Chapter II: Part 2

The rest of the district eastward to Gloucester Road has no old association. St. Jude's Church, in Courtfield Gardens, was built in 1870. The reredos is of red-stained alabaster, coloured marble, and mosaics by Salviati. St. Stephen's, in Gloucester Road, is a smaller church, founded in 1866. Beyond it Gloucester Road runs into Victoria Road, once Love Lane. General Gordon was at No. 8, Victoria Grove, in 1881. Returning again to Earl's Court Road, we see St. Stephen's, another of the numerous modern churches in which the district abounds; it was built partly at the expense of the Rev. D. Claxton, and was opened in 1858. In Warwick Gardens, westward, is St. Mathias, which rivals St. Cuthbert's, in Philbeach Gardens, in the ritualism of its services. Both churches are very highly decorated. In St. Cuthbert's the interior is of great height, and the walls ornamentally worked in stone; there is a handsome oak screen, and a very fine statue of the Virgin and Child by Sir Edgar Boehm in the Lady Chapel; in both churches the seats are all free.

Edwardes Square, with its houses on the north side bordering Kensington Road, is peculiarly attractive, with a large garden in the centre, and an old-world air about its houses, which are mostly small. Leigh Hunt says that it was (traditionally) built by a Frenchman at the time of the threatened French invasion, and that so confident was this good patriot of the issue of the war that he built the square, with its large garden and small houses, to suit the promenading tastes and poorly-furnished pockets of Napoleon's officers. The name was taken from the family name of Lord Kensington.

Mrs. Inchbald stayed as a boarder at No. 4 in the square when she was sixty-five. She seems to have chosen the life for the sake of company rather than by reason of lack of means, for she was not badly off, having been always extraordinarily well paid for her work. She is described as having been above the middle height, of a freckled complexion, and with sandy hair, but nevertheless good-looking. Leigh Hunt himself was at No. 32 for some years before 1853, when he removed to Hammersmith. He mentions, on hearsay, that Coleridge once stayed in the square, but this was probably only on the occasion of a visit to friends. In recent times Walter Pater was a resident here.

Leaving aside for a time Holland House, standing in beautiful grounds, which line the northern side of the road, and turning eastward, we find the Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral, almost hidden behind houses. It is of dark-red brick, and was designed by Mr. Goldie, but the effect of the north porch is lost, owing to the buildings which hem it in; this defect will doubtless be remedied in time as leases expire. The interior of the cathedral is of great height, and the light stone arches are supported by pillars of polished Aberdeen granite.

After Abingdon Road comes Allen Street, in which there is the Kensington Independent Chapel, a great square building with an imposing portico, built in 1854, "for the worshippers in the Hornton Street Chapel." The houses at the northern end of Allen Street are called Phillimore Terrace, and here Sir David Wilkie came in the autumn of 1824, having for the previous thirteen years lived in Lower Phillimore Place. His life in Kensington was quiet and regular. He says: "I dine at two o'clock, paint two hours in the forenoon and two hours in the afternoon, and take a short walk in the Park or through the fields twice a day." His mother and sister lived with him, and though he was a bachelor, his domestic affections were very strong. The time in Phillimore Terrace was far from bright; it was while he lived here that his mother died, also two of his brothers and his sister's _fiancé_; and many other troubles, including money worries, came upon him. He eventually moved, though not far, only to Vicarage Gardens (then Place), near Church Street.

In Kensington Road, beyond Allen Street, was an ancient inn, the Adam and Eve, in which it is said that Sheridan used to stop for a drink on the way to and from Holland House, and where he ran up a bill which he coolly left to be settled by his friend Lord Holland. The inn is now replaced by a modern public-house of the same name. Between this and Wright's Lane the aspect of the place has been entirely changed in the last few years by the erection of huge red-brick flats. On the other side of Wright's Lane the enlarged premises of Messrs. Ponting have covered up the site of Scarsdale House, which only disappeared to make way for them. Scarsdale House is supposed to have been built by one of the Earls of Scarsdale (first creation), the second of whom married Lady Frances Rich, eldest daughter of the Earl of Warwick and Holland, but there is not much evidence to support this conjecture. At the same time, the house was evidently much older than the date of the second Scarsdale creation--namely, 1761. The difficulty is surmounted by Mr. Loftie, who says: "John Curzon, who founded it, and called it after the home of his ancestors in Derbyshire, had bought the land for the purpose of building on it."

At the end of this lane is the Home for Crippled Boys, established in Woolsthorpe House. The house was evidently named after the home of Sir Isaac Newton at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham. But apparently he never lived in it. His only connection with this part is that here stood "a batch of good old family houses, one of which belonged to Sir Isaac Newton." It is possible that the name was given by an enthusiastic admirer, moved thereto by the fact that Newton had lived in Bullingham House, Church Street, not so far distant.

In the 1837 map of the district Woolsthorpe is marked "Carmaerthen House." The front and the entrance are old, and in one of the rooms there is decorative moulding on the ceiling and a carved mantelpiece, but the schoolrooms and workshops built out at the back are all modern. The home had a very small beginning, being founded in 1866 by Dr. Bibby, who rented one room, and took in three crippled boys.

In Marloes Road, further south, are the workhouse and infirmary.

Returning to the High Street, the Free Library and the Town Hall attract attention. The latter is nearly on the site of the old free schools, which were built by Sir John Vanbrugh with all the solidity characteristic of his style; and Leigh Hunt opined, if suffered to remain, they would probably outlast the whole of Kensington. However, no such misfortune occurred, and the only relics of them remaining are the figures of the charity children of Queen Anne's period, which now stand above the doorway of the new schools at the back of the Town Hall.

William Cobbett, "essayist, politician, agriculturist," lived in a house on the site of some of the great shops on the south side of the High Street, opposite the Town Hall. His grounds bordered on those of Scarsdale House, and he established in them a seed garden in which to carry out his practical experiments in agriculture. His pugnacity and sharp tongue led him into many a quarrel, and he was never a favourite with those who were his neighbours. He advocated Queen Caroline's cause with warmth, and was the real author of her famous letter to the King. But he will always be remembered best by his _Weekly Register_, a potent political weapon.

The parish church of St. Mary Abbots, with its high spire, forms a very striking object on the north side of the road. There is a stone porch over the entrance to the churchyard, and a picturesque cloistered passage leading round the south side. Within the cloister is a tablet commemorating the fact that it was partly built by Rev. E. C. Glyn and his wife in memory of his mother, who died in 1892. A little further on, immediately facing the south door, is another tablet, stating that the porch at the entrance to the cloister was erected by the widow of James Liddle Fairless in memory of her husband, who died in 1891. Within the church the walls are thickly covered with memorial tablets, and on the north and south walls are rows of them set in coloured marble. The reredos is a representation of the four evangelists in mosaic work in four panels, enclosed in a Gothic canopy of marble. On the north side of the chancel is a fresco painting enclosed in marble, presented by the Archbishop of York on leaving the parish. On the south side there is also a small fresco painting, but the greater part of the wall is occupied by the sedilia. The transept on the south side of the nave contains numerous memorial tablets and two brasses: nearly all of these belong to the eighteenth century. The monument of the Rich family is against the west wall in this transept, and is a conspicuous object. A large marble slab against the wall bears the name of Edward Rich, last Earl of Warwick and Holland (died 1759), his wife Mary, who survived him ten years, and their only child Charlotte, who died unmarried. Above are the names of the Rich family, and below is the statue of the young Earl of Warwick and Holland, the stepson of Addison, who died in 1721, aged twenty-four. He is in Roman dress, life-size, and is represented seated with his right elbow resting on an urn.

On the further side of the south door we have a curious old white marble monument to the memory of Mr. Colin Campbell (died 1708). This was in the old church, and was placed in its present position by a descendant of the Campbell family. The font, a handsome marble basin, stands in the north aisle. Near it is a marble bust of Dr. Rennell, a former vicar of Kensington, by Chantrey. In the north chapel there is a large marble tablet to the memory of William Murray, third son of the Earl of Dunmore. The pulpit is of dark carved oak, and stood in the old church. The west porch is very handsomely ornamented with stonework. In the churchyard are buried several persons of note, including Mrs. Inchbald, the authoress; and a son of George Canning, whose monument is by Chantrey.

Among other entries in the registers may be noticed the marriage of Henry Cromwell, already mentioned. There are many records of the Hicks (Campden) family, also of the Winchilsea and Nottingham, Lawrence, Cecil, Boyle, Howard of Effingham, Brydges, Dukes of Chandos, Molesworth, and Godolphin families. The plate belonging to the church is very valuable. The oldest piece is a cup dating from 1599, and a silver tankard is of the year 1619. A full description of the plate was given by Mr. Cripps in the parish magazine in 1879.

The church owes its additional name of Abbots to the fact of its having belonged to the Abbot and convent of Abingdon, as set forth in the history of the parish. Bowack says: "It does not appear that this church was ever dedicated to any saint, nor can we find, after a very strict search, by whom it was founded, though we have traced its vicars up to the year 1260."

It has already been explained that Aubrey de Vere made a present to the Abbot of the slice of land on which the church stands, and that this formed a secondary manor in Kensington. This transfer had been made with the consent of Pope Alexander, but without the consent of the Bishop of London or the Archbishop. In consequence of this omission the title of the Abbey to the land was disputed, and it was at length settled that the patronage of the vicarage should be vested in the Bishop. This was in 1260. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbot's portion became vested in the Crown, from which it passed to various persons; and when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor a special arrangement had to be made with Robert Horseman, who was then in possession.

So much for the history. The actual fabric has been subject to much change, and has been rebuilt many times. It is known that a church was standing on this site in 1102, but how old it was then is only matter for conjecture; in 1370 it was wholly or partly rebuilt. And this church was pulled down about 1694, with the exception of the tower, and again rebuilt; but in seven years the new building began to crack, and in 1704 the roof was taken off, and the north and south walls once more rebuilt. After this Bowack describes it as "of brick and handsomely finished; but what it was formerly may be guessed by the old tower now standing, which has some appearance of antiquity, and looks like the architecture of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries." In his encomium he probably spoke more in accordance with convention than with real approbation, for this church has been described by many other independent persons as an unsightly building, with no architectural beauty whatever; and as far as may be gathered from the prints still extant this is the true judgment. In 1811 it showed signs of decay, and underwent thorough restoration; and in 1869 it was entirely demolished, and the present church built from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott. The spire, added a few years later, is only exceeded by two in England--namely, those of Salisbury and Norwich Cathedrals.

There are many parish charities, which it would be out of place to enumerate here, and among them are several bequests for the cleansing and repair of tombs.

The fine shops on the south side of the street inherit a more ancient title than might be supposed. Bowack, writing in 1705, speaks of the "abundance of shopkeepers and all sorts of artificers" along the high-road, "which makes it appear rather like a part of London than a country village."

Leaving aside for the time Church Street and all the interesting district on the north, we turn to Kensington Square, which was begun about the end of James II.'s reign, and from the very first was a notably fashionable place, and more especially so after the Court was established at Kensington Palace. In Queen Anne's reign, "for beauty of buildings and worthy inhabitants," it "exceeds several noted squares in London." The eminent inhabitants have indeed been so numerous that it is difficult to prevent any account of them from degenerating into a mere catalogue. "In the time of George II. the demand for lodgings was so great that an Ambassador, a Bishop, and a physician were known to occupy apartments in the same house" (Faulkner).

The two houses, Nos. 10 and 11, in the eastern corner on the south side are the two oldest that look on to the square. They were reserved for the maids of honour when the Court was at Kensington, and the wainscoted rooms and little powdering closets speak volumes as to their bygone days; these two were originally one house, as the exterior shows. Next door is the women's department of King's College. J. R. Green, the historian, lived at No. 14 until his death, and in No. 18 John S. Mill was living in 1839. Three Bishops at least are known to have been domiciled in the square: Bishop Mawson of Ely, who died here in 1770; Bishop Herring of Bangor, a very notable prelate, who was afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; and in the south-western corner Bishop Hough of Oxford, Lichfield, and Worcester had a fine old house until 1732. The Convent of the Assumption now covers the same ground in Nos. 20 to 24. The original object of the convent was prayer for the conversion of England to the Roman Catholic faith, but the sisters now devote themselves to the work of teaching; they have a pleasant garden, more than an acre in extent, stretching out at the back of the house. In the chapel there is a fresco painting by Westlake.

No. 26 is the Kensington Foundation Grammar School. Talleyrand lived in Nos. 36 and 37, formerly one house. He succeeded Bishop Herring in the occupancy, after a lapse of fifty years, and the man who had abandoned the vocation of the Church to follow diplomacy was thus sheltered by the same roof that had sheltered a Churchman by vocation, if ever there were one. Many foreign ambassadors patronized the square at various times. The Duchess of Mazarin, already mentioned in the volume on Chelsea, was here in 1692, and six years later moved to her Chelsea home, where she died; but her day was over many years before she came here. Joseph Addison lodged in the square for a time, four or five years before his marriage with the Countess of Warwick. At No. 41 Sir Edward Burne-Jones lived for three years, subsequently removing to West Kensington, but the association which has most glorified the square is its proximity to Young Street, so long the home of Thackeray. He came to No. 16, then 13, in 1846, aged only thirty-five, but with the romance of his life behind him. A tablet marks the window in which he used to work. Six years previously his wife, whom he had tenderly loved, had developed melancholia, and, soon becoming a confirmed invalid, had had to be placed permanently under medical care. Their married life had been very short, only four or five years, but Thackeray had three little daughters to remind him of it. He had passed through many vicissitudes, from the comparatively opulent days of youth and the University to the time when he had lost all his patrimony and been forced to support himself precariously by pen and pencil. Yearly he had become better known, and by the time he came to Young Street he was sufficiently removed from money troubles to be without that worst form of worry, anxiety for the future. He had contributed to the _Times_, _Frazer's Magazine_, and _Punch_. It is rather odd to read that at the time when _Punch_ was started one of Thackeray's friends was rather sorry that he should become a contributor, fearing that it would lower his status in the literary world! It was in _Punch_, nevertheless, that his first real triumph was won. The "Snob Papers" attracted universal attention, and were still running when he moved to Young Street. Here he began more serious work, and scarcely a year later "Vanity Fair" was brought out in numbers, according to the fashion made popular by Dickens. It did not prove an instantaneous success, but by the time it had run its course its author's position was assured. In spite of the sorrow that overshadowed his domestic life--and he had by this time for many years given up any hope of communicating with his wife--the time he spent in this house cannot have been unhappy. He had congenial work, many friends, among whom were numbered his fellow contributor Leech, also G. F. Watts, Herman Merivale, the Theodore Martins, Monckton Milnes, Kinglake, and others. He had also his daughters, and he was a loving and sympathetic father, realizing that children need brightness in their lives as well as mere care, and taking his little family about whenever he could to parties and shows; and he had a growing reputation in the literary world. "Pendennis" was published in 1848, and before it had finished running Thackeray suffered from a severe illness, that left its mark on all his succeeding life.

It was after this that Miss Brontë came to dine with him in Young Street. She had admired "Vanity Fair" immensely, and was ready to offer hero-worship; but the sensitive, dull little governess did not reveal in society the fire that had made her books live, and we are told that Thackeray, although her host, found the dinner so dull that he slipped away to his club before she left. He had now a good income from his books, and added to it by lecturing. "Esmond" appeared in 1852, and the references to my Lady Castlewood's house in Kensington Square and the Greyhound tavern (the name of the inn opposite to Thackeray's own house) will be remembered by everyone. The novelist visited America shortly after, and then went with his children to Switzerland, and it was in Switzerland that the idea for "The Newcomes" came to him. Young Street can only claim a part of that book, for in 1853 he moved to Onslow Square, and the last number of "The Newcomes" did not appear until 1855. However, this was not his last connection with this part of Kensington, for in 1861 he built himself a house in Palace Green, but he only occupied it for two years, when his death occurred at the early age of fifty-two.

The houses in Kensington Court, near by, are elaborately decorated with ornamental terra-cotta mouldings. They stand just about the place where once was Kensington House, which had something of a history. It was for a while the residence of the Duchess of Portsmouth (Louise de Querouaille), and later was the school of Dr. Elphinstone, referred to in Boswell's "Life of Johnson," and supposed, on the very slightest grounds, to have been the original of one of Smollett's brutal schoolmasters in "Roderick Random"; though the driest of pedagogues, Elphinstone was the reverse of brutal. The house was subsequently a Roman Catholic seminary, and then a boarding-house, where Mrs. Inchbald lodged, and in which she died in 1821.

Close by was another old house, made notorious by its owner's miserliness; this man, Sir Thomas Colby, died intestate, and his fortune of £200,000 was divided among six or seven day labourers, who were his next of kin. A new Kensington House was built on the site of these two, and is said to have cost £250,000, but its owner got into difficulties, and eventually the costly house was pulled down, and its fittings sold for a twentieth part of their value. Near at hand are De Vere Gardens, to which Robert Browning came in June, 1887, from Warwick Crescent.

Further eastward we come to Palace Gate. Some of this property belongs to the local charities. It is known as Butts Field Estate, and was so called from the fact that the butts for archery practice were once set up here.

KENSINGTON GARDENS AND PALACE.

The Gardens are so intimately connected with the Palace that it is impossible to touch upon the one without the other, and though Leigh Hunt caustically remarked that a criticism might be made on Kensington that it has "a Palace which is no palace, Gardens which are no gardens, and a river called the Serpentine which is neither serpentine nor a river," yet in spite of this the Palace, the Gardens, and the river annually give pleasure to thousands, and possess attractions of their own by no means despicable. The flower-beds in the gardens nearest to Kensington Road are beautiful enough in themselves to justify the title of gardens. This is the quarter most patronized by nursemaids and their charges. There are shady narrow paths, also the Broad Walk, with its leafy overarching boughs resembling one of Nature's aisles, and the Round Pond, pleasant in spite of its primness. The Gardens were not always open to the public, but partly belonged to the palace of time-soiled bricks to which the public is now also admitted.

The first house on this site of which we have any reliable detail is that built by Sir Heneage Finch, the second of the name, who was Lord Chancellor under Charles I. and was created Earl of Nottingham in 1681, though it is probable that there had been some building on or near the same place before, possibly the manor-house of the Abbot. The first Earl of Nottingham had bought the estate from his younger brother, Sir John, and it was from his successor, the second earl, that William III. bought Nottingham House, as it was then called.

William suffered much from asthma, and the gravel pits of Kensington were then considered very healthy, and combined the advantages of not being very far from town with the pure air of the country. Of course, the house had to be enlarged in order to be suitable for a royal residence, but it was not altogether demolished, and there are parts of the original Nottingham House still standing, probably the south side of the courtyard, where the brick is of a deeper shade than the rest. King William's taste in the matter of architecture knew no deviation; his model was Versailles, and as he had commissioned Wren to transform the Tudor building of Hampton into a palace resembling Versailles, so he directed him to repeat the experiment here. The long, low red walls, with their neat exactitude, speak still of William's orders; a building of heterogeneous growth, with a tower here and an angle there, would have disgusted him: his ideal would have found its fulfilment in a modern barrack. Wren's taste, later aided by the lapse of time, softened down the hard angularity of the building, but it can in no sense be considered admirable. Thus Kensington Palace was built, and its walls and its park like gardens were to be as closely associated with the Hanoverian Sovereigns as the building and park of St. James's had been associated with the Stuarts whom William had supplanted.

The Palace was not finished when Queen Mary was seized with small-pox and died within its walls, leaving a husband who, though narrow and austere, had really loved her. He himself died at Kensington eight years later. Good-hearted Queen Anne, whose last surviving child had died two years before, took up her residence at the Palace, of which she was always extremely fond. The death of her husband in 1708 left her to a lonely reign, and she seems to have solaced herself with her garden, superintending the laying out of the grounds. She had no taste, and everything she ordered was dull and formal; yet she could not spoil the natural beauty of the situation, and she still had Wren to direct her in architectural matters. The great orangery which goes by her name, and now stands empty and forlorn, is seen on nearing the public entrance to the state apartments of the Palace, and is in itself a wonderful example of Wren's genius for proportion. The private gardens of the Palace must not be confounded with the larger grounds, which stretched up to Hyde Park. The whole place had a very different aspect at that time: there were King William's gardens, with formal flower-beds and walks in the Dutch style, and northward lay Queen Anne's additional gardens, very much in the same style. The rest was comparatively uncared-for and waste. Queen Anne died at Kensington from apoplexy, brought on by over-eating, and was succeeded by the first George, who spent so much of his time in visiting his Hanoverian dominions that he had not much left for performing the merely necessary Court duties at St. James's, and none to spare for any lengthy visits to Kensington. However, he admired the place, and caused alterations to be made. It was in his reign that the ugly annexe on the east side, bearing unmistakably a Georgian origin, was added, under the superintendence of William Kent, who had supplanted Wren. George's daughter-in-law, "Caroline the Illustrious," loved Kensington, and has left her impress on it more than any other occupant. When her husband came to the throne, she spent much of her time, during his long absences abroad, at the Palace. She employed Kent to do away with William's formal flower-beds, and she added much ground to the Gardens, taking for the purpose 100 acres from Hyde Park, and dividing the two parks by the Serpentine River, formed from the pools in the bed of the Westbourne. There were eleven pools altogether, but in later days, when the Westbourne stream had become a mere sewer, in which form it still flows underground and empties itself into the Thames near Chelsea Bridge, the Chelsea waterworks supplied the running water. The elaborate terrace, with its fountains at the north end, is a favourite place with children. The statue of Sir William Jenner stands near; it was brought from Trafalgar Square. In winter, when frozen over, the Serpentine affords skating-room for hundreds of persons, and at other times bathing is permitted in the early morning.

In her gardens the fair Queen walked with her bevy of maids of honour, that bevy which has always been renowned for its beauty, herself the fairest of all. These fascinating, light-hearted girls grew up in an age of coarseness and vice, and were surrounded by temptation, which all, alas! did not resist, in spite of their royal mistress's example and courage. It was an age of meaningless gallantry and real brutality; the high-flown compliment and pretended adoration covered cynical intention and unabashed effrontery. Caroline herself preserved an untainted name, and her influence must have been a rock of salvation to the giddy, laughing girls. Leigh Hunt, quoting from the "Suffolk Correspondence," thus summarizes these maids: "There is Miss Hobart, the sweet tempered and sincere (now become Mrs. Howard, afterwards Lady Suffolk); Miss Howe, the giddiest of the giddy (which she lived to lament); Margaret Bellenden, who vied in height with her royal mistress; the beautiful Mary Bellenden, her sister, who became Duchess of Argyll; Mary Lepel, the lovely, who became Lady Hervey; and Anne Pitt, sister of the future Lord Chatham, and as 'like him as two drops of fire.'"

Caroline's devotion to her insignificant little lord and master, and the eagerness with which she hastened on foot to meet him, running across the Gardens, on his return from the Continent, have been made the subject of satire. She was generally accompanied by her five daughters, a pathetic little band, cramped in the fetters of royalty, so stringent toward their sex. Portraits of two of them may be seen in the Palace.

Caroline did not die at Kensington, though her husband did, after having survived her more than twenty years, and having in the meantime discovered her inestimable worth. At this time the Gardens were open to the public on Saturdays by Queen Caroline's orders, and were a favourite parade, though, as everyone was requested to appear in "full dress," the numbers must have been limited. The principal promenade was the Broad Walk, which Caroline herself had caused to be made. We can picture these ghosts of the past, with their gay silks and satins, the silver-buckled shoes with coloured heels, the men in their long waistcoats, heavily skirted coats, and three-cornered hats--very fine beaux, indeed; and the women stiffly encased in the most uncomfortable garments that ever the wit of mortal devised, holding their heads erect, lest the marvellous pyramids, built up with such expenditure of time and money, should topple over, and, in spite of all disadvantages, looking pretty and piquant. It was a crowd not so far removed from us by time, so that we can attribute to the men and women who composed it the same feelings and sensibilities as our own. And yet they were very far removed from us in their surroundings, for many of the things that are to us commonplace would have been to them miraculous, so that they seem more different from us of a hundred years later than from those who preceded them by many hundreds of years. It is this mingling of a life we can understand, with circumstances so different, that gives the eighteenth century its predominant and never-dying charm.

In 1798 we hear of a man being accidentally shot while the keepers were hunting (presumably shooting) foxes in Kensington Gardens.

In the Palace itself the state apartments are now open to the public every day of the week except Wednesdays. This admittance was granted by Queen Victoria in commemoration of her eightieth year. Previously to this time the Palace had been allowed to fall into decay, and it needed a large grant from Parliament to put it into repair again. The state rooms, which are on the second floor, are well worth a visit, and the names of each, such as "Queen Mary's Gallery," "Queen Caroline's Drawing-room," and "King's Privy Chamber," are above the doors, as at Hampton Court. These rooms are nearly all liberally supplied with pictures, many of which were restored from Hampton Court after having been previously taken there. We see here the winsome face of the poor little Duke of Gloucester (p. 72), handsome Queen Caroline, sardonic William, and the family group of the children of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The selection has been made with judgment, and every picture speaks to us of the reigns most closely connected with the Palace. It is well to note the view eastward from the King's Drawing-room, which comes as a surprise. The outlook is over the Round Pond and down a vista of trees to the Serpentine, and gives a surprising effect of distance. The rooms that will always attract most attention, however, are those which were occupied by Queen Victoria as a child.

When the Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Kensington Palace seven months after their marriage, the fact that a child of theirs might occupy the English throne was a possibility, but a remote one. George III. was then on the throne; the daughter and only child of his eldest son, Princess Charlotte, had died a year previously, and it was natural that after this event the succession should be considered in a new light. The next son, William, Duke of Clarence, had carried on a lifelong connection with Mrs. Jordan, by whom he had ten children, and when the death of his elder brother's only child made him heir to the throne, it was necessary for him to contract a more suitable alliance, so with great reluctance he married Adelaide, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen, in 1818. Frederick, Duke of York, the next in age, had been married for many years, but his union had proved childless. He is the Duke commemorated in the column in Waterloo Place, and also in the soldier-boys' school at Chelsea.

Therefore the birth of a daughter to the Duke of Kent, the fourth son, at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, was an event of no small importance. The room in which the Princess was born was one on the first floor, just below the King's Privy Chamber, and it is marked by a brass plate. This is not among the state apartments shown to the public, but the little room called the Nursery, in which the young Princess played, and her small bedroom adjoining, lie in the regular circuit made by visitors through the rooms.

The Duke died less than a year after his daughter's birth, so there were no small brothers or sisters to share the Princess's childhood; but her stepsister, Princess Feodore, her mother's child, was much attached to her, and might often be seen walking or driving with her in the Gardens. The Nursery has a secondary association, for the Duke and Duchess of Teck lived for some time at Kensington Palace, and it was in this room that their daughter, the present Princess of Wales, was born.

The chief objects in the room are the dolls' house and other toys, all of the plainest description, with which Princess Victoria played as a child. There was no extravagance in her bringing up. Her mother was the wisest of women, and made no attempt to force the young intellect to tasks beyond its powers, nor did she spoil the child by undue indulgence. Early rising, morning walks, simple dinner, and games, constituted the days that passed rapidly in the seclusion of Kensington. When the young Princess had turned the age of five, her lessons began under the superintendence of Fräulein Lehzen, the governess of Princess Feodore, who was afterwards raised to the peerage as Baroness Lehzen. Though the second of the children of the Duke of Clarence had died before Victoria was three years old, and thus her chance of the throne was greatly increased, she was not made aware of her prospects until much later. The Princess Sophia, daughter of George III., lived in Church Street close by, at York House, and the Duke of Sussex, a younger son of George III., lived with his morganatic wife, called the Duchess of Inverness, in a set of apartments in the Palace. The rooms they occupied are those now tenanted by the Duke and Duchess of Argyll; thus aunts and an uncle were constantly sharing the simple pleasures of the little family circle.

The singularly plain little bedroom near to the Nursery in the Palace is that which Princess Victoria occupied during all her happy childhood, and it was here that she was awakened to meet the Archbishop and Minister who brought her the news that her great inheritance had come upon her. The death of the Duke of York had already cleared the way to the throne, and as the years went by and the Duke of Clarence had no more children, it was seen that the little girl who played at Kensington must, if she lived, be Queen of England. When George IV. died, when she was eleven years old, her prospects were assured, and since that time she had been prepared for her future position. William IV.'s short reign of only seven years seated her on the throne when she had just passed her eighteenth year. The account of her being awakened in the early morning by messengers bearing a message of such tremendous import, her hasty rising, and stepping through into the Long Gallery with her hair falling over her shoulders, and only a shawl thrown around her, is well known to everyone.

The room in which her first Council took place is below the Cube Room. No wonder that Queen Victoria had always a tender memory of Kensington Palace.

Her favourite daughter, Princess Beatrice of Battenberg, occupies a suite of rooms at the Palace, besides Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll; and there are several other occupants--widows, retired army men, and those who have some claim on the private generosity of the Crown--who live here in sets of apartments, in the same way as others live at Hampton Court.

The somewhat untidy forcing-beds which now stand in the immediate proximity to the Palace, and which supply the royal parks, are shortly to be cleared away--a decided improvement.

Queen Victoria's connection with Kensington did not cease at her accession. At Prince Albert's suggestion a great Exhibition was held in 1851, and the huge palace of glass and iron, which was to house it, sprang up in the Gardens at the spot where the Albert Memorial now stands. Foreigners from all parts of the world visited the Exhibition, and the buildings were crowded. Very different was that crowd from that which had promenaded in the Gardens in the reigns of the Georges. Women wore coalscuttle bonnets and three-cornered shawls, with the points hanging down in the centre of their backs, and crinolines that gave them the appearance of inverted tops. Their beauty must have been very potent to shine through such a disguise! The profits of the Exhibition amounted to £150,000, which was invested in land in South Kensington. The Crystal Palace exactly suited the taste of the age, and when it had fulfilled the function for which it was primarily intended, the difficulty was to know what to do with it; it was not possible to leave it in the Gardens, so it was finally transported to Sydenham, where it still annually delights thousands.

The Albert Memorial took twenty years to complete, and cost more than £130,000. The four groups representing the continents of the world are fine both in execution and idea, also the bas-reliefs, in which every figure depicts some real person, and the smaller groups of Commerce, Manufactures, Agriculture, and Engineering. As much, unfortunately, cannot be said for the tawdry statue in its canopy.

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.