Before we conduct the reader about the grounds and into the mansion, it will be well to give some history of the several personages through whose hands they have passed. As we have shewn in a note, the manor, during the reign of Elizabeth, became the property of Sir Walter Cope, a knight who became high in favour with her successor, James I., and who obtained, partly by grant and partly by purchase, considerable possessions in and around Kensington. By him the house, subsequently called “Holland House,” was built. His daughter, Isabella, having married Sir Henry Rich, the second son of Robert Rich, first Earl of Warwick, this Sir Robert inherited the estates in right of his wife; in 1622 he was created Baron Kensington; and in the 22d James I. was elevated to the dignity of Earl of Holland, and installed a Knight of the Garter. Having taken part with the king during the civil wars, he was tried by the Parliament, condemned to death, and beheaded on the 9th of March, 1649.[3] His lady was, however, permitted to return to Holland House, where she brought up her family, and where she was succeeded by her son, Robert, the second earl, who, in 1673, became also Earl of Warwick, by the death of Charles, the fourth earl. He was succeeded by his son, the third earl, who married Charlotte, only daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton of Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, who survived, and subsequently took for her second husband, in 1716, the renowned Joseph Addison; “but,” writes Dr. Johnson, “Holland House, although a large house, could not contain Mr. Addison, the Countess of Warwick, and one guest--Peace:” they lived on ill terms, which probably hastened the death of Addison; an event which took place in the mansion on the 17th of June, 1719.[4] Edward Henry, the fourth Earl of Holland, dying unmarried, his cousin, Edward, succeeded as fifth earl; but he dying without issue, in 1759, his honours and titles became extinct; but the family estates were inherited by William Edwardes, Esq., son of the sister of Edward, the third earl, created Baron Kensington of the kingdom of Ireland in 1776. Holland House came into the possession of the family to whom it now belongs (the family of Fox), first about the year 1762, when the Right Hon. Henry Fox, Secretary of State (soon afterwards created Lord Holland), became a tenant of the mansion, which he subsequently purchased, together with the manor, from Mr. Edwardes. Here the first Lord Holland resided until his death in 1774, and was succeeded by his son, Stephen, the second peer,[5] who died the year following, and was succeeded by his son, Richard Vassal; during whose long minority the house was let to the Earl of Roseberry and Mr. Bearcroft. On his death in 1840, he was succeeded by the present peer, Henry Edward Fox, the fourth Lord Holland.