PRIVATE GARDENS 345 



in the charming formal garden and along the old wall, 

 which is covered with delicious climbing plants. So 

 luxuriously will some flowers grow, that the hollyhocks 

 from this garden took the prize at the horticultural 

 show held in the grounds of Holland House, in a 

 competition open to all the gardens in the Kingdom. 



At Fulham there is a charming garden, with trees 

 which would be remarkable anywhere, and appear still 

 more beautiful from their proximity to London. These 

 trees in the grounds of Broom House have fared on 

 the whole better than those at Fulham Palace, hard by. 

 It is separated from the Palace by the grounds now 

 attached to the club of Hurlingham. Of Hurlingham 

 there is not much early history. Faulkner, the authority 

 for this district, writes in 1813 : "Hurlingham Field 

 is now the property of the Earl of Ranelagh and the 

 site of his house. It was here that great numbers of 

 people were buried during the Plague." The same 

 authority mentions : " The Dowager Countess of Lons- 

 dale has an elegant house and gardens here in full view 

 of the Thames," and Broom House is shown on 

 Rocque's map of 1757. The estate was bought by Mr. 

 Sulivan from the Nepean family in 1824, and his 

 daughter, Miss Sulivan, keeps up the garden with the 

 utmost good taste and knowledge of horticulture. The 

 ailanthus, with a trunk 10 feet 4 inches in girth at 

 4 feet from the ground, is probably one of the finest 

 specimens in England. The one in Fulham Palace 

 garden is exactly the same girth, but does not appear 

 to be so lofty. The liquidamber is also a magnificent 

 tree, and the false acacia is quite as fine as the one in 

 Fulham Palace, and was probably planted at the same 

 time. There are still two cedars left, although the 



