KINGSTON HUNDRED 



white marble fireplace and an enriched ceiling. The 

 floor is of the basket pattern parquetry. The upper 

 floors of the house are occupied by the bedchambers, 

 &c. The kitchen, servants' rooms, and offices are for 

 the greater part in the basement. An adequate 

 description of the wonderful collection of furniture, 

 china, &c., of which the house is literally full, would 

 far exceed the limits of space here available. 



The gardens and terraces are well laid out. In 

 the forecourt inclosed by the north wings are two 

 terrace walks, one above the other, with flights of 

 stone steps leading up to the main doorway. The 

 drive before these terraces is inclosed by side walls 

 brought out with a curved sweep from the wings ; 

 in these walls are niches containing busts of Roman 

 emperors, &c., like those in the front of the house. 

 In the middle of the courtyard is a recumbent 

 statue of a river deity representing the Thames. The 

 front of the courtyard (towards the river) is closed 

 by an iron railing with large iron gates. On the 

 south side is a long gravel terrace raised some feet 

 above the large grass lawn ; on the other side of the 

 lawn are some ancient Scotch fir-trees said to be 

 the first planted in England, and beyond them an 

 entrance with large iron gates of the late i yth century, 

 now never opened. The ilex-oak walk west of the 

 lawn leads through into another inclosed garden 

 and contains a marble statue of the dancing Bacchus. 

 The kitchen gardens lie to the south and west of this 

 court. North of it are the former orangery buildings, 

 now used as a laundry. The kitchen court is on 

 the west side of the building, having various out- 

 buildings about it, and leading from it ; farther west 

 past the laundry is the drive from the road through 

 the stables, which were rebuilt at the end of the 

 1 8th century with some of the old material. 



In a document dated 1266 mention is made of an 

 ancient hamlet called SUDBROOK. 6 Later in 1550 

 there is record of a suit as to the ownership of half 

 a tenement called ' Underhylle ' and half a tenement 

 called ' Sudbrooke.' These premises, which were 

 copyhold of the manor of Petersham, included a 

 house and 30 acres of land, meadow, and pasture in 

 Petersham.' At a court held in 1637 a customary 

 cottage in Sudbrook, with a parcel of pasture and 

 part of a close, was surrendered by Thomas Cole 

 and John Yeates to the use of John Hewson and 

 William Bell in payment of certain sums to the poor 

 of Petersham, Ham, and West Sheen. 8 



The present house, known as Sudbrook Lodge, 

 with its surrounding park, was the residence of 

 John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, who died there 

 in 1743." His mother was Elizabeth, elder daughter 

 of Sir Lionel Tollemache and the Countess of Dysart, 

 and he was born at Ham House. From him it passed 

 to his eldest daughter and co-heir Caroline, created 

 in 1767 Baroness of Greenwich, who married first 

 Francis Scott, Earl of Dalkeith, eldest son and heir 

 apparent of Francis, second Duke of Buccleuch. Lord 

 Dalkeith died in April 1750, before his father, and 

 at his wife's death in 1794 Sudbrook descended to 



PETERSHAM 



their son Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch. He sold 

 the property to Sir Robert Horton, who sold it to 

 the Crown. The house is now occupied by the 

 Richmond Golf Club. It was erected early in the 

 1 8th century, and consists of two square wings con- 

 nected by a large central hall, on either side of 

 which was a portico with Corinthian columns and 

 balustraded parapet. The south portico was closed 

 in later with brick walls built between the columns, 

 and now serves as a smoking-room. The hall 

 (now the dining-room) extends the height of two 

 stories ; it has a marble fireplace with a bevelled 

 mirror, over which are the Duke of Argyll's arms. 

 The walls are divided into panels by fluted Corin- 

 thian pilasters with a rich cornice, over which is a 

 cove with circular lights and panels. The doorheads 

 in the hall are carved with trophies of arms. The 

 doorways in the later hall to the north of the large 

 hall also have carved architraves and heads. There 

 are stairs at both ends of the building with twisted 

 balusters, &c. A double flight of stone steps leads 

 up to both main entrances. A later wing, connected 

 to the main house by a long narrow passage, extends 

 to the northwards, east of it. 



Another once-famous mansion in Petersham was 

 that known as PETERSH4M LODGE, which was 

 purchased by Charles I of Gregory Cole. 10 In 1 660 

 Charles II granted the office of keeper of the house or 

 lodge and the walk at Petersham, within the Great 

 Park near Richmond, to Ludowick and John Carlisle," 

 who in 1662-3 surrendered their right in the same 

 to Thomas Panton and Bernard Grenville ; " and in 

 1671 the same keepership, with an annual pension of 

 $o, was granted for life to Lord St. John and his 

 son Charles Paulet." In 1686 the mansion-house 

 called Petersham Lodge, with all out-houses, brew- 

 houses, and dove-houses belonging, and the green before 

 the house in the north-west corner of the New Park, 

 containing 1 5 acres and bounded on the east by the 

 thick covert under the mount called King Henry's 

 Mount, was granted by James II to his nephew 

 Viscount Cornbury.' 4 This mansion in 1721, being 

 then the property of the Earl of Rochester, was entirely 

 destroyed by fire, the damage being computed at 

 between 40,000 and 50,000, and including the 

 destruction of the library of the famous Earl of 

 Clarendon, 15 grandfather of the Earl of Rochester. 

 It was rebuilt by William, Earl of Harrington, 1 ' 

 created in 1 742 Viscount Petersham, after a design 

 of the Earl of Burlington ; and is alluded to in the 

 lines of the poet Thomson : 



'The pendent woods that nodding hang o'er 

 Harrington's retreat.' 



In 1783 an Act of Parliament was passed to 

 enable George III to grant the inheritance of the 

 capital messuage or mansion-house called Petersham 

 Lodge to Thomas Pitt, first Baron Camelford, who had 

 purchased it from Charles, Earl of Harrington, 17 and 

 by whom it was sold in 1790 to the Duke of 

 Clarence, afterwards William IV, who occasionally 



' Manning and Bray, Hht. of Surr. i, 



439- 



7 Star Chamb. Proc. Hen. VIII, bdle. 

 22, no. 224, 218. 



8 Manning and Bray, Hiit. of Surr. i, 



+4- 



> A newt letter of 1714 (tec Hist. MSS. 



Com. Rtf. Hi, 460) uys that the Duke ot 

 Argyll had lately purchased Ham House 

 of the Earl of Dysart. This ii probably 

 a confusion with Sudbrook. 



10 Orig. R. pt. ii, 2 Ja. II, rot. 44 j 

 Ct.R. (P.R.O.), portf. 205, no. i. 



11 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1 660-1, p. 282. 



529 



"Ibid. 1663-4, pp. 75,95- 

 18 Ibid. 1671, p. 590. 

 14 Pat. 2 Jas. II, pt. viii, no. 16. 

 14 Lysont, Environs of LonJor, i, 399, 

 Supp. 57. 

 " Ibid. 

 W Private Act, 23 Geo. Ill, cap. 13. 



6 7 



