GATHERINGS AT KEW 241 



unique enjoyment which distinguished them. The small 

 garden belonging to his official residence used to be thronged 

 with people, famous, not only in science (a natural product 

 there) but in Politics, Art, Literature, etc., etc. The Arch- 

 bishop (Tait), the Prime Minister (Lord Salisbury), Travellers, 

 Literary men, Artists, Journalists, came in crowds, and among 

 them, genial, radiant, happy, moved the eminent host, 

 enjoying himself to the full and delighting in being sur- 

 rounded by so many friendly faces. 



These gatherings made Kew not only a well-managed 

 Government Department, but a meeting -place for the best 

 social life of London. All were gratified by an invitation 

 from the President of the Eoyal Society, and it was doubtless 

 his position as head of the Scientific World that suggested 

 Kew's possibilities as a Universal host. No set entertain- 

 ment nor amusement, not even a band, was ever found there, 

 none was wanted. The crown and joy of it all was just 

 the pleasure of meeting everybody, of seeing and hearing the 

 celebrities of the time, listening to the busy hum of talk, 

 enjoying the boundless hospitality, and then passing at will 

 into the wider Public Gardens. Yet the exact secret of the 

 charm of these gatherings was, I think, something above and 

 beyond all these factors. It was simply because the host 

 and hostess themselves enjoyed the gathering together of 

 their friends, and never regarded it as a duty to be discharged, 

 or a burden to be borne. Memory reports that these parties 

 were generally favoured as to weather, but if rain fell, who 

 cared if it did pour without, for within that spacious house 

 were treasures innumerable, Wedgwoods, Indian curiosities, 

 pictures, books, etc., and the fragrance of exquisitely arranged 

 flowers, while host and hostess excelled themselves in their 

 welcome, warmer and more cordial because the weather was 

 unkind. 



His heart's desire now was to throw off the trammels of 

 official life and get back to pure science. First of all he was 

 eager to finisji the ' Genera Plant arum,' for Bentham, born 

 in 1800, was now growing old and frail, though he came daily 

 to the Herbarium for four or five hours, and his memory, 

 judgment, and power of botanical work seemed unimpaired. 

 And in the second place, he wanted to deal finally with the 



