for his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter
of the Earl of Lindsey, and the Earl himself died at Campden House. The
title went to Viscount Campden's eldest son Edward, who was created Earl
of Gainsborough, and in default of male issue it afterwards reverted to
his younger brother. The house itself had been settled on another son,
Henry, who died before his father, leaving a daughter, who married
Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. Previous to this Queen (then
Princess) Anne had taken the house for five years on account of her only
surviving child, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. There are few
stories in history more pathetic than that of this poor little Prince,
the only one of Anne's seventeen children who survived infancy. With his
unnaturally large head and rickety legs, he would in these days have
been kept from all intellectual effort, and been obliged to lie down the
greater part of his time. But in that age drastic treatment was in
favour, and the already precocious child was crammed with knowledge,
while his sickly little frame was compelled to undergo rigorous
discipline. He was a boy of no small degree of character, and with
martial tastes touching in one so feeble. He died at the age of eleven
of small-pox, not at Kensington, and perhaps it was as well for him
that, with such inordinate sensibility and such a constitution, he did
not live to inherit his mother's throne. His servant Lewis, who was
devotedly attached to him, wrote a little biography of him, which is one
of the curiosities of literature.

In 1704 the Dowager-Countess of Burlington came here with her son
Richard, then only a boy, afterwards famous as an architect and art
lover. In 1719 the house was sold, and came into possession of the
Lechmere family. It did not remain with them long, but was purchased by
Stephen Pitt, who let it as a school. In 1862 it was partially destroyed
by fire. It was then bought by the Metropolitan Railway Company, who
rebuilt it, and let it to tenants. Later on a charmingly-built row of
houses and mansions rose up on its grounds to face Sheffield Terrace.
The appearance of the later house was very different from that of the
old one, and the arms mentioned by Lysons as being over a front window
had quite disappeared.

Little Campden House, on the western side, was built for the suite of
the Princess Anne, and Stephen Pitt occupied this himself when he let
Campden House. It was latterly divided into two houses; one