irregular oblong, extending from Kensington Road
on the south very nearly to Holland Park Road on the north. Its average
length is little more than a mile, and it varies from five-eighths of a
mile in its widest part to a quarter of a mile in the narrowest.

In the summary of the history of Kensington, at the beginning of the
book, it was mentioned that when Sir Walter Cope bought the manor at the
end of the sixteenth century, Robert Horseman had the lease of the
Abbot's manor-house, and being unwilling to part with it, he made a
compromise by which he was to be still permitted to live there. Sir
Walter Cope had, therefore, no suitable manor-house, so in 1607 he built
Holland House, which at first went by the name of Cope Castle. He died
seven years later, leaving his widow in possession, but on her
re-marriage, in another seven years, the house came to Cope's daughter
Isabel, who had married Sir Henry Rich. He was created Lord Kensington a
year later, and in 1624 made Earl of Holland. He added considerably to
the house, which was henceforth known by his name. Holland was a younger
son of the Earl of Warwick, and after his execution for having taken
arms in the cause of Charles I., this title descended, through lack of
heirs in the elder branch, to his son, as well as that of Earl of
Holland.

The house was seized by the Commonwealth, and the Parliamentary
Generals, Fairfax and Lambert, lived there. Timbs quotes from the
_Perfect Diurnal_, July 9 to 16, 1649: "The Lord-General Fairfax is
removed from Queen Street to the late Earl of Holland's house at
Kensington, where he intends to reside." The house was restored to its
rightful owners at the Restoration. The widowed Countess seems later to
have let it, for there were several notable tenants, among whom was Sir
Charles Chardin, the traveller, who went to Persia with the avowed
intention of seeking a fortune, which he certainly gained, in addition
to unexpected celebrity. He died in 1735, and is buried at Chiswick.
Afterwards, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a tenant of
Holland House; the name of Van Dyck has also been mentioned in this
connection, but there is not sufficient evidence to make it more than a
tradition.

Joseph Addison married the widow of the sixth Earl of Holland and
Warwick in 1716. He was an old family friend and had known her long, yet
the experiment did not turn out satisfactorily. The Countess was
something of a termagant, and it