i4 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
considerable traveller, having, among other countries, visited China. 
The knowledge he thereby acquired of foreign types of architec- 
Chambers ^ure was afterwards freely drawn upon to furnish ideas 
for the structure and embellishment of the buildings 
he erected at Kew. In 1763, Chambers published a fine folio 
volume illustrated by engravings and diagrams, and containing 
descriptions of his work at Kew. From this volume several of our 
illustrations have been taken. He makes the following interesting 
allusion to the Kew Gardens of his time : “ The gardens at Kew are 
not very large, nor is their situation by any means advantageous, 
as it is low and commands no prospects. Originally the ground was 
one continued dead flat : the soil was in general barren and without 
either wood or water. With so many disadvantages it was not easy 
to produce anything even tolerable in gardening : but princely 
munificence, guided by a director equally skilled in cultivating the 
earth and in the politer arts, overcame all difficulties. What was 
once a Desert is now an Eden.” 
Such, then, were the three chief helpers and advisers, each in 
his own way a remarkable man, whom the Princess Dowager of Wales 
had enlisted in her service in 1759. Chambers was an architect 
purely ; Aiton was but twenty-eight years of age, and at first was 
probably responsible for cultural matters only ; Lord Bute was the 
“ principal manager,” and supplied the scientific impetus. It is to 
him and to the Princess Augusta, whose generosity and liberal-minded- 
ness were, of course, the moving powers, that the foundation of Kew 
as the botanical centre of the British Empire is due. 
One other notable man deserves to be mentioned here. This is 
Sir John Hill, who in 1768 published the first Hortus Kewensis, con- 
g. j k taining a description of the exotic and rarer native plants 
cultivated in the garden. He was born at Peterborough 
about 1716 and, after carrying on a lucrative business 
as an apothecary in London, obtained a diploma of medicine from 
St. Andrews. He was the author of several works on botany, and a 
protege of Lord Bute ; through him, no doubt, as well as from in- 
clination, he took a keen and friendly interest in Kew. His lengthy 
work, “ The Vegetable System,” the publication of which extended 
from 1759 until his death in 1775, appears to have led to his finan- 
cial embarrassment, but brought him the knighthood of the Swedish 
order of Vasa. There is a curious pamphlet, entitled “ An Address 
