152 KEW GARDENS 



who might have an interest in hiding some 

 record of his youth. Nothing seemed too bad 

 to be believed of this Prince, whose ambition 

 to reign over us, if attained, would probably 

 have turned the kingdom into a republic. 



The Duke of Cumberland had a house at 

 Kew, which stood at the north-west corner of 

 the Green, and became adapted as the present 

 Herbarium and Library, the new block built 

 after his death in 1851. Here he lived occasion- 

 ally even while King of Hanover ; and here was 

 born his son Prince George, whose birthday was 

 long kept on the Green, as an old inhabitant 

 tells us : " We used to have the climbing-pole, 

 the jumping in sacks, the grinning through horse- 

 collars, the running for shifts, and the pig with a 

 soaped tail, to the infinite delight of the laughter- 

 loving section of the parish." This British-born 

 Prince was the blind King of Hanover, who, so 

 sadly inheriting one of his grandfather's infirmi- 

 ties, lived to be dethroned by the Prussian 

 armies, and to retire to a paradise exile among 

 the Austrian lakes, its lovely scenery lost on him, 

 while, like his grandfather, he found comfort in 

 music. I can recall a touching glimpse of him 

 in his latter days as he came out of a London 



