2 KEW GARDENS 



the willow-plate pattern period of our history, 

 when a true-blue conservatism had the affectation 

 of letting itself be spangled with foreign amenities 

 and curiosities, jumbled together without much 

 regard for perspective or natural surroundings. 



Before coming to the Gardens that are its 

 present fame, we should understand how Kew, 

 even in its days of obscurity, had all along to do 

 with great folk. Almost every line of our 

 kings has had a home in this Thames-side neigh- 

 bourhood, a distinction dating from before the 

 Conquest. Both Kew and Richmond began 

 parochial life as dependencies of Kingston, the 

 Kings town that once made a chief seat of 

 Saxon princes, whose coronation stone bears 

 record in its market-place. The manor, included 

 with that of Sheen the modern Richmond 

 was held by the Crown at Doomsday. For a 

 time it seems to have passed into the hands of 

 subjects, but there are hints of the first Edwards 

 having a country home at Sheen. Edward III. 

 certainly died at a palace said to have been 

 built by him here. Richard II.'s first queen, 

 Anne of Bohemia, also died at Sheen, to her 

 husband's so great grief that he cursed the build- 

 ing in the practical form of ordering it to be 



