KEW UNDER GEORGE 
III 
23 
Kew’s 
Decline. 
him. Although he had intended making Kew a place of frequent 
residence, as is shown by the erection of the New Palace in 1803, 
he does not appear to have visited it after 1806. For 
over thirty years it had been his favourite summer resort. 
The Queen, no doubt, retained a genuine affection for the 
place, but she, too, was now growing old. Kew, at any rate, had by 
1810 entered upon its decadent period. As Sir William Thiselton- 
Dyer has written, “from this time, for the next thirty years, Kew 
undoubtedly, though with some spasmodic efforts at recovery, went 
steadily downhill.” 
The Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.) was made Regent 
in 1811, and apparently found Brighton more to his taste than the 
„ semi-rural charms which had attracted his parents 
Re ent 1811 *° ^ ew ‘ The withdrawal of Royal interest was no 
s ’ ‘ doubt the primary cause of Kew’s decline, but the 
science of botany seems at that time to have suffered a partial 
eclipse owing to “ a new science, Chemistry, which sprang rapidly 
into notice.” Sir Humphry Davy, then at the height of his 
career, by his lectures and demonstrations at the Royal Institution 
made that science “ pre-eminently popular and fashionable ; so much 
so, that it cast botany for a while in the shade.” The gathering of 
the allied sovereigns in London after Waterloo is said to have been 
the cause of a renewed interest in Kew. “ The imperial and royal 
guests put in many applications for specimens of this then unique 
collection of plants, and the Prince [Regent] delighted in gratifying 
their wishes ; and an active intercourse with the managers of 
foreign gardens, and with scientific men, was for a while resumed ” 
(Scheer). 
In 1816 a gardener at Kew named Lockhart joined the expedition 
under Captain Tuckey to the river Congo. This expedition, which 
penetrated to the Yellala Falls, had a disastrous ending. 
Twenty-one out of the fifty-four persons belonging to it 
died. One of them was Professor Smith, the botanist 
of the expedition, under whom Lockhart served ; Captain Tuckey 
was another. Lockhart, however, escaped, although it is recorded 
that he was the only survivor of the party who explored the river 
above the Falls. He lived to do useful work in the West Indies, where 
he died in 1845. From 1816 until 1835 no other collector was sent 
out directly from Kew. After Lockhart’s return the establishment 
Congo 
Expedition. 
