ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, 
KEW 
PART I 
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 
CHAPTER I 
EARLY HISTORY OF KEW 
T HE history of the village of Kew, as apart from the world- 
famous Gardens to which it gives its name, need not detain 
us long. In old records the name was variously spelt ; thus 
we find Kayhough, Keyhowe, Kayhoo, Ivai-ho, Kaye, Keye, with 
other modifications, until finally it took its present form. The 
earliest mention of the village occurs in a Court roll of the 
manor of Richmond, in the reign of Henry VII. No 
s ’ event or catastrophe of national import has ever happened 
here. It became a Royal place of residence early in the eighteenth 
century, and it is owing to this circumstance, and to the gardens 
which the Royal Family afterwards founded, that the village is 
everywhere known to-day. 
With the river bending round and guarding it on one side, Kew 
has, until comparatively recently, been somewhat apart from, al- 
though close to, great streams of traffic. On the opposite side of 
the Thames is the High Street of Brentford, not only part of the 
old route between London and the Court at Windsor, but also one 
of the main roads from the metropolis to the south-west of England. 
The traffic on the Surrey side of the Thames between London and 
the provinces left Kew considerably farther on one side. Thus, 
ensconced in its nook along the riverside, Kew preserved its old- 
world air much longer than many other London suburbs did. There 
are those still living who can recall the place as a sort of Sleepy 
Hollow — a pretty village consisting of substantial old houses cluster- 
ing round the Green. One can well imagine the Kew of the early 
c 
