  Original Letter from the late Sir Robert Peel. Whitehall, July 7th, 1840. My dear Sir, Do not you think a very interesting work might be written, to be entitled an Historical Account of the celebrated Villas in the neighbourhood of London. I mean rather the Villas that have been—than those that now exist. Look at Horace Walpole's Song on Strawberry Hill. How many places are there mentioned which have historical recollections connected with them, which it would be worth preserving. There must be always great interest about the localities in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. In that song alone are mentioned
you might add Wanstead, Wimbledon, Holland House, and a hundred others—many with very curious anecdotes of local and personal history connected with them. Perhaps I overrate the interest with which such a book would be read. I certainly do not, if it would equal that, with which I myself read the account of places in the neighbourhood of Paris, remarkable in history, but the traces of which—many of which at least—are fast fading away; such as
Hampton Court, the ancient Palace at Richmond, Kew, &c. &c. might enter into the work. Very truly yours, Robert Peel. The County Histories would form a substratum for the work—but every thing would depend upon the liveliness and accuracy of the details. |
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