EARLY HISTORY OF KEW 
3 
Court 
Officials. 
once a miniature-painter to George III., occupied the house next 
to the Herbarium. Niepce, the original discoverer of the daguerreo- 
type, lived in Kew about 1827. Besides these, there 
might be mentioned numerous officials, etc., connected 
with the Court of George III. and his parents, as 
well as a succession of notable men attached to the Gardens. 
Like most British institutions, the Royal Botanic Gardens 
of Kew have developed from small beginnings. Originally some 
nine acres in size, they have gradually extended their boundaries 
until now they cover an area of 288 acres. On the east they are 
bounded by the thoroughfare between Kew and Richmond, now 
known as Kew Road ; on the south by the Old Deer Park of Rich- 
mond ; on the west by the Thames ; and on the north by Kew 
Green, and the private grounds of Kew Palace and the Herbarium. 
Kew Gardens as they exist to-day are a combination of several 
properties. Only two of these, however, are of chief importance ; 
first, the grounds attached to Kew House, a Royal 
residence at Kew, demolished in 1803 ; and second, 
the grounds of the Royal residence at Richmond known 
as Richmond (or Ormonde) Lodge, which stood in the present Old 
Deer Park until 1772. The rest of these properties are com- 
prised in the grounds of the present Kew Palace and Herbarium, 
and in the gardens that once belonged to a series of houses on the 
south side of Kew Green, which are now Crown property. The two 
great demesnes just mentioned first became united under the one 
ownership when George III. bought the freehold of Kew House some 
time subsequent to 1772. They do not appear actually to have been 
united until 1802, having been up to that time divided by an ancient 
foot-road or bridle-path called Love Lane, which extended from 
Richmond Green to the Horse Ferry across the Thames between Kew 
and Brentford. Up to the time of their union under the auspices 
of George III., the histories of the Richmond and the Kew properties 
are quite separate and distinct. The Royal occupation of Richmond 
Lodge was anterior to that of Kew House, and may here be dealt 
with first, although the history of the Botanic Gardens of Kew is 
more closely associated with the latter. 
Origin of 
Kew Gardens. 
