SIZERGH HALL ---- ---- _F. W. Hulme._ CHARLTON HOUSE WILTSHIRE ---- _C. J. Richardson, F.S.A._ THE DUKE’S HOUSE ---- ---- _C. J. Richardson, F.S.A._ WESTWOOD HOUSE WORCESTERSHIRE ---- _F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A._ FOUNTAINS HALL YORKSHIRE ---- _William Richardson._ HELMSLEY HALL ---- ---- _William Richardson._ [Illustration: Day &c Son, Lithʳˢ to The Queen. ] HOLLAND HOUSE, MIDDLESEX. Holland House stands upon rising ground, a little to the north of the high-road which leads from Kensington to Hammersmith.[1] It is interesting to all passers-by, as affording a correct idea of the baronial mansions peculiar to the age of James I.; and, from its vicinity to the metropolis, its examination is easy to thousands who rarely obtain opportunities of viewing the “old houses,” with which are associated the records and pictures of English hospitality as it existed in the olden time. Although modern dwellings of all shapes and sizes have grown up about it, the house retains so much of its primitive character--its green meadows, sloping lanes, and umbrageous woods, in which still sings the nightingale; with gables and chimneys bearing tokens of a date two centuries back--that few traverse the highway without a word of comment, and a sensation of pleasure, that neither time nor caprice have yet operated to remove it from its place, or even to impair its imposing and impressive features. It is almost alone in its “old grandeur,” in a vicinity at one period crowded with ancient houses; the baronial halls have, with this exception, that of Campden House,[2] adjacent, and Kensington Palace, a comparatively recent structure, been removed, to make way for “detached villas” and streets of narrow dwellings; and there are many sad surmises that, ere long, the park, and gardens, and venerable mansion, will be also displaced, to supply building-ground for speculators in brick and mortar. This will be a grievous outrage on taste, and a sore mortification to the antiquary, and be another terrible inroad on the picturesque in a district which, within living memory, was as primitive in character as if London had been distant a hundred miles. The approach to Holland House is by an avenue of venerable elms; the entrance-gates are examples of wrought iron, remarkably elegant in design and fine in execution. Within the demesne, small although it be, all sense is lost of proximity to a great city: the close foliage completely shuts out the view of surrounding houses, and the birds are singing among the branches, as if enjoying the freedom of the forest. Yet Holland House is now enclosed on all sides--north, south, east, and west--by brick houses of all sorts and sizes, upon which it seems to look down, from its elevated position, with supreme contempt for the convenient “whimsies” of modern architects.