There is a charming group of houses standing in their own grounds still left on Campden Hill, although Campden House has been demolished and its site built over within the last few years. The property on which Campden House stood, and some authorities say the house itself, was won over some game of chance in James I.'s time by Sir Baptist Hicks, afterwards Viscount Campden, from Sir Walter Cope, the builder of Holland House, hard by. It was to Campden House that Queen Anne's little son, the Duke of Gloucester, was taken for country air. The air is still pleasant on these heights, and the open tract of Holland Park gives so much freshness that plants flourish wonderfully. There are good gardens attached to many of the houses-Cam House, Blundell House, Aubrey House, Thornwood, Holly, and Moray Lodges, and several others. Holly Lodge is noteworthy as having for a few years been the residence of Lord Macaulay. There are some charming trees in the grounds, even yews (which are among the first to suffer from smoke) looking well; a good old mulberry and silver elms, and a camellia in a border near the wall, which often flowers out of doors, although some years the half-open buds drop off from the effects of frosty fogs.
