A HISTORY OF SURREY 



adorned by grotesque paintings of children in theatrical 

 costumes by John Ellis, the piers between the win- 

 dows being large painted looking-glasses from China. 

 The state drawing-room was hung with green silk, 

 and the ceiling painted with grotesque designs by 

 Kent. 60 The Princess of Wales at this time held 

 both the palaces, and about 1770 she gave up Kew 

 House to George III, who purchased the freehold 

 of it," and moved over to the present Kew Palace, 

 or the Dutch House, where she died in 1772. 

 George III, who had spent much of his boyhood 

 at Kew," began to use it again as a country 

 residence when his family became too large to be 

 accommodated in Richmond Lodge. 64 



The life led by the royal family at Kew was very 

 domestic. According to a description written in the 

 summer of 1775, the king and queen rose at six in 

 the morning and enjoyed uninterrupted leisure until 

 eight, when the elder children were brought from 

 their several houses to breakfast with them. The 

 younger ones were brought to the palace at nine. In 

 the afternoons the queen worked and the king read 

 to her, and once a week the whole family would 

 make a tour of Richmond Gardens. 65 The house, 

 according to Fanny Burney, who came here with 

 the Court in 1786, was inconvenient and old- 

 fashioned. Excepting the royal apartments the 

 rooms were small and dark and there were stair- 

 cases in every passage and passages to every closet. 

 Miss Burney declares that on her first evening there 

 she lost her way continually ' only in passing from 

 my room to the queen's.' M When the king's madness 

 finally declared itself at Windsor in the autumn of 

 1788, the doctors urged his removal to Kew, and 

 this was only achieved by keeping him in ignorance 

 of their purpose. 67 Queen Charlotte and the Court 

 drove to Kew House on 29 November and awaited 

 his arrival without unpacking their baggage lest they 

 should fail to bring him, and Miss Burney relates 

 how late that night she heard the carriage arrive 

 and the sound of the king's voice talking incessantly and 

 very fast. 63 Kew House was pulled down in I8O2. 69 



The descent of the Dairy House cannot be 

 traced with much certainty. It has been suggested 

 that the date 1631 over the door is that of a sale 

 to Samuel Fortrey after the death of Sir Hugh Port- 

 man. 70 On the other hand the initials S and C F 

 (Samuel and Catherine Fortrey) and the date 1631 

 .are in the usual place to indicate the date of 

 building, and though the windows have no doubt 

 been replaced and the house was generally retouched 

 in the i8th century, its main features and design are 

 hot unlike the date 1631. Samuel Fortrey, to whom 

 the building of it may therefore with some proba- 

 bility be ascribed, was a London merchant, the 

 grandson of a Fleming of Lille, and himself married 



to a Hainaulter," whence the name the Dutch 

 House, it being in a Flemish style. He had one 

 son Samuel and two daughters," the younger of 

 whom, Mary, married first Sir Thomas Trevor and 

 secondly Sir Francis Compton, son of Spencer, Earl 

 of Northampton. 73 In the following century this 

 palace was inhabited by the royal family, and it was 

 no doubt here that the daughters of George II stayed 

 in 1728, as they were said to be inhabiting a house 

 at Kew ' over against where Mr. Molyneux lived.' '* 

 Some time before the Prince of Wales's death in 

 1751 the Princess Amelia was described as living 

 opposite to his house, Kew Palace, in the house 

 ' built by a Dutch Architect,' which Queen Caroline 

 had bought or leased." This was clearly the present 

 palace or Dutch House. After the death of the 

 Princess of Wales, this palace was used for the 

 young princes, and was called the Princes' House 

 or the Royal Nursery. 78 It was inhabited by Georga 

 III and Queen Charlotte after the other palace 

 had been pulled down in 1802, and it was here 

 that the queen died a little more than a year before 

 the death of her husband. 77 The palace was 

 thrown open to the public in 1899. It is a red 

 brick building of three stories and attics ; the front 

 entrance is in the middle of the south front and over 

 it are the letters mentioned above, S F C united by a 

 knot and the date 1631. The north front has 

 projecting wings at either end and the south front 

 has square bays. A distinctive decorative feature in 

 these two fronts is formed by the pilasters which 

 flank the middle windows, square on the first floor, 

 round in the second and with moulded cornices. The 

 windows generally have rusticated joints of brick. 

 There are three shaped gable heads on the north 

 and south fronts and two at each end, but those at 

 the east are plain. The middle of the north front 

 on the ground floor has been filled in flush between 

 the projecting wings in modern times and has a 

 balcony above. Almost all the internal fittings are 

 of 18th-century or later insertion. Those with F 

 upon them and the Prince of Wales's feathers were 

 probably brought from the other palace. The main 

 entrance opens on to a long passage through the 

 building, at the north end of which are the main 

 stairs of late i8th or early 19th-century date with 

 carved ends to the heads. The first room on the left 

 or west of the passage is the library ante-room, which 

 is lined with some good 1 6th-century linen panelling 

 which may be a relic of the old Dairy House. The 

 library next to it is lined with 1 7th-century panelling. 

 The two rooms to the east of the passage are the 

 king's dining-room ' (south) and the ' king's break- 

 fast room ' (north). The former is flagged with 

 stone and lined with 18th-century panelling ; the 

 latter has late 1 7th or early 18th-century panelling 



60 Chambers, Plans of Gardens at Ke-w, 



61 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. i, 

 446. 



69 Journ. of Mrs. Papendieck, i, 43. 



68 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



Journ. of Mrs. Papendieck, i, 43. 

 Annual Reg. 1775. 

 M Madame D'Arblay, Memoirs (ed. 

 Austin Dobson), ii, 402. 

 V Ibid, iv, 187, et seq. 

 8 Ibid. 



69 Journ. of Kew Guild (1906), 297. 



" Ibid. Lysons dates the sale in 1636, 

 and says that it was by a Sir John Port- 



man, but there was no Sir John alive 

 then. 



7 1 fitit. of London, 1634-5, p. 284. 



1* Ibid. 



7* Genealogist, Hi, 297 ; Nichols, Tofog. 

 and Gen. iii, 32. 



7< Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. vi, 54. 



7 s London and its Environs Described 

 (Anon. 1761), v, 260 ; iii, 274. The 

 author says that the queen bought from 

 Sir Thomas Abney. Lysons says that 

 William Fortrey, grandson of Samuel, 

 sold his house to Sir Richard Levett. 

 Sir Richard Levett, who died in 1710, 



484 



had two houses in Kew (see his will at 

 Somerset House). He and Abney served 

 as Lord Mayor in consecutive years, and 

 Abney may have bought part of his estate. 

 In a map of 1771 the land between the 

 Dutch House and the river is marked j 

 belonging to Levett Blackburne, grandson 

 of Sir Richard Levett. Probably Queen 

 Caroline leased the property and Geo. Ill 

 acquired the freehold. 



7* Madame D'Arblay, Memoirs (ed. 

 Austin Dobson), iii, 195. 



"" Diet. Nat. Biog. 



"* Jturn. ofKeiv G (1898), 6. 



