At Turnham Green, in the parish of Chiswick, an urn filled with Roman silver coins was dug up in the year 1731. Dr. Stukely says, that the Roman road from Regnum or Ringwood, went from Stanes through Brentford, which was a manse between it and London, to Turnham Green; thence over Stanford Bridge and into the Acton road, crossing the Watling, Street at Tyburn.

After the battle at Brentford, the Earl of Essex assembled his forces at Turnham Green, where he was joined by the city train bands. Sir William Waller mustered his forces there on the 10th of September, 1643.

Chiswick House is a celebrated seat of the Duke of Devonshire, built by the last Earl of Burlington, whose taste and skill as an architect have been frequently recorded. The ascent to the house is by a noble double flight of steps, on one side of which is a statue of Palladio and on the other that of Inigo Jones. The portico is supported by six fluted Corinthian pillars, with a pediment; and a dome at the top enlightens a beautiful octagonal saloon. "This house,"’ says Mr. Walpole, "the idea of which is borrowed from a well-known villa of Palladio, and is a model of taste, though not without faults, some of which are occasioned by too strict adherence to rules and symmetry. Such are too many corresponding doors in spaces so contracted; chimneys between windows, and which is worse windows between chimneys; and vestibules however beautiful, yet little secured from the damps of this climate. The trusses that support the ceiling of the corner drawing-room are beyond measure massive, and the ground apartment is rather a diminutive catacomb than a library in a northern latitude. Yet these blemishes, and Lord Hervey’s wit, who said "the house was too small to inhabit, and too large to hang to one's watch," cannot depreciate the taste that reigns throughout the whole. The larger court, dignified by picturesque cedars, and the classic scenery of the small court, that unites the old and new house, are more worth seeing than many fragments of ancient grandeur which our travellers visit under all the dangers attendant on long voyages. The garden is in the Italian taste, but divested of conceits, and far preferable to every stile that reigned till our late improvements. The buildings are heavy, and not equal to the purity of the house. The lavish quantity of urns and sculptures behind the garden front should be retrenched." Such were the sentiments of Mr. Walpole on this celebrated villa, before the noble proprietor began the capital improvements which have since been completed. Two wings have been added to the house, from the designs of Mr. Wyatt. These remove the objections that have been made to the house, are more fanciful and beautiful than convenient and habitable; the gardens have also been considerably improved, and now display all the beauties of modern planting.

A catalogue of Lord Burlington’s fine collection of pictures, which adorn the rooms of Chiswick House, is printed in Dodsley’s account of London and its environs. Among those most worthy of note, are portraits of Lord Clifford and his family, by Van Eyk, 1444; Mary Queen of Scots, which has been engraved by Vertue; Clement IX. by Carlo Maratti, Alexander Pope, by Kent; the celebrated picture of Belisarius; a Landscape, with a man hawking, by Inigo Jones; a very fine Salvator Rosa; and a Madona, by Dominichino, which Lord Burlington procured out of a convent at Rome, giving them in exchange for it a complete set of marble columns for their church.

Chiswick Church is situated near the water side. The present structure originally consisted only of a nave and chancel, and was built about the beginnig of the 15th century, at which time the tower was erected at the charge of William Bordal, vicar of Chiswick, who died in 1435. It is built of stone and flint as is the north wall of the church and chancel; the latter has been repaired with brick: a transverse aisle, at the east end of the nave, was added on the south side in the middle of the last, and a corresponding aisle on the south side, towards the beginning of the last century. The former was enlarged in the year 1772, by subscription, and carried on to the west end of the nave: both the aisles are of brick.

In the church-yard is a monument to the memory of William Hogarth On this monument, which is ornamented with a mask, a laurel wreath, a palette, pencils, and a book, inscribed. "Analysis of Beauty, "are the following lines, by his friend and cotemporary the late David Garrick:

" Farewell, great painter of mankind,

Who reach’d the noblest point of art;

Whose picture’d morals charm the mind,

And through the eye correct the heart!

If genuis fire thee, reader, stay;

If nature move thee, drop a tear;

If neither touch thee, turn away:

For Hogarth’s honour’d dust lies here."

Near this is the tomb of a gentleman, many years distinguished as a critic in a respectable periodical publication. On this is inscribed the following epitaph:

"William Rose L. L. D. died July 4, 1786. AEtat. 67. Whoe’er thou art with silent footsteps tread,

The hallow’d mould where Rose reclines his head.

Ah! let not folly one kind tear deny,

But pensive pause where truth and honour lie.

His the gay wit that fond attention drew,

Oft heard, and oft admired, yet ever new;

The heart that melted at another’s grief;

The hand in secret that beslow’d relief;

Science, untinetur’d by the pride of schools,

And native goodness, free from formal rules.

With zeal through life he toil'd in learning’s cause,

But more, fair Virtue! to promote thy laws;

His every action sought the noblest end;

The tender husband, father, brother, friend.

Perhaps e’en now, from yonder realms of day,

To his lov’d relatives he sends a ray;

Pleas’d to behold affections like his own

With filial duty raise this votive stone. "

In the church, in the Earl of Burlington’s vault, is interred the celebrated Kent; a painter, architect, and father of modern gardening. "In the first character, "says Mr. Walpole, "he was below mediocrity; in the second he was the restorer of the science; in the last, an original, and the inventor of an art that realizes painting and improves nature. Mahomet imagined an Elysium, but Kent created many." He frequently declared, it is said, that he caught his taste in gardening from reading the picturesque descriptions of Spencer. Mason, noticing his mediocrity as a painter, pays this fine tribute to his excellence in the decoration of rural scenery:

"He felt the pencil’s power; but fir’d by higher forms

Of beauty than that pencil knew to paint,

Work’d with the living hues that Nature lent,

And realiz’d his landscapes. Generous he,

Who gave to Painting what the wayward nymph

Refus'd her votary, those Elysian scenes,

Which would she emulate, her nicest hand

Must all its force of light and shade employ."

The following epitaph, in memory of John Ayton Thomson, a youth of fifteen, was written by Arthur Murphy, Esq.

"If in the morn of life each winning grace,

The converse sweet, the mind-illumin’d face,

The lively wit, that charm’d with early art,

And mild affections streaming from the heart:

If these, lov’d youth! could check the hand of Fate,

Thy matchless worth had claim’d a longer date.

But thou art blest, while here we heave the sigh;

Thy death is Virtue wafted to the sky.

Yet still they image fond affection keeps,

The sire remembers, and the mother weeps;

Still the friend grieves who saw thy vernal bloom, And here, sad task! inscribes it on thy tomb.

A. Murphy. "

On the outside of the wall of the church-yard, on a stone tablet, is the following curious inscription: —"This wall was made at ye charges of ye right honourable and trulie pious Lorde Francis Russel, Duke of Bedford, out of true zeal and care for ye keeping of this church-yard, and ye wardrobe of God’s saints, whose bodies lay therein buried, from violating by swine and other profanation, so witnesseth William Walker, V. A. D. 1623."

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CHISWICK is a parish forming somewhat of a peninsula, being nearly surrounded by the river Thames, near the Great Western road, with a station on a loop line of the South Western railway, 6 miles west from Hyde Park corner, in the Ealing division of the county, Kensington division of Ossulstone hundred, Brentford union and county court district, within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan police, and in the rural deanery of Ealing, archdeaconry of Middlesex and diocese of London. The management of the parish was vested in the Chiswick Improvement Commissioners from 1869 to 1884 when it was entrusted to a Local Board of 18 members, but by the provisions of the “Local Government Act, 1894” (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73) it is now controlled by an Urban District Council. An extensive system of drainage was carried out by the Commissioners at a cost of upwards of £80,000, and the parish is lighted with gas from works at Brentford, the property of the Brentford Gas Company; water is supplied by the West Middlesex and Grand Junction Water Companies, but chiefly by the former. The old church of St. Nicholas was an ancient building, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, dating from 1425, containing 6 bells: both porches are stone vaulted: the church was rebuilt and enlarged in 1884 at the expense of the late H. Smith esq. of the Griffin brewery, the chancel being partially restored at the same time by the Duke of Devonshire K.G. the lay impropriator: there are a number of memorial windows, including one to Admiral Sir R. Smart K.C.B.; in the church is a monument to Sir Thomas Chaloner kt. M.A. tutor to Henry Prince of Wales, ob. 17 Nov. 1615: two daughters of Oliver Cromwell, Mary, wife of Thomas (Belasyse), 2nd Viscount Fauconberg and Frances, wife of Robert Rich esq. were buried in the church, but without memorial; as also Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland in her own right and ancestress of the present Duke of Grafton, ob. 9 Oct. 1709: there are about 700 sittings. In the churchyard, enlarged by the gift of an acre of land by the Duke of Devonshire K.G. and controlled by a burial board, are interred Sir John Chardin F.R.S. the traveller, d. 25 Dec. 1713; George, 1st and only Earl Macartney, d. 31 Mar. 1806; the Duchess of Somerset; James Ralph, the critic, d. 24 Jan. 1762; Hogarth, the painter, d. 25 Oct. 1764, with an epitaph by David Garrick; Thomas Morrell D.D. sometime curate of Twickenham, a classical editor and writer, d. 19 Feb. 1784 and Dr. William Rose, critic and editor, of Sallust; there is also a cenotaph, designed by the late Baron Marochetti, to Ugo Foscolo, an Italian poet, d. 14 Sept. 1827, and whose remains were removed in 1871 by the Italian Government to the cathedral of Santa Croce in Florence: other tombs are those of Philip James Loutherbourg R.A. d. 11 Mar. 1812; William Sharp, the engraver, d.25 July, 1824; and James Fittler A.R.A. d. 2 Dec. 1835. The register dates from the year 1678. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £460, including glebe and residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and held since 1898 by the Rev. Frederick Walter Isaacs. St. Mary Magdalene, in Chiswick New Town, is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1894 from Chiswick; the church, erected as a chapel of ease to the parish church, was built in 1848 at the sole expense of John Charles Sharpe esq. and is an edifice of stone, consisting of small chancel, with side chapels, nave, transept and a western turret containing 3 bells: the church, after having been enlarged, was consecrated by the Bishop of Marlborough, July 19, 1894, and has 520 sittings. The register dates from the year 1860. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £210, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, and held since 1894 by the Rev. Alfred Edwards Oldfield M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. The population is about 8,000.

Gunnersbury St. James’s, is a consolidated chapelry, formed 14 Aug. 1888, out of the ecclesiastical districts of Christ Church, Turnham Green and St. George's, Old Brentford, taking in also a small portion of South Acton, and comprises the whole area lying between Kew Bridge and Gunnersbury stations, and bounded on the one side by the North London and on the other by the South Western railway. The church, erected in 1887, at a cost of £6,000, and consecrated by the Bishop of London, November 8th, 1887, is a building of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of apsidal baptistery, nave with clerestory and aisles: there are 530 sittings. The register dates from the year 1888. The living is a vicarage, neb yearly value £200, without residence, in the gift of the vicar of St. George, Old Brentford, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Charles Nevison Whitfield M.A. of Queen’s College, Oxford.

Emmanuel Reformed Protestant Episcopal church, founded about 1883, is a building of iron, consisting of chancel, nave and a tower at the south-west angle, with spire and containing one bell: the stained east and west windows are memorials: there are about 550 sittings.

The Catholic church, dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, and erected in 1886, at a cost of £5,000, on the site of the former church, is a building of red brick in the Italian style and will seat 600 persons.

Turnham Green Congregational church, High road, erected at a cost of £3,136, is a building of stock brick with Bath stone dressings, in the Early English style, from the designs of Mr. T. L. Banks A.R.I.B.A. of London, and has 458 sittings.

Trinity Baptist church, in Wellesley road, erected in 1886, by the London Baptist Association, but admitting Christians of other denominations, is ft structure of brick, in the Early English style, with a small tower and spire, and will seat 650 persons. There is a manse attached to it, and a Lecture Hall in Sutton lane, which seats 250.

The Baptist church, in Annandale road, is an iron building and has 350 sittings; the Wesleyan chapel, in Sutton Court road, is an edifice of brick, erected in 1880.

The Vestry Hall, on Turnham Green, is a building of stone, erected in 1876 from designs by W. J. Treherne esq. at a cost of £5,400; it consists of a large hall, which is used for meetings, concerts and other entertainments, and suitable offices for the Urban District Council clerk, surveyor and other officers; the hall will hold about 700 persons.

Chiswick Park Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club, near Chiswick station, on the South Western railway, was established in 1884, under the title of the Chiswick Cricket and Lawn Tennis Co. Limited: the grounds comprise 14 acres, 9 of which form the cricket ground, the remaining 5 acres being used for lawn tennis. There are two pavilions, one being used by the cricket and the other by the tennis players.

The Fire Engine Station, in Camden terrace, High road, has two manual engines and one steam engine, two hose carts and a fire escape; the brigade, excepting the officer in charge, consists of volunteers.

There are here two large breweries belonging to Messrs. Sich and Co. Limited and Messrs. Fuller, Smith and Turner; the marine engineering and steam launch building works of Messrs. Thorneycroft and Co.; a steam bakery belonging to Mr. J. R. Chibnall; and various market gardens, maltings and wharves on the river. On the opposite side of the river, near Barnes, the West Middlesex Water Works Company have two reservoirs, the pipes from which have been carried under the bed of the river. Opposite Chiswick is an island, the first met with in proceeding up the river.

At St. Mary Magdalene’s there is an infants’ nursery, built by the vicar, and also a public kitchen which provides nourishment for the sick and convalescent poor. The various charities of the parish are managed by a body of trustees, under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners; they are chiefly for the maintenance of Almshouses and the inmates elected thereto, and for certain educational purposes.

Under the Metropolitan Commons Act the late Local Board acquired the whole of the waste lands in the district for the use and recreation of the inhabitants and has fenced them in and planted them with trees.

Chiswick is first mentioned in a record of the time of Henry III.: a Roman urn and silver coins were found at Turnham Green in 1731.

Here are the experimental and trial grounds of the Royal Horticultural Society, first opened in 1818—19: the gardens form a very admirable and comprehensive school of horticulture, and the collection of fruit trees is very fine.

Adjoining the Horticultural Gardens is Chiswick House, the property of the Duke of Devonshire K.G. and for some time the residence of the family of the Prince of Wales, but at present in the occupation of Dr. Seymour Tuke and Mr. C. M. Tuke as a private asylum; it was built by Richard (Boyle) 3rd Earl of Burlington K.G. so distinguished for his splendid and refined architectural taste, the design being adopted from that of a villa by Palladio at Vicenza: here died Charles James Fox, 13 Sept. 1806 and George Canning, 9 Aug. 1827: the grounds are beautifully laid out and adorned with much fine timber and with statuary and temples; the bridge over the lake and the classical gateway in the grounds are the work, in 1621, of Inigo Jones; the latter was given by Sir Hans Sloane bart. M.D. to the Earl of Burlington in 1738: in 1814 the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia and other sovereigns visited the late Duke of Devonshire here: in 1842 Her Majesty and the late Prince Consort, and in 1844 the Emperor Nicholas of Russia and John I. King of Saxony, who planted trees in remembrance of their visit: Grove House is a mansion situated near the Thames: adjoining is a villa, also looking on the Thames, erected by the late J. Pullman esq. and called Grove End. In Hogarth lane is the house, called Hogarth House, in which the great artist lived. Among past residents in Chiswick were Sir Stephen Fox kt. paymaster of the forces to Charles II. and the projector of Chelsea Hospital, to which he contributed £13,000; he died 28 Oct. 1716; Alexander Pope, the poet; George Augustus Eliott, Lord Heathfield, the defender of Gibraltar, d. 1790; and John Zoffany R.A. d. 1810. Sutton Court, at the corner of Sutton Court road, is one of the ancient mansions of the ducal family of Cavendish and was the residence of one of the married daughters of Oliver Cromwell, who also visited here. A very large portion of the parish is the property of the Duke of Devonshire K.G.; the land formerly occupied as market gardens is now being rapidly covered with elegant houses. Ravenscourt Park, a fine open space of 32 acres, adjoins. The entire parish of Chiswick contains 1,236 acres of land, 9 of water, 61 of tidal water and 34 of foreshore; rateable value, £149,617; the population in 1861 was 6,505, in 1881 15,972, and in 1891 was:-Chiswick, 10,391; Turnham Green, 4,921; Grove Park, 1,794; St. Michael, Bedford Park, 4,222; part of Gunnersbury, 635; total, 21,963, which is also the Urban District.

Places of Worship, with times of services: —

St. Nicholas’ Church, Rev. Frederick Walter Isaacs, vicar; holy communion every Sun. at 8 a.m.; matins, holy communion & sermon 1st & 3rd at 11 a.m.; matins, litany & sermon, 2nd, 4th & 5th, 11 a.m.; evensong or litany & sermon, 1st, 3rd, 4th & 5th, 3.30 p.m.; children’s service on 2nd, 3.30 p.m.; evensong & sermon every sun, 7 p.m.; holy communion (plain), last Sun. after matins; week days-holy communion, daily, 8 a.m. & during advent, lent & on festivals, 12 noon; litany Wed. & Fri. 12 noon; choral evensong Wed. & Fri. 7.30 p.m.; evensong Mon. Tues. Thur. & Sat. 5.15 p.m.

St. Mary Magdalene, Rev. Alfred Edwards Oldfield M.A. vicar; holy communion every Sun. 8 a.m. & 11 a.m. (choral); Thur. 7.30 a.m.; matins with sermon, 10.30 a.m.; evensong with sermon, 7 p.m.; evensong with instructions, Wed. & Fri. 8 p.m.; holy communion every Sun. 8 a.m. & all festivals & 2nd & 5th Sun. in month at 11 (choral) with sermon, matins, 10.15; other Sun. matins, litany & sermon at 11; children’s service, 3.15; evensong, 7; week days, holy communion, Thur. & saint days, 7.30 a.m.; evensong, Tues. & Fri. 7.30 p.m.

St. Paul’s, Grove Park, Rev. Nevison Loraine, vicar; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 11 a.m. & Fri. 5.30 p.m. & on holy days.

Christ Church, Turnham Green, Rev. Samuel Arnott M.A. vicar; Rev. Percy James Donovan M.A. curate; Sundays, 8 a.m. holy communion; 11 a.m. matins; 1st & 3rd Sun. in month, holy communion; 3.30 p.m. children’s service; 4 p.m. baptisms; 7 p.m. evensong; saints’ days, 11 a.m. holy communion; Wed. evensong, 5 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m. matins & litany, 11.30 baptisms; churching before or after any of the services.

St. James’, High road, Gunnersbury, Rev. Charles Nevison Whitfield M.A.; 8 & 11 a.m., & 7 p.m.; holy communion, 1st & 3rd Sun. 11 a.m. & every Sun. at 8 a.m.; Wed. (in advent & lent) 8 p.m. & saints’ days 11.30 a.m.

Emmanuel (Reformed Protestant Episcopal) Church. Wellesley road, Rev. Charles John Mellor B.A. incumbent; 11 a.m. & 7 p.m.; holy communion 1st Sun. in the month in the morning & 3rd Sun. in the month in the evening; Thur. 7.30 p.m.

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, High road, Rev. Reginald Tuke & James O’Connor, priests; 8.10 & 11.15 a.m. & 7 p.m.; daily 8 a.m.; Wed. & Fri. 8 p.m.

Baptist (Trinity), Wellesley road; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

Baptist, Annandale road, Rev. Arthur George Edgerton; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Thur. 7.30 p.m.

Congregational, High road, Turnham Green, Rev. James Holmes; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 8 p.m.

Wesleyan, Sutton Court road, Rev. A. J. Southouse; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; Tues. 7.30 p.m.

Mission Hall, Fraser street, Robert T. Smith, superintendent; 11 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Plymouth Brethren, Clifton hall, Clifton gardens; 11 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Primitive Methodist Hall, Fisher lane; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

St. James’ Parish room, Blenheim road.

Emmanuel Church School room, Wellesley road.

Salvation Army Barracks.

Board Schools: —

A School Board of 7 members was established in 1872 & since increased to 9 members; offices, Urban District offices; board days 1st Tues. in month.

Boys’, Duke road, built in 1884, for 580 & since enlarged for 950 children; average attendance, about 880.

Girls’, Duke road, built for 750; average attendance, 690.

Infants’, Binns road, built in 1882, for 300 girls & 400 infants; Miss Perkins, mistress; average attendance, 620.

Girls’ & Infants’, Heathfield terrace, Turnham Green, taken by the board in 1873 & since enlarged for 253.

girls & 270 infants; average attendance (girls), 246; average attendance (infants), 270.

Stand-on-the-green is a small place close to Kew bridge, on the banks of the Thames. At this point the South Western railway have carried their extension line from Kensington to Richmond across the Thames by a handsome latticed iron bridge, opened January, 1869. Divine service is held at the Church Institute on Sundays at 7 p.m.; there is also a Wesleyan Mission Room, where services are conducted on Sundays at 6.30 p.m.

Board School (mixed), built in 1892, for 230 children; average attendance, 211; the Infant school, erected at an earlier date, holds 230 children; average attendance, about 180.