WALPOLE HOUSE 
The tower of Chiswick Church, the only part that has not under- 
gone material changes in restoration, has kept watch and ward 
over the hamlets of Chiswick and Sutton, for 500 years. It forms 
a landmark towards Kew. It has witnessed many changes, for 
most of the older houses which must have given great distinction 
to the neighbourhood in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
have one by one disappeared. Corney House, the old home of 
the Russell family, with the beautiful gardens by the river-side 
in which Queen Elizabeth walked—was pulled down in 1832, 
and on part of the site Messrs. Thornycroft established their 
boat-building works, where the first launches made of steel were 
constructed, and here, in 1876, the first torpedo boat for the British 
navy, named “ The Lightning,”’ was built. 
College House, before mentioned, has also passed away; so, 
too, has Sutton Court, formerly the Manor House of ‘‘ The Dean’s ”’ 
—or Manor of Sutton—where at one time dwelt the Viscount and 
Viscountess Fauconberg. The Viscountess was the third daughter 
of the Protector Cromwell. After her father’s death she favoured 
the Restoration, which her husband certainly helped to bring about. 
Left a widow, she lived on at Chiswick for many years, dying 
a benefactress to the poor of the hamlet. 
These and other memorials of a vanished age have all, with one 
exception passed away, and left no trace, and now the oldest 
houses remaining in Chiswick Mall, are mostly, Queen Anne or 
Georgian. 
The exception is Walpole House, attractively situated on the 
water-side, with the willowy island separating it from the 
broad course of the stream. It is a beautiful example of 
the early Wren period. Its windows command extensive views 
towards Kew on the one hand, and Fulham on the other. There 
is no garden in front, but there is a flagged space between the 
front door and the wrought-iron entrance gate—and in this respect 
the place does not correspond with Thackeray’s own drawing 
of Miss Pinkerton’s Academy, the variations being probably made 
intentionally. On the river side of the Mall, the row of dainty little 
shut-in gardens—each one belonging to the house it faces—are, 
a quaint and pretty feature of the locality. 
Beyond these the long narrow Eyot—green with willows in 
the summer, yellow with kingcups in the spring, is divided from 
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