338 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
fought for the King’s cause. While he was on the 
Parliamentary side, Holland House was often the 
meeting-place of its leaders. Cromwell and Ireton 
talked together in the centre of the field in front of 
the house, so that their raised voices, occasioned by 
Ireton’s deafness, should not be overheard. For a time 
after the Restoration, Holland House was tenanted by 
various people of note, to whom it was let out in 
suites by the widowed Countess. One among them, the 
Frenchman Chardin, who became famous by his travels 
to Persia, it has been surmised, may have brought some 
of the rare plants to the garden. The connection with 
Addison came from his marriage with the Dowager 
Lady Warwick, to whom the house belonged, the 
second Lord Holland having succeeded his cousin as 
Earl of Warwick. He must have delighted in the 
gardens of Holland House, although they were hardly 
so wild as the ideal one he describes in the Spectator. 
There he said, “ I look upon the pleasure which we 
take in a garden as one of the most innocent delights 
in human life.” No doubt he found some solace in 
the beauties of Holland House garden to cheer the 
depression of the unhappiness the marriage had 
brought him. The brilliant days of Holland House 
continued after it changed hands, and was owned by 
Henry Fox, second son of Sir Stephen Fox, 
who was chiefly instrumental in starting Chelsea 
Hospital. Henry Fox eloped with Lady Caroline 
Lennox, and was afterwards created Lord Holland. 
He took great interest in his garden, and was advised 
and helped by the well-known collector and horticul¬ 
turist, Peter Collinson. This friend was the means 
of introducing many new plants to this country—a 
