CHISWICK, a parish in the Kensington division of
the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 4
miles (W. by S.) from London, containing 4236 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction
and patronage of the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul's, London, rated in the king's books at £9. 18. 4.
The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas: in the churchyard
are some ancient tombs, and a monument to the
memory of Hogarth, the painter. Here are charity
schools, founded in the year 1719, by Lady Capel, and
endowed with £39 per annum, for teaching and clothing
twenty boys and ten girls. Chiswick is pleasantly
situated on the margin of the Thames, to the left
of the great western road from London, and contains
many elegant seats belonging to the nobility and gentry,
the principal of which, Devonshire House, is adorned on
each side with fine rows of cedars: in this mansion died
the Right Hon. Charles James Fox, in 1806, and the
Right Hon. George Canning, in 1827- Here are the
extensive gardens belonging to the Horticultural Society
of London, incorporated by charter in 1808, for
the improvement of horticulture in all its branches, the
concerns of which are under the superintendence of a
council, president, treasurer, and secretary: the general
meetings of the Fellows take place on the first and third
Tuesdays in every month, at the house belonging to the
Society, in Regent-street, London: a selection from the
papers read to the Society is occasionally published.
The Society has formed a collection of drawings of the
most approved fruits and ornamental plants, together
with models of fruit in wax; and the members have
free access to a library of horticultural works j the
terms are six guineas on admission, and four guineas
per annum.