We are now approaching London, and, crossing over the border into
Buckinghamshire, come to another ducal palace. This is the fine estate,
near the town of Buckingham, of Stowe, also originally an abbey, which
came into possession of the Temple family in the sixteenth century, and
in 1749 merged into the estate of the Grenvilles, the ancestors of the
Duke of Buckingham, its present owner. Stowe gets its chief fame from
its pleasure-gardens, which Pope has commemorated. They appear at a
distance like a vast grove, from whose luxuriant foliage emerge
obelisks, columns, and towers. They are adorned with arches, pavilions,
temples, a rotunda, hermitage, grotto, lake, and bridge. The temples are
filled with statuary. The mansion, which has been greatly enlarged, has
a frontage of nine hundred and sixteen feet, and its windows look out
over the richest possible landscape, profuse with every adornment. In
the interior the rooms, opening one into another, form a superb suite.
There is a Rembrandt Room, hung with pictures by that painter, and there
were many curiosities from Italy: old tapestry and draperies; rich
Oriental stuffs, the spoils of Tippoo Saib; furniture from the Doge's
Palace in Venice; marble pavements from Rome; fine paintings and
magnificent plate. Formerly, Stowe contained the grandest collection in
England, and in this superb palace, thus gorgeously furnished, Richard
Grenville, the first Duke of Buckingham, entertained Louis XVIII. and
Charles X. of France and their suites during their residence in England.
His hospitality was too much for him, and, burdened with debt, he was
compelled to shut up Stowe and go abroad. In 1845 his successor received
Queen Victoria at Stowe at enormous cost, and in 1848 there was a
financial crisis in the family. The sumptuous contents of the palace
were sold to pay the debts, and realized $375,000. A splendid avenue of
elms leads up from the town of Buckingham to Stowe, a distance of two
miles.
Not far away from Buckingham is Whaddon Hall, formerly a seat of the
Dukes of Buckingham, but best known as the residence of Browne Willis,
an eccentric antiquary, whose person and dress were so singular that he
was often mistaken for a beggar, and who is said "to have written the
very worst hand of any man in England." He wore one pair of boots for
forty years, having them patched when they were worn out, and keeping
them till they had got all in wrinkles, so that he was known as "Old
Wrinkle-boots." He was great for building churches and quarrelling with
the clergy, and left behind him valuable collections of coins and
manuscripts, which he bequeathed to Oxford University. Great Hampden,
the home of the patriot, John Hampden, is also in Buckinghamshire. The
original house remains, much disfigured by stucco and whitewash, and
standing in a secluded spot in the Chiltern Hills; it is still the
property of his descendants in the seventh generation.