28 KEW GARDENS 



Richmond Lodge, also given to the Queen, 

 where perhaps his mother still liked to keep 

 him near her. Every evening, it appears, King 

 and Queen dutifully visited that domineering 

 princess either at Kew, or at her London 

 residence, Leicester House. Carlton House, 

 afterwards given to the next Prince of Wales, 

 was also hers ; and at one or other of these she 

 lived "in a privacy that exceeded economy." 

 That is Horace Walpole's reproach, who speaks 

 of her as avaricious, but does not give the Dowager 

 credit for paying off her husband's debts, nor for 

 her liberal charities. Her worst fault seems to 

 have been a masterful temper that expressed 

 itself in the lesson imprinted on her son's softness, 

 " George, be a king ! " 



Richmond Lodge soon proving too small for 

 the growing royal family, George III. proposed 

 to build a new palace for himself in Richmond 

 Gardens, near the river opposite Syon House. 

 The design is still preserved, and the work was 

 actually begun; but a hitch occurred in the 

 obstinacy of the Richmond people, who refused 

 to sell the King a piece of ground he wanted 

 to round off his demesne. Then the Princess 

 Dowager, when her other sons left the nest, 



