34 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Lord 
Lincoln. 
of Kew in 1841 was the direction of a man gifted with energy, enthu- 
siasm and, above all, imagination. How much Hooker had of the 
two former is shown by what he accomplished. How amply he was 
endowed with the last is strikingly demonstrated by the Kew of the 
twentieth century ; for, if we except the North Gallery and the 
Jodrell Laboratory, there is scarcely a notable feature or branch of 
activity in the establishment to-day which was not originated or 
at least foreshadowed by him. When he began his rule, Kew 
was a comparatively small affair, but he never let his vision pass 
from the nobler Kew of his imagination, nor his efforts relax in its 
achievement. 
When Sir William Hooker became director of Kew it was under 
the control of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and it was, 
perhaps, a stroke of good fortune that Lord Lincoln, 
afterwards Duke of Newcastle, became Chief Commissioner 
in place of the unsympathetic Lord Duncannon. The 
new director was not only given a free hand, but received help and 
encouragement also from the new Chief Commissioner and several 
of his colleagues. Mr. John Smith, who for many years had been 
foreman of the Botanic Garden under W. T. Aiton, was appointed 
curator. 
At this time Hooker’s charge was comprised in an area of about 
fifteen acres, divided, as we have already seen, by a number of brick 
walls, which must have prevented the production of 
any broad landscape effects. One of his first improve- 
ments was the gradual removal of most of these walls. 
According to Lindley’s report, there were, in 1841, ten glass-houses 
in the Botanic Garden, besides the usual pits and frames. Six of these 
were stoves and greenhouses, from 40 feet to 60 feet in length ; two 
were respectively 30 feet and 35 feet long ; and there were still in 
existence also the “ Great Stove,” 114 feet long, built by Sir William 
Chambers in 1761 (alluded to on an earlier page), as well as a “ Botany 
Bay ” house of about the same length, built in 1788. These 
houses are described as having been much crowded with plants, 
and no doubt the heating arrangements of several of them were 
well out-of-date. Reform was begun at once by renewing and 
enlarging the glass-house section of the establishment, and, where 
possible, bringing the heating arrangements more into line with the 
approved methods of the time. 
Kew Gardens 
in 1841. 
