HOLLAND HOUSE 231 



Holland's. Lord Holland and his son both died 

 in the same year, 1774, and were succeeded by 

 Henry Richard, third Lord Holland. It was in 

 his time that Holland House became the intellectual 

 centre for every one distinguished in art, letters, 

 or science throughout Europe, many celebrated 

 foreigners carrying away a vivid memory of the 

 House, its brilliant inmates and its beautiful 

 Gardens. 



Lady Holland's reunions were, in fact, the nearest 

 approach to those fascinating salons, so difficult 

 to create and even more difficult to hold together, 

 which appear as if they were only in reality to be 

 found in Paris, the home of every art, where the 

 genius of Mademoiselle de L6spinasse, the brilliance 

 of Madame de Stae'l, and the beauty of Madame 

 Recamier, gathered together men of every calibre. 



Holland House is no longer surrounded by green 

 lanes and flowering meadows, as in the good old 

 days of Queen Bess ; it now lies in the heart of a 

 bustling, busy suburb of London, called Royal 

 Kensington, where alas ! it will soon be the only 

 remaining green oasis left, the ruthless hand of the 

 builder having pulled down nearly all the beautiful 

 country houses in the neighbourhood, building over 

 both their sites and their Gardens. Parallel with 

 the fine Elm Avenue (which is a quarter of a mile 

 long) there runs beside it a leafy, shady Lane, which 

 was given to the public by the fourth Lord Holland 



