30 KEW GARDENS 



Burney, the great poet's works contained " much 

 sad stuff only one must not say so !" 



At the beginning of George III.'s reign, the 

 present Kew Palace is found described as 

 " Princess Amelia's House," so George II.'s old- 

 maid daughter, whose proposed marriage with 

 Frederick the Great fell through, as Carlyle 

 has told at length, must have lived here for a 

 time ; but she soon moved to Gunnersbury, not 

 far off. This wilful Princess Amelia, who had 

 faults and merits of her own, held the office of 

 Ranger of Richmond Great Park, that brought 

 her into collision with the public. She tried 

 to keep the gates shut against both gentle 

 and simple, but found that she was living in 

 a free country, when one Lewis, a Richmond 

 brewer, took the lead in an action for right-of- 

 way, which would have gone against her, had 

 George II. not anticipated the result by throw- 

 ing the Park open. 



Having thus marked out all the royal resid- 

 ences in and about Kew, let us next fix our 

 attention on Kew House during the period when 

 it was the favourite residence of George III. 



