RICHMOND LODGE AND GARDENS 
7 
Richmond 
Gardens 
in 1754. 
To judge by contemporary plans and descriptions, some portions of 
the Royal Gardens at Richmond were, in the middle of the eighteenth 
century, very pronounced examples of the “ natural ” 
school. Their general outline was, roughly, a narrow 
triangle the apex of which was near the present Kew 
Palace, the base at Richmond Green and portions of what 
is now the Old Deer Park, and the sides of which were, on the west, 
the Thames, and, on the east, Love Lane. Wooded areas traversed 
by numerous serpentine paths were separated from each other by 
meadows and cornfields. Other portions were allowed to run wild 
with broom and gorse as cover for game, and the term “ wilderness ” 
frequently occurs in descriptive accounts. It is a curious instance 
of the persistence of names that the semi-wild and uncultivated parts 
of Kew are even now, when nearly two centuries have elapsed, alluded 
to as “ the wilderness.” In contradistinction to this phase of land- 
scape art, which appears to have secured the enthusiastic admiration 
of contemporary writers, there were, near Richmond Lodge, plots 
and borders arranged in formal fashion, and a large portion of what 
is now the Old Deer Park was traversed by avenues of trees. The 
most notable of these avenues was one more than a mile long, ex- 
tending from Richmond Green to the northern apex of the Gardens. 
This avenue was called the “ Forest Walk,” and ran pretty nearly 
parallel with the eastern boundary of the Gardens and Love Lane. 
In 1730 , or about that date, Frederick, Prince of Wales, leased 
Kew House and its grounds from the Capel family. The southern 
extremity of this property was — as it is now — near the 
spot on which the Pagoda was afterwards built. At this 
time both the King and Queen were on hostile terms with 
their son and new neighbour, who had set up his rival Court within 
a mile of Richmond Lodge and whose domain was only separated 
from their own by the ancient bridle-path which has already been 
alluded to, Love Lane. It is not easy now to trace the exact course 
of this famous by-path. But, roughly, it would follow pretty closely 
the present long, straight “ Holly Walk,” and thence run eastwards 
of, and somewhat parallel to, “ Stafford Walk ” to Kew Palace 
lawn. It would cut the present area of Kew Gardens into two fairly 
equal parts. Love Lane gave the people of Richmond an almost 
direct route from their Green to Brentford Horse Ferry. With the 
supersession of the ferry by the building of the first Kew Bridge in 
Love 
Lane. 
