CHISWICK HOUSE 
House, it was impossible not to connect one circumstance with 
the other, and to wonder whether the wooden shed with the un- 
explained legend on its walls, could possibly have been that 
which, once upon a time, had sheltered the queer-looking animals 
provided by the Duke of Devonshire for the Czar’s entertainment. 
I think it must have been so. 
The sixth Duke left Chiswick House to his sister, the widowed 
Countess of Granville, who spent the last four years of her life 
there; occupying herself with works of philanthropy. Lloyd 
Sanders tells us, on the authority of her son, the late Mr. Leveson 
Gower, that ‘‘ she wished to sell the camellias in the hot-houses 
in order to devote the proceeds to charity, but she had some 
misgivings whether she was justified in doing so.” No one raising 
any objection, she wrote to .a friend: ‘‘ Dear me, how rich my 
poor will be ! ” 
Among interesting people who have visited Chiswick and planted 
memorial trees in the grounds, Garibaldi, brought there in 1869 
by the Duchess of Sutherland, was one of the most prominent. In 
more recent years, the late King Edward, when Prince of Wales, 
had the place for a time; and the present King and his brothers 
spent some of their childish years there. At the present day the 
spacious and beautiful gardens that I have so inadequately de- 
scribed, and the history of which I have essayed to trace, afford 
solace and refreshment to the mentally afflicted. The objects 
of the tenderest care and skill, their heavy lot is here alleviated, 
and in these lovely and peaceful surroundings they have every 
possible chance of ultimate recovery. 
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