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Addison was a fortunate man; the houses in which he lived testify it.
His fame as a poet, though considerable in his own time, has now
dwindled to a point which would not warrant us to include him in this
work, were not his reputation altogether of that kind which inseparably
binds him up with the poetical history of his country. He was not only a
popular poet in his own day, but he was the friend and advocate of true
poetry wherever it could be found. It was he who, in the Spectator,
first sounded boldly and zealously abroad the glory of John Milton. In
our time the revival of true poetry, the return to nature and to truth,
have been greatly indebted to the old ballad poetry of the nation.
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, and others, attribute the
formation of their taste in the highest degree to the reading of Percy's
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. But it was Addison who long before
had pointed out these sources and these effects. It was he who brought
forward again the brave old ballad of Chevy Chace; who reminded us that
Sir Philip Sidney had said that it always stirred his heart like the
sound of a trumpet. It was he who showed us the inimitable touches of
nature and of true pathos in it. He showed us how alive was the old bard
who composed it to all the influences of nature and of circumstances.
How the stanza,
"The hounds ran swiftly through the woods,
The nimble deer to take,
That with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make,"
carried you at once to the scene. With what life, and spirit, and
graphic power he introduced his heroes, and by their gallant bearing won
at once your interest for them.
"Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armor bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish spears
All marching in our sight.
"All men of pleasant Tivy-dale,
Fast by the River Tweed;
'O cease your sport,' Earl Percy said,
'And take your bows with speed;
"'And now with me, my countrymen,
Your courage forth advance,
For there was never champion yet,
In Scotland or in France,
"'That ever did on horseback come,
But if my hap it were,
I durst encounter, man for man,
With him to break a spear.'
"Earl Douglas on his milk-white steed,
Most like a baron bold,
Rode foremost of the company,
Whose armor shone like gold.
"'Show me,' said he, 'whose men you be,
That hunt so boldly here,
That, without my consent, do chase
And kill my fallow deer.'
"The first man that did answer make
Was noble Percy, he;
Who said, 'We list not to declare,
Nor show whose men we be.'"
It was Addison who made his cotemporaries fully aware of the truly noble
sentiments which animated that fine ballad; the challenge of Douglas,
and its acceptance by Percy, being a splendid instance.
"'But trust me, Percy, pity it were
And great offense to kill
Any of these our guiltless men,
For they have done no ill.
"'Let thou and I the battle try,
And set our men aside,'
Accursed be he,' Earl Percy said,
'By whom this is denied.'"
The life and vigor of the description of the battle--the impression
given of the indomitable bravery of the British race--the exploit of
Widdrington--the proud boast of the English monarch of the abundance of
brave men in his kingdom--all were forcibly demonstrated by Addison; nor
less the beautiful pathos of the poem.
"Next day did many widows come
Their husbands to bewail;
They washed their wounds in brinish tears,
But all would not prevail.
"Their bodies bathed in purple gore
They bare with them away,
They kissed them dead a thousand times,
Ere they were clad in clay."
Equally did Addison vindicate and commend to our hearts the sweet ballad
of the Babes in the Wood, and others of the true school of nature and
feeling. Who shall say that it was not owing to these criticisms that
Bishop Percy himself was led to the study and the collection of the
precious relics of former ages, that lay scattered about among the
people? The services of Addison to the poetry of England are far greater
through what he recommended than what he composed; and the man who,
more than all others, contributed to make periodical literature what it
has become, and gave us, moreover, Sir Roger de Coverley, and the spirit
of true old English life which surrounds him, with all those noble
papers in which religion and philosophy so beautifully blend in the
Spectator, must ever remain enshrined in the most grateful remembrance
of his countrymen.
Addison, I have said, was a fortunate man. It is well for us that he was
in that one case so fortunate. It was the service that his pen could
render to the government of the time, that raised him from the condition
of a poor clergyman's son to a minister of state, and thus gave him
afterward leisure to pursue those beautiful speculations in literature
which have had so decided and so permanent an influence on our
literature and modes of thinking. Addison had his faults, and was not
without a few of those thorns in the side which few escape in their
progress through the wilderness of the world; but, so far as we are
concerned, we owe to him nothing but love and admiration. Thus much
said, we must, in this brief article, leave all the details of his life
and progress, of his travels and his literary contests and achievements,
as matters well known, and confine ourselves to a survey of the abodes
in which he lived.
He was born at the parsonage of Milston, in Wiltshire, an humble
dwelling, of which a view may be seen in Miss Aikin's life of him; his
father being then incumbent of the parish. He was sent to schools at
Shrewsbury and Lichfield, and then to the Charter-house, where he formed
that acquaintance with Richard Steele which resulted in such lasting
consequences to literature. Thence he went to Oxford, where he continued
till the age of five-and-twenty, when, finding that, notwithstanding his
fellowship and the resource of his pupils, he was so far from realizing
a livelihood that he was greatly in debt, he gave up all thought of
taking orders, and devoted himself to public business Fully to qualify
himself for this, he applied to Montague, afterward Lord Halifax, with
whose friendship he was already honored, as well as with that of Lord
Somers, and procured from government a pension of £300 a year to enable
him to make the circle of European travel, and acquaint himself with the
real condition of those countries with which every English statesman
must come into continual practical contact. He first went over to
France, saw Paris, and then settled down at Blois to make himself master
of the language. He continued nearly a year and a half at Blois, and it
was to his intense study during this time that he owed his great
knowledge of French literature. He then sailed from Marseilles for
Italy. "It was in December, 1700," says Miss Aikin, "that he embarked at
Marseilles for Genoa, whence he proceeded through Milan, Venice,
Ravenna, and Loretto to Rome; thence to Naples by sea, and proceeded by
Florence, Bologna, and Turin, to Geneva; where he arrived exactly one
year from his quitting Marseilles, and two and a half after his
departure from England. At Geneva he was met by the news of the death of
King William. This was followed by the dismissal of the Whigs from
office, the consequent loss of his pension, and the blasting of all his
hopes of further advantage from them for the present. Instead,
therefore, of attending on Prince Eugene, as secretary from the English
king, as was appointed for him, he turned aside on his own slender
resources to take a survey of Germany. After making a pleasant tour
through the Swiss cantons, he descended into the plains of Germany, but
found the inhabitants all in arms, and full of apprehension of the
Bavarian troops, and was advised not to trust himself in the territories
of the Duke of Bavaria. He therefore lost all opportunity of seeing
Munich, Augsburg, and Ratisbon, and was obliged to make his way through
the Tyrol to Vienna. In Vienna he felt himself in great anxiety on
account of money, and made his way back through Holland home. Before
reaching it, he received a proposal to go on a second tour of Europe
for three years, with the son of the Duke of Somerset, but refused the
duke's offers. Soon after his return to England he was engaged to write
a poem on the victory of Blenheim, to serve the Whig cause, and produced
the Campaign; at the time a most successful poem, but now chiefly
remembered by the passage in which he represents Marlborough, like the
angel of divine vengeance, riding on the whirlwind and directing the
storm." From this period his advance was rapid, and we here leave him to
the biographer, and restrict ourselves to our proper task.
The change of circumstances from the humble author to the minister and
the friend of ministers; from the simple clergyman's son to the husband
of a countess, and the father-in-law of an earl, can not be more
strikingly displayed than by the singular contrast of his abodes under
these different characters. D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of Literature,
says that Pope, when taking his usual walk with Harte in the Haymarket,
desired Harte to enter a little shop, when, going up three flights of
stairs into a small room, Pope said, "In this garret Addison wrote his
Campaign." That was certainly somewhat different to Bilton and Holland
House. But between the garret in the Haymarket and these princely houses
there were some connecting and ascending steps in residence. Addison was
always anxious to get a quiet retreat, amid trees and greenness, where
he could write. Such was afterward his abode at Sandy End, a hamlet of
Fulham. Here he appears to have occupied apartments in a lodging-house
established at this place; whence several of the published letters of
Steele are dated, written at times when he seems to have been the guest
of Addison. From Sandy End, too, are dated some letters to Lord Warwick,
his future son-in-law, then a boy, and very anxious to get news about
birds and birds' nests, which Addison most cordially gives him. He then
went to Ireland as chief secretary to the Earl of Wharton, on his
appointment to the lord-lieutenancy, and resided for some time in that
capacity in Dublin. After this, he removed to a lodging at Kensington,
owing to his increasing intimacy at Holland House, and was about this
time a frequent guest at Northwick Park, with the first Lord Northwick,
and there one of the best portraits of him, by Kneller, still remains.
In 1716, he married the Dowager Countess of Warwick; but five years
before this, that is, in 1711, he had made the purchase of Bilton, as a
suitable residence for a person of his position in the state, and of
that high connection toward which he was already looking. Before,
however, we indulge ourselves with a view of Addison at Bilton, let us
see the mode of his life in town, on the authority of Pope, Spence, and
Johnson: "Of the course of Addison's familiar day, before his marriage,
Pope has given a detail. He had in the house with him, Budgell, and
perhaps Philips. His chief companions were Steele, Budgell, Philips,
Carey, Davenant, and Colonel Brett. With one or other of these he always
breakfasted. He studied all morning; then dined at a tavern; and went
afterward to Button's.
"Button had been a servant in the Countess of Warwick's family, who,
under the patronage of Addison, kept a coffee-house on the south side of
Russell-street, about two doors from Covent Garden. Here it was that the
wits of that time used to assemble. It is said, when Addison suffered
any vexation from the countess, he withdrew the company from Button's
house.
"From the coffee-house he went to a tavern, where he often sat late, and
drank too much wine. In the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort,
cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence. It is not
unlikely that Addison was first seduced to excess by the manumission
which he obtained from the servile timidity of his sober hours. He that
feels oppression from the presence of those to whom he knows himself
superior, will desire to set loose his powers of conversation; and who
that ever asked succors from Bacchus was able to preserve himself from
being enslaved by his auxiliary?
"Among those friends it was that Addison displayed the elegance of his
colloquial accomplishments, which may easily be supposed such as Pope
represents them. The remark of Mandeville, who, when he had passed an
evening in his company, declared that he was a parson in a tie-wig, can
detract little from his character; he was always reserved to strangers,
and was not incited to uncommon freedom by a character like that of
Mandeville."--_Johnson's Life of Addison._
The statement made by Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, and by
Spence, that Addison's marriage, like that of Dryden, was not a happy
one, has lately been strongly argued against by Miss Aikin. One would
gladly be able to acquiesce in it, and if we could believe the painter
as well as Miss Aikin, we should be inclined to believe the Countess of
Warwick possessed both unusual sense and sweetness of temper. The
current of tradition, however, runs strongly the other way; and I fear
we have not now sufficient strength of evidence to avert it. As little
do I anticipate that Miss Aikin will prove Addison a very sober man; the
statements of his cotemporaries, and the voice of tradition, are against
her. We must be content to take the man with his failings and his secret
griefs, the foils to a great reputation and a great prosperity.
Addison purchased the estate of Bilton for £10,000, and the money was
principally advanced by his brother Gulston Addison, governor of Fort
St. George, at Madras. Thither he conveyed his paintings, his library,
and his collection of medals, which, as connected with his Dialogues on
Medals, was very valuable. Here it may be supposed that, during the five
years previous to his marriage, he passed much of his leisure time. It
was a beautiful retirement, well calculated to dispose to thought, and
worthy of the author of the Spectator. If we are to believe tradition,
that he planted most of the trees now standing around it, he must have
taken great pleasure in its embellishment. On his death, he left it to
his only child, Charlotte Addison, who could not have been much more
than two years old. Here she spent her long life, from the death of her
mother, the countess, dying in 1797, at about eighty years of age. Miss
Addison, for she was never married, is said to have been of weak
intellect, a fact by many traced to the want of real and spiritual union
between her parents, a supposition which the researches of our own times
into the nature of man tend greatly to confirm. With the usual effect of
aristocratic prejudice on a feeble mind, she is said to have been
especially proud of her mother, but to have rarely mentioned her father.
Being left to the care and education of her mother, this does not very
strongly corroborate the case which Miss Aikin labors to establish. It
does not tell very eloquently for that true affection which she tells us
the countess bore toward Addison, and which she endeavors to prove by
proving Addison's affection for her, evidenced by his making her his
sole executrix, and guardian of his child. By the fruits we must judge
of the woman as well as the tree, and the fruit of Lady Warwick's
education of her child was, by all accounts, this, that she left her
ashamed of her father the commoner, though an immortal man, and proud of
her mother, a lady--and nothing more. There are many stories of the
eccentricities and increasing fatuity of poor Miss Addison floating in
the village and neighborhood of Bilton, which may as well die out with
time. The disposal of her property marks the tendency of her feelings.
Her grandfather, Dr. Lancelot Addison, was a native of Cumberland.
There, at the time of Miss Addison making her will, still remained many
near and poor relations, whom she entirely passed over, as she had done
in her lifetime, and bequeathed Bilton to the Honorable John Bridgman
Simpson, brother to Lord Bridgman, whose representative is now Earl of
Bradford. This gentleman she chose to consider her _nearest_ relation,
because her mother's relation, though very near he could not be. Her
mother, the countess, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton, of Chirk
Castle, Denbighshire, by a daughter of Sir Orlando Bridgman; so that
this Mr. Bridgman Simpson, a relative of her grandmother, could be no
very near relative of her own, while she must have had first cousins of
the paternal line in plenty. Those relatives of her own name, and who
would have handed down the property, bound up with the name of Addison,
as a monument of their family fame, disputed her will, but
ineffectually. She is buried there in the chancel of the church, but the
gratitude of that aristocratic person on whom, to the prejudice of her
own name and blood, she bestowed her whole estate, has never to this
hour proved warm enough to furnish a single stone, or a single line, to
mark where she lies. As if the name of Addison were something noxious or
disgraceful, and should be carefully kept out of all mention which might
decide its connection with Bilton,
"The sole daughter of his house and heart"
lies buried in that oblivious silence which can not but be confessed to
be a rich piece of poetical justice, though of very unpoetical
ingratitude. Soon after Miss Addison's death, the library was removed to
London, and in May, 1799, was sold by auction for £456, 2_s._, 9_d._,
and Addison's collection of medals for £92, 2_s._, 2_d._ The poet's
screen, drinking-cup, tea-pot, &c., are now in the possession of William
Ferdinand Wratislaw, Esq., of Rugby, the descendant of one of the most
ancient families in Europe--no other than the royal family of Bohemia,
of which our "good Queen Ann," the wife of Richard II., was a princess;
and of which, that is, of Mr. Wratislaw, of Rugby, the present head of
the house, the young Count Adam Wratislaw, allied to Queen Victoria by
his aunt, the Princess of Leiningen, is a near relative. They could not
be in better hands.
Since Miss Addison's death, the house at Bilton has been successively
occupied by Mrs. Brookes and Miss Moore; by Mr. Apperley, the well-known
Nimrod of sporting literature; by Sir Charles Palmer, Bart.; by the
Vernon family; by the Misses Boddington; and, lastly, by Mr. Simpson
himself. Mr. Simpson has considerably improved the house, rebuilding the
back part facing the garden; but, on the other hand, he cut down a
considerable part of a fine avenue of limes, stretching along one side
of the garden down to a wood below, called Addison's Walk. This avenue
is said to have been planted by Addison, and terminated in a clump of
evergreens, where was an alcove called Addison's Seat. It was not till
about half this avenue was felled that Mr. Simpson heard that it was
Addison's Walk, and caused the destruction to stop. He is now a very old
man, and has not resided at Bilton since the death of his wife. The
house is, however, furnished; and after reading Miss Aikin's statement,
that "a small number of pictures collected by Addison still, it is
believed, remain in the house, which are mostly portraits of his
cotemporaries, and intrinsically of small value," how great was my
delight and surprise to find what and how many these paintings were! But
let us make a more regular approach to this gem of an old house, to the
actual country seat of our "dear short face," the Spectator.
Issuing from Rugby, Bilton salutes you from the hill on the opposite
side of the valley, which you have to cross in order to reach it. A
lofty mass of trees, on a fine airy elevation; a small gray church, with
finely tapering spire in front of them, show you where Bilton lies; but
house or village you do not discern till you are close upon them. It was
not till I had approached within a few hundred yards of Addison's house,
or the hall, as it is called, that I saw the cottages of the village
stretching away to my right hand; and a carriage-road, diverging to my
left toward the church, brought me within view of the house; there it
stood in the midst of the fine old trees. A villager informed me that
no one lived there but the gardener, nor had done for years. The autumn
had dyed all the trees with its rich and yet melancholy hues; they
strewed the ground in abundance, and there was a feeling of solitude and
desertion about the place which was by no means out of keeping, when I
reflected that I was approaching the house of Addison, so long quitted
by himself. A fine old avenue of lime-trees, winding with the
carriage-drive, brought me to the front of the house. It is a true
Elizabethan mansion, not too large for a poet, yet large enough for any
country gentleman who is not overdone with his establishment. The front
of the main portion is lofty, handsome, and in excellent repair. A
projecting tower runs up from the porch to the roof. Over the door is
cut, in freestone, some mathematical or masonic sign--a circle inclosing
two triangles; and near the top is the date of 1623. On the right hand,
a wing of lower buildings runs forward from the main erection, forming,
as it were, one side of a court. These buildings turn their gables
toward you, and are covered with ivy. On the left hand, but standing
back in a stable-yard, are the outbuildings, seeming, however, to
balance the whole fabric, and giving it an air of considerable extent.
All round, adjoining the buildings and along the avenue, grow evergreens
in tall and luxuriant masses.
On the other side of the house lies the old garden, retaining all the
characters of a past age. The center consists of a fine lawn; the upper
part of which, near the house, has recently been laid out in fancy
flower-beds, in the form of a star, and corner beds to make up the
square. The rest appears as it might be when Addison left it. On the
right a square-cut holly hedge divides it from the fields, which are
scattered with lofty trees, among which are foreign oaks, said to be
raised from acorns brought home by the poet. To the left, the garden is
bounded by a still more massy square-clipped hedge of yew, opening half
way down into a large kitchen-garden, being, at the same time, at the
upper end, an old Dutch flower-garden. At the far side of this garden,
opposite to the entrance through the yew hedge, is an alcove, and down
that side extends the lime avenue, called Addison's Walk. At the bottom
of this garden are fish-ponds, and in the field below an oak wood. Thus,
amid lofty trees, some of them strong, old, and crooked, presenting a
scene worthy of making part of a picture of Claude Lorraine, you look
down over the garden to rich fields descending into the country below.
At the bottom right-hand corner is an alcove, shut in by a group of
evergreen shrubs and pine-trees from the house, but overlooking the
fields and woodlands, called Addison's Seat; and a very pleasant seat it
is, full of quiet retirement. Such is the exterior of Bilton. The
interior of the main part of the house consists principally of two large
rooms, a dining and drawing room. These extend quite through, are
lighted at each end, and the projection in front forms a sort of little
cabinet in each room. These two fine large rooms are hung round with the
paintings placed here by Addison: whether they are few and of no
intrinsic value will soon be seen.
In the dining-room are, first, full-lengths of James I., by Mark
Garrard; Lord Crofts, Villiers, duke of Buckingham, by Balthazar
Gerbier; the Duke of Hamilton, Henry Rich, earl of Warwick, Prince
Rupert, and Prince Maurice, all by Vandyck; Sir Thomas Middleton, the
Countess of Warwick's father, by Sir Peter Lely; and in the small
division in front of the room, Chief Justice the Earl of Nottingham, by
Michael Dahl; Mr. Secretary Craggs, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, a man of
fair complexion, and handsome, amiable countenance, in a light blue
dress; Sir John Vanburgh, by Verelst; and Lord Halifax, by Kneller.
These are chiefly three-quarter figures.
On the staircase is one of the four well-known equestrian Charles the
Firsts, by Vandyck, the horse by Stone, one of which is at Hampton
Court, and another at Warwick Castle. Opposite to it is a full-length
figure of Anne of Austria, queen of France, by Mignard.
In the drawing-room, a full-length figure of a lady, labeled as Lady
Isabel Thynne, daughter of the Earl of Holland, has a bit of paper stuck
behind it by some artist, stating that at Knowle there is a precisely
similar picture marked as Lady Frances Grenfield, daughter of the Earl
of Middleton, and fifth Countess of Dorset; as well as a copy of it,
likewise, at Knowle. Next to this is a singular picture, which might be
one of Lely's, but bears no name of the artist. There is an exact
fac-simile of it at Penshurst. It contains two half-length figures of
Lady Lucy Percy, countess of Carlisle, and Lady Dorothy Percy, countess
of Leicester, two of the most flattered and remarkable women of the day,
and the latter the mother of Algernon Sidney; next is the Duke of
Northumberland, their father, by Lely; and full-lengths of the
unfortunate Arabella Stuart, a very pretty and interesting-looking
woman, and Rich, earl of Holland, by Vandyck. On the opposite side of
the room are the Countess of Warwick, Addison's wife, by Kneller, in a
bright blue dress. She is here represented as decidedly handsome, having
a high, broad forehead, dark hair falling in natural ringlets, and with
a sweet expression of countenance. To her right is her son, Lord
Warwick, as a boy of twelve or fourteen years old, also in a light blue
dress, and red scarf, by Dahl. On her left is a head of Lord Kensington,
by Lely. A mother and daughter in two separate pictures, supposed to be
by Lely; and the Earl of Warwick again as a boy.
Within the small department of the room we find a half-length of Addison
himself, also in light blue, which seems the almost universal color of
Kneller's drapery. He appears here about forty years of age, his figure
fuller, and the countenance more fleshy and less spiritual than in
either of the portraits at Holland House and Northwick. Besides this,
there is another portrait of the Earl of Warwick, by Kneller, as a young
man; a head of Gustavus Adolphus, by Meirveldt; and, lastly, of the
heiress of the house, Miss Addison herself. She is here a child, nor is
there any one of her of a later age. If this portrait of her was done
during Addison's life, it must have been represented as older than she
really was; she could not be much more than two, and here she appears at
least five years of age. It is a full length. The child stands by a
table, on which is a basket of flowers, and she holds a pink flower in
her hand against her bosom. She has the air of an intelligent child,
and, as usual, wears one of Kneller's light blue draperies, with a
lace-bordered apron, and stomacher of the same.
Such are the paintings at Bilton. They include a most interesting group
of the friends and cotemporaries of Addison, besides others. It is a
rare circumstance that they have been permitted to remain there, when
his library and his medals have been dispersed. Altogether, Bilton is
one of the most satisfactory specimens of the homes and haunts of our
departed literary men.
Of Holland House, the last residence of Addison, it would require a long
article to give a fitting idea. This fine old mansion is full of
historic associations. It takes its name from Henry Rich, earl of
Holland, whose portrait is in Bilton. It was built by his father-in-law,
Sir Walter Cope, in 1607, and affords a very good specimen of the
architecture of that period. The general form is that of a half H. The
projection in the center, forming at once porch and tower, and the two
wings supported on pillars, give great decision of effect to it. The
stone quoins worked with a sort of arabesque figure, remind one of the
style of some portions of Heidelberg Castle, which is what is called on
the Continent _roccoco_. Here it is deemed Elizabethan; but the plain
buildings attached on each side to the main body of the house, with
their shingled and steep-roofed towers, have a very picturesque and
Bohemian look. Altogether, it is a charming old pile, and the interior
corresponds beautifully with the exterior. There is a fine entrance
hall, a library behind it, and another library extending the whole
length of one of the wings and the house up stairs, one hundred and five
feet in length. The drawing-room over the entrance hall, called the Gilt
Room, extends from front to back of the house, and commands views of the
gardens both way; those to the back are very beautiful.
In the house are, of course, many interesting and valuable works of art;
a great portion of them memorials of the distinguished men who have been
accustomed to resort thither. In one room is a portrait of Charles James
Fox, as a child, in a light blue dress, and with a close, reddish,
woolen cap on his head, under which show lace edges. The artist is
unknown, but is supposed to be French. The countenance is full of life
and intelligence, and the "child" in it is, most remarkably, "the father
of the man." The likeness is wonderful. You can imagine how, by time and
circumstance, that child's countenance expanded into what it became in
maturity. There is also a portrait of Addison, which belonged to his
daughter. It represents him as much younger than any other that I have
seen. In the Gilt Room are marble busts of George IV. and William IV. On
the staircase is a bust of Lord Holland, father of the second earl and
of Charles Fox, by Nollekens. This bust, which is massy, and full of
power and expression, is said to have brought Nollekens into his great
repute. The likeness to that of Charles Fox is very striking. By the
same artist there are also the busts of Charles Fox, the late Lord
Holland, and the present earl. That of Frere, by Chantry, is very
spirited. There are also, here, portraits of Lord Lansdowne, Lord John
Russell, and family portraits. There is also a large and very curious
painting of a fair, by Callot, and an Italian print of it.
In the library, down stairs, are portraits of Charles James Fox--a very
fine one; of the late Lord Holland; of Talleyrand, by Ary Scheffer,
perhaps the best in existence, and the only one which he said that he
ever sat for; of Sir Samuel Romilly; Sir James Mackintosh; Lord Erskine,
by Sir Thomas Lawrence; Tierney; Francis Horner, by Raeburn, so like Sir
Walter Scott by the same artist, that I at first supposed it to be him;
Lord Macartney, by Phillips; Frere, by Shee; Mone, lord Thanet;
Archibald Hamilton; late Lord Darnley; late Lord King, when young, by
Hoppner; and a very sweet, foreign fancy portrait of the present Lady
Holland. We miss, however, from this haunt of genius, the portraits of
Byron, Brougham, Crabbe, Blanco White, Hallam, Rogers, Lord Jeffery, and
others. In the left wing is placed the colossal model of the statue of
Charles Fox, which stands in Bloomsbury Square.
In the gardens are various memorials of distinguished men. Among several
very fine cedars, perhaps the finest is said to have been planted by
Charles Fox. In the quaint old garden is an alcove, in which are the
following lines, placed there by the late earl:
"Here Rogers sat--and here for ever dwell
With me, those pleasures which he sang so well."
Beneath these are framed and glazed a copy of verses in honor of the
same poet, by Mr. Luttrell. There is also in the same garden, and
opposite this alcove, a bronze bust of Napoleon, on a granite pillar,
with a Greek inscription from the Odyssey, admirably applying the
situation of Ulysses to that of Napoleon at St. Helena: "In a
far-distant isle he remains under the harsh surveillance of base men."
The fine avenue leading down from the house to the Kensington road is
remarkable for having often been the walking and talking place of
Cromwell and General Lambert. Lambert then occupied Holland House; and
Cromwell, who lived next door, when he came to converse with him on
state affairs, had to speak very loud to him, because he was deaf. To
avoid being overheard, they used to walk in this avenue.
The traditions regarding Addison here are very slight. They are, simply,
that he used to walk, when composing his Spectators, in the long
library, then a picture gallery, with a bottle of wine at each end,
which he visited as he alternately arrived at them; and that the room in
which he died, though not positively known, is supposed to be the
present dining-room, being then the state bed-room. The young Earl of
Warwick, to whom he there addressed the emphatic words, "See in what
peace a Christian can die!" died also, himself, in 1721, but two years
afterward. The estate then devolved to Lord Kensington, descended from
Robert Rich, earl of Warwick, who sold it, about 1762, to the Right
Honorable Henry Fox, afterward Lord Holland. Here the early days of the
great statesman, Charles James, were passed; and here lived the late
patriotic translator of Lope de Vega, amid the society of the first
spirits of the age. It has been rumored that the present amiable and
intelligent possessor, his son, contemplated pulling down this venerable
and remarkable mansion. Such a thought never did and never could for a
moment enter his mind, which feels too proudly the honors of intellect
and taste, far above all mere rank, which there surround his name and
family.