The villa of John Elsee, Esq, Chigwell Row

Chigwell Row was a particularly beautiful hamlet situated on the brow of Epping Forest. The villa of John Elsee stood at the east end of the row and commanded a beautiful and extensive view of the hills of Kent and Surrey as well the River Thames. The villa was originally built by Mr Horseley, and afterwards possessed by Mr Scott, whose wife disastrously drowned in a pond on the estate. Mr Scott was so stricken with grief he (in the words of David Hughson) "precipitated himself into eternity by plunging into a pond adjoining that in which his wife had put a period to her life!!!"

Chigwell Row also contained the mansions of several eminent merchants and traders of London.