VISITING THE GARDENS 



KEW has grown out to run into Richmond by 

 blocks of commonplace suburban houses, some 

 of which boast to stand on a dozen feet of 

 gravel. The quaint Georgian mansions have 

 mostly sunk in relative importance; and the 

 homely cottages that once neighboured them 

 have gone, or are like to go, though some of 

 them still do a trade in refreshments, notably in 

 sixpenny and ninepenny teas served to holiday 

 parties. One side of the Green, turning from 

 the Bridge to the main gate, is a row of houses 

 and gardens of entertainment, at the doors of 

 which, on a Sunday afternoon, clamorous touts 

 strive to draw in the coming and going streams 

 of sightseers, thus admitted to dwellings where 

 celebrities of the past may once have been at 

 home. This is a sign how as Kew waned in 



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