CHAPTER XIV.
HOLLAND HOUSE, AND ITS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS.
"Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell
With me those pleasures that he sang so well."—Lord Holland.
Earl's Court—John Hunter's House—Mrs. Inchbald—Edwardes Square—Warwick Road and Warwick Gardens—Addison Road—Holland
House—An Antique Relic—The Pictures and Curiosities—The Library—The Rooms occupied by Addison, Charles Fox, Rogers, and
Sheridan—Holland House under the Family of Rich—Theatrical Performances carried on by Stealth during the Commonwealth—Subsequent Owners of the Mansion—Oliver Goldsmith—Addison—The House purchased by Henry Fox, afterwards. Lord Holland—The
Story of Henry Fox's Elopement with the Daughter of the Duke of Richmond—Lady Sarah Lennox and the Private Theatricals—Charles
James Fox—Henry Richard, third Lord Holland, and his Imperious Wife—Lord Macaulay, and other Distinguished Guests—"Who is
Junius?"—Lord Holland and the Emperor Napoleon—Death of Lord Holland, and his Character, as written by a Friend—A Curious
Custom—The Duel between Lord Camelford and Captain Best—Rogers' Grotto—The Gardens and Grounds—Canova's Bust of Napoleon—The Highland and Scottish Societies' Sports and Pastimes—A Tradition concerning Cromwell and Ireton—Little Holland House—The
Residence of General Fox—The Nursery-grounds.
Retracing our steps along the Kensington Road,
we come to Earl's Court Road, a thoroughfare
communicating with the western end of Cromwell
Road, which comprises several highly respectable
detached mansions. It probably owes its name to
the Earls of Warwick and Holland, whose mansion
faces it. Sir Richard Blackmore, the poet, appears
to have had a residence here, for Pope writes, in his
"Imitations of Horace"—
"Blackmore himself, for any grave effort,
Would drink and doze at Tooting or Earl's Court."
In later times Earl's Court afforded a retirement
to the eminent surgeon, John Hunter, who here
made several experiments in natural history, and
formed in the grounds surrounding his villa a
menagerie of rare and valuable foreign animals.
In the kitchen of Hunter's house the great surgeon
literally boiled down the Irish giant, O'Brien,
whose skeleton we have mentioned in our account
of the Museum (fn. 1) in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Even
the copper in which the operation was performed
is religiously kept, and shown to curious visitors.
After the death of Mr. Hunter, the house in which
he resided was for some time occupied occasionally
by the Duke of Richmond, who purchased the
estate. The house, it may be added, has since
been a maison de santé.
In Leonard's Place, and also in Earl's Court
Terrace, Mrs. Inchbald resided for some time, in
boarding-houses. At the back of Earl's Terrace is
Edwardes Square, so called after the family name
of Lord Kensington. This square is chiefly remarkable for the largeness as well as the cultivated
look of the enclosure, which affords to the residents, and also to the inhabitants of the Terrace,
who have the right of entry, the advantages of a
larger kind of garden. Leigh Hunt mentions a
tradition as current in Kensington that Coleridge
once had lodgings in Edwardes Square; but, he
adds, "we do not find the circumstance in his
biographies, though he once lived in the neighbouring village of Hammersmith."
Warwick Road and Warwick Gardens, which lie
on the west side of Edwardes Square, are so named
after the Earls of Warwick, the former owners of
Holland House. In Warwick Gardens is a wellbuilt Wesleyan chapel. Running parallel with
Warwick Road, crossing by a bridge the Kensington Road, and continuing its course by Holland
Road, is the West London Railway, and this we fix
upon as the limits of our perambulations in the
"far west." Addison Road, of course, is so named
after another and a distinguished occupant of
Holland House, of which we shall presently speak;
and it forms a communication between the Kensington and Uxbridge Roads, skirting the west
side of Holland Park. St. Barnabas Church, which
stands in this road, and dates from about the year
1827, is built in the "late Perpendicular" style of
Gothic architecture.
Having been built only in the early part of the
seventeenth century, shortly after the death of
Queen Elizabeth, Holland House has no history
that carries us back beyond the first of the Stuarts;
nor, indeed, did the mansion become really celebrated till the reign of George I., when the widow
of its owner, Rich, Earl of Holland and Warwick,
married Addison, who died here. It afterwards
came into the possession of the family of Fox,
Lord Holland, firstly as tenants, and subsequently
as owners of the freehold. The first Lord Holland
and his lady were both persons of ability; and
before the end of the reign of George II., Holland
House had risen into a celebrity which it has never
since lost.
EARL'S COURT HOUSE (FORMERLY JOHN HUNTER'S HOUSE).
The mansion takes its name from Henry Rich,
Earl of Holland, by whose father-in-law, Sir Walter
Cope, it was built, in the year 1607, from the
designs of John Thorpe, the famous architect of
several of the baronial mansions of England which
were erected about that time. Although scarcely
two miles distant from London, with its smoke, its
din, and its crowded thoroughfares, Holland House
still has its green meadows, its sloping lawns, and
its refreshing trees; and the view of the quaint
old pile which meets the wayfarer in passing along
the Kensington Road, on his road towards or
from Hammersmith, is highly suggestive of rural
solitude, and the effect is enhanced by the note
of the nightingale, which is frequently heard in the
grounds which surround the mansion. From Sir
Walter Cope the property passed to his son-in-law,
above mentioned, who much improved the house,
and completed its internal decorations. The
building follows the form so usually adopted at the
era of its construction, and may be best described
by saying that it resembles one-half of the letter
H. The material is brick, with dressings and
embellishments of stone and stucco. The projection in the central compartment of the principal division of the house forms at once a tower
and porch. There is a building at each end of
the same division, with shingled and steep-roofed
turrets, surmounted by a vane. A projecting
arcade, terminated by a parapet of carved stonework, ranges along the principal faces of the
building; and the original court is bounded by
a palisade. The present terrace in front of the
house was raised about 1848, when the old footpath, which ran immediately in front of its windows,
was diverted from its course. The following are
the particulars of the interior of this interesting
mansion, as given in "Homes and Haunts of
the Poets:"—"There is a fine entrance-hall, a
library behind it, and another library extending the
whole length of one of the wings and the house
up-stairs, one hundred and fifty feet in length.
The drawing-room over the entrance-hall, called
the gilt-room, extends from front to back of the
house, and commands views of the gardens both
ways; those to the back are very beautiful."
There was evidently a chapel attached to the
house in former times, for there are some remnants
of arches still existing, built into the walls of rooms
which now serve a very different purpose. The
old bronze font, or "stoup," for holy water, too,
stands by the staircase in the inner hall, supported
by a comparatively modern tripod of the same
material. It appears to have been made in the
year 1484, by a Fleming, named Cassel, or Caselli;
"around it, far interspersed with odd old Scriptural
and armorial devices, is written, in Gothic letters,
an abbreviated rendering of the passage in the
Psalm, so familiar to Catholic ears: 'Asperges me
hyssopo, et mundabor; lavabis me, et super nivem
dealbabor.'" Many of the pictures which adorn
the walls are by some of the best masters. One
apartment, called "The Sir Joshua Room," contains several of Reynolds's works, the best of which
are considered "Muscipula," a child holding up a
mouse in a cage, with puss looking wistfully on
from below; a portrait of Baretti, author of the
Italian Dictionary, who was tried for murder, (fn. 2) but
received favourable testimony from Dr. Johnson,
Burke, and Garrick, and was acquitted; and the
beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, whom George III.
noticed with admiration when a little girl in Kensington Gardens. His Majesty, it is related,
requested to see her again in later years, and, in
fact, wished much to marry her when she had
grown into a young lady. She was one of the
bridesmaids at his wedding, when, if report be true,
he kept his eyes steadily fixed on her during the
ceremony of his own marriage with Charlotte of
Mechlenburg. This room contains also Murillo's
"Vision of St. Antony of Padua." The gilt-room—which has lost some of its former glories, in the
shape of frescoes on the chimney-piece, supposed
to represent the Aldobrandini Marriage, and which
are presumed to be buried underneath a coating
of plaster— was prepared by the first Earl of
Holland of the line of Rich for the purpose of
giving a ball to Prince Charles on the occasion
of his marriage with Henrietta Maria of France;
the ball, however, for some unexplained reason,
never came off. This apartment is now said to
be tenanted by the solitary ghost of its first lord,
who, according to tradition, "issues forth at midnight from behind a secret door, and walks slowly
through the scenes of former triumphs, with his
head in his hand." This, however, is not the only
"ghost story" connected with Holland House, for
credulous old Aubrey tells us: "The beautiful Lady
Diana Rich, as she was walking in her father's
garden at Kensington, to take the fresh air before
dinner, about eleven o'clock, being then very well,
met with her own apparition, habit, and every
thing, as in a looking-glass. About a month after,
she died of the small-pox. And it is said that her
sister, the Lady Elizabeth Thynne, saw the like of
herself before she died. This account," he adds,
"I had from a person of honour."
OLD KENSINGTON.
1. Manor House. 2. Old Tavern. 3. Little Holland House.
Among the most noticeable pictures which
abound in the map-room and the picture-room,
are some by Watts, who is considered by many
one of the greatest of contemporary English artists.
In the latter room mass was said daily during the
brief stay of Marie Amélie, the late Queen of the
French, in the house in 1862. In the print-room
are some specimens of the Italian, German, Dutch,
Flemish, French, Spanish, and English schools;
the Rembrandts being the most worthy of note.
Hogarth is represented in the next room. Here,
among the portraits, are those of Tom Moore, by
Shee, and of Rogers, by Hoffner; there are also
some fine Dutch sea-pieces. The library, a very
handsome long room, contains, besides its literary
treasures, among other relics, a table used by
Addison at the Temple. There is a glowing notice
of this room by Macaulay, too long for quotation.
In the yellow drawing-room there is "a pair of
candlesticks in Byzantine ware, which belonged to
Mary Queen of Scots. They were in her possession at Fotheringay Castle, and thus were witnesses
to the last hours of her life's tragedy." There is,
too, "an ancient poison-ring," with a death's head
in carbuncle, supposed to have been sent to the
same unfortunate queen. Here are also numerous
relics of the great Napoleon: among them is a
locket, containing some of his hair, a ring, and a
cross worn by him in his island prison at St.
Helena. The miniature-room, it need scarcely be
added, has its treasures; as have also "Lady
Holland's private rooms" and the "blue-room."
The former had a narrow escape from destruction
by fire a few years ago. Among the remaining
curiosities and works of art preserved here, is
an interesting collection of fans, some of which
are very beautifully painted. "One of these," as
the Princess Marie Lichstenstein informs us in
her account of Holland House, "is historically
interesting, having been painted by a daughter
of George III., before the union of Ireland with
England. It bears the rose and the thistle, but no
shamrock; and the motto, 'Health is restored to
one, happiness to millions,' seems to indicate the
occasion for which it was painted." Autographs,
too, and manuscripts of famous characters, are not
wanting: among them are those of Catherine,
Empress of Russia; Napoleon I., Voltaire, Addison,
Petrarch, letters of Philip II., III., and IV. of
Spain; and music by Pergolese, copied by
Rousseau.
"The library," says Leigh Hunt, in his "Old
Court Suburb," "must originally have been a
greenhouse or conservatory; for, in its first condition, it appears to have been scarcely anything
but windows, and it is upwards of ninety feet long,
by only seventeen feet four inches wide, and
fourteen feet seven inches in height. The moment
one enters it, one looks at the two ends, and thinks
of the tradition about Addison's pacings in it to
and fro. It represents him as meditating his
'Spectators' between two bottles of wine, and
comforting his ethics by taking a glass of each as
he arrived at each end of the room. The regularity
of this procedure is, of course, a jest; but the
main circumstance is not improbable, though Lord
Holland seems to have thought otherwise. He
says (for the words in Faulkner's 'Kensington' are
evidently his):—'Fancy may trace the exquisite
humour which enlivens his papers to the mirth
inspired by wine; but there is too much sober
good sense in all his lucubrations, even when he
indulges more in pleasantry, to allow us to give
implicit credit to a tradition invented, probably, as
excuse for intemperance by such as can empty two
bottles of wine, but never produce a 'Spectator'
or a 'Freeholder.'" Of other apartments which
have any particular interest attached to them, is
the chamber in which Addison died; the bed-room
occupied by Charles Fox; that of Rogers, the poet,
who was a frequent visitor here; and also that of
Sheridan, "in the next room to which," as Leigh
Hunt informs us, "a servant was regularly in
attendance all night, partly to furnish, we believe, a
bottle of champagne to the thirsty orator, in case
he should happen to call for one betwixt his
slumbers (at least, we heard so a long while ago,
and it was quite in keeping with his noble host's
hospitality; but we forgot to verify the anecdote on
this occasion), and partly—of which there is no
doubt—to secure the bed-curtains from being set
on fire by his candle."
In a previous chapter we have narrated the
descent of the manor of Kensington from the time
of the Conquest, when it was held by the De
Veres, down to the present day. Sir Walter Cope,
the purchaser of the Vere property in Kensington,
was a master of the Court of Wards in the time
of James I., and one of the Chamberlains of the
Exchequer. He built the centre of the house
and the turrets, and bequeathed it, as already
stated, to Sir Henry Rich, the husband of his
daughter and heiress, Isabel. Not long afterwards,
Sir Henry was raised to the peerage, when he
assumed his title of nobility from his wife's inheritance—that of Lord Kensington. The wings
and arcades were added by this nobleman, who
also completed the internal decorations. His
lordship was a courtier, and had the honour of
being employed to negotiate a marriage between
Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain; but the
negotiation proved abortive. Lord Kensington's
services were, nevertheless, appreciated and rewarded by an earl's coronet and the insignia of
the Garter. The new title chosen by his lordship
was Holland, and thence the manor house of
Kensington received its present appellation. This
Earl of Holland was a younger son of Robert
Rich, first Earl of Warwick, by his marriage with
Penelope, daughter of Queen Elizabeth's favourite,
the Earl of Essex, and the "Stella" of Sir Philip
Sidney. He was a favourite with King James's
"Steenie," Duke of Buckingham, whom he almost
rivalled in coxcombry. During the prosperous
portion of Rich's career, Holland House, no doubt,
was the centre of rank and fashion. The name
of Bassompierre, the French ambassador, figures
among the guests here at that time. The earl was
a political waverer in the "troublous times" of
Charles I. He was twice made a prisoner in the
house: first by Charles, in 1633, upon the occasion
of his challenging Lord Weston, and a second
time by command of the Parliament, after the
unsuccessful issue of his attempt to restore the
king, in 1648. In the following year he lost his
life on the scaffold in Palace Yard, Westminster;
foppish to the last, he is reported to have died in
a white satin waistcoat or doublet, and a cap made
of the same material, trimmed with silver lace.
Within a few months of the earl's execution,
Holland House became the head-quarters of the
Parliamentary army, General Fairfax becoming its
occupant. In the Perfect Diurnal, a journal of the
day, is this entry:—"The Lord-General (Fairfax)
is removed from Queen Street to the late Earl of
Holland's house at Kensington, where he intends
to reside." The mansion, however, was soon
restored to the earl's widow and children; and it
remained quietly in the possession of the family
almost as long as they lasted.
It is well known that throughout the gloomy reign
of Puritanism, under Oliver Cromwell, the dramatic
profession was utterly proscribed. We are told
that during this period the actors, who had been
great loyalists, contrived to perform secretly and
by stealth at noblemen's houses, where purses were
collected for the benefit of "the poor players."
In the "Historia Histrionica," published in 1699,
it is stated that, "In Oliver's time they [the players]
used to act privately, three or four miles or more
out of town, now here, now there, sometimes
in noblemen's houses, in particular, Holland House
at Kensington, where the nobility and gentry who
met (but in no great numbers) used to make a sum
for them, each giving a broad piece, or the like."
From the Restoration to the time of the Georges,
Holland House appears to have been let by the
noble owners on short leases to a variety of
persons, and sometimes even in apartments to
lodgers. Leigh Hunt, in his work already quoted,
mentions the names of several who, in this manner,
resided here: among them, Arthur Annesley, the
first Earl of Anglesey; Sir John Chardin, the
traveller; Catherine Darnley, Duchess of Buckinghamshire; William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania; and Shippen, the famous Jacobite, whom
Pope has immortalised for his sincerity and
honesty. Robert Rich, the son and successor of
the first Earl of Holland, succeeded his cousin as
Earl of Warwick, in consequence of failure of the
elder branch, and thus united the two coronets of
his family. He was the father of Edward Rich,
Earl of Warwick and Holland, whose widow,
Charlotte, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton, of
Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, married, in 1716, the
Right Honourable Joseph Addison, and thus, "by
linking with the associations of Kensington the
memory of that illustrious man, has invested with
a classic halo the groves and shades of Holland
House." Edward Henry, the next earl—to whom,
as we have stated, there is a monument in Kensington Church—was succeeded by his kinsman,
Edward Rich; and the daughter and only child
of this nobleman dying unmarried, the earldom
became extinct in the middle of the last century.
Holland House then came into the possession of
the youthful earl's first cousin, William Edwardes
(a Welsh gentleman, who was created a Peer of
Ireland, as Baron Kensington), and was eventually
sold to the Right Honourable Henry Fox, the
distinguished politician of the time of George II.,
who, on being created a peer, adopted the title of
Holland, and with his descendants the mansion
has continued ever since.
To the literary circle, of which this house was
the centre, it is impossible to say how many poets,
essayists, and other writers have owed their first
celebrity. It is said that even Goldsmith's charming novel, "The Vicar of Wakefield," here found
its earliest admirer. This beautiful little work remained unnoticed, and was attacked by the reviews,
until Lord Holland, who had been ill, sent to his
bookseller for some amusing book. This was
supplied, and he was so pleased that he spoke of it
in the highest terms to a large company who dined
with him a few days after. The consequence was
that the whole impression was sold off in a few
days.
It has been said that Addison obtained an
introduction to his future wife in the capacity of
tutor to her son, the young Earl of Warwick; but
this supposition appears to be negatived by two
letters written by Addison to the earl, when a boy,
wherein the writer evinces an entire ignorance of
the advances which his correspondent might have
made in classical attainment. The letters are dated
1708. Addison had been appointed UnderSecretary of State two years previously, and it
seems improbable that he should have undertaken
the office of tutor at a subsequent period. His
courtship of the countess, however, is said to have
been marked by tedious formalities; and it is further
asserted that her ladyship at first encouraged his
overtures with a view of extracting amusement from
the diffidence and singularity of his character.
From the following anecdote, which is told respecting Addison's courtship, there would seem to be a
show of truth in the story. The tenor of this
anecdote is that "he endeavoured to fathom her
sentiments by reading to her an article in a newspaper (which he himself had caused to be inserted),
stating the probability of a marriage taking place
between the reader and the auditress! From a
comparison of dates, and a further examination of
internal evidence," adds the narrative, "there is
reason to suppose that Addison meant as a playful
description of his own courtship that of Sir Roger
de Coverley to the widow with a white hand; and,
if so, how highly is the world indebted to the warm
fancy of the one party, and the want of determination in the other!" It was, in all probability,
at this period of his life that Addison had a cottage
at Fulham; at all events, he figures in "Esmond,"
as walking thither from Kensington at night-time.
"When the time came to take leave, Esmond
marched homewards to his lodgings, and met
Mr. Addison on the road, walking to a cottage
which he had at Fulham, the moon shining on his
handsome serene face. 'What cheer, brother!'
says Addison, laughing; 'I thought it was a footpad advancing in the dark, and, behold, it is an
old friend! We may shake hands, colonel, in the
dark, 'tis better than fighting by daylight. Why
should we quarrel because I am a Whig and thou
art a Tory? Turn thy steps and walk with me to
Fulham, where there is a nightingale still singing
in the garden, and a cool bottle in a cave I know
of. You shall drink to the Pretender, if you like;
I will drink my liquor in my own way!'"
The growing renown of Addison—perhaps his
fame as a writer, or, more probably, his accession
of political importance—assisted in persuading the
countess to become his wife. But the marriage
was productive of little comfort; and this unfortunate marriage is said to have been the cause
of his indulging to excess in drink. Be that as it
may, Addison himself wrote vehemently against
cowardice seeking strength "in the bottle;" yet it is
asserted that he often withdrew from the bickerings
of his Countess to the coffee-house or the tavern.
His favourite places of resort are said to have been
the White Horse Inn, at the bottom of Holland
House Lane, and Button's Coffee-house, in Russell
Street, Covent Garden, where we have already
made his acquaintance. (fn. 3) The fruit of this unpropitious union was one daughter, who died, at
an advanced age, at Bilton, an estate in Warwickshire which Addison had purchased some years
previously. Addison himself died at the end of
three years after his marriage. The story of his
death-bed here has been often told, but very
probably it is a little apocryphal in its details.
Lord Warwick was a young man of very irregular
life, and of loose opinions. Addison, for whom he
did not want respect, had very diligently endeavoured to reclaim him; but his arguments and
expostulations had no effect. One experiment,
however, remained to be tried. When he found
his life near its end, he directed the young lord
to be called, and told him, "I have sent for
you that you may see how a Christian can die."
It was to this young nobleman that Somerville
addressed his "Elegiac Lines on the Death of
Mr. Addison," wherein occur the lines having
reference to his burial in Westminster Abbey:—
"Can I forget the dismal night that gave
My soul's best part for ever to the grave?
How silent did his old companions tread,
By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead,
Thro' breathing statues, then unheeded things,
Thro' rows of warriors, and thro' walks of kings!
What awe did the slow, solemn knell inspire,
The pealing organ, and the pausing choir;
The duties by the lawn-rob'd prelate paid,
And the last words, that dust to dust convey'd!":
A short time before his death, Addison sent to
request a visit from the poet Gay, and told him, on
their meeting, that he had once done him an
injury, but that if he survived his present affliction
he would endeavour to repair it. Gay did not
know the nature of the injury which had been
inflicted, but supposed that he might have lost
some appointment through the intervention of
Addison.
"Addison," writes Leigh Hunt, "it must be
owned, did not shine during his occupation of
Holland House. He married, and was not happy;
he was made Secretary of State, and was not a
good one; he was in Parliament, and could not
speak in it; he quarrelled with, and even treated
contemptuously, his old friend and associate, Steele,
who declined to return the injury. Yet there, in
Holland House, he lived and wrote, nevertheless,
with a literary glory about his name, which never
can desert the place; and to Holland House,
while he resided in it, must have come all the
distinguished men of the day, for, though a Whig,
he was personally 'well in,' as the phrase is, with
the majority of all parties. He was in communication with Swift, who was a Tory, and with
Pope, who was neither Tory nor Whig. It was
now that the house and its owners began to appear
in verse. Rowe addressed stanzas to Addison's
bride; and Tickell, after his death, touchingly
apostrophizes the place—
"'Thou hill, whose brow the antique structures grace,
Rear'd by bold chiefs of Warwick's noble race;
Why, once so loved, whene'er thy bower appears,
O'er my dim eyeballs glance the sudden tears?'
* * * * * *
"It seems to have been in Holland House (for
he died shortly afterwards) that Addison was
visited by Milton's daughter, when he had requested her to bring him some evidences of her
birth. The moment he beheld her, he exclaimed,
'Madame, you need no other voucher; your face
is a sufficient testimonial whose daughter you are.
It must have been very pleasing to Addison to
befriend Milton's daughter; for he had been the
first to popularise the great poet by his critiques
on 'Paradise Lost,' in the Spectator."
After the death of Addison, Holland House
remained in the possession of the Warwick family,
and of their heir, Lord Kensington, until, as we
have stated above, it was purchased by Henry
Fox, who subsequently became a lord himself, and
took his title from the mansion. This was towards
the close of the reign of George II.
ROGERS' SEAT AND INIGO JONES GATEWAY, HOLLAND HOUSE.
Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland of the new
creation, was the youngest son of Sir Stephen Fox,
a distinguished politician during the reigns of
Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen
Anne. After having had a numerous offspring by
one wife, Sir Stephen married another at the age of
seventy-six, and had three more children, two of
whom founded the noble families of Holland and
Ilchester. It was reported that Stephen Fox had
been a singing-boy in one of our English cathedrals;
Walpole says he was a footman; and the late Lord
Holland, who was a man of too noble a nature to
affect ignorance of such traditions, candidly owns
that he was a man of "very humble origin."
Henry Fox was the political opponent of the first
William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham. The
chief transactions of his lordship's public life are
all duly recorded in the pages of history. Leigh
Hunt, in his own lively manner, writes thus of
him:—"Fox had begun life as a partisan of Sir
Robert Walpole; and in the course of his career
held lucrative offices under Government—that of
Paymaster of the Forces, for one—in which he
enriched himself to a degree which incurred a great
deal of suspicion." A good story is told concerning Fox whilst he held the above-mentioned office;
it is one which will bear repeating here. After
Admiral Byron's engagement in the West Indies,
there arose a great clamour about the badness of
the ammunition served out. Soon afterwards, Mr.
Fox fought a duel with a Mr. Adam. The former
received his adversary's ball, which, happily, made
but a very slight impression. "Egad, sir!" observed Fox, "it would have been all over with me
if we had not charged our pistols with Government powder."
Holland House
Fox, however, was latterly denounced, in a City
address, as the "defaulter of unaccounted millions."
"Public accounts, in those times, were strangely
neglected; and the family have said that his were
in no worse condition than those of others; but
they do not deny that he was a jobber. Fox,
however, for a long time did not care. The
joyousness of his temperament, together with some
very lax notions of morality, enabled him to be at
ease with himself as long as his blood spun so
well. He jobbed and prospered; ran away with
a duke's daughter; contrived to reconcile himself
with the family (that of Richmond); got his wife
made a baroness; was made a lord himself—Baron
Holland, of Foxley; was a husband, notwithstanding his jobbing, loving and beloved; was an
indulgent father; a gay and social friend—in short,
had as happy a life of it as health and spirits could
make, till, unfortunately, health and spirits failed,
and then there seems to have been a remnant of
his father's better portion within him, which did
not allow him to be so well satisfied with himself
in his decline." The story of Henry Fox's elopement with the Duke of Richmond's daughter, Lady
Georgiana Caroline Lennox, is thus told in the
"Old Court Suburb:"—"The duke was a grandson of Charles II., and both he and the duchess
had declined to favour the suit of Mr. Fox, the
son of the equivocal Sir Stephen. They reckoned
on her marrying another man, and an evening was
appointed on which the suitor in question was
to be formally introduced to her. Lady Caroline,
whose affections the dashing statesman had secretly
engaged, was at her wits' end to know how to
baffle this interview. She had evaded the choice
of the family as long as possible, but this appointment looked like a crisis. The gentleman is to
come in the evening; the lady is to prepare for
his reception by a more than ordinary attention to
her toilet. This gives her the cue to what is to be
done. The more than ordinary attention is paid;
but it is in a way that renders the interview impossible. She has cut off her eyebrows. How
can she be seen by anybody in such a trim? The
indignation of the duke and duchess is great; but
the thing is manifestly impossible. She is accordingly left to herself for the night; she has perfected
her plan, in expectation of the result; and the consequence is, that when next her parents inquire for
her, she has gone. Nobody can find her. She is
off for Mr. Fox." This runaway marriage took
place in the Fleet Prison, in the year 1744. In
January, 1761, two years before the elevation of
Mr. Fox to the peerage, Horace Walpole was
present at a performance of private theatricals
at Holland House—a sight which greatly entertained him. The play selected to be performed
by children and very young ladies was Jane Shore,
Lady Sarah Lennox, a sister of Lady Georgiana
Fox, enacting the heroine; while the boy afterwards
eminent as Charles James Fox played the part of
"Hastings," and his brother, Henry Edward, then
six years old, enacted the "Bishop of Ely," dressed
in lawn sleeves, and with a square cap (this little
boy died a general in the army in 1811). Walpole
praises the acting of the performers, but particularly
that of Lady Sarah Lennox, who, he says, "was
more beautiful than you can conceive, . . . in
white, with her hair about her ears, and on the
ground; no Magdalen by Correggio was half so
lovely and expressive." The charms of this lovely
person had already made an impression on the
heart of George III., then newly come to the
throne at two-and-twenty. There seems no reason
to doubt that the young monarch formed the
design of raising his lovely cousin (for such she
was, in a certain sense) to a share of the throne.
The following story concerning the pair we quote
from Timbs' "Romance of London:"—"Early in
the winter of 1760–1, the king took an opportunity
of speaking to Lady Sarah's cousin, Lady Susan
Strangways, expressing a hope at the drawing-room
that her ladyship was not soon to leave town.
She said that she should be leaving soon. 'But,'
said the king, 'you will return in summer for the
coronation.' Lady Susan answered that 'she did
not know—she hoped so.' 'But,' said the king
again, 'they talk of a wedding. There have been
many proposals; but I think an English match
would do better than a foreign one. Pray, tell
Lady Sarah Lennox I say so.' Here was a
sufficiently broad hint to inflame the hopes of a
family, and to raise the head of a blooming girl of
sixteen to the fifth heavens. It happened, however, that Lady Sarah had already allowed her
heart to be pre-occupied, having formed a girlish
attachment for the young Lord Newbottle, grandson of the Marquis of Lothian. She did not,
therefore, enter into the views of her family with
all the alacrity which they desired. According to
the narrative of Mr. Grenville, she went the next
drawing-room to St. James's, and stated to the
king, in as few words as she could, the inconveniences and difficulties in which such a step
would involve him. He said that was his business;
he would stand them all; his part was taken, and
he wished to hear her's was likewise. In this state
it continued, whilst she, by the advice of her
friends, broke off with Lord Newbottle, very reluctantly, on her part. She went into the country
for a few days, and by a fall from her horse broke
her leg. The absence which this occasioned gave
time and opportunities for her enemies to work;
they instilled jealousy into the king's mind upon
the subject of Lord Newbottle, telling him that
Lady Sarah Lennox still continued her intercourse
with him; and immediately the marriage with the
Princess of Strelitz was set on foot; and at Lady
Sarah's return from the country, she found herself
deprived of her crown and her lover, Lord Newbottle, who complained as much of her as she did
of the king. While this was in agitation, Lady
Sarah used to meet the king in his rides early in
the morning, driving a little chaise with Lady
Susan Strangways; and once, it is said, that,
wanting to speak to him, she went dressed like a
servant-maid, and stood amongst the crowd in the
guard-room, to say a few words to him as he passed
by." Walpole also relates that Lady Sarah would
sometimes appear as a haymaker in the park at
Holland House, in order to attract the attention
of the king as he rode past; but the opportunity
was lost. The gossiping chronicler adds also, that
his Majesty blushed scarlet red at his wedding-service when allusion was made to "Abraham and
Sarah." The lady survived her disappointment,
and became the mother of the gallant Napiers.
Three children were the fruit of Lord Holland's
marriage with Lady Georgiana Lennox, and he
proved the fondest of parents. When his lordship
was dangerously ill, he was informed that George
Selwyn had called at his door to inquire after him.
Selwyn, as is well known, was notorious for his
passion for "being in at the death" of all his
acquaintances, and for attending, more especially,
every execution that took place. "Be so good,"
said his lordship, "in case Mr. Selwyn calls again,
to show him up without fail; for if I am alive, I
shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead, I
am sure he will be very pleased to see me.'
Of Stephen, second Lord Holland, we have
nothing to say, beyond that he was good-natured
and whimsical, and that he died before reaching
his thirtieth year. His brother, the celebrated
Charles James Fox, the "man of the people," is
not much associated with Holland House, except
as a name. Here, it is true, he passed his boyhood and part of his youth, during which period he
was allowed to have pretty much his own way; in
fact, he was what is generally styled a "spoilt
child." His father is said never to have thwarted
his will in anything. Thus, the boy expressing a
desire one day to "smash a watch," the father,
after ascertaining that the little gentleman did
positively feel such a desire, and was not disposed
to give it up, said, "Well, if you must, I suppose
you must;" and the watch was at once smashed.
On another occasion, his father, having resolved
to take down the wall before Holland House, and
to have an iron railing put up in its stead, found it
necessary to use gunpowder to facilitate the work.
He had promised his son, Charles James, that he
should be present whenever the explosion took
place. Finding that the labourers had blasted the
brickwork in his absence, he ordered the wall to
be rebuilt; and, when it was thoroughly cemented,
had it blown up again for the gratification of his
favourite boy; at the same time advising those
about him never, on any account, to break a
promise with children.
Henry Richard Fox, the third lord, who came to
the title before he was a year old, lived to rescue the
mansion from the ruin which at one time threatened
it, and may be said to have resided in it during
the whole of his life, in the enjoyment of his books,
and dispensing his hospitalities to wits and worthies
of all parties. His lordship married Elizabeth, the
daughter and heiress of Mr. Richard Vassall, whose
name he afterwards assumed; his children retaining
the name of Fox. It is, perhaps, to this nobleman,
with the exception of Addison, that Holland House
owes most of its celebrity and its literary interest.
Among the visitors round its hospitable board,
Macaulay mentions the name of Prince Talleyrand,
Lord Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, Lord Melbourne, the Marchioness of Clanricarde (Canning's
daughter, who for many years did not forget to take
vengeance on the colleagues and political opponents
who had killed her father); Lord King, the bishophater; Wilberforce, the philanthropist; Lord Radnor, Charles Grant, and Mackintosh. Byron and
Campbell, too, were guests here; and the name of
Lord Holland is embalmed by the former in his
dedication of "The Bride of Abydos," and by the
latter in that of "Gertrude of Wyoming."
It is evident from Macaulay, Tom Moore, and
the other members of the Holland House clique,
that, though they were nominally the guests of
Lord Holland, their real entertainer was her ladyship, in whom was illustrated the proverb which
declares that "the grey mare is often the better
horse." In fact, she was not only lady paramount
in the house, but often insolently imperious towards
her guests, whom, as one man wittily remarked,
she treated like her vassals, though she was only
a Vassall herself, alluding, of course, to her maiden
name. "The centurion," it has been remarked,
"did not keep his soldiers in better order than she
keeps her guests. It is to one, 'Go,' and he goeth;
and to another, 'Do this,' and it is done. 'Ring
the bell, Mr. Macaulay.' 'Lay down the screen,
Lord Russell; you will spoil it.' 'Mr. Allen, take
a candle, and show Mr. Cradock the pictures of
Buonaparte.'" Lord Holland was, on the other
hand, all kindness, simplicity, and vivacity. One
of the occasional visitors here, Mr. Granville Penn,
said about her ladyship a good thing, which, while
it helped to establish his credit as a wit, excluded
him from its hospitable doors for ever. "Holland
House," a friend remarked to him, "is really a
most pleasant place; and in Lord Holland's company you might imagine yourself inside the home
of Socrates." "It certainly always seemed so
to me; for I often seemed to hear Xanthippe
talking rather loud in the adjoining room," was
Mr. Penn's reply. In fact, Lady Holland herself,
who presided at the réunions of Holland House,
was most arbitrary and domineering in her manner,
and, consequently, made herself unpopular with
some of her guests. When she heard that Sir
Henry Holland was about to be made a baronet,
she expressed herself vexed that there would be
"two Lady Hollands." But that could not be
helped. Ugo Foscolo, in spite of having obtained
the entrée of Holland House, could not help regarding her with aversion, and once said, with a
strong emphasis, that, "though he could go anywhere"—even to a certain place, which shall be
nameless—"with his lordship, he should be sorry
to go to heaven with Lady Holland."
Macaulay did not find an entrée here till after he
had made his mark in Parliament. Lady Holland
on one occasion took him into her own drawingroom to see her pictures, which included thirty by
Stothard, all on subjects from Lord Byron's poems.
"Yes," said her ladyship, "poor Lord Byron sent
them to me a short time before the separation. I
sent them back, and told him that, if he gave them
away, he ought to give them to Lady Byron. But
he said that he would not, and that if I did
not take them the bailiffs would, and that they
would be lost in the wreck." Samuel Rogers promised to be there to meet Macaulay, "in order to
give him an insight into the ways of that house,"
and of its imperious mistress, whose pride and
rudeness must have been simply intolerable to
ordinary mortals. Rogers was the great oracle of
the Holland House circle—a sort of non-resident
premier. To some members of the literary world
who had not the privilege of joining in the charming
circle at Holland House, the sense of their exclusion seemed to find vent in some shape or form.
Theodore Hook would appear to be one of these,
for about the year 1819, among other experiments,
he tried to set up a tiny magazine of his own—the
Arcadian—published, we believe, at a shilling; but
we know not how many numbers of it were issued
before the publisher lost heart. One number contained a lengthy ballad of provoking pungency,
satirising Holland House in very severe terms.
Some excellent remarks àpropos of Holland
House gatherings and its associations may here be
abridged from Mr. J. Fisher Murray's "Environs
of London," in which a scholar who had the entrée
of that hospitable mansion writes, at once prophetically and pathetically, as follows:—"Yet a
few years, and these shades and these structures
may follow their illustrious masters. The wonderful
city which, ancient and gigantic as it is, still continues to grow, as a young town of logwood by a
water-privilege in Michigan, may soon dispense
with those turrets and gardens which are associated
with so much that is interesting and noble; with
the courtly magnificence of Rich, with the loves of
Ormond, with the councils of Cromwell, with the
death of Addison. The time is coming when,
perhaps, a few old men, the last survivors of our
generation, will seek in vain, amid new streets and
squares, and railway stations, for the site of that
dwelling which in their youth was the favourite
resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets,
of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen; they will
remember, with strange tenderness, many objects
familiar to them—the avenue and terrace, the busts
and the paintings, the carvings, the grotesque
gilding, and the enigmatical mottoes. With peculiar tenderness they will recall that venerable
chamber in which all the antique gravity of a
college library was so singularly blended with all
that female grace and wit could devise to embellish
a drawing-room. They will recollect, not unmoved,
those shelves loaded with the varied learning of
many lands and many ages; those portraits in
which were preserved the features of the best and
wisest Englishmen of two generations. They will
recollect how many men who have guided the
politics of Europe, who have moved great assemblies
by reason and eloquence, who have put life into
bronze or canvas, or who have left to posterity
things so written that society will not willingly let
them die, were there mixed with all that was
lovely and gayest in the society of the most
splendid of modern capitals. . . . They will
remember the singular character, too, which belonged to that circle; in which every talent and
accomplishment, every art and science, had its
place. They will remember how the last Parliamentary debate was discussed in one corner, and
the last comedy of Scribe in another; while
Wilkie gazed in admiration on Reynolds's 'Baretti;'
while Mackintosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to
verify a quotation; while Talleyrand related his
conversation with Barras at the Luxembourg, or his
ride with Lannes over the field of Austerlizt. They
will remember, above all, the grace and the kindness—far more admirable than grace—with which
the princely hospitality of that ancient mansion
was dispensed; they will remember the venerable
and benignant countenance of him who bade them
welcome there; they will remember that temper
which thirty years of sickness, of lameness, and of
confinement served only to make sweeter; and,
above all, that frank politeness which at once relieved all the embarrassment of the most timid
author or artist who found himself for the first time
among ambassadors and earls. They will remember, finally, that in the last lines which he
traced he expressed his joy that he had done
nothing unworthy of the friend of Fox and of
Grey; and they will have reason to feel a similar
joy if, in looking back on many troubled years of
life, they cannot accuse themselves of having done
anything unworthy of men who were honoured by
the friendship of Lord Holland."
Mr. Rush, in his "Court of London," tells us a
good story of a little incident which happened in
the drawing-room here after dinner. Advancing
towards Sir Philip Francis, Mr. Rogers asked
permission to put a question to him. Francis, no
doubt, guessed what was coming, for everybody at
the time was asking, "Who is Junius?" and many
persons were even then more than disposed to
identify him with the author of the "Letters" which
were published under that signature, and were
exciting the nation. Francis, who was an irritable
man, shut him fairly up with the words, "At your
peril, sir!" On this, Rogers quietly turned away,
observing that if Francis was not "Junius," at all
events he was "Brutus." It is not a little singular,
if the letters were not written by Francis, that
they ceased to appear after the very day on which
Francis quitted the shores of England for India,
and that Garrick, who was in the secret, prophesied a day or two before that they were about
to cease.
On the death of his uncle, Charles James Fox,
Lord Holland was introduced into the Cabinet
as Lord Privy Seal; but the strength of the
Whig portion of the Government had then departed, and the only measure worthy of notice in
which his lordship co-operated after his accession
to office was the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade. He took an active part in the multifarious
debates upon the Catholic question, the Regency
Bill, &c.; and when the Bill to legalise the detention
of Napoleon as a prisoner of war was before the
House of Lords, Lord Holland raised his voice
against it, and, until death relieved the prisoner, he
never ceased to deprecate what he deemed the
unwarrantable conduct towards him of the British
Government and its agents.
Lord Holland died in October, 1840, after an
illness of only two days' duration. Mr. T. Raikes,
in notifying the occurrence in his "Diary," remarks:—"Flahault had been staying at Holland House
while he was in England, and left him in good
health on Tuesday. He arrived here yesterday
morning, and to-day receives the account of his
death. Lord Holland was in the Cabinet, and held
the lucrative post of Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster; he was sixty-seven. When I went to
Eton he was the head of the school, and was the
first prepositor that gave me my liberty. He was a
mild, amiable man, ruled by his wife. She was a
Miss Vassall, with a large fortune, who eloped with
him from her first husband, Sir Godfrey Webster;
she is a great politician, and affects the esprit fort.
They kept a hospitable house, and received all the
wits of the day." The following lines were written
by Lord Holland on the morning of the day when
his last illness commenced, and were found after his
death on his dressing-room table:—
"Nephew of Fox and friend of Grey,
Sufficient for my fame,
If those who knew me best shall say
I tarnished neither name."
Mr. Raikes also adds:—"Mrs. Damer writes me
that the new Lord Holland inherits an estate of
£6,000 per annum, on which there is an enormous
debt. Holland House is left to Lady Holland, who
will not live there." "Lord Holland," says Mr.
Peter Cunningham, "called on Lord Lansdowne a
little before his death, and showed him his epitaph
of his own composing. 'Here lies Henry Vassall
Fox, Lord Holland, &c., who was drowned while
sitting in his elbow-chair.' He died in this house, in
his elbow-chair, of water in the chest."
The following is a character of Lord Holland,
written by a friend:—"The benignant, the accomplished Lord Holland is no more; the last and best
of the Whigs of the old school, the long-tried friend
of civil and religious liberty, has closed a life which
has been an ornament and a bulwark of the Liberal
cause. He was one of England's worthies in the
pristine sense of the word; and a more finished
example of the steady statesman, the urbane
gentleman, and the accomplished scholar, never
existed. Lord Holland's was a fine mind, and a
fine mind in perpetual exercise of the most healthful kind. It was observed of him that he was
never found without a good book in his hand. His
understanding was thoroughly masculine, his taste
of a delicacy approaching perhaps to a fault. His
opinions he maintained earnestly and energetically,
but with a rare, a beautiful candour. Nothing was
proscribed with him. As of old, the meanest wayfarers used to be received hospitably, lest angels
should be turned away; so Lord Holland seemed
to have a hearing for every argument, lest a truth
should be shut out from his mind. The charm of
his conversation will never be forgotten by those
who have enjoyed it. His mind was full of anecdote, which was always introduced with the most
felicitous appositeness, and exquisitely narrated.
HOLLAND HOUSE, FROM THE NORTH.
"Lord Holland had lived with all the most distinguished and eminent men of the last forty years;
but his knowledge of the greatest, the most eloquent,
the most witty, or the most learned, had not indisposed him to appreciate merits and talents of a less
great order. He was a friend of merit wherever it
could be found, and knew how to value and to
encourage it in all its degrees.
"None ever enjoyed life more than Lord Holland,
or enjoyed it more intellectually, and none contritributed more largely to the enjoyment of others.
He possessed the sunshine of the breast, and no
one could approach him without feeling its genial influence. Lord Holland was a wit, without a particle
of ill nature, and a man of learning, without a taint
of pedantry. His apprehension of anything good
was unfailing; nothing worth observing and remarking ever escaped him. The void which Lord
Holland has left will never be filled; a golden
link with the genius of the last age is broken and
gone. The fine intellect, whose light burned at the
shrine of freedom, is extinguished. An influence
the most propitious to the peace, so precious to
the world's best interests, is lost when the need
of it is great indeed."
GRAND STAIRCASE, HOLLAND HOUSE.
Lord Holland was succeeded in his title and
estates by his only son, Henry Edward, who was
some time the British Minister at the Court of
Tuscany. He died at Naples in 1859, when the
barony became extinct. From that time, down to
the year 1874, it was always a matter of apprehension that a day would sooner or later come when,
as prophesied by Sir Walter Scott, Holland House
must become a thing of the past, and be swept
away in order to make room for new lines of
streets and villas between Kensington and Notting
Hill. In the above year, however, this feeling was
quieted by the rumour that Lady Holland, the
widow of the last lord, had disposed of the reversion of the house, by sale, to the Earl of Ilchester,
who, it was stated, had expressed his intention of
keeping the mansion in its integrity. Lord Ilchester's name is Fox-Strangways, and it is the latter
name that has been assumed by his branch of the
family, the first Lord Holland and the first Lord
Ilchester, as stated above, having been brothers.
Lord Macaulay, in writing of Holland House, says
it "can boast of a greater number of inmates distinguished in political and literary history than any
other private dwelling in England." In the lifetime of the third Lord Holland it was the meetingplace of the Whig party; and his liberal hospitality
made it, as Lord Brougham tells us, "the resort
not only of the most interesting persons composing
English society, literary, philosophical, and political,
but also to all belonging to those classes who ever
visited this country from abroad."
With the death of the third Lord Holland, the
glories of Holland House may be said to have
passed away, although the building has been occupied as an occasional residence by the widow of
the last lord since his death in 1859; and an air
of solitude seems indeed to have gathered round
the old mansion. A custom was observed for many
years, till a recent date, of firing off a cannon at
eleven o'clock every night; this custom originated,
we believe, through a burglary which was once
attempted here.
Several spots in the grounds round the house
have acquired celebrity in connection with some
name or circumstance. Of these we may note the
part lying to the west, towards the Addison Road,
which formerly went by the name of "the Moats,"
where the duel between Captain Best and the
notorious Lord Camelford took place, early in the
present century. The exact spot is supposed to
have been the site of the older mansion belonging
to the De Veres. The quarrel between Lord
Camelford and Mr. Best, of which we have spoken
in our accounts of New Bond Street and Conduit
Street, (fn. 4) was on account of a friend of Lord Camelford, a lady of the name of Symons, and it occurred
at the "Prince of Wales's" coffee-house in Conduit
Street. The duel was fought on the following day
(March 7, 1804), and Lord Camelford was killed.
Although there really was no adequate cause for a
quarrel, the eccentric nobleman would persist in
fighting Mr. Best, because the latter was deemed
the best shot in England, and that "to have made
an apology would have exposed his lordship's
courage to suspicion." The parties met on the
ground about eight o'clock in the morning, and
having taken up their position, Lord Camelford
gave the first shot, which missed his antagonist,
when Mr. Best fired, and lodged the contents of
his weapon in his lordship's body. He immediately
fell, and calling his adversary to him, seized him
by the hand, and exclaimed, "I am a dead man!
you have killed me; but I freely forgive you."
He repeated several times that he was the sole
aggressor. He was conveyed to a house close at
hand, and a surgeon soon arrived from Kensington,
and immediately pronounced the wound mortal.
Upon the spot where the duel was fought the late
Lord Holland set up an "expiatory classical altar,"
which, however, was removed a few years ago.
With the passion for eccentricity which had
characterised him, Lord Camelford had directed
that he should be buried in a lonely spot on an
island in Switzerland, which had interested him
during his travels; his wishes, however, were not
complied with, for his body was interred in the
vaults of St. Anne's Church, Soho, where it still
remains. (fn. 5) "This very spot," the Princess Marie
Lichstenstein tells us, "was, a few years ago, the
scene of merry parties, where the Duke and Duchess
d'Aumale used to fish with the late Lord Holland."
At the back of the mansion is a broad expanse of
greensward, dotted here and there with stately
elms; and here, in an alcove facing the west, is
inscribed the couplet that we have given as a motto
to this chapter, and which was put up by the late
Lord Holland in honour of Mr. Rogers. Here is
also a copy of verses by Mr. Luttrell, expressing
his inability to emulate the poet. The undulating
grounds on this side of the house are terminated by
a row of mansions built on the fringe of the estate;
and the eastern side is bounded by a rustic lane,
in part overhung with trees. Close by the western
side of the house are small gardens, laid out in
both the ancient and modern styles, the work of
the late Lady Holland, the former of them being a
fitting accompaniment to the old house. Here are
evergreens clipped into all sorts of fantastic forms,
together with fountains and terraces befitting the
associations of the place. In one of these gardens,
says Leigh Hunt, was raised the first specimen of
the dahlia, which the late Lord Holland is understood to have brought from Spain; in another, on
a pedestal, is a colossal bust of Napoleon, by a
pupil of Canova. Engraved on the pedestal is a
quotation from Homer's "Odyssey," which may be
thus rendered in English:—
"The hero is not dead, but breathes the air
In lands beyond the deep:
Some island sea-begirded, where
Harsh men the prisoner keep."
The Highland and Scottish Societies' gatherings,
with their characteristic sports and pastimes, were
held in these grounds for many years.
The grounds around the house are rich in oaks,
plane-trees, and stately cedars, whose dark foliage
sets off the features of the old mansion. Of the
grounds in front of the house, there is a tradition
that Cromwell and Ireton conferred there, "as a
place in which they could not be overheard."
Leigh Hunt, in his "Old Court Suburb," observes
that, "whatever the subject of their conference
may have been, they could not have objected to
being seen, for there were neither walls, nor even
trees, we believe, at that time in front of the house,
as there are now; and," he adds, "we may fancy
royalists riding by, on their road to Brentford, where
the king's forces were defeated, and trembling to
see the two grim republicans laying their heads
together."
Near Holland House, in Nightingale Lane,
stands a small mansion, called Little Holland
House, where Mrs. Inchbald once spent a few days
with its occupant, a Mrs. Bubb; here, too, lived
and died Miss Fox, sister of the late Lord Holland.
Facing the Uxbridge Road at the extreme end,
at the north-west corner of the grounds of Holland
House, there was a smaller mansion, with a
"pleasaunce" garden and lawn, of about seven
acres, which for many years was owned and
tenanted by a natural son of Lord Holland—General Fox, the celebrated numismatist, some
time M.P. for Stroud, and Secretary to the
Ordnance Board, who married Lady Mary Fitzclarence. The grounds, however, were sold in
1875 for building purposes, and the house was
soon after pulled down.
At the western extremity of the parish of Kensington, on the road towards Hammersmith, were
the nursery-grounds of Messrs. Lee. These
grounds, says Leigh Hunt, "have been known in
the parish books, under the title of the Vineyard,
ever since the time of William the Conqueror.
Wine, described as a sort of burgundy, was actually
made and sold in them as late as the middle of
the last century. James Lee, the founder of the
present firm who own the grounds, was the author
of one of the earliest treatises on botany, and a correspondent of Linnæus." In Faulkner's "History
of Kensington," published in 1820, we read that the
nursery-grounds round this neighbourhood covered
no less than 124 acres, and that they belonged to
eight different proprietors.