The estate continued in the possession of his kinsman, Philip Stanhope, Esq.,[291] son of Arthur Stanhope, deceased, lineally descended from the first Earl of Chesterfield, who succeeded to his titles and estates, till 1807, when, having obtained an Act of Parliament for selling this and several estates, it was jointly purchased by four gentlemen resident at Hampstead,[292] who in the next year divided the estate, containing about 234 acres, into four allotments. On this partition the mansion of Belsize devolved to James Abel, Esq., the proprietor when Park published his ‘History of Hampstead.’ When Mr. Povey, a retired coal-merchant, entered upon his occupation of Belsize House, he very soon found his possession a white elephant. A man of many grievances against the Whig Government, he strove to avenge them by publishing a violent pamphlet entitled ‘England’s Inquisition; or Money raised by New, Secret, Extinct Law, without Act of Parliament.’ He complained of a series of unjust extortions and persecutions practised upon his person, property, and estate by Commissioners of Excise and others, and enumerates amongst other services and sacrifices he claims to have made for his country, and which had been ungratefully overlooked by those in power, his having refused to let Belsize House to the Duc d’Aumont, the French Ambassador, who had offered him £1,000 per annum for the use of it during his residence in England, being resolved that the _new_ chapel attached to the mansion should not be used as a ‘mass-house.’ Subsequently, in the profoundness of his patriotism, he had made an offer of Belsize to the Prince of Wales, as an occasional retirement or as a constant residence. But though he had taken care to inform the Prince of the tempting offer he had had, and of his self-sacrifice in refusing it for conscience’ sake, his future King (George II.), with scant courtesy, never even honoured him with an answer, though he ‘waited in expectation of it, and kept the mansion house and park unlet for a considerable time.’ In the meanwhile, as I have elsewhere said, Hampstead, under the magisterial rule of Hicks’s Hall, and subjected to the inquisition of the Head-boroughs and their men at unexpected moments, sank rapidly in the affections of the populace. The time for a new place of entertainment was ripe, and Mr. Povey in despair, when one Howell, who appears to have been the Barnum of his day, conceived the idea of converting Belsize House, with its spacious park and beautiful gardens, into a place of amusement for the public on a more than usually magnificent scale. He made his offer, which, after two years of Belsize unlet, Mr. Povey accepted, and one can imagine the disgust society people must have felt on the appearance of the following announcement in _Mist’s Journal_ of April 16, 1720: