KENSINGTON, (Middlesex) in the western road from London, near 2 m. from Hide-Park-Corner, was given by Will. the Conq. to
Alben de Vere, ancestor of the Veres Earls of Oxford, in whose family it remained many generations. It was at length the
seat of Ld. Finch, high-chancellor of England, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, but of no note till purchased by K. Will.
III. who converted it into a royal palace, and caused a royal way to be made to it, through St. James's and Hide-Parks,
and lamp-posts to be erected on each side of it. His good Q. first inlarged the gardens, which her sister and successor Q.
Anne improved; but the late Q. Caroline compleated them, by extending them from the great road in Kensington to the Acton
road, by bringing that called the Serpentine r. into them, and by taking in some acres out of Hide-Park, on which she
caused a mount to be erected, with a chair on it that could be easily turned round for shelter from the wind. This mount
is planted about with evergreens, and commands a fine view over the noble gardens, to the country S. and W. This place, in
which K. William, Prince George of Denmark, and Q. Anne died, gives title of Baron to the Earl of Warwick and Holland. The
Ch. bel. before the Ref. to the abbey of Abingdon. The old one was pulled down in 1696, and a much better built in its
room. Part of this village, from the palace-gate to the Bell, is in the p. of St. Margaret's, Westminster.