RICHMOND LODGE AND GARDENS 
9 
mark on Kew Gardens. The Rhododendron Dell, or “ Hollow Walk,” 
as it was originally called, is believed to have been made under his 
direction. But with regard to the Royal Gardens of Richmond, 
his work appears to have been destructive rather than constructive. 
Merlin’s Cave and the Hermitage were destroyed, and the gardens 
were gradually remodelled in accordance with the new ideas of 
“ Capability ” Brown. To satisfy the agricultural tastes of George III., 
a great part of the Deer Park was converted into the wide expanse 
of pasture-land it still remains. 
The process involved the destruction of a hamlet known then 
as West Sheen, which in earlier-times had been the site of a Carthusian 
monastery, founded in 1414 by Henry V. The spot is marked 
Sheen ^y P resen ^ Kew Observatory, which was built in 1769 
from the designs of Sir William Chambers. The immediate 
purpose of its erection was to observe the transit of Venus which 
occurred in that year. 
It may here be mentioned that with the demolition of Richmond 
Lodge in 1772, its kitchen and flower gardens were added to the 
^ ^ Deer Park, which then assumed pretty nearly its present 
p ark form and dimensions. The only alterations of any import- 
ance were the addition to it, early in the nineteenth 
century, of some land on the Kew Road side, purchased by George III. 
from the Selwyn family ; and the subtraction from it, in 1851, of 
thirteen acres near the river, which were added to the grounds of 
Queen’s Cottage. For this piece of land a rent of £3 10s. per acre 
is still paid to the Department of Woods and Forests. 
That all the changes wrought by the King and “ Capability ” 
Brown did not obtain universal approval is shown by the following 
lines from Mason’s “ Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers ” (1773) ; 
“ Come then, prolific Art, and with thee bring 
The charms that rise from thy exhaustless spring ; 
To Richmond come, for see untutored Brown 
Destroys those wonders that were once thy own. 
Lo ! from his melon-ground the peasant slave 
Has rudely rush’d and level’d Merlin’s Cave, 
Knocked down the waxen wizard, seized his wand, 
Transform’d to lawns what late was fairy land ; 
And marr’d, with impious hand, each sweet design 
Of Stephen Duck and good Queen Caroline ! ” 
D 
