and Ireton conferring on the lawn. The
mansion, however, was soon restored to the
earl's widow and her children; and from
that time it remained quietly in the
possession of the family, almost as long as they
lasted. The earl and his wife, like the
extinguished court, had been friends of the
drama; and for a few days during the first
establishment of the republic, and a longer
period in the reign of Cromwell, the players,
who had been great loyalists, and who
contrived to perform secretly now and then at
noblemen's houses, where purses were
collected for their benefit, found special
encouragement in the house before us.

From the Restoration to the time of the
Georges, Holland House appears to have
been let by the noble owners on short leases,
and to a variety of persons; sometimes in
apartments to lodgers; or, more probably, a
friend was now and then accommodated for
nothing. The most interesting of its temporary
lodgers was Morice's friend Shippen, the
famous Jacobite, immortalised by Pope for
his sincerity.

"I love to pour out all myself as plain
As downright Shippen, or as old Montaigne;
In them, as certain to be loved as seen,
The soul stood forth, nor kept a thought within."

No wonder that such a man drew houses
when he spoke in Parliament, and that none
but the stupid kept away.

"More loves the youth, just come to his estate,
To range the fields, than in the House debate;
More he delights in fav'rite Jowler's tongue,
Than in Will Shippen, or Sir William Yonge."
Bramston's Art of Politics.

Very different persons, however, were
honest Will Shippen and unprincipled
William Yonge, of whom Sir Robert Walpole
said that "nothing but his talents could have
supported his character, and nothing but his
character have kept down his talents." Shippen
had talents and character both—the latter
of the highest description. Though not so
poor as Andrew Marvell, nor on minor points,
perhaps, so uncompromising, he was
nevertheless to the Whigs of the reign of George
the First what Marvell had been to the
Tories of Charles and James—the eloquent,
witty, open-hearted, and upon the whole,
incorruptible partisan. When asked how he
should vote, he would say, "I cannot tell
until I hear from Rome." At Rome resided
the Pretender. Sir Robert Walpole observed
of him, and of Parliament in general, "I will
not say who are to be corrupted, but I will
say who is incorruptible; and that is Shippen."
Shippen, in turn, would say of Sir Robert,
"Robin and I are two honest men. He is
for King George, and I for King James;
but those men with the long cravats
(meaning Sandys, Rushout, and others) they only
desire places, either under King George or
King James." He was sent to the Tower for
saying of King George (who could not speak
English), that "the only infelicity of His
Majesty's reign was, that he was
unacquainted with our language and constitution."
Both sides of the House wished him to soften
the expression, but he declined. The Prince
of Wales, afterwards George the Second, who
was at variance with the king, sent a person
to him with the offer of a thousand pounds
(as a "convenience," we suppose, during his
imprisonment); but it was not to be expected
that he who would not subject himself to
influence for love, would do it for money. Sir
Robert Walpole intercepted a letter written to
him by the Pretender, and put it, himself, into
his hands. It must have been of a description
more than usually perilous, considering how
openly Shippen talked of his correspondence
with the exile. Sir Robert took the
opportunity of saying that he did not expect to
alter the other's sentiments, but would hope
for his support in case of being personally
attacked. To this Shippen agreed, but
remained in all other respects the same man.
He was son of a country clergyman, and
possessed a moderate independence; but
married a Northumberland heiress, who
turned out unworthy of him.

In sixteen hundred and eighty-nine, King
William the Third went to look at Holland
House, with the view of taking it; but he
preferred the house of the Earl of Nottingham,
which thus became the Palace. Probably,
however, the rooms were larger in the Nottingham
house, and so were better to begin with.
Perhaps also William did not find the grounds
about Holland House flat enough to suit his
Dutch predilections.

Nothing seems known of Robert, second
Earl of Holland, who had quietly succeeded
his father, except that, in failure of the elder
branch of the family, he also succeeded as fifth
Earl of Warwick, the title being thenceforth
the conjoined one of Warwick and Holland.
His son and successor, Edward, married
Charlotte, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton
of Chirk Castle in the county of Flint; a
lady, whose name and origin we mention,
because after the earl's death she became the
wife of Addison. Edward Henry her son,
the next earl, is the youth whose statue in
Kensington church has been noticed in a
former article. He was succeeded by another
Edward, his kinsman; and the daughter and
only child of this nobleman dying unmarried,
the title became extinct. This was in the
year seventeen hundred and fifty-nine. The
house fell into the possession of his cousin,
William Edwardes, a Welsh gentleman,
whose father had married the daughter of
the first Earl of Warwick and Holland, and
who, in the year seventeen hundred and
seventy-six, was created Baron Kensington;
but fourteen years previous he had sold the
family mansion to the first Lord Holland of