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