122 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



his Parliamentary career began, and during the whole 

 of it he maintained the views and principles of his 

 uncle, Charles James Fox, and on the death of Fox 

 entered the Cabinet. He was present in the 

 Peninsula during part of the war, and on his return 

 to England in 1809 became a follower of Canning. 

 In his time Holland House assumed a new interest 

 as the centre of a great literary and political coterie, 

 and was the resort of Whig orators and politicians. 

 Here came Macaulay, Smith, Sheridan, Burke, 

 Erskine, Thurlow, Brougham, Wyndham, Byron, 

 Moore, and many of the wits and writers, Talleyrand, 

 Humboldt, Mme. de Stael, and other celebrities 

 unnumbered. The hospitality was ungrudging, and 

 many were the distinguished men who discussed the 

 affairs' of State and the conditions of literature in 

 those antique chambers, and those radiant gardens. 

 Comparatively few were the women who went there, 

 for they had not forgiven Lady Holland for her 

 desertion of her first husband, Sir Godfrey Webster, 

 with whom her marriage was dissolved. She was a 

 lady of great taste and judgment, and the gardens of 

 Holland House were much improved under her 

 direction. Lord Holland died in 1840, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son, the fourth lord, who died without 

 issue in 1859, upon which the estate came to the Earls 

 of Ilchester, descended from Stephen, brother of the 

 first Lord Holland. 



Such has been the history of the famous house 

 at Kensington, and we have seen in some measure 

 how it was beautified and adorned with those lovely 

 gardens which we depict. It is a great thing indeed 

 that such a pleasaunce should remain in the London 

 of the present day, and that the privileged can walk 

 in the long avenues and by the fish-ponds of a former 

 time, and that the public may enter on those occasions 



when the grounds are lent for flower shows. Almost 

 at every step there is something to remind one of 

 the great men who have visited the place artists, 

 architects, poets and statesmen. The work of 

 Thorpe and of Inigo Jones is before us in stone ; the 

 seat that Rogers loved is there ; the gardens in which 

 Addison walked, the avenues that were dear to the 

 honest, manly, eloquent Whig politician, who was an 

 example to his times, are among the many things 

 that invest Holland House and its grounds with 

 surpassing interest. 



Trotter recalls how Charles James Fox, in 

 shattered health and attacked by the approaches of 

 dissolution, visited the gardens with emotion. " He 

 looked around him the last day he was there with a 

 farewell tenderness that struck me very much. It 

 was the place where he had spent his youthful days ; 

 every lawn, every garden, tree and walk were viewed 

 by him with peculiar affection. He pointed out the 

 beauties to me, and he particularly showed me a 

 green avenue which his mother, the late Lady 

 Holland, had made by shutting up the road. He 

 was a very exquisite judge of the picturesque, and 

 had mentioned to me how beautiful this road had 

 become since it was converted into an alley." It was 

 doubtless the alley which had been formed at the 

 suggestion of Mr. Hamilton, as we have mentioned. 



With some such feelings do we, also, look upon 

 these grounds, but they are mingled with anxiety. 

 It is impossible to stifle a fear that some day the 

 world may take its farewell look upon all the 

 splendours which he admired. Yet we may hope that 

 for long years to come Holland House may be spared 

 from the dangers which have threatened and finally 

 destroyed many great houses of ancient fame in and 

 near London town. 



THE OLD GARDEN. 



