SIR WILLIAM HOOKER, 1841 TO 1850 41 
New Herb 
Garden. 
Foundation 
of Museums. 
important position in connection with Kew and the Royal service. 
He resided in the house in Kew Road now partly used as an office 
for the curator, and died at Kensington in 1849. 
Queen Victoria, in pursuance of that generous policy which 
she always evinced towards Kew, and which Edward VII. has 
graciously continued, gave over the Kitchen Garden, 
which with an adjoining paddock covered about 
fourteen acres, to public use. It was added to the 
Botanic Garden, bringing the area of the latter to about seventy- 
eight acres. Sir William Hooker decided to devote a portion of 
this new acquisition to the collection of herbaceous plants, and 
it has since remained the home of this collection. Several trans- 
verse walls were razed, but the long wall which still shuts in this 
piece of ground was left for tender climbing plants. 
Attached to the Kitchen Garden were several glass-houses and 
frames, which proved very acceptable, in the already congested state 
of the indoor collections. But more important than 
these was a building, partly fruit-store and partly a 
gardeners’ dwelling. This it was decided to convert 
into a museum, in which should be exhibited interesting and useful 
vegetable products. A collection, consisting largely of objects 
which were the private property of the director and curator, was 
arranged and opened to the public in 1848. Thus was founded 
that important department of Kew — the Museums of Economic 
Botany. The old house still stands, ivy-covered, homely, and not 
perfectly suited to its purpose, as Museum No. II. 
In another part of this book it is mentioned that the “ New ” 
Palace partially erected by George III. was demolished by his suc- 
_ cessor in 1829 (see “Palaces of Kew”). From that 
UU66I1 y 
JL date until 1847 the site of this building had remained 
Lawn much neglected. But during that year the ground was 
cleared of the debris that remained, and the riverside 
terrace known as “ Queen Elizabeth’s Lawn ” was made ; the entrance 
gates to Kew Palace were erected ; and the ha-ha between them 
and the Brentford Ferry Gates was dug. The lawn derives its name 
from an ancient elm beneath which, tradition says, Queen Elizabeth 
in her girlhood used to sit ( see “ Notable Trees ”). 
On the pillars of the Kew Palace Gates are two sculptured dogs, 
now much defaced and weather-worn. They are stated to have come 
H 
