At Fulham there is a charming garden, with trees which would be remarkable anywhere, and appear still more beautiful from their proximity to London. These trees in the grounds of Broom House have fared on the whole better than those at Fulham Palace, hard by. It is separated from the Palace by the grounds now attached to the club of Hurlingham. Of Hurlingham there is not much early history. Faulkner, the authority for this district, writes in 1813: "Hurlingham Field is now the property of the Earl of Ranelagh and the site of his house. It was here that great numbers of people were buried during the Plague." The same authority mentions: "The Dowager Countess of Lonsdale has an elegant house and gardens here in full view of the Thames," and Broom House is shown on Rocque's map of 1757. The estate was bought by Mr. Sulivan from the Nepean family in 1824, and his daughter, Miss Sulivan, keeps up the garden with the utmost good taste and knowledge of horticulture. The ailanthus, with a trunk 10 feet 4 inches in girth at 4 feet from the ground, is probably one of the finest specimens in England. The one in Fulham Palace garden is exactly the same girth, but does not appear to be so lofty. The liquidamber is also a magnificent tree, and the false acacia is quite as fine as the one in Fulham Palace, and was probably planted at the same time. There are still two cedars left, although the finest was blown down some years ago, and the timber afforded panelling for a large room and many pieces of furniture. Perhaps the most beautiful of the trees is the copper or purple beech. Not only is it very tall and has a massive trunk (14 feet 6 inches at 2 feet from the ground), but the shape is quite perfect, and its branches are furnished evenly all round. There are also good evergreen oaks, elms, chestnuts and Scotch firs. There is a large collection of flowering shrubs, which are in no way affected by the smoky air. Standard magnolias, grandiflora, conspicua and stellata, many varieties of the delightful autumn-flowering plant, the Hibiscus syriacus, known to older gardeners as Althï¾µa frutex, and recommended under that name by Fairchild in 1722 as suited to London, Cratï¾µgus pyracantha, Choysia, Pyrus spectabilis, and many other equally delightful shrubs all appear most flourishing. These, together with herbaceous plants and ornamental trees, well grouped in a garden of good design, with the river flowing at the foot of it, make the grounds of Broom House rank among the most attractive about London.
A few of the gardens, like this one, have succeeded in keeping the real stamp of the country, in spite of the encroachments of the town and the advance of trams and motor omnibuses, but they are every day becoming more scarce. Hampstead and Highgate have many such, and here and there, to the north and on the south of the river, such delightful spots are to be found, although the temptation to cut them up and build small red villas on the sites is very great.
[Most of Broom House was demolished shortly after this was written, in 1912]
