Holland House

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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Holland House in Kensington—a London suburb—was a fine Jacobean mansion built in 1606. It had long political and literary associations—Addison married the widow of the third Earl Holland and wrote many of his Spectator essays there. In 1774 it passed to Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third Baron Holland (1773-1840), a close friend and associate of the Whig party leader Charles Grey, and nephew of the radical Whig Charles James Fox whose libertarian philosophy he made it his life work to further. Because his wife Elizabeth, Lady Holland, had divorced her first husband, Sir Godfrey Webster, to marry Holland in 1797, she was ostracised by the Queen and not considered fit company for respectable women. She therefore ensured the …

230 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Holland House". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 December 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4295, accessed 23 November 2024.]

4295 Holland House 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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