i6 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
required at least once a week ” there. From this it appears probable 
that he assisted in the laying out of the botanic garden in 1760. 
George II. died in 1760, and, as already explained, with the accession 
of his grandson to the throne the long antagonism (or what remained 
of it) between the Royal households of Kew and Richmond came to an 
end. George III. reserved Richmond Lodge for his own use, whilst his 
mother continued to occupy Kew House. Her attachment to botanical 
and garden pursuits and to Kew was shared in no small degree by him. 
According to Sir William Chambers, the formation of the botanic 
garden at Kew was commenced in 1760. The space allotted to the 
Th Old estivation and scientific arrangement of the plants was 
g originally about nine acres. This area was enclosed by 
Garden walls, and the Temple of the Sun occupied the centre 
of the garden. One portion, called the Physic Garden, 
was devoted to herbaceous plants arranged in accordance with the 
then newly-devised Linnaean system. The other part was given up 
to trees and shrubs also scientifically arranged, and was called the 
Arboretum, a name for this part of the gardens which has survived 
until the present day among the older workmen. The large remainder 
of the Kew House demesne, which was termed the Pleasure Grounds, 
extended to the present southern limits of Kew Gardens near the 
Pagoda, having Love Lane as a western boundary and Kew Road 
as an eastern one. It covered an area, roughly trapeziform, some 
1,600 yards long by from 300 to 500 yards wide. 
In 1761 there was built the hothouse which afterwards became 
known as the “ Great Stove.” It was erected from the designs of 
Sir William Chambers, and was notable as being at 
that time the largest hothouse in England. Chambers 
describes it as 114 feet long, with the centre occupied 
by a “ bark stove ” 60 feet long. By “ bark stove ” is probably 
meant a bed of tan, in which the pots of plants were plunged and 
useful as giving off a mild, moist heat by fermentation. The house 
stood a little south of the Temple of the Sun, and was not demolished 
until 1861, having stood exactly a century. Its site is marked by 
the wistaria which is now trained on a circular iron cage, but which 
once grew on the walls of the old stove. 
In the spring of 1762 the gardens at Kew were enriched by the 
removal from the Duke of Argyll’s garden at Whitton, near Hounslow, 
of a large number of rare trees and shrubs. Most of them were probably 
The Great 
Stove. 
