Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/723

 KINGSTON HUNDRED

��with some solid material, apparently flint, and all coated with cement. A later but very interesting house is that in which Mrs. Fitzherbert lived, No. 3 The Terrace, on the hill above the Terrace Gardens and commanding a beautiful view across the Surrey hills. It was built by one of the brothers Adam in the time of George III, and is one of the finest examples of their work. The staircase has wrought- iron balustrading and a black-wood hand-rail ; the ceilings of the two rooms on the ground floor and the drawing-room and front bed-room on the first floor are all richly decorated ; the fireplaces are of marble, that of the drawing-room being a fine one of white marble with some carved figures in low relief. The iron grill to the front doorway and the iron railing in front of the house are also of good design. The house is now occupied by Mrs. Aldin.

By the side of the Trumpeting House, referred to above, is Queensberry House, a modern mansion built in the grounds of an older one called Cholmondeley House, which was erected at the beginning of the 1 8th century by George, third Earl of Cholmondeley. It afterwards came into the possession of the Earl of Warwick and subsequently passed to Sir Richard Lyttelton, from whom John Earl Spencer purchased it for his mother the Countess Cowper. After her death in 1780 "' it was bought by the Duke of Queensberry, during whose ownership it was the scene of great gaiety. At a later date it was occupied by the Marquess of Hertford ; but in 1830, after some years of neglect, it was pulled down with the excep- tion of a few arches which still remain. The present house, which was built in 1831, is the residence of Mr. Geoffrey de TrafFord. The next two houses higher up the river are called Cholmondeley Lodge and Cholmondeley Cottage. These look down upon the picturesque embankment called Cholmondeley Walk. Above it another walk called Waterside is overlooked by the modern St. Helena Terrace, and higher up are the gardens of Heron, once Herring, Court, which now occupy the site of the old Royal Hotel. One of these houses is the residence of Gen. Sir Harry Prendergast, K.C.B., V.C., R.E. There are some interesting houses near and above the bridge. One of them, originally Camborne House, but now called Northumberland House after Eleanor Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, who lived here in recent years, is let to the Richmond Club. Bridge House was built by Sir Robert Taylor about the same time as Asgill House. Ivy Hall was a residence of William IV when Duke of Clarence, and Gothic House was occupied for a short time by Madame de Stafil. Bingham Villa, named after Lady Anne Bingham, who lived there, stands on the site of a small inn called the ' Blue Anchor.' Higher up the river is the charmingly situated Buccleuch House, once called Montagu Villa, which was built for George Duke of Montagu, and passed on his death in 1 790 to his son-in-law the Duke of Buccleuch. 10 A magnificent fte was given here by the fifth duke in 1842 in honour of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort. A museum belonging to the house, which stands on the other side of Petersham Road, is connected with it by a subterranean passage. Buccleuch House and grounds and the grounds of Lansdowne House, 1 " which stood on the hill above

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the river, were afterwards united and the estate sold to the Richmond Vestry in 1886. The greater part of the gardens are beautifully laid out as a pleasure ground called the Terrace Gardens, which were opened to the public by the late Duchess of Teck, representing Queen Victoria, the lady of the manor, in 1887. Buccleuch House itself and part of the grounds were sold by the vestry to Sir Whittaker Ellis, to whom they still belong. Beyond this house stands Devonshire Lodge, formerly the Wilderness Club, which was built after the demolition of Devonshire Cottage, so named after the celebrated beauty Geor- giana Duchess of Devonshire who lived there. Above the river, on the slope which reaches to the Terrace, is the Mansion Hotel, which occupies the site of Nightingale Hall, formerly the abode of the Ladies Ashburnham. On the Terrace itself are two houses, one called The Wick, on the site of the old Bull's Head Tavern, and the other Wick House, built for Sir Joshua Reynolds, who here entertained many royal and aristocratic sitters as well as numerous literary friends. Among the houses opposite the Terrace are Downs House, once the residence of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and later of the twenty-fifth Earl of Craw- ford, author of the Lives of the Lindsays. A large house which afterwards became the Queen's Hotel was at one time occupied by the Countess of Mans- field, who died in 1843."* Doughty House is the residence of Sir Frederick Cook, bart., and the one next to it was occupied by Rhoda Broughton. Terrace House is owned by Sir Max Waechter, D.L., J.P. Next to the park gates is Ancaster House, named after the Duke of Ancaster, who sold it to Sir Lionel Darell, a favourite of George III. Opposite to this, overlooking the river, is the famous Star and Garter Hotel, which will always be associated with Richmond, although nearly the whole of it is actually in the parish of Petersham. Originally built in 1738, it acquired its great reputation during the I gth century, when it was a favourite resort of the fashionable world. In the centre of the cross-roads at the top of the hill there is a drinking fountain that was erected a few years ago by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Many other noteworthy houses in different parts of the parish might be enumerated if space permitted. Among them are four of red brick facing the Green, known as Maids of Honour Row, which were built in the reign of George I. In one of these the late Sir Richard Burton lived when a boy. Lichfield House in Sheen Road, so called after the bishop who once resided there, is now occupied by Mrs. Maxwell (Miss Braddon) and her son Mr. W. B. Maxwell. Spring Grove in the lower part of Queen's Road is the residence of Sir Charles Rugge- Price, bart., D.L., J.P. It was built by the Mar- quess of Lothian in the early part of the 1 8th century and was purchased by the grandfather of the present owner in 1797. At No. 8 Parkshot, near the station, now the offices of the Richmond Board of Guardians, 'George Eliot 'lived from 1855 to 1859 in lodgings that have since been pulled down. Here she wrote Scenes of Clerical Life an& part of Adam Bede, and here also she and George Lewes were visited by Herbert Spencer and other friends. Abercorn House is now used as a residence by H.M. the King of Portugal.

��14a G.E.C. Pttrage, ii, 395. > Ibid. V, 344-5-

��144 Lansdowne House belonged to the Marquess of Lansdowne, but was pulled down about 1865.

539

��144 G.E.C. Ptiragt, V, *I5.

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