73 

 K51M7 



PREFACE 



KEW GARDENS contain what seems the com- 

 pletest botanical collection in the world, handi- 

 capped as it is by a climate at the antipodes 

 of Eden, and by a soil that owes less to Nature 

 than to patient art. Before being given up 

 to public pleasure and instruction, this demesne 

 was a royal country seat, specially favoured by 

 George III. That homely King had two houses 

 here and began to build a more pretentious 

 palace, a design cut short by his infirmities, but 

 for which Kew might have usurped the place of 

 Windsor. For nearly a century it kept a close 

 connection with the Royal Family, as the author 

 illustrates in his story of the village and the 

 Gardens, while the artist has found most effec- 

 tive subjects in the rich vegetation gathered into 

 this enclosure and in the relics of its former state. 



