SIR J. DALTON HOOKER, 1865 TO 1885 51 
Water 
Supply. 
in 1866, as was that also which leads from the Brentford Gate to the 
Broad Walk. 
Between the years 1866 and 1868 the existing system of supplying 
water to the establishment was instituted. Almost since the in- 
auguration of the Botanic Garden at Kew, the centre of 
the water supply had been near the present Cumberland 
Gate. Here, in 1761, the famous engineer Smeaton erected 
an engine to pump water from a well for the supply of the gardens. 
It was worked by horse-power, and appears to have been in use until 
1850. It was then superseded by a steam engine. In 1855 the 
pumping station was removed to near Kew Palace, and water 
apparently was drawn direct from the Thames. This proved unsatis- 
factory, owing to the deposit that was left on the leaves of the indoor 
plants. At the present time water is pumped from the Lake into 
filter-beds near the pumping station, which lies to the west of the 
Temperate House. Thence it is pumped into a reservoir in Richmond 
Park, the height of which gives a good pressure. During a spell of 
dry weather over 300,000 gallons of water are used daily. 
The stables of the establishment were originally in the same 
enclosure as the first pumping station, but they too were removed 
in 1867 to the same yard as the new pumping station. 
Their removal enabled a public entrance to be made 
from the Kew Road. This was opened in 1869 and 
named “ Cumberland Gate.” 
In 1868 the handsome entrance now called the “ Victoria Gate ” 
was erected on the Kew Road opposite the central doors of the Tem- 
perate House. It was placed there in the expectation 
that a station on the London and South Western Rail- 
way was to be built in the vicinity. This arrangement 
having been altered, the gates and pillars were removed in 1889 to 
near the Campanile. 
In connection with new public entrances, it may here be men- 
tioned that the Isleworth Ferry Gate, which gives access to the 
banks of the Thames near the south-west extremity of 
the gardens, was opened in 1872. It is merely a wooden 
drawbridge, which is lowered during the time the gardens 
are open to the public. 
The erection in 1868-9 °f a new range of plant-houses, heated 
from a single stoke-hold, enabled eight old stoves, etc., each heated 
Cumberland 
Gate. 
Victoria 
Gate. 
Isleworth 
Gate. 
