No house, perhaps, has more associations than Holland House. Its history has been so often written, that to go over it in detail would be superfluous. Built by Sir Walter Cope, while Elizabeth was on the throne, from the designs of Thorpe, it doubtless from the first had a good garden, as in those days great care was expended on the surroundings of a house, for people realised, as did Bacon, that, "men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening were the greater perfection." The second stage in its history, when it passed to Henry Rich, through his marriage with Sir Walter Cope's daughter and heiress, was even more eventful. He enlarged the house, which became known as Holland House after Charles I. had created him Baron Kensington and Earl of Holland. His wonderful personal charm, inherited from his mother, the "Stella" of Sir Philip Sidney, made him a general favourite; but not even his attachment to the Queen preserved him from disloyalty, although in the end he fought for the King's cause. While he was on the Parliamentary side, Holland House was often the meeting-place of its leaders. Cromwell and Ireton talked together in the centre of the field in front of the house, so that their raised voices, occasioned by Ireton's deafness, should not be overheard. For a time after the Restoration, Holland House was tenanted by various people of note, to whom it was let out in suites by the widowed Countess. One among them, the Frenchman Chardin, who became famous by his travels to Persia, it has been surmised, may have brought some of the rare plants to the garden. The connection with Addison came from his marriage with the Dowager Lady Warwick, to whom the house belonged, the second Lord Holland having succeeded his cousin as Earl of Warwick. He must have delighted in the gardens of Holland House, although they were hardly so wild as the ideal one he describes in the Spectator. There he said, "I look upon the pleasure which we take in a garden as one of the most innocent delights in human life." No doubt he found some solace in the beauties of Holland House garden to cheer the depression of the unhappiness the marriage had brought him. The brilliant days of Holland House continued after it changed hands, and was owned by Henry Fox, second son of Sir Stephen Fox, who was chiefly instrumental in starting Chelsea Hospital. Henry Fox eloped with Lady Caroline Lennox, and was afterwards created Lord Holland. He took great interest in his garden, and was advised and helped by the well-known collector and horticulturist, Peter Collinson. This friend was the means of introducing many new plants to this country-a genus Collinsonia was named after him-and he must have been pleasant and good besides, for his biographer says to him was attached "all that respect which is due to benevolence and virtue." He was in correspondence with leading men in America, and was constantly receiving seeds and plants, and his own garden contained "a more complete assortment of the orchis genus than, perhaps, had ever been seen in one collection before." No doubt some found their way to the gardens of his friend, Lord Holland. How astonished they both would be could they peep for a moment at the orchids displayed in the tents of the Horticultural Society's shows, which have been allowed to take place in the park where Cromwell conversed ? At this time the gardens must have been considerably remodelled, as the taste for the formal was waning, and the "natural" school taking its place. One of the pioneers of the natural style, Charles Hamilton, assisted the new design. His own place, Painshill, near Cobham, in Surrey, embraced all the newest ideas, groves, thickets, lakes, temples, grottos, sham ruins, and hermitages. A contemporary admirer, Wheatley, says of Painshill, it "is all a new creation; and a boldness of design, and a happiness of execution attend the wonderful efforts which art has there made to rival nature." No doubt this adept in the new art would introduce many changes. The "Green Lane" was a road shut up by Lady Holland, and Hamilton is said to have suggested turfing it. He appears to have been fond of woodland glades and turfed the shaded walks in his own creation, so it seems very likely that the idea of grass was his. In the Green Lane, Charles James Fox, son of the first Lady Holland, who closed the road, loved to walk, and still the Green Lane is one of the most attractive spots in all London. The fame of Holland House increased as time went on, and some of its most brilliant days were during the time of the third Lord Holland, when Lady Holland drew all the wit and fashion of London to her salon. Although it is no longer a country place, and though no highwaymen have to be braved to reach it, and though its surroundings are completely changed, the garden of Holland House was never more beautiful than it is to-day. It is easy to forget it is a London garden, the flowers look so clean and fresh. The long vista into the rose garden from the lawn, which lies to the north, is flanked on either side with pink roses, that pretty free-flowering Caroline Testout. To the west, overlooking the Dutch garden, the view is even more attractive, and the garden so well harmonises with the house that it is easy to picture the beaux in wigs, and ladies in hoops and powder, moving among the box-edged beds. On the south, the wide terrace shown in the sketch was made in 1848, when the footpath was altered and the entrance to the house changed to the eastern side. The stone basin in the centre was put in by the late Lord Ilchester. The hybrid water-lilies, raised by Marliac, grow well in it, and that rather delicate, but most beautiful of the Sagittarias, montevidensis has flowered there. The raised terrace on the arches of the old stables, which encloses one side of the garden and is covered with a tangle of ivy, affords a charming view over the Dutch garden. Beyond is the old ballroom, orangery and garden enclosed by arches of cut limes. A terrace runs to the south of the Dutch garden and orangery, and the Italian garden which lies here is in itself as complete a contrast to the box-edged beds of the Dutch garden as is the Japanese garden, a new addition which lies further to the north. It was near here that the fatal duel between Lord Camelford and Colonel Best took place in 1804. There is yet another small enclosed garden cut off by thick yew hedges and fat hollies from the rest. In it is the seat inscribed with lines to the poet Rogers:- "Here Rogers sat, and here forever dwell With me those Pleasures that he sings so well."
