In My Vicarage Garden 



gardens have been brought to a very high pitch of 

 excellence, and have been arranged and managed 

 with a constant eye to the instruction and comfort 

 of the public. 



Such is a very short account of the rise and 

 progress of the gardens to their present state, 

 leaving untold the many ways by which the gardens 

 and museums have been furnished from all parts 

 of the world by purchases in many cases, but still 

 more by gifts from persons of all ranks and con- 

 ditions, till it may safely be said that nowhere in 

 the world can the vegetable products of all parts 

 be more easily and more perfectly studied. 



But the gardens are not only for botanical 

 students ; they contain a wealth of flowers which 

 give pleasure to thousands who have little or no 

 scientific knowledge, while their beauty alone will 

 be a pleasure to many others. Still, as I said 

 before, there are many living within easy reach of 

 Kew who know nothing of it, and there are some, 

 or rather many, who go to Kew and come back 

 without having seen a twentieth part of the garden, 

 and with an ignorance of the contents which may 

 almost be called absurd. But it is a large place, 

 and unless a person goes there with guidance of 

 some sort, and also with some definite idea as to 

 the special objects which he wishes to see, he may 

 come away quite disappointed ; and I have known 

 a clever man who went there and asked for the 

 Botanical Garden, and, having seen the scien- 

 tifically arranged portion to which he had been 



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