HOLLAND HOUSE AND GARDENS 



Less than fifty years after Addison's death, Holland House 

 passed into the possession of Henry Fox, the younger son of Sir 

 Stephen Fox, of the Manor House, Chiswick who was the founder 

 of the Fox fortunes. 



Sir Stephen Fox had begun life in the service of the Earl of " 

 Northumberland, chamberlain to Charles II. while in exile. By 

 keeping in touch with loyalists at home, Stephen was able to be 

 the first to announce the death of Cromwell to the King at Brussels, 

 at a moment when Charles was playing tennis with the Arch- 

 duke Leopold, and some Spanish Grandees. 



Starting on this auspicious foundation, Fox's advance was 

 rapid. Evelyn has only good to say of him ; but though he used 

 his great wealth well, there can be no doubt but that as Paymaster 

 to the King's Forces in England, he contrived, far too easily, to 

 amass a very large fortune. 



To his credit it must be said that, together with Nell Gwynne, 

 he was one of the founders of Chelsea Hospital ; and he was also 

 one of the original members of the Royal Society. He served in 

 four reigns, those of Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and 

 Queen Anne. At seventy-five he married for the second time ; 

 his wife, a Miss Christian Hope, being only twenty-six. They were 

 united at Chiswick Church, and their two sons became respectively 

 Earl of Ilchester, and Baron Holland. 



There was no connection between the families of Rich and 

 FOX and " the barony of Holland," says the Princess Marie 

 Lichstenstein in her history of Holland House, " took the place 

 of the extinct earldom simply because the first Fox proprietor of 

 Holland House, chose the latter title when elevated to the 

 peerage." 



Henry Fox, afterwards first Lord Holland, left a memorandum 

 written when he was fourteen years old, and now in Lord Ilchester's 

 possession, beginning: "My dear Mamma died on ye 21st of 

 February 1718, and a fortnight afore she died, calling us all about 

 her, with a mild air she said ' My Dears, will ye be good ? I 

 am now going to leave you and entreat you to serve and be constant 

 in your Duty towards him.' Then taking off all that mildness, 

 she assumed a more than ordinary majestick air, and directing 

 her discourse chiefly to my brother said, ' I don't desire you, but 

 command you to be good. . . . Don't be a Fop, don't be a 



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