Chapter 5

It has been necessary to linger long over the Gardens and the Palace, but we must now turn northward up Church Street to complete our perambulation of the district. In Church Street is the Carmelite Church, designed by Pugin, and though very simple in style, not pleasing. It was built in 1865. The organ is an especially fine one, and the singing is famous. There is a relic of St. Simon Stock beneath the altar, which is very highly prized. The monastery extends along the side of Duke's Lane at the back of the church. It is rather an ornamental building, with stone pinnacles and carved stonework over the doorway. It opens upon the corner where Duke's Lane meets Pitt Street, and close by stood Bullingham House, where Sir Isaac Newton lived. It has now disappeared, and red-brick mansions have risen upon the site.

Mr. Loftie, writing in 1888, says: "When we enter the garden from Pitt Street we see there are two distinct houses. One of them to the north appears slightly the older of the two, and has an eastward wing, slightly projecting from which a passage opened on Church Street. The adjoining, or southern, house has greater architectural pretensions, and within is of more solid construction. Both have been much pulled about and altered at various times, and are now thrown together by passages through the walls. A chamber is traditionally pointed out as that in which Sir Isaac Newton died."

Sir Isaac at the time he came to Kensington was at the height of his fame and reputation, and held the office of Master at the Mint, after having been previously Deputy-Master. He had come to London from Cambridge, and settled in Leicester Square (see _The Strand_, same series), but finding his health suffer in consequence of the dirt and smoke, he moved "out of London" to Kensington. He remained here two years consecutively, and returned shortly before his death.

He may have been attracted to Kensington by its vicinity to the Palace. Queen Caroline, even as Princess of Wales, had always shown an inclination for the society of learned men, and in particular had showed favour to Sir Isaac. His portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller hangs in one of the state apartments at the Palace.

Bullingham House was probably called after John Bullingham, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, who died at Kensington in 1598. Later, Bullingham House was known at one time as Orbell's buildings, for Stephen Pitt, after whom the street is named, had married the daughter of Orbell. The house was subsequently used as a boarding-school.

On the eastern side of Church Street are the barracks and one or two large houses. In Maitland House lived James Mill, author of the "History of India," and father of the better known J. S. Mill. There is a tablet to his memory on one of the pillars in the church. York House was, as has been said, the home of Princess Sophia, who died here in 1848. This house is now to be demolished.

Church Street sweeps to the west a little further on, and at the corner stands a Roman Catholic orphanage, where fifty or sixty girls are provided for. There is a chapel within the walls, and night-schools are held, which are attended by children from outside. The continuation of the road northward, which becomes Brunswick Gardens, was made in 1877, and as the old vicarage stood right in the way it had to be pulled down. Bowack says that the vicarage was "valued yearly in the Queen's [Queen Anne's] Book at £18 18s. 4d., but is supposed to be worth near £400 per annum." In Vicarage Gate northward is a small church (St. Paul's) served by the clergy of St. Mary Abbots. The origin of the name Mall in this part of Kensington is not definitely ascertained. It of course refers to the game so popular in the reign of the Stuarts, and there may have been a ground here, but there is no reference to it in contemporary records. In the Mall there is New Jerusalem Church, with an imposing portico. It was formerly a Baptist Church, and was bought by the Swedenborgians in 1872. A bright red-brick church of the Unitarians is a little further on. Behind the Mall is Kensington Palace Gardens--really a slice of the Gardens--a wide road with immense houses, correctly designated mansions, standing back in their own grounds. This road is only open to ordinary traffic on sufferance, and is liable to be closed at any time.

The part of Kensington lying to the west of Church Street and extending to Notting Hill Gate was that formerly known as the Gravel Pits, and considered particularly healthy on account of its dry soil and bracing air. Bowack says that here there are "several handsome new-built houses, and of late years has been discovered a chalybeate spring." Swift had lodgings at the Gravel Pits between 1712 and 1713, and Anne Pitt, sister of Lord Chatham, one of the bright bevy of Queen Caroline's maids of honour, is reported to have died at her house at the Gravel Pits in 1780.

The most celebrated house here was Campden House, completely rebuilt 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.