HOLLAND HOUSE AND GARDENS 



the western boundary of the estate. At other times, when the moon 

 cast athwart the lawn, the shadows of the cedars, oaks, and 

 cypresses, that Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland, had planted, 

 and, rising higher and higher, threw every gable, and pinnacle, and 

 arcade of the old house into strong relief, and the harper played 

 beneath the trees they would stay out of doors till long past mid- 

 night for guests were generally asked to " take a bed " at Holland 

 House. Those whose duties prevented them from doing so, or 

 who were too poor to afford a hackney coach to town, had like 

 Sydney Smith, when Canon of St. Paul's to bring their dress shoes 

 with them and change them in the hall. 



Incidentally, the gardens are very frequently mentioned by 

 Lady Holland in the " Journal," when writing from Holland 

 House. But a very large proportion of it is dated from abroad, 

 whither the Hollands often went, since foreign travel brought 

 some alleviation to his Lordship's gout. 



At all times in their history the gardens seem to have been much 

 used by the inmates of the house. As far back as the eighteenth 

 century, they are mentioned as the scene of a weird ghost story. 

 Lady Diana Rich, one of the daughters of the Earl of Warwick, 

 when walking in her father's park in the forenoon, was confronted 

 by her own apparition, and died within a month, two of her 

 sisters meeting with the same uncanny experience elsewhere. 

 This is tradition, but it is a matter of history that the young King 

 George III., when riding down to Kew, fell in love with the Lady 

 Sarah Lennox, sister-in-law of Henry Fox, when, dressed up as a 

 charming shepherdess, she was making hay on the lawn between 

 the house and the high road, on the very spot where once Cromwell 

 shouted in the ear of Ireton, and where, in later days, the statue 

 of the great Lord Holland was placed. 



While fully appreciating the courtesy that extended to me the 

 rare and coveted privilege of painting in these delectable gardens 

 at a time when I had no thought of this book in my mind, I regretted 

 that I was allowed to make but one' drawing there. For they are 

 so varied and picturesque, and at the present day still so extensive, 

 that they offer subjects without end to painters even to those to 

 whom their historical associations may make no special appeal. 

 I was simply saturated with the summer loveliness of the scene on 

 that brilliant August day in 1913, when first I went there. The old 



219 



