XI 



HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON 



Garden must perforce, if it possess 

 *--' any history, be a Garden of memories, but 

 none perhaps is so rich in varied recollections of 

 the past as that of Holland House. There are 

 Gardens where kings and queens have walked and 

 little princes played, where learned prelates have 

 enjoyed the sunshine and the flowers while ceasing 

 to think of dogmas or political intrigues, and where 

 poets have dreamt of love ; but few Gardens have 

 witnessed and lived through such strange vicissi- 

 tudes as those round Holland House : every path, 

 tree, and flower has its story. 



Kings and queens have enjoyed their beauty, 

 for surely Charles's fascinating Queen, Henrietta 

 Maria, paid flying visits here to her bien aimd, "the 

 gay, gallant, vacillating Henry Rich." King James 

 must have paced some walk anxiously awaiting 

 news of his dying son the excellent Prince Henry. 

 Was it perhaps some memory of the past which 



