CHISWICK HOUSE 
Villa. It was built in 1621, and was originally erected in the 
grounds of Beaufort House at Chelsea. That mansion was sold 
in 1736 to Sir Hans Sloan, who, knowing Lord Burlington’s passion 
for the art of Inigo Jones, presented the gateway to him. 
A stone tablet on the left bears the inscription : 
“ Builded by Inigo Jones at Chelsea, M.D.CXXI.” 
And on the right hand side are inscribed the words : 
“Given by Sir Hans Sloan, Baronet, to the Earl of Burlington, M.D.CXXXVII.” 
Pope, personating a traveller, thus apostrophizes the gateway : 
“Passenger: Oh, Gate, how cam’st thou here ? 
Gate : I was brought from Chelsea last year, 
Batter’d with wind and weather ; 
Inigo Jones put me together ; 
Sir Hans Sloan let me alone ; 
Burlington brought me hither.” 
The master of Burlington House and Chiswick House was a 
generous patron of musicians and men of letters, as well as of 
artists and architects, and it was a brilliant society over which 
he presided. 
Handel, for three years his honoured guest, was Impresario 
of the Italian Opera at the Haymarket Theatre, and a keen rivalry 
existed between him and an Italian composer named Buononcini, 
whose music is said to have had the merit of being melodious. 
The fashion of the day was for Italian Opera, and Handel, humouring 
it, wrote over forty operas; but, excepting for some scattered 
arias, they are now no more remembered than those of Buononcini. 
It speaks not a little for the taste and discernment of the Earl 
that although Handel’s genius for oratorio, and choral music, was 
as yet undiscovered—he sided with him in a dispute that for a 
time divided the town, and that was commemorated in these 
lively lines by a contemporary : 
‘““ Some say compared to Buononcini 
That Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny ; 
Others aver that he to Handel 
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle, 
Strange all this difference should be 
“Ewixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” 
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