THE VILLAGE : IN AND ABOUT IT 115 



Council as a fitting retreat for James II., when 

 the Prince of Orange was about to enter London. 

 It would be the convenience of water transit 

 that had dotted the Thames side with lordly 

 mansions and villas ; and of course it should be 

 borne in mind how, at a time when the Court 

 could be spoken of as moving from Kensington 

 to London, places like Kew and Richmond were 

 practically as far from town as now are Haslemere 

 or Missenden, while the champaign rusticity of 

 the former would be more to the taste of Cowley's 

 and Pope's generations. 



Kew is said to have had some sort of chapel 

 before the Reformation ; but it was not till 1714 

 that its church was built, the brick building on 

 the Green, that, with additions and dubious 

 ornaments, has mellowed into a specimen of 

 what may be called the ugly picturesque. The 

 excrescence at the east end marks the sepulchral 

 chamber containing the Duke of Cambridge's 

 tomb. The organ is understood to have been 

 Handel's, and to have been played on by 

 George III. The gallery, added in 1805, still keeps 

 its dusty state as a royal pew, though now used 

 on occasion for less illustrious worshippers. Both 

 inside and outside are many memorials to persons, 



