GHISWIGK HOUSE 



House, it was impossible not to connect one circumstance with 

 the other, and to wonder whether the wooden shed with the un- 

 explained legend on its walls, could possibly have been that 

 which, once upon a time, had sheltered the queer-looking animals 

 provided by the Duke of Devonshire for the Czar's entertainment. 

 I think it must have been so. 



The sixth Duke left Chiswick House to his sister, the widowed 

 Countess of Granville, who spent the last four years of her life 

 there ; occupying herself with works of philanthropy. Lloyd 

 Sanders tells us, on the authority of her son, the late Mr. Leveson 

 Gower, that " she wished to sell the camellias in the hot-houses 

 in order to devote the proceeds to charity, but she had some 

 misgivings whether she was justified in doing so." No one raising 

 any objection, she wrote to a friend : ' Dear me, how rich my 

 poor will be ! " 



Among interesting people who have visited Chiswick and planted 

 memorial trees in the grounds, Garibaldi, brought there in 1869 

 by the Duchess of Sutherland, was one of the most prominent. In 

 more recent years, the late King Edward, when Prince of Wales, 

 had the place for a time ; and the present King and his brothers 

 spent some of their childish years there. At the present day the 

 spacious and beautiful gardens that I have so inadequately de- 

 scribed, and the history of which I have essayed to trace, afford 

 solace and refreshment to the mentally afflicted. The objects 

 of the tenderest care and skill, their heavy lot is here alleviated, 

 and in these lovely and peaceful surroundings they have every 

 possible chance of ultimate recovery. 



187 



