was admitted in 1714 and was the last Barker at
Grove House, where he died in 1745. (fn. 13) Although
Henry had sons, he left his Chiswick lands,
copyhold of both Sutton Court and the Prebend
manors, to trustees, who conveyed some to
Henry Barker of Wallingford (Berks.) but
sold others in 1761 and 1762 to the duke of
Devonshire. (fn. 14)
Grove House itself was acquired before 1750 (fn. 15)
by Henry d'Auverquerque, earl of Grantham
(d. 1754), who was succeeded by his daughter
Frances, wife of Col. William Eliott. (fn. 16) After the
death of Lady Frances Eliott in 1772 the house
and park were sold freehold (fn. 17) to the politician
Humphry Morice (1723-85), who entertained
Horace Walpole there in 1782. (fn. 18) Morice left the
estate, known also as Chiswick Grove, (fn. 19) to
Lavinia, widow of John Luther, on condition
that she maintain an old servant and some stray
animals. (fn. 20) Between 1807 and 1810 (fn. 21) it passed to
Robert Lowth (d. 1822), canon of St. Paul's, (fn. 22)
whose widow remained there in 1830. (fn. 23) Joseph
Gurney lived there in 1855 (fn. 24) before its purchase
in 1861 by the duke of Devonshire, (fn. 25) whose
tenants included Robert Prowett in 1862 and
1867, Col. R. B. Mulliner in 1874 and 1882, (fn. 26) and
Joseph Atkins Borsley by 1888. (fn. 27) Although much
of the estate was built over to form Grove Park, (fn. 28)
Lt.-Col. Robert William Shipway bought the
house, with neighbouring lands, from Borsley
and others in 1895, preserving it until after his
death in 1928. (fn. 29)
Before the late 19th century Grove House
stood by itself, slightly south of the existing
Grove Park Road. (fn. 30) The mansion, assessed at 15
hearths in 1664, (fn. 31) had three storeys with a
pedimented Ionic portico by 1792 (fn. 32) but was reduced to two storeys by the duke of Devonshire,
perhaps to designs by Decimus Burton. (fn. 33) Alterations carried out for Lt.-Col. Shipway revealed
thin bricks which had been rendered and much
decoration of the early 18th century, (fn. 34) presumably relics of the 'regular modern building'
known to Bowack. (fn. 35) The grounds, stretching
southward and bordering the Thames, covered
84 a. c. 1775, of which 67 a. formed an enclosed
park. (fn. 36) Praised by Bowack (fn. 37) and reputedly landscaped for the earl of Grantham, (fn. 38) they were later
noted for their knolls and clumps of trees. (fn. 39)
The 18th-century CORNEY HOUSE estate
derived from a house, with marshy riverside
lands described as an island, which in 1542
was conveyed in exchange by the bishop
of Rochester to John, Lord Russell, afterwards
earl of Bedford (d. 1555). (fn. 40) The soldier Sir
William Russell, a younger son of Francis, earl of
Bedford (d. 1585), (fn. 41) entertained Elizabeth I there
in 1602 (fn. 42) and in 1603 was created Lord Russell of
Thornhaugh (Northants.). William's only son
Francis (d. 1641), earl of Bedford from 1627, (fn. 43)
spent much time at Chiswick, (fn. 44) where he ranked
with the earl of Somerset and Lord Poulett as one
of the three largest ratepayers. (fn. 45) The earl's
youngest son Edward Russell, a creator of the
harbour at Newhaven (Suss.), (fn. 46) sold his mansion
to William Gomeldon or Gumbleton, (fn. 47) first
mentioned in 1663-4, (fn. 48) and built or remodelled
for himself the house in Chiswick Mall which
became known as Bedford House. (fn. 49) An Act of
1667-8 after Edward's death authorized the sale
of his remaining Chiswick property, (fn. 50) although
Edward Russell, presumably his second son who
was born at Chiswick and became earl of Orford, (fn. 51)
remained a ratepayer in 1686-7. (fn. 52)
The Russells' old house apparently was rebuilt
after its sale to Gomeldon (fn. 53) and eventually was
bought from Robert Cary by the Hon. Peregrine
Widdrington (d. 1748), a Jacobite who in 1733
married the widowed Maria, duchess of Norfolk
(d. 1754). (fn. 54) Corney House was a district for the
assessment of church rates in 1717-18. (fn. 55) Corney
Houses constituted a group of copyhold tenements of Sutton Court, one of them the home of
Samuel Richardson from 1736 to 1738 and added
by Widdrington to the main property in 1745. (fn. 56)
Widdrington left his Chiswick seat to his widow
for life, with successive remainders to his nephews
William Tempest Widdrington and John
Towneley. (fn. 57) Catherine Leveson Gower in 1758
was admitted to the site of three tenements
formerly called Corney House and Corney Close,
which copyholds were conveyed by her heir
in 1785 to John Towneley. (fn. 58) John and his
son Peregrine Edward Towneley sold them
in 1792 to Sir Charles Boughton-Rouse, Bt. (fn. 59)
(later Rouse-Boughton). (fn. 60) Sir Charles added
neighbouring plots and was described as of
Corney House from 1796 to 1799. (fn. 61) Elizabeth,
Viscountess Bateman, was at Corney House by
1802, when Sir Charles conveyed to her much of
the land, (fn. 62) and left it on her death in 1803 to Lady
Caroline Damer. (fn. 63) George, Earl Macartney, the
diplomatist and colonial governor, died at
Corney House in 1806 (fn. 64) as the tenant of Lady
Caroline, who by will dated 1827 left a life
interest to Countess Macartney, who died there
in 1828. (fn. 65) The estate was sold in 1830 by Lady
Caroline's heir George Germain to the duke of
Devonshire, (fn. 66) who in 1832 demolished the house
and added its grounds to his own. (fn. 67) Corney
Lodge, presumably the south-west entrance
lodge built by John Towneley, stood in Corney
Lane in 1871 but was not so named in the 1890s
and had disappeared by 1915. (fn. 68)
The late 18th-century Corney House stood
close to the Thames, south-west of Chiswick
village. (fn. 69) It was altered by James Gibbs in 1748,
as Norfolk House, (fn. 70) and was a plain building of
five bays, with tall windows, and three dormers. (fn. 71)
William Combe thought it not large but elegant,
after improvements by Sir Charles RouseBoughton, and that earlier owners had attended
chiefly to the garden. A riverside terrace had been
raised by the duchess of Norfolk, with an octagonal summerhouse built by Widdrington out
of the demolished Corney Houses, and was
unmatched for commanding a 'polished scene of
rural beauty'. (fn. 72)
At Turnham Green the forerunner of
HEATHFIELD HOUSE was held in 1695 by
Susan, widow of Sir John Lort, bt. (d. 1673). The
estate, copyhold of Sutton Court, passed in 1710
to her grandson John Campbell, (fn. 73) who in 1718
conveyed it to Henry Harrison, who in 1741
conveyed it to Mary, widow of his tenant
Thomas Whetham. Mary, Whetham conveyed it
in 1747 to James Petty, Viscount Dunkerron,
who died there in 1750 and was succeeded by
his infant cousin Francis FitzMaurice, earl of
Kerry. (fn. 74) It was conveyed by Lord Kerry in 1762
to Matthew Hutton, by Matthew's brother
James in 1765 to John Perceval, earl of Egmont
(d. 1770), and by Egmont's trustee Sir Brownlow
Cust, bt., in 1773 to Catherine, dowager duchess
of Devonshire (d. 1777). The duchess's youngest
son Lord John Cavendish sold it in 1789 to
George Augustus Eliott, Lord Heathfield
(d. 1790), (fn. 75) the defender of Gibraltar and a
nephew of Col. William Eliott of Grove House. (fn. 76)
The house was conveyed in 1792 by Francis
Augustus, Lord Heathfield, to Alexander
Mayersback, a London physician, and passed in
1796 to Mrs. Sarah Wildman and in 1825 to the
Revd. Samuel Curteis and then to Robert How.
How's trustees were admitted in 1833 and sold
the unoccupied house in 1836 to John Rich and
John Bertrand, who were licensed to demolish
it. (fn. 77)
Heathfield House stood at the south-west
corner of Turnham Green, where its site was
later occupied in turn by Christ Church Vicarage
and the fire station. (fn. 78) Part of the garden wall,
which stretched along Sutton Lane, survived in
1897. (fn. 79) The botanist William Aiton laid out the
grounds for Lord Heathfield, (fn. 80) whose house was
an Italianate building: the main block of five bays
contained two storeys, basement, and attics, with
round-headed windows on the first floor and a
pedimented porch, and was flanked by singlestoreyed wings. (fn. 81) After its demolition the fine
wrought iron entrance gates were bought by the
duke of Devonshire for Chiswick House. (fn. 82)