THE STORY OF THE GARDENS 87 



orangery and myrtetum are most beautiful 

 and perfectly kept." Other gardens in this neigh- 

 bourhood called forth Evelyn's admiration 

 the Duke of Lauderdale's at Ham House, 

 "inferior to few of the best villas in Italy 

 itself"; and Sir William Temple's, "lately 

 ambassador to Holland," whose East Sheen 

 villa, Temple Grove, has long been a boys' 

 school taken for the select establishment 

 figuring in Coningsby where his Essay on 

 Gardening might be read with more advantage 

 than The Battle of the Books. Stephen Switzer, 

 one of our first writers on gardening, mentions 

 Lord Capel as distinguished in this pursuit, 

 especially for "bringing over several sorts of 

 fruit from France." 



Molyneux, heir of the Capels, had an interest 

 in science, leading him to set up in his grounds 

 a telescope, by means of which the Astronomer 

 Royal Bradley began observations that led to his 

 great discoveries of the aberration of light and 

 the nutation of the earth's axis. The site of 

 that instrument is now marked by the sun-dial, 

 some way off in front of Kew Palace, erected 

 by William IV. as a memorial, which serves 

 also to show whereabouts stood the vanished 



