[Illustration: HOLLAND HOUSE, SOUTH SIDE.]
To describe London, as we said before, would fill a volume, but space
forbids lingering longer, and we will pass out of the metropolis, after
devoting brief attention to one of its historical mansions, the
well-known Holland House. This fine old building of the time of James I.
stands upon high ground in the western suburbs of London, and its
history is interwoven with several generations of arts, politics, and
literature. The house is of red brick, embellished with turrets,
gable-ends, and mullioned windows. As its park has already been partly
cut up for building-lots, the end of the celebrated mansion itself is
believed to be not far off. Built in 1607, it descended to the first
Earl of Holland, whence its name. Surviving the Civil Wars, when Fairfax
used it for his head-quarters, it is noted that plays were privately
performed here in Cromwell's time. In 1716, Addison married the dowager
Countess of Holland and Warwick, and the estate passed to him, and he
died at Holland House in 1719, having addressed to his stepson, the
dissolute Earl of Warwick, the solemn words, "I have sent for you that
you may see how a Christian can die." Two years later the young earl
himself died. In 1762 the estate was sold to Henry Vassall Fox, Baron
Holland, the famous Whig, who died there in 1774. It is related that
during his last illness George Selwyn called and left his card. Selwyn
had a fondness for seeing dead bodies, and the dying lord remarked, "If
Mr. Selwyn calls again, show him up: if I am alive I shall be delighted
to see him, and if I am dead he would like to see me." He composed his
own epitaph: "Here lies Henry Vassall Fox, Lord Holland, etc., who was
drowned while sitting in his elbow-chair." He died in his elbow-chair,
of water in the chest. Charles James Fox was his second son, and passed
his early years at Holland House. Near the mansion, on the Kensington
Road, was the Adam and Eve Inn, where it is said that Sheridan, on his
way to and from Holland House, regularly stopped for a dram, and thus
ran up a long bill, which Lord Holland ultimately paid.
[Illustration: DINING ROOM, HOLLAND HOUSE.]
[Illustration: THE DUTCH GARDEN, HOLLAND HOUSE.]
The house, built like half the letter H, is of red brick with stone
finishings, and in the Elizabethan style, with Dutch gardens of a later
date. Much of the old-time decorations and furniture remains. The
library, a long gallery, forms the eastern wing, and contains a valuable
collection, including many manuscripts and autographs. There are fine
pictures and sculptures, with old clocks, vases, cabinets, and carvings,
and also a celebrated collection of miniatures. For over two centuries
it was the favorite resort of wits and beauties, painters and poets,
scholars, philosophers, and statesmen. Lord Brougham says that in the
time of Vassall, Lord Holland, it was the meeting-place of the Whig
party, his liberal hospitality being a great attractive force, and
Macaulay writes that it can boast a greater number of inmates
distinguished in political and literary history than any other private
dwelling in England. After Vassall's death his nephew maintained the
reputation of Holland House, dying in 1840, when the estates descended
to his only son, the late Lord Holland, who also kept up the character
of the mansion. But now, however, the glory of the famous old house is
slowly departing, and has chiefly become a fragrant memory.
[Illustration: LIBRARY, HOLLAND HOUSE.]
[Illustration: ROGERS' SEAT IN THE DUTCH GARDEN, HOLLAND HOUSE.]
Eastward from London is the great park which the queen in May opened
with much pomp as a breathing-ground for the masses of that
densely-populated region, the east end of the metropolis--Epping Forest.
This beautiful enclosure originally consisted of nine thousand acres,
but encroachments reduced it to about one-third that size. Reclamations
were made, however, and the park now opened covers five thousand six
hundred acres--a magnificent pleasure-ground.