Benham House, Hampstead Park. 1 1 5 



Hampstead Park, to a stranger they appear boundless. There is 

 a fine piece of water in the bottom, and the lawns are very 

 well varied with trees ; but, the owner having resided many years 

 abroad, the house has been long unoccupied, and the grounds 

 are in a state of neglect. We examined the kitchen-garden, 

 in which the mode of heating hot-houses by hot water was first 

 displayed by Mr. Bacon, when he rented Benham House ; but 

 the hot-houses are now pulled down, and the garden let out to 

 a market-gardener. 



Hampstead Parlc,formerly Hampstead Marshal, Earl of Craven, 

 adjoins, as we have just observed, Benham Park, and, in the 

 language of landscape-gardening, appropriates the whole of its 

 scenery. The most remarkable part of this park is an elevated 

 situation, where, on a piece of table land, a magnificent palace 

 was commenced by William Earl of Craven, in 1662. The 

 legend of the place is, that this palace was erected by the first 

 Earl of Craven (well known for his gallantry in the wars under 

 Gustavus King of Sweden) for the daughter of James VI., the 

 widowed Queen of Bohemia, to whom, it is said, he was privately 

 married. This earl inherited great wealth from his father, who 

 was a citizen of London. It was for this same queen that the 

 magnificent gardens of Heidelberg were planned, and partly 

 executed, by Solomon Caus, one of the most celebrated archi- 

 tects and engineers of his time. In his published plans of the 

 Heidelberg gardens [Hortus Palatinus Heidelberg^, S,c., 1620) is 

 a design for an orangery, with the idea thrown out of heating it 

 by steam. In all probability, this orangery was the largest then 

 in Germany. It is a remarkable circumstance, that, though these 

 two magnificent places were formed for the Queen of Bohemia, 

 she never enjoyed either of them. She was driven from Heidel- 

 berg, by her first husband's defeat at Prague, before the gardens 

 there were finished; and she died the very year after the palace 

 of Hampstead Marshal was commenced. The Earl of Craven 

 never married again, and, after his death, his titles and estates 

 went to a distant relation. 



The architect of the palace at Hampstead Marshal was Sir 

 Balthazar Gerbier, who died in 1667, and is buried in a small 

 church adjoining the site of the palace ; where, also, was buried 

 Gideon Hickson, " who was smith and farrier to the abovesaid 

 noble earl, and who died in the year 1677." This palace was 

 burned down in 1718; but the grand piers for the gates of the 

 garden scenery, amounting to 1 2, each about 20 ft. high, and 

 superbly decorated with sculpture, still remain ; as does the 

 kitchen-garden, with an elevated terrace forming one side of it. 

 We were informed by Mr. Dawkins, the gardener here, that a 

 London architect has recently proposed to remove these piers to 

 Coombe Abbey, the earl's seat, near Coventry. We hope no 



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