GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



captive in his own house, the scene of many meetings of the Par- 

 liament party, and just three months after Charles's dea f h he 

 ended his days on the scaffold. An exquisite to the last, he was 

 beheaded in a white satin waistcoat, and a white satin cap with 

 silver lace. His head was exposed at the Tower, and his headless 

 corpse was brought back next day to Kensington, and buried 

 in St. Mary Abbot's churchyard. 



After this event General Fairfax made Holland House his resi- 

 dence for a time; and Cromwell is said to have conferred with 

 Ireton on the lawn in front of the mansion, choosing that spot 

 in order to be out of hearing of others, since, Ireton being deaf, 

 it was necessary to shout at him. However, the widowed countess 

 herself probably through the influence of her brother-in-law, the 

 Earl of Warwick a staunch Parliamentarian was ere long per- 

 mitted to return to her home, and during her reign there, Holland 

 House was one of the great mansions at which stage plays were 

 privately performed, although, by the laws of the Commonwealth, 

 they had been prohibited. 



Her son, the second Earl of Holland, succeeded to the title and 

 estates of his uncle, the Earl of Warwick ; yet notwithstanding, the 

 Riches, after the Restoration, do not seem to have recovered their 

 former position. Apparently Holland House lost for a time its 

 place in the sun, for we find that down to the middle of the eighteenth 

 century it was sometimes let to strangers, one of them being the 

 famous William Penn. 



Later on it narrowly escaped becoming a Royal residence ; but 

 ultimately William and Mary settled at Nottingham House, since 

 known as Kensington Palace the Court, however, occupied Holland 

 House until Nottingham House was ready for its reception ; there- 

 fore when we read that after this " the garden of Holland House 

 was being prepared for lodgers " we surmise that arrangements 

 were made for the accommodation of the lords and ladies in 

 attendance, and their servants the term " lodgings," in the 

 eighteenth century, having a more distinguished signification than 

 at present. 



The most illustrious name in English literature associated with 

 Holland House, is that of Joseph Addison, who, marrying the widow 

 of the sixth Earl of Warwick, went to reside there during the last 

 three years of his life, and died there in 1719. 



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