handsomely furnished. Many of the rooms upstairs have ornamented carved
cornices and panels. The club was started in 1867, mainly for
pigeon-shooting, under the auspices of Mr. Frank Heathcote, who leased
it from Mr. Naylor. Before that time the house had been the residence of
the Horsley-Palmers and of Lord Egremont. In 1874 the property was
bought by the club, and polo-playing was begun. The King and Queen--as
Prince and Princess of Wales--and Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh watched
the first game in the June of that year.

The ancient history of the house is defective. In the churchwarden's
accounts of the parish in 1681 we read: "It is ordered that there be
built and erected two small tenements next to the north side of ye poore
Almes Houses given by John Lappy with such old stuff as was lately
taken downe from the Pest Houses in Hurlingham Field at ye charge of the
Parish contayning two roomes." And Faulkner adds an extract from
Brayley's "London" to the above in the form of a note: "Hurlingham Field
is now the property of the Earl of Ranelagh, and the site of his house.
It was here that great numbers of people were buried during the plague."
The origin of the name seems lost in obscurity, though it has been
suggested, perhaps facetiously, it was derived from the custom of
hurling the bodies of the plague dead into any grave without care or
compunction. Broom House, next door, with adjoining grounds, is noticed
in Rocque's 1757 map, and is inscribed on Faulkner's 1813 map as "Broom
Houses." Faulkner refers to it as a little village, but mentions that
"the Dowager Countess of Lonsdale has an elegant house and garden here
in full view of the Thames." The place is said to have received its name
from the broom which grew here profusely. Broomhouse Road runs from
Hurlingham Road, past the gates of Broom House, down to the river. It is
a veritable lane, with leafy trees shadowing it. On the east side, a
little above Broom House, is a very striking building of red brick, with
bright white stone facings, and a square central tower surmounted by
four pinnacles. This is the Elizabeth Free School, founded and endowed
by Mr. Sulivan of Broom House, in 1855. Further down the road, close by
the river, is Carnwath House, the residence of the Earl of Carnwath. It
is irregularly built of brick. Beyond it is a raised path, which winds
along by the river and leads past acres of market-gardens, in which are
large plum-orchards.

North