42 KEW GARDENS 



at Kew that for some time he had to content 

 himself with ardent letters. At length an 

 interview was arranged under circumstances 

 which suggest that the tutorial turnkeys must 

 have been in the way of nodding over their port. 

 Lord Maiden, who played Leporello in this 

 amour, brought Perdita to an inn on the island 

 between Kew and Brentford, to await the signal 

 that should invite them to cross. 



The handkerchief was waved on the opposite shore ; 

 but the signal was, by the dusk of the evening, rendered 

 almost imperceptible. Lord Maiden took my hand, I 

 stepped into the boat, and in a few minutes we landed 

 before the iron gates of old Kew Palace. The interview 

 was but of a moment. The Prince of Wales and the Duke 

 of York (then Bishop of Osnaburg) were walking down 

 the avenue. A few words, and those scarcely articulate, 

 were uttered by the Prince, when a noise of people 

 approaching from the palace startled us. The moon was 

 now rising ; and the idea of being overheard, or of his 

 Royal Highness being seen out at so unusual an hour, 

 terrified the whole group. After a few more words of a 

 most affectionate nature uttered by the Prince, we parted, 

 and Lord Maiden and myself returned to the island. 

 The Prince never quitted the avenue, nor the presence of 

 the Duke of York, during the whole of this short meeting. 

 Alas ! my friend, if my mind was before influenced by 

 esteem, it was now awakened to the most enthusiastic 

 admiration. The rank of the Prince no longer chilled 

 into awe tbat being who now considered him as the lover 



