98 KEW GARDENS 



unsurpassed in England, with a fame that went 

 on growing till Erasmus Darwin was bound to 

 note it in his herbarium of verse. 



So sits enthron'd in vegetable pride 

 Imperial Kew by Thames' s glittering side ; 

 Obedient sails from realms unfurrow'd bring 

 For her the unnam'd progeny of spring ; 

 Attendant nymphs her dulcet mandates hear, 

 And nurse in fostering arms the tender year, 

 Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed, 

 Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead ; 

 Or fan^in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers 

 With milder gales, and steep with warmer showers. 

 Etc. etc. 



A much forgotten bard, named Henry Jones, 

 who had been an Irish bricklayer, sought to win 

 patronage, like Stephen Duck, by a whole poem 

 in two cantos on Kew Gardens, a versified 

 catalogue of their contents, with a high-pitched 

 description of the Pagoda, and flowing flattery 

 of their master, as to all which the less said 

 the better. The same title was given to one of 

 poor Chatterton's effusions ; but he, reduced in 

 his garret to ape Junius by "patriotic" letters 

 signed Decimus, lets the garden run under his 

 pen to weeds of spite and scandal. 



Hail Kew ! thou darling of the sacred Nine, 

 Thou eating-house of verse, where poets dine ! 



