CHAPTER XIII 



KELMSCOTT HOUSE, UPPER MALL, 

 HAMMERSMITH 



BROWN of brick, square of frontage, solid and comfortable- 

 looking, but externally by no means " The House Beau- 

 tiful," of which its most celebrated occupant dreamed, the 

 Georgian mansion in which William Morris died, stands facing the 

 river, and separated from it only by a narrow roadway, and a row of 

 noble elms. 



The spectator who stands opposite the house, has on his right a 

 somewhat squalid area of small cottages, dingy courts, and narrow 

 passages ; in the rear is a large and beautiful garden, separated 

 from the slum by high brick walls, and by Hampshire House ; 

 the latter is an early Georgian residence, now a workmen's social 

 club, founded long after Morris's death, but carried on on lines of 

 which he would have strongly approved. ; J |J Jj 



The interior of Kelmscott House is not remarkable, but the 

 five windows of the drawing-room command a fine prospect of 

 two of the Thames reaches ; to the right the eye is carried past 

 Chiswick Eyot, towards Kew and Richmond, and to the left, 

 through the piers of Hammersmith Bridge to Putney and Fulham.j J 



The house and garden had a history or ever " the idle singer of 

 an empty day " stamped upon them, as he could not fail to do, 

 the impress of his own strong individuality. So long back as 

 1816 as a plaque on the outer wall records Sir Francis Ronalds, 

 the inventor of the electric telegraph, resided there, and laid down 

 in the garden eight miles of insulated wire " charged with static 

 electricity and worked by electrometers and synchronized discs 

 at either^end.",.&It ^was the ; first ^electric communication ever 



JJ -4M i nlTM _t.W j_^-j * ,j 



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