CHAPTER III 
KEW HOUSE 
Richard 
Bennett. 
It is in the middle years of the seventeenth century that we find 
first mention of Kew House, also known as “ White House,” the 
building which afterwards became the first of the three 
“ palaces ” of Kew, and in the grounds of which was 
formed the nucleus of the famous botanic gardens of 
later times. At that period it belonged to Richard Bennett, great- 
nephew of the Sir Thomas Bennett who was Lord Mayor of London 
in 1603. Subsequently it went to the Capel family through the 
marriage of Sir Henry (afterwards Lord) Capel with the daughter 
of Richard Bennett. Lady Capel died in 1721, and her memory 
is kept alive by a monument on the walls of Kew Church, the 
funds of which are still benefiting from the proceeds of property 
bequeathed to it by her. The family name, too, survives in the 
title of one of the private houses on the north side of Kew Green. 
Sir Henry Capel was an ardent cultivator of plants, and to him 
may be fairly ascribed the genesis of Kew as a horticultural, if not 
a botanical, centre. John Evelyn, in his “Diary,” 
Sir Henry ma ^ es several references to Sir Henry Capel and his 
p ' gardens at Kew. In August, 1678, he wrote that the 
garden had the “ choicest fruit of any in England,” and that Sir 
Henry was “ the most industrious and understanding in it.” Five 
years later he alludes to his having seen there two greenhouses for 
oranges and myrtles. And under the date February 24th, 1688, he 
writes : “ We went to Kew to visit Sir Henry Capel’s, whose orangery 
and myrtetum are most beautiful and perfectly well kept. He was 
contriving very high palisades of reeds, to shade his oranges during 
the summer.” Other evidences of the gardening enthusiasm of Sir 
Henry Capel are recorded. He imported several new fruits from 
France, and is said to have paid £40 for two lentiscus trees. 
J. Gibson, the author of “ A Short Account of Several Gardens near 
