GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
captive in his own house, the scene of many meetings of the Par- 
liament party,” and just three months after Charles’s death he 
ended his* “days on the scaffold. An exquisite to the last, he was 
beheaded in a“ white satin waistcoat, and a white satin cap with - 
silver lace. His head was exposed at the Tower, and his headless 
corpse was brought back next day to Kensington, and buried 
in St. Mary Abbot’s churchyard. 
After this event General Fairfax made Holland House his resi- 
dence for a time; and Cromwell is said to have conferred with 
Ireton on the lawn in front of the mansion, choosing that spot 
in order to be out of hearing of others, since, Ireton being deaf, 
it was necessary to shout at him. However, the widowed countess 
herself—probably through the influence of her brother-in-law, the 
Earl of Warwick—a staunch Parliamentarian—was ere long per- 
mitted to return to her home, and during her reign there, Holland 
House was one of the great mansions at which stage plays were 
privately performed, although, by the laws of the Commonwealth, 
they had been prohibited. 
Her son, the second Earl of Holland, succeeded to the title and 
estates of his uncle, the Earl of Warwick; yet notwithstanding, the 
Riches, after the Restoration, do not seem to have recovered their 
former position. Apparently Holland House lost for a time its 
place in the sun, for we find that down to the middle of the eighteenth 
century it was sometimes let to strangers, one of them being the 
famous William Penn. 
Later on it narrowly escaped becoming a Royal residence ;_ but 
ultimately William and Mary settled at Nottingham House, since 
known as Kensington Palace—the Court, however, occupied Holland 
House until Nottingham House was ready for its reception ; there- 
fore when we read that after this ‘‘ the garden of Holland House 
was being prepared for lodgers ”—we surmise that arrangements 
were made for the accommodation of the lords and ladies in 
attendance, and their servants—the term‘‘ lodgings,” in the 
eighteenth century, having a more distinguished signification than 
at present. 
The most illustrious name in English literature associated with 
Holland House, is that of J oseph Addison, who, marrying the widow 
of the sixth Earl of Warwick, went to reside there during the last 
three years of his life, and died there in 1719. 
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