KEW IN FAVOUR 75 



one of the sons for a time was the fly-wheel in 

 the State, since through him all papers had to be 

 presented for the royal signature. When the 

 Lord Chancellor was admitted to the King's 

 sick-room, he vehemently declared, " as a gentle- 

 man and a king," that he would sign no docu- 

 ment nor perform any act of sovereignty unless 

 he were that very day restored to his wife and 

 daughters ; and he was then taken back to the 

 house over the way, to be still more or less 

 closely watched by the Willises. 



Dr. Thomas Willis, 1 writing at this time to 

 Mr. Rose in the King's name, tells that his own 

 quarters are on Kew Green, " a few doors below 

 the Eose and Crown" a tavern still standing in 

 less transmogrified state than its neighbour, the 

 Kings Arms, also mentioned in books of that 

 period. Kings reign and pass away ; kingdoms 

 flourish and fade, mansions rise and fall, while 

 public-house signs often seem to have more 

 permanence in them than most human institu- 

 tions. Yet of them too transit gloria, if we may 



1 The Dictionary of National Biography s article on Francis Willis, 

 written, I understand, by a descendant of his, hardly does justice) to 

 this one of his sons. The writer mentions John and Robert as con- 

 cerned with treating the King at different times, but does not bring 

 forward Thomas, who, so far as I can make out, was closely in charge 

 during the attack of 1801. 



