fifty years ago, and entirely demolished within the last two years. Old
Campden House was called after Sir Baptist Hicks, created Viscount
Campden. It is said that he won the land on which it stands from Sir
Walter Cope at a game, and thereupon built the house. This is the
generally accepted version of the affair, but it is probable that there
was some sort of a house standing here already. Bowack says: "Two
houses, called Holland and Campden Houses, were built ... by Mr. Cope
... erected before the death of Queen Elizabeth." And, again (quoting
from the Rev. C. Seward), "The second seat called Campden House was
purchased or won at some sort of game of Sir Walter Cope by Sir Baptist
Hicks." He adds that it was a "very noble Pile and finished with all the
art the Architects of that time were capable of." The mere fact of such
a prize being won at a game of chance was likely enough in the days when
gaming ran high. Lysons, on the other hand, distinctly says that the
house "was built about 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks, whose arms with that
date and those of his sons-in-law, Edward, Lord Noel, and Sir Charles
Morrison, are in a large bay-window in the front." It is most probable
that Sir Baptist, on taking over the estate and the house then existing,
so restored it as to amount to an almost complete rebuilding. He was
created Viscount Campden in 1628, with remainder to Lord Noel, who
succeeded him. Lord Noel's son, Baptist, the third Viscount, had
Royalist tendencies, for which he was mulcted in the sum of £9,000
during the Rebellion. He married for his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter
of the Earl of Lindsey, and the Earl himself died at Campden House. The
title went to Viscount Campden's eldest son Edward, who was created Earl
of Gainsborough, and in default of male issue it afterwards reverted to
his younger brother. The house itself had been settled on another son,
Henry, who died before his father, leaving a daughter, who married
Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. Previous to this Queen (then
Princess) Anne had taken the house for five years on account of her only
surviving child, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. There are few
stories in history more pathetic than that of this poor little Prince,
the only one of Anne's seventeen children who survived infancy. With his
unnaturally large head and rickety legs, he would in these days have
been kept from all intellectual effort, and been obliged to lie down the
greater part of his time. But in that age drastic treatment was in
favour, and the already precocious child was crammed with knowledge,
while his sickly little frame was compelled to undergo rigorous
discipline. He was a boy of no small degree of character, and with
martial tastes touching in one so feeble. He died at the age of eleven
of small-pox, not at Kensington, and perhaps it was as well for him
that, with such inordinate sensibility and such a constitution, he did
not live to inherit his mother's throne. His servant Lewis, who was
devotedly attached to him, wrote a little biography of him, which is one
of the curiosities of literature.
In 1704 the Dowager-Countess of Burlington came here with her son
Richard, then only a boy, afterwards famous as an architect and art
lover. In 1719 the house was sold, and came into possession of the
Lechmere family. It did not remain with them long, but was purchased by
Stephen Pitt, who let it as a school. In 1862 it was partially destroyed
by fire. It was then bought by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who
rebuilt it, and let it to tenants. Later on a charmingly-built row of
houses and mansions rose up on its grounds to face Sheffield Terrace.
The appearance of the later house was very different from that of the
old one, and the arms mentioned by Lysons as being over a front window
had quite disappeared.
Little Campden House, on the western side, was built for the suite of
the Princess Anne, and Stephen Pitt occupied this himself when he let
Campden House. It was latterly divided into two houses; one was called
Lancaster Lodge, and the other, after being renovated and redecorated,
was taken by Vicat Cole, R.A., until his death.
Gloucester Walk, on the south side, is, of course, called after the poor
little Duke. Sheffield Gardens and Terrace, as well as Berkeley Gardens,
stand on the site of old Sheffield House. Leigh Hunt says that the house
was owned by Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, but he adduces no fact
in support of his assertion; in any case, there are no historical
associations connected with it.
In Observatory Gardens Sir James South, the astronomer, had a house,
where there was a large observatory. He mounted an equatorial telescope
in the grounds, by the use of which, some years previously, he and Sir
J. Herschel had made a catalogue of 380 binary stars. He strenuously
resisted any opening up of the district by road or rail, lest the
vibrations of traffic should interfere with his delicate observations
and render them useless. He died here in 1867. On the south side of
Campden Hill Gardens are a number of houses standing in their own
grounds, and, from the rank of their residents, this part has gained the
name of the "Dukeries." Holly Lodge was named Airlie Lodge for a few
years when tenanted by the Earl of Airlie, but reverted to the older
name afterwards. Airlie Gardens is a reminiscence of the interlude.
Lord Macaulay lived for the three years preceding his death in Holly
Lodge.
Holland Lane is a shady footpath running right over the hill from
Kensington Road to Notting Hill Gate; it passes the wall of Aubrey
House, once the manor-house of Notting Hill. Though the name is a
comparatively new one, the house is old and, to use the favourite word
of older writers, much "secluded"; it is shut in from observation by its
high wall and by the shady trees surrounding it. The building is very
picturesque and the garden charming, yet many people pass it daily and
never know of its existence.
St. George's Church, Campden Hill Road, dates from 1864; the interior is
spoilt by painted columns and heavy galleries, but the stained glass at
the east end is very richly coloured, and there is a carved stone
reredos. The tower is high, but it is dwarfed by the tower of the Grand
Junction Waterworks near at hand. Across Campden Hill Road is the
reservoir of the West Middlesex Water Company, which, from its
commanding elevation, supplies a large district by the power of
gravitation.
Holland Park is a great irregular oblong, extending from Kensington Road
on the south very nearly to Holland Park Road on the north. Its average
length is little more than a mile, and it varies from five-eighths of a
mile in its widest part to a quarter of a mile in the narrowest.
In the summary of the history of Kensington, at the beginning of the
book, it was mentioned that when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor at the
end of the sixteenth century, Robert Horseman had the lease of the
Abbot's manor-house, and being unwilling to part with it, he made a
compromise by which he was to be still permitted to live there. Sir
Walter Cope had, therefore, no suitable manor-house, so in 1607 he built
Holland House, which at first went by the name of Cope Castle. He died
seven years later, leaving his widow in possession, but on her
re-marriage, in another seven years, the house came to Cope's daughter
Isabel, who had married Sir Henry Rich. He was created Lord Kensington a
year later, and in 1624 made Earl of Holland. He added considerably to
the house, which was henceforth known by his name. Holland was a younger
son of the Earl of Warwick, and after his execution for having taken
arms in the cause of Charles I., this title descended, through lack of
heirs in the elder branch, to his son, as well as that of Earl of
Holland.
The house was seized by the Commonwealth, and the Parliamentary
Generals, Fairfax and Lambert, lived there. Timbs quotes from the
_Perfect Diurnal_, July 9 to 16, 1649: "The Lord-General Fairfax is
removed from Queen Street to the late Earl of Holland's house at
Kensington, where he intends to reside." The house was restored to its
rightful owners at the Restoration. The widowed Countess seems later to
have let it, for there were several notable tenants, among whom was Sir
Charles Chardin, the traveller, who went to Persia with the avowed
intention of seeking a fortune, which he certainly gained, in addition
to unexpected celebrity. He died in 1735, and is buried at Chiswick.
Afterwards, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a tenant of
Holland House; the name of Van Dyck has also been mentioned in this
connection, but there is not sufficient evidence to make it more than a
tradition.
Joseph Addison married the widow of the sixth Earl of Holland and
Warwick in 1716. He was an old family friend and had known her long, yet
the experiment did not turn out satisfactorily. The Countess was
something of a termagant, and it is said that to escape from her he
often went to the White Horse inn at the corner of Lord Holland's Lane
and there enjoyed "his favourite dish--a fillet of veal--his bottle, and
perhaps a friend." His married life was of very short duration, only
three years, but his brief residence at Holland House has added to its
associations more richly than all the names of preceding times. Addison
had attempted from the first to influence the young Earl, whose
stepfather he became, and some of his letters to the youth are
singularly charming, but his care seems to have been ill-requited, and
the famous death-bed scene, in which the man of letters sent for the
dissolute young Earl to "see how a Christian can die," was as much in
the nature of a rebuke as a warning. Addison left only one daughter, who
died unmarried. The last earl died in 1759, leaving no male heir, and
the title became extinct.
Through an Elizabeth Rich, who had married Francis Edwardes, the estates
passed into the Edwardes family, by whom they were sold to Henry Fox,
second son of Sir Stephen Fox, Paymaster-General of the Forces in the
reign of Charles II., through whose exertions it was in great part that
Chelsea Hospital was built. Henry Fox followed in his father's steps,
becoming Paymaster-General under George II., and was created Baron
Holland in 1763. His second son was the famous statesman Charles James
Fox. Thus, after the lapse of about four years only, the old title was
revived in an entirely different family. Henry Fox's elder brother was
created first Baron, and then Earl, of Ilchester, which is the title of
the present owner of Holland House.
The plan of the house is that of a capital letter E with the centre
stroke extremely small, and was designed by Thorpe, but added to by
Inigo Jones and others. Sir Walter Cope's building in 1607 included the
centre block and two porches, and the first Earl of Holland, between the
years 1725 and 1735, added the two wings and the arcades. It is in a
good style of Elizabethan domestic architecture, and within is full of
nooks and corners and unexpected galleries, betraying that variety which
can only come from growth, and is never the result of a set plan. The
rooms are magnificent, and are exceptionally rich in their fittings and
collections--collections by various owners which have made the whole
house a museum. On the ground floor are the Breakfast, China, Map,
Journal, and Print rooms--the last three known as the West
Rooms--Allen's Room, and the White Parlour. On the first floor the most
important rooms are the Gilt, Miniature, and the Yellow Drawing-room,
the Sir Joshua Blue-room and Dining-room, and Lady Holland's apartments.
In the entrance-hall are busts of the Duke of Cumberland, by Rysbrach;
Francis, Duke of Bedford, and Charles James Fox, by Nollekens; the Right
Hon. J. Hookham Frere, by Chantrey, and others. The staircase has a
frescoed ceiling, by G. F. Watts, R.A., who has done much for the
decoration of the house, and who lives in Melbury Road hard by. There
is on the staircase a massive oaken screen with pillars, matching the
carved balustrade. The Breakfast-room, facing south, is a charming room;
it was formerly the hall when the main entrance was on this side of the
house. The walls are hung with velvet brocade and rich silk, and
panelled with four _arazzi_, enclosed in strips of gold embroidery. The
tapestries are Gobelins, by Coypel, director of the Gobelin
establishment. The China-room contains some splendid services, chiefly
of Sèvres and Dresden. The rooms called the West Rooms contain many
treasures: a collection of prints after Italian masters, and some of the
Dutch and French schools. From these is reached the Swannery, a large
room on the west side of the house, built by the present owner, and
finished in 1891; here there is an ornamental painting of swans by
Bouverie Goddard, which was exhibited in the Royal Academy. Allen's Room
owes its name to John Allen, an intimate friend of the third Lord
Holland, who accompanied him abroad, and was his confidant until his
death, after which Allen continued to live at Holland House. The
description of the White Parlour in any detail would be impossible, so
elaborate is the decoration of its mouldings and panels. In this room
there are two chests, the property of Sir Stephen Fox, the
Paymaster-General, and very interesting specimens of their time they
are. In the Gilt Room upstairs are curved recesses prepared by the first
Earl of Holland, who proposed entertaining Prince Charles at a ball when
he married Princess Henrietta Maria; however, in spite of the elaborate
preparations, the ball never took place. The medallions of the King and
Queen, Sully, and Henri IV. are still on the lower part of the
chimney-breasts. The upper parts of the chimneypieces and the ceiling
were done by Francis Cleyn, who decorated much at Versailles; and when
the chimneypieces came down, in 1850, G. F. Watts, R.A., painted the
gilt figures on the upper portions. The gilding and decoration of all
the rest of the room have never been touched since Charles I.'s day. The
ceiling is, however, modern, copied from one at Melbury of date 1602.
The Sir Joshua Room would probably be more attractive to many people
than any other in the house; there is here the "Vision of St. Anthony,"
by Murillo, also a Velasquez, two Teniers, and many portraits by Sir
Joshua, including those of Charles James Fox, the first Lord Holland,
Mary, Lady Holland, and Lady Sarah Lennox, whose "Life and Letters" have
been edited by Lady Ilchester and her son, Lord Stavordale. In the
Addison or dining room there are several other portraits and more china,
including the famous Chelsea service presented by the proprietors of the
Chelsea Company to Dr. Johnson in recognition of his laborious and
unsuccessful efforts to learn their trade. From here we can pass to the
library, a long gallery running the whole width of the house, as a
library should do. Besides ordinary books, the library contains
priceless treasures, such as a collection of Elzevirs, a collection of
Spanish literature, a MS. book with the handwritings of Savonarola,
Petrarch, several autograph letters of Philip II., III., and IV. of
Spain, and autographs of D. Hume, Byron, Sir D. Wilkie, Moore, Rogers,
Campbell, Sir W. Scott, Southey, and foreigners of note, as Madame de
Stael, Cuvier, Buffon, Voltaire, etc.
From the Yellow Drawing-room, in which, among other things, is a curious
picture representing one eye of Lady Holland, by Watts, the Miniature
Room is reached: miniature in two senses, for, besides containing an
assortment of miniatures, it is very small. The miniatures are mostly
Cosways, Plymers, and Coopers. On January 10, 1871, Holland House caught
fire, and the chief rooms that suffered were those known as Lady
Holland's Rooms, on this side. Luckily the fire did not do much damage,
and all trace of it was speedily effaced.
Holland House is not shown to the public, and few persons have any idea
of the treasures it contains; to live in such a house must be a liberal
education. It can hardly be seen at all in summer on account of the
extent of the grounds of 55 acres stretching around it, and making it a
country place in the midst of a town. It has the largest private grounds
of any house in London, not excepting Buckingham Palace, yet from the
road all that can be seen is a rather dreary field. Oddly enough, there
is a considerable hill on the west, though no trace of this hill is to
be found in Kensington Road; it is, however, the same fall that affects
Holland Park Avenue on the north. Besides the fine elms bordering the
avenue, there are a variety of other trees in the grounds, among them
many cedars, still flourishing, though beginning to show the effects of
the London smoke. Excepting for the Dutch Garden, with its prim, though
fantastically-designed flower-beds, there is little attempt at formal
gardening. Here stands the seat used by the poet Rogers, on which is the
inscription:
"Here Rogers sat, and here for ever dwell
With me those 'Pleasures' which he sang so well."
An ivy-covered arcade leads to the conservatory, and various buildings
form a picturesque group near; these belonged at one time to the
stables, now removed. Not far off is the bamboo garden, in a flourishing
condition, with large clumps of feathery bamboos bravely enduring our
rough climate; in another part is a succession of terraces, through
which a stream runs downhill through a number of basins linked by a
circling channel; the basins are covered with water-lilies, and the
whole is laid out in imitation of a Japanese garden. Alpine plants are
specially tended in another part, and masses of rhododendrons grow
freely in the grounds, giving warmth and shelter. There is nothing stiff
or conventional to be seen--Nature tended and cared for, but Nature
herself is allowed to reign, and the result is very satisfactory. There
are many fascinating peeps between the rows of shrubs or trees of the
worn red brick of the house, seen all the better for its contrast with
the deep evergreen of the cedars.
In a field close by Cromwell is said to have discussed his plans with
Ireton, whose deafness necessitated loud tones, so that the open air,
where possible listeners could be seen at a distance, was preferable to
the four walls of a room. In the fields behind Holland House was fought
a notable duel in 1804 between Lord Camelford, a notorious duellist, and
Captain Best, R.N. Lord Camelford fired first, but missed his opponent.
He afterwards fell at Best's shot, and was carried into Little Holland
House, where he died in three days. The exact spot where the duel was
fought is now enclosed in the grounds of Oak Lodge, and is marked by a
stone altar.
To the west of Holland House is Melbury Road, a neighbourhood famous for
its artistic residents. The houses, mostly of glowing red brick, are
built in different styles, as if each had been designed to fill its own
place without reference to its neighbours. A curious Gothic house, with
a steeple on the north side, was designed by William Burges, R.A., for
himself. In the house next to it, now the residence of Luke Fildes,
R.A., King Cetewayo stayed while he was in England. Sir Frederick
Leighton, P.R.A., lived at No. 2, which has been presented to the
nation. Little Holland House, otherwise No. 6, Melbury Road, is occupied
by G. F. Watts, R.A. The name was adopted from the original Little
Holland House, which stood at the end of Nightingale Lane, now the back
entrance to Holland Park; this house was pulled down when Melbury Road
was made.
Melbury Road turns into Addison Road just below the church of St.
Barnabas, which is of white brick, and has a parapet and four corner
towers, which give it a distinctive appearance. The interior is
disappointing, but there is a fine eastern window, divided by a transom,
and having seven compartments above and below. Quite at the northern end
of Holland Road is the modern church of St. John the Baptist; the
interior is all of white stone, and the effect is very good. There is a
rose window at the west end, and a carved stone chancel screen of great
height. The church ends in an apse, and has a massive stone reredos set
with coloured panels representing the saints. All this part of
Kensington which lies to the west of Addison Road is very modern. In the
1837 map, St. Barnabas Church, built seven years earlier, and a line of
houses on the east side of the northern part of Holland Road, are all
that are marked. Near the continuation of Kensington Road there are a
few houses, and there is a farm close to the Park.
Curzon House is marked near the Kensington Road, and a large nursery
garden is at the back of it; and further north, where Addison Road
bends, there are Addison Cottage and Bindon Villa, and this is all.
Addison's connection with Holland House of course accounts for the free
use of his name in this quarter.
Going northward, we come to the district of Shepherd's Bush and the
Uxbridge Road, known in the section of its course between Notting Hill
High Street and Uxbridge Road Station as Holland Park Avenue--a fact of
which probably none but the residents are aware. Above it, Norland Road
forms the western boundary of the borough. Royal Crescent is marked on
the maps of the beginning of the nineteenth century as Norland Crescent;
Addison Road was then Norland Road. Further westward is the square of
the same name, on the site of old Norland House.
[Illustration: KENSINGTON DISTRICT--SOUTH HALF.
Published by A. & C. Black, London.]
Addison Road leads up to St. James's Church, designed by Vulliamy, and
consecrated in 1845; it has a square tower of considerable height, with
a pinnacle at each corner. The chancel was added later. St. Gabriel's,
in Clifton Road, is an offshoot of this church, but, curiously enough,
it does not come within the parochial boundaries. It was built in 1883.
Following the road on the north side of the square, we pass the West
London Tabernacle, a brick building in the late Romanesque style. Close
by are St. James's Schools.
St. John's Place leads us past Pottery Lane, a reminiscence of the
potteries once here, round which sprang up a notoriously bad district.
The brickfields were hard by, and the long, low, red-tiled roofs of the
brick-sheds face a space of open ground known as Avondale Park. The Park
stands on a piece of ground formerly known as Adam's Brickfield. It was
suggested at one time that this should be used for the site of a
refuse-destroyer, but it was bought instead by the Vestry for the sum of
£9,200 to be turned into a public park. The late Metropolitan Board of
Works provided £4,250 towards the sum, and the Metropolitan Public
Gardens and Open Spaces Association gave £2,000. The laying-out of the
ground, which covers about 4½ acres, cost £8,000 more, and the Park
was formally opened June 2, 1892, though it had been informally open to
the public for more than a year before this date. The most has been made
of the ground, which includes two large playgrounds, provided with
swings, ropes, seesaws, etc., for the children of the neighbouring
schools, who come here to the number of three or four hundred. Just at
the back of the Park, on the west side, lie St. Clement's Board Schools,
and on the east St. John's Church Schools. Returning through Pottery
Lane, we see facing us at the upper end large brick schools covered with
Virginia creeper, adjacent to a small brick Gothic church. This is the
church of St. Francis, a Roman Catholic Mission Church, in connection
with St. Mary of the Angels, in Westmoreland Road. It was built about
thirty-three years ago by Rev. D. Rawes at his own cost, and contains
some very beautiful panels on slate by Westlake representing the
Stations of the Cross, which were the first done on that material in
England. There is also a painting by the same artist on the pulpit. The
baptistery, added later, was designed by Bentley, the late architect of
the new cathedral at Westminster. The schools adjacent are for girls and
infants, and the boys are accommodated at the buildings in the
Silchester Road.