is said that to escape from her he
often went to the White Horse inn at the corner of Lord Holland's Lane
and there enjoyed "his favourite dish--a fillet of veal--his bottle, and
perhaps a friend." His married life was of very short duration, only
three years, but his brief residence at Holland House has added to its
associations more richly than all the names of preceding times. Addison
had attempted from the first to influence the young Earl, whose
stepfather he became, and some of his letters to the youth are
singularly charming, but his care seems to have been ill-requited, and
the famous death-bed scene, in which the man of letters sent for the
dissolute young Earl to "see how a Christian can die," was as much in
the nature of a rebuke as a warning. Addison left only one daughter, who
died unmarried. The last earl died in 1759, leaving no male heir, and
the title became extinct.

Through an Elizabeth Rich, who had married Francis Edwardes, the estates
passed into the Edwardes family, by whom they were sold to Henry Fox,
second son of Sir Stephen Fox, Paymaster-General of the Forces in the
reign of Charles II., through whose exertions it was in great part that
Chelsea Hospital was built. Henry Fox followed in his father's steps,
becoming Paymaster-General under George II., and was created Baron
Holland in 1763. His second son was the famous statesman Charles James
Fox. Thus, after the lapse of about four years only, the old title was
revived in an entirely different family. Henry Fox's elder brother was
created first Baron, and then Earl, of Ilchester, which is the title of
the present owner of Holland House.

The plan of the house is that of a capital letter E with the centre
stroke extremely small, and was designed by Thorpe, but added to by
Inigo Jones and others. Sir Walter Cope's building in 1607 included the
centre block and two porches, and the first Earl of Holland, between the
years 1725 and 1735, added the two wings and the arcades. It is in a
good style of Elizabethan domestic architecture, and within is full of
nooks and corners and unexpected galleries, betraying that variety which
can only come from growth, and is never the result of a set plan. The
rooms are magnificent, and are exceptionally rich in their fittings and
collections--collections by various owners which have made the whole
house a museum. On the ground floor are the Breakfast, China, Map,
Journal, and Print rooms--the last three known