154 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



considerable sum annually from her private 

 purse towards maintaining it. The old " Kew 

 Palace," which stands in the grounds, is a 

 small, simple, brick mansion, without the 

 least pretension to state, and shows very con- 

 rdusively that those of the Hanover family 

 A'ho lived here did it from real attachment to 

 ihe place — like Queen Charlotte, from love 

 of botany ; as there is nothing about it to 

 please the tastes of an ambitious mind. 



As Kew has been already described by one 

 of the correspondents of this journal, I shall 

 not go into those details which might other- 

 wise be looked for. I shall rather prefer to 

 give you a comprehensive idea of the attrac- 

 tions of the place, which, though about eight 

 miles from London, was visited last year by 

 one hundred and thirty-seven thousand per- 

 sons. The only requisite for admission is to 

 be decently dressed. 



When you hear of a garden^ in America, 

 you fancy some little place, filled with bor- 

 ders and beds of shrubs and flowers, and laid 

 out with walks in various styles. Dispossess 

 your mind at once, how^ever, of any such no- 

 tions as applied to Kew. Fancy, on the 

 other hand, a surface of about two hundred 

 acres ; about sixty of which is the botanic 

 garden proper, and the rest open park or 

 pleasure grounds. The ground-work of the 

 whole is turf; that is, smoothly mown lawn 

 in the sixty acres of botanic garden, and park- 

 like lawn, occasionally mown, in the remain- 

 der. Over this, is picturesquely disposed a 

 large growth of fine ti'ees — in the botanic 

 garden, of all manner of rare species, every 

 exotic that will thrive in England — growing 

 to their natural size without being in the 

 least crowded — tall pines, grand old Cedars 

 of Lebanon, and all sorts of rare deciduous 

 trees. Between the avenues and groups are 

 large open glades of smooth lawn, in which 

 are distributed hot-houses, ornamental cot- 

 tages, a large lake of water, parterres of bril- 



liant flowers for show, and a botanical ar- 

 rangement of plants, shrubs, and trees for 

 scientific study. 



In the centre of a wide glade of turf rises 

 up the new palm-house, built in 1848. It is 

 a palace of glass — 362 feet in length, and 66 

 feet high — and fairy-like and elegant in its 

 proportions, though of great strength ; for the 

 whole, frame-work and sashes, is of cast iron, 

 glazed with 45,000 feet of glass. You open 

 the door, and, but for the glass roof that you 

 see instead of sky above your head, you 

 might believe yourself in the "West Indies. 

 Lofty palm trees, thirty or forty feet high, 

 are growing, rooted in the deep soil beneath 

 your feet, with the same vigor and luxuriance 

 as in the West Indies. Huge clusters of 

 golden banannas hang across the walks, and 

 cocoa nut trees, forty-two feet high, wave 

 their tufts of leaves over your head. The 

 foliage of the cinnamon and camphor scents 

 the atmosphere, and rich air-plants of South 

 America dazzle the eye with their strange and 

 fanciful blossoms. Most beautiful of all are 

 the tree f ems, with trunks eight or ten inches 

 in diameter, and lofty heads, crowned with 

 plume-like tufts of the most delicate and 

 graceful of all foliage. From the light iron 

 gallery, which runs round the inside of this 

 tropical forest-conservatory, you look down 

 on the richest assemblage of vegetable forms 

 that can be conceived ; while over your head 

 clamber, under the iron rafters, in charming 

 luxuriance, the richest passion flowers and 

 other vines of the East Indian islands. 



If you are interested in exotic botany, you 

 may leave this palm house, and pass the en- 

 tire day in only a casual inspection of the 

 treasures of other climates, collected here 

 from all parts of the world. Green-houses, 

 the stoves, the orchidaceous house, the Aus- 

 tralian house, the New-Zealand house, and a 

 dozen other glass structures, contain all the 

 riches of the vegetable kingdom which will 



