THE STORY OF THE GARDENS 107 



palace no longer attracted people of fashion, 

 and for the ordinary citizen Kew was still 

 rather out of the way, though "stages" left 

 Piccadilly every quarter of an hour in the 

 season, and in 1808 there were already " houses 

 of entertainment" on Kew Green, as we find 

 particularised in a guide-book of that date. 

 Later on, the Gardens were open every day 

 except Sunday. But by this time they were 

 ceasing to be attractive. Aiton had been 

 appointed director of all the royal parks and 

 gardens, employment which appears to have 

 taken off his attention from Kew, where money 

 as well as interest ran short. The part kept up 

 shrank to the dozen or score acres of the original 

 Botanic Gardens, the rest relapsing into thickets 

 that made a game preserve for Ernest, King of 

 Hanover. A formidable rival was the Horti- 

 cultural Society's Garden at Turnham Green, 

 recently removed to Wisley Common. By the 

 beginning of Victoria's reign, the Kew Gardens 

 had fallen so low that there was a talk of 

 breaking them up and dispersing the collection, 

 to the indignation of the inhabitants, who had 

 an old grievance that they had given part of 

 their Green to enlarge this royal property, on 



