HOLLAND HOUSE AND GARDENS 
But the “ Spectator’s ” association with the spot began many 
years before this. He had had a small house and a pretty garden 
at Chelsea, and to quote Lord Macaulay’s well-known essay, 
“in the days of Anne and George I., milkmaids and sportsmen 
wandered between green hedges and over fields bright with 
daisies from Kensington almost to the shore of the Thames. 
Addison and Lady Warwick were country neighbours, and 
became intimate friends.”” The great wit and gentle satirist of 
men and manners, whose own life was so consistently virtuous— 
strove to wean the young Lord Warwick from the vices and the 
follies of the town, and to encourage him to live up to his 
great place and opportunities—but he failed! ‘‘ Lord Warwick 
grew up a rake and Addison fell in love!”—and the gardens 
and groves of Holland House have been classic ground ever 
since ! 
Even in those days when mere rank—unsupported by distin- 
guished merit or shining talents—counted for more than it does 
now, the haughtiest and most aristocratic beauty in her first youth, 
which Lady Warwick was not, must have been flattered by the 
sincere and delicate devotion of such a man as Addison. He had 
genius, and genius that had already received the widest recogni- 
tion from an admiring and even affectionate public; for “ Mr. 
Spectator ” was a vivid and living personality in thousands of city 
homes, and in quiet parsonages and country houses, whose in- 
mates had never set eyes on him. There, like The Tatler before 
it, the little paper was eagerly watched for—and when read, and 
digested, was passed on to others. Its matter, grave or gay, 
appealed to everyone, and Addison was. the Spectator, and the 
Spectator was the ‘‘ Mode.” 
Yet in society he himself was rarely seen: the Countess, who 
liked him best when his political star was in the ascendant, would 
have preferred a husband who would shine therein. But he shunned 
it. He, the most witty, the most charming of companions, when 
alone with her or in the company of his intimates, could not be 
got to utter a word among strangers, or in the House of Commons. 
He was indeed curiously shy—‘‘ shamefaced,”’ “‘ bashful,” he would 
himself have designated it; singularly timid, when we consider 
his intellectual supremacy, and that he was certainly the most 
popular person of the day 
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