Do not you think a very interesting work might be written, to be
entitled an Historical Account of the celebrated Villas in the
neighbourhood of London. I mean rather the Villas that have been--than
those that now exist.
Look at Horace Walpole's Song on Strawberry Hill. How many places are
there mentioned which have historical recollections connected with
them, which it would be worth preserving.
There must be always great interest about the localities in the
neighbourhood of the metropolis. In that song alone are mentioned
Gunnersbury,
Sion,
Chiswick,
Strawberry Hill,
Greenwich,
Marble Hill,
Oatlands,
Clermont,
Southcote,
you might add Wanstead, Wimbledon, Holland House, and a hundred
others--many with very curious anecdotes of local and personal history
connected with them.
Perhaps I overrate the interest with which such a book would be read. I
certainly do not, if it would equal that, with which I myself read the
account of places in the neighbourhood of Paris, remarkable in history,
but the traces of which--many of which at least--are fast fading away;
such as
Maisons, Sceaux,
Meudon, Chantilli,
&c. &c.
Hampton Court, the ancient Palace at Richmond, Kew, &c. &c. might enter
into the work.
Very truly yours,
ROBERT PEEL.
The County Histories would form a substratum for the work--but every
thing would depend upon the liveliness and accuracy of the details.