CHAPTER V 
KEW FROM 1820 TO 1841 
Kew in 1820 was but one of several places under the direction of 
the younger Aiton, and it suffered, no doubt, from the lack of that 
John Smith P ersona ^ an< ^ undivided supervision which a scientific 
collection of living plants — more, perhaps, than any 
other — needs. Contemporary accounts of the gardens from this 
date onwards are frequently anything but flattering to their manage- 
ment and condition. How much of this was due to financial stringency 
and how much to a lack of initiative and energy, we cannot at this 
date determine. In 1822 there entered the Kew service a young 
man destined to occupy an important place in the establishment. 
This was John Smith, a Scotsman, afterwards first curator of the 
gardens. He was a native of Aberdour, in Fife, and was born in 
1795. In 1826 he was made Aiton’s chief assistant in the 
Botanic Garden and, soon after the gardens became public property 
in 1840, was appointed curator to serve under Sir William Hooker. 
The twenty-one years between the death of George III. and 1841 
saw Kew at its lowest ebb, and the existence of what remained of 
a genuinely scientific character in the establishment was largely due to 
Smith’s industry and enthusiasm for plants and botany. During 
the reign of George IV. no more collectors were despatched from 
Kew, although plants and seeds were occasionally received from men 
who had gone abroad from Kew on other accounts. The maintenance 
of the collections, therefore, depended mainly on keeping alive the 
plants already existing there ; in other words, on cultural skill — a 
factor in the success of botanical gardening whose importance has 
rarely been properly appreciated. 
George IV. at one time took some interest in Kew, and for a short 
period even contemplated building a new palace there. With this 
laudable aim he effected a change in the boundaries of the gardens 
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