KINGSTON HUNDRED 



KEW 



with bolection mouldings and fluted pilasters with the 

 bases ornamented in low relief and Corinthian 

 capitals. Over the doorway between the two (in the 

 dining-room) is a carved head, probably of the I yth 

 century. On the first floor is a similar long passage 

 from north to south, communicating with the stairs 

 at the north end. East of the latter in the north-east 

 angle is the 'queen's boudoir' which has an 18th- 

 century dado and a ribbed panelled ceiling with 

 allegorical figures in low relief. To the south of this 

 is the ' queen's drawing-room ' which is lined with 

 18th-century panelling with bolection moulds, but 

 has an earlier frieze with raised strap orna- 

 ment ; the fireplace has inlaid marble work and is 

 flanked by grey marble pillars with alabaster capitals. 

 The ' king's bedroom ' and ante-chamber east of the 

 passage at the south end and ' queen's bedroom ' and 

 ante-chamber at the north end have nothing worthy 

 of mention. In one of the rooms on the second 

 floor, east side, is a Tudor fireplace of stone with 

 moulded jambs and a four-centred flat arch ; the 

 spandrels are carved with shields and foliage ; the 

 fireplace is at least a hundred years earlier than the 

 present building, and may be a relic of the earlier 

 building. Some others of the top rooms preserve the 

 panelling and a door or two of the original house. 



Kew Gardens originated in the private garden of 

 Sir Henry Capell, the friend of John Evelyn, who is 

 said to have brought fruits and rare trees from 

 France." He built two greenhouses for oranges and 

 myrtles, which roused Evelyn's admiration, and he 

 contrived palisades of reeds painted with oil 

 to shade the oranges during the summer. 8 " John 

 Evelyn adds, however, that there were too many fir 

 trees in the garden." In the i8th century the 

 grounds at Kew were laid out by the landscape 

 gardener Lancelot Brown, 8 * and between 1757 and 

 1762 Sir William Chambers the architect was em- 

 ployed by the Princess of Wales to adorn the gardens 

 with buildings. 81 In an account of the palace and 

 grounds, dedicated by Chambers to the Dowager 

 Princess, he expatiated on the lack of all natural 

 advantages. 84 According to him the soil was barren," 

 without wood and water, it was dead flat with no 

 prospect, and he took credit for the contrivances that 

 had transformed it from a waste into a garden. An 

 orangery was built under his care in 1761. The 

 Physic or Exoteric garden was begun in 1760 ; the 

 centre of it was occupied by an immense bark 

 house, 60 ft. long, 20 ft. wide, and 20 ft. high. The 

 flower garden, divided by walks, led to the menagerie, 

 a collection of pens and cages of rare birds surround- 

 ing a large basin of water. The pagoda was built by 

 Chambers, as well as various semi-Roman and oriental 

 buildings such as the Temples of the Sun, of Bellona, 

 of god Pan, of Aeolus, a Moresque building, the theatre 

 of Augusta, a Corinthian colonnade, and so on. 86 A 

 good many of these erections were still standing in 



1 840." The Pantheon or Temple of Military Fame 

 was erected to commemorate Nelson's victory in 

 Aboukir Bay. 88 In 1759 William Aiton, author of 

 the Hortus Ketoensii, was the manager of Kew Botanic 

 Gardens, and in 1783 of the royal forcing and 

 pleasure gardens of Kew and Richmond.' 9 His son 

 William Townsend Aiton succeeded him. 80 Queen 

 Charlotte had her own flower-garden at Kew. Mrs. 

 Papendieck relates how the queen's gardener, Mr. 

 Green, was rearing orange trees with great care ; but 

 as the queen could not afford to rebuild the hot-houses, 

 and the Board of Works would not, as it was the 

 queen's private garden, the growth of the trees was 

 stunted. 91 In 1854 George Bentham the botanist 

 presented his collections and books to Kew, in return 

 for which a room there was assigned to him, where he 

 worked daily at descriptive botany. 9 * Hanover House, 

 where Ernest Duke of Cumberland, King of Hanover, 

 dwelt from 1830 to 1831, is now the Herbarium, 95 and 

 Cambridge Cottage, which used to be inhabited by 

 Augustus Duke of Cambridge, is now the museum of 

 British forest productions. 94 The Queen's Cottage in 

 Kew Gardens was used by Queen Charlotte and the 

 princesses as a sort of summer-house, or afternoon tea- 

 room. When Kew Gardens were thrown open, at the 

 beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, she kept this 

 cottage and some 40 acres round it for her own use, 

 whence its name. She appears, however, to have gone 

 there very seldom, and in 1897 it was also thrown 

 open to the public. The grounds were opened on 

 i May 1 899. The cottage, which is thatched, con- 

 sists of three rooms only, one upstairs and a sitting- 

 room and kitchen on the ground floor. Part of the 

 lands round are covered with thick wood ; the rest 

 used to be laid out, but latterly has been allowed to 

 grow wild. 95 



Until the middle of the i8th century there was 

 no bridge across the Thames from Kew to Brentford. 

 A ferry was granted by Henry VIII to John Hale, 96 

 servant to Henry Morris, but the inhabitants of Kew 

 brought a suit against him, in which it was pleaded 

 that ' for time out of mind ' they had had the right 

 of free passage across the Thames, and now, they 

 said, John Hale ' would suffer no man to pass with 

 any manner of boat, but only in his boat, exacting 

 and requiring a certain sum for every passage over 

 there.' In reply John Hale declared that the kings 

 had always been accustomed to grant the ferry by 

 their patents, enabling the holder of the ferry to 

 charge for every man and horse one half penny and 

 for every man, woman, and child one farthing, 97 

 There appears to be no record of the judgement 

 given, but the inhabitants evidently lost the suit. In 

 1631-2 Charles I granted the ferry late in the tenure 

 of Walter Hickman to Basil Nicoll and John Samp- 

 son. 98 In 1691 William III granted protection 

 against the pressgang to William Rose and Mar- 

 maduke Greenaway, as their services were essential 



7' Frederick Scheer, Kew and in Gar- 

 dm, 13. 



80 John Evelyn, Diary (ed. Bray), 951, 



5H- 



> Ibid. 451. 

 M Diet. Nat. Biog. 



M Ibid. 



81 Sir W. Chambers, Plant tf Gardens 

 And Buildings at Kewt. 



85 Sir Joseph Hooker has made exactly 

 the tame complaint. 



84 Sir W. Chambers, Plans of Gardtns 

 and Buildings at Knv. 



87 F. Scheer, Kew and its Gardtns, 43. 



88 Ibid. 44. 



8 Diet. Nat. Biog. Ibid. 



91 Journ. of Mrs. Paftndieck, 5 1 . 



M Diet. Nat. Biog. 



93 Journ. of Kew Guild (1907), 359. 

 The Church House was the earlier home 

 of the Duke of Cumberland, and was re- 

 visited by the late blind king in 1853. 



485 



Hanover House belonged to a Mr. Theo- 

 bald in 1771, according to a map still 

 extant, and then to a Mr. Hunter, who 

 died in iSlz, and was called Hunter 

 House. M Ibid. 



Ibid. (1899), 6. 



L. and P. Hen. VIII, xi, 1417 (10). 



7 Star Chamber Proc. Hen. VIII, voU 

 6, fol. 60-1. 



*> Pat. 7 Chas. I, pt. i, no. 6 ; Col, 

 S.P. Dam. 1603-10, p. 199. 



