124 KEW GARDENS 



his study, perhaps used by him for a botanical 

 collection. His interest in botany, one must 

 recall, was the foundation of Kew Gardens. He 

 privately printed for the Queen's benefit a work 

 on the subject in nine quarto volumes ; and 

 when he moved to a more lordly home at Luton, 

 his first care was to form there a large botanical 

 garden of his own. 



The servants of the royal house, too, required 

 accommodation, which was by no means humble 

 in every case, for some of them must have made 

 a good thing out of their places. Miss Amelia 

 Murray, whose mother had a post about the 

 princesses later on, tells us how " a bottle of 

 wine every two days, and unnecessary wax 

 candles, were, I remember, the perquisites of 

 the ladies' maids. Candles were extinguished as 

 soon as lit, to be carried off by servants ; pages 

 were seen marching out before the royal family 

 with a bottle of wine sticking out of each pocket ; 

 and the State page called regularly on each 

 person who attended the drawing-rooms, with 

 his book, to receive the accustomed gratuity." 

 In earlier days at Kew, George and Charlotte 

 may have been able to keep a sharper eye on 

 waste ; but their economy would always be 



