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is removed, and the staircase, where the columns stood, in the room of the latter, is a chimney-piece. The ceiling of the gallery is of mosaic work, ornamented with roses. Two new staircases of stone have been built, and a chapel has been made on the site of the old staircase, the walls of which were painted with scripture subjects. In the hall, on the ground floor, are the following verses, written by lord Melcombe, and placed under a bust of Comus:

While rosy wreaths the goblet deck,

Thus Comus spake, or seem'd to speak:
"This place, for social hours design'd,
May care and business never find.
Come every muse without restraint,
Let genius prompt, and fancy paint:
Let mirth and wit, with friendly strife,
Chase the dull gloom that saddens life:
True wit, that firm to virtue's cause,
Respects religion and the laws;
True mirth, that cheerfulness supplies,
To modest ears and decent eyes;
Let these indulge their liveliest sallies,
Both scorn the canker'd help of malice,
True to their country and their friend,
Both scorn to flatter or offend !"

Adjoining to the hall is a library, which opens into the conservatory; and, on the opposite side, is a writing closet, where are some good cabinet pictures, particularly a fine head, by FRAGONARD.

Near the water side is a small theatre, where the Margravine occasionally entertained her friends with dramatic exhibitions, and sometimes gratified them by exerting her talents, both as a writer and performer, for their amusement. This theatre is connected with the dwelling house, by a conservatory of one hundred and fifty feet in length. It is of a curvilinear form, and occupies the site of a colonnade. It is neat in its appearance, and though small, its visitors were comfortably accommodated.

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NORTH END, is a hamlet of the parish of Fulham, between Hammersmith and Parson's Green. Here is Browne's House, the bandsome villa of the dowager lady Heathcote, the gardens of which are finely disposed.

PARSON'S GREEN, is also a hamlet to Fulham. An antient house, at the corner of the Green, belonged formerly to Sir Edmund Saunders, lord chief justice of the King's Bench, in 1682. It was afterwards the residence of Samuel Richardson, Esq. the celebrated author of Sir Charles Hald Grandison, &c. A house on the east side of the Green, built by Sir Francis Child, lord mayor of London, in 1699, and modernized by the late John Powell, Esq. is now the residence of Sir John Hales, bart.

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WALHAM GREEN, another hamlet in the parish of Fulham, is celebrated for a curious garden, planted since the year 1756, by its present possessor, John Ord, Esq. Master in Chancery. Within that short space, it has produced trees, which are now the finest of their respective kinds in the kingdom; particularly, the Sophora Japonica, planted in 1756, now considerably above eight feet in girth, and forty high; a standard Gingko-tree, planted in 1767, two feet three inches in girth; and an Illinois walnut, sown in 1760, two feet two inches in girth. Among other trees also remarkable for their growth, though not the largest of their kind, are a black walnut-tree, sown in 1757, about forty feet high, and five feet four inches in girth; a cedar of Libanus, planted in 1756, eight feet eight inches in girth; a willow-leaved oak, sown in 1757, four feet in girth; the Rhus Vernix, or varnish sumach, four feet in girth; and a stone pine, of very singular growth. The girth of this last, at one foot from the ground, is six feet four inches; at that height it immediately begins to branch out, and spreads at least twenty-one feet on each side, forming a large bush of about fourteen yards in diameter.

FULHAM, is a considerable, village on the banks of the Thames, about four miles from the metropolis, and has a communication with Putney, in Surrey, by means of a

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curious wooden bridge, constructed by Mr. Philips, carpenter to king George II.

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In 879, the Danish army, after having visited Chippenham and Cirencester, encamped at Fulham; where, being joined by another army which had been beaten and driven out of Flanders by Charles II. of France, they passed their winter here, and in the spring they all decamped for the purpose of making a fresh attack on Flanders.

The manor has constantly belonged to the bishops of London, from the year 691, except during the grand rebellion, when it was sold, in 1647, to colonel Edmund Harvey, for the sum of 76177. 8s. 10d. but restored to the see at the Restoration.

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The palace has been the residence of the bishops of Ea London from a very early period; and has received many Plates repairs since the time of Henry VII. when bishop Fitz- P James built the large quadrangle. The hall is fifty feet six inches in length, by twenty-seven feet in breadth, and was built by bishop Fletcher, in 1595. The chapel was removed to its present situation and fitted up by bishop Terrick; the wainscot having been brought from the chapel in Aldersgate Street, where it had been placed by bishop Juxon; the painted glass, which is very fine, was removed from the same place. It consists mostly of the arms of the several bishops. The library is forty-eight feet in length, and contains the following portraits, collected by the late bishop Porteus: Bishops Tunstall, Grindall, Laud, Abbot, Vaughan, King, Compton, Gibson, Osbaldeston, Shere Jock, Hayter, Terrick, and Lowth; also lord Crew, bishop of Durham, by LELY. The great dining room, thirty-six feet by twenty-four, and eighteen in height, was built by bishop Sherlock, Bishop Osbaldiston left 1000l. towards the repairs of this palace.

The gardens were very curious; they first became remarkable in the time of bishop Grindall, one of the earliest encouragers of botany, and the first who imported the ta

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