GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



the bank to which it is parallel, by a narrow strip of water, the 

 main stream running on its farther side. The banks are muddy 

 when the water is low ; but at exceptionally high tides coinciding 

 with a season of rain and storm, the basement kitchens of Walpole 

 House are sometimes flooded. They are large, rambling, and 

 picturesque kitchens. Not far from the garden-door is a curious 

 fixture. It is a spacious barred cage the bars far apart suggestive 

 of an exaggerated hen-coop and traditionally said to have been 

 used as a place of detention for refractory pupils in the days when 

 Walpole House was a boys' school. The story is not improbable, 

 since apparently there is no other purpose to which such a cage 

 could have been put, and since children were often treated with 

 much sternness a hundred years ago. If indeed so used in 

 Dr. Turner's time, the fear of incarceration on a bread-and- 

 water diet, may have inspired young Thackeray's attempt to run 

 away. 



The restoration and improvements in the place made chiefly 

 by the late Sir Herbert and Lady Tree, who resided there for 

 many years have been carefully carried out, and happily for 

 Chiswick, which should be proud of the old mansion are con- 

 gruous, and in correct taste. 



It is by no means clear how Walpole House came by its name. 

 Probably some member of the Walpole family may have possessed 

 it for a time. One of these, the Hon. Thomas Walpole, son of 

 Horatio, Lord Walpole, lies buried in Chiswick Church, and Orford 

 House, and Strawberry House, the latter next door to Walpole 

 House, are significant of some connection with the master of 

 Strawberry Hill. The house wherein the frail Barbara ended 

 her wasted days, has had a chequered history, and one a little 

 difficult to trace. I think it must have been subsequent to Dr. 

 Turner's retirement from school- mastering, that it became for a 

 time a boarding-house at which Daniel O'Connell, the Irish " libera- 

 tor," stayed. Forty-eight years ago, and possibly during some 

 years later, it was again a boys' school, kept by a Mr. John Watson 

 Allen. But public day schools began to come into fashion, and 

 with these he probably found it difficult to compete. But before 

 he gave up the attempt to do so he did yeoman's service to all 

 lovers of the picturesque, for I understand it was he who suggested 

 to Sir John Thorny croft the purchase of the place with its 



192 



