38 



Mr. R. H. Scott. 



Ferry at Brentford. Nos. 2 and 3 were quite distinct, though con- 

 tiguous to each other, whereas the above quotation from Crisp would 

 convey the idea that the two names, Richmond Gardens and the Old 

 Deer Park, were applied indiscriminately to the same area. 



1. Kew Gardens lay to the east of Love Lane, they were the 

 gardens of Kew House, of which Frederick Prince of Wales (son of 

 George II) took a long lease from Mr. S. Molyneux, his secretary, to 

 whom it had passed by his marriage with Lady Elizabeth, grand-niece 

 of Lord Capel. 



Mr. Samuel Molyneux, F.R.S., had erected an observatory in a 

 wing of the house, in which he in the year 1725 made, with a 

 telescope of his own construction, in conjunction with Bradley, the 

 famous observations which, after his death, were continued by Bradley 

 and proved the Aberration of Light. This was the original and real 

 Kew Observatory. 



Kew House was taken down in 1803, and the present sundial on 

 its site erected by William IV, in 1832. The inscription on that 

 dial* hardly gives sufficient credit to Molyneux, to whom, however, 

 Bradley does full justice in Phil. Trans., Yol. XXXV, No. 406, p. 637. 



2. Richmond Gardens were the gardens of Richmond Lodge, 

 formerly Ormonde House; of this area 37 acres, including 12 taken 

 from the Old Deer Park, are still in the occupation of the Royal 

 Family. 



As Dr. Evans, in his " Richmond and its Vicinity " (2nd Ed., 1825), 

 says (p. 12), " Richmond Gardens existed and were in the zenith of their 

 popularity before Kew Gardens emerged into distinction." 



3. The Old Deer Park w r as the park of the same house, which stood 

 between it and the gardens. 



As to the origin of Richmond Lodge, we have to go further back. 

 Richmond Palace (or the Palace of Sheen, as it was called before 

 Henry VII gave the village the name of Richmond) was the Sheen 

 Manor House. It was situated on the south-west side of Richmond 

 Green, near the river, and of it little remains save an archway with 

 the Tudor Arms and parts of the outer walls. Edward I made it a 

 palace, and it continued so until the time of Charles I. Edward III, 

 Henry VII, and Elizabeth all died there. Under the Commonwealth 

 in 1650 it was sold, and after the Restoration was again in the hands 

 of the Crown, and it had been mostly pulled down in the seventeenth 



* The inscription upon the dial is as follows : — " On this spot, in 1725, the Rev. 

 James Bradley made the first observations which led to his two great discoveries — 

 the Aberration of Light and the Nutation of the Earth's Axis. The telescope which 

 he used had been erected by Samuel Molyneux, Esq., in a house which afterwards 

 became a Royal residence, and was taken down in 1803. To perpetuate the memory 

 of so important a station, this dial was placed on it in 1832, by command of His 

 Most Gracious Majesty King William the Fourth." 



