72 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
the initials of Samuel Fortrey and Catherine his wife. Fortrey was 
of Dutch descent, and his house, although Jacobean in the main, 
is a Gothic crypt with a vaulted roof — remains, it is believed, of 
the old Dairy House. 
By one of the Fortrey family, the grandson of the builder, the 
Dutch House was sold in 1697 to Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of 
London three years later. The Levett family retained the 
members of the Royal Family as far back as 1734, and George III., 
whilst Prince of Wales, had himself spent some portion of his boy- 
hood here. In later years, after he had ascended the throne and 
married, he came to live close by at Kew House, previously the home 
of his father and mother. The Dutch House then was used as an 
auxiliary dwelling. In 1801 he was kept there during a temporary 
fit of mental disorder, but it was not until the following year — Kew 
House being in process of demolition — that he, with his wife and 
daughters, made it their residence when at Kew. The King himself 
apparently paid his last visit to the house in 1806. On July nth, 
1818, his two sons, the Dukes of Clarence and of Kent, were married 
here, a temporary altar having been fitted up in the Queen’s Drawing 
Room for the event. Four months later (November 17th), Queen 
Charlotte died in the “ Queen’s Bedroom,” where her granddaughter, 
Queen Victoria, afterwards caused a tablet to her memory to be 
fixed above the fireplace. 
With the death of Queen Charlotte the glory of Kew Palace de- 
parted ; the house was never again occupied by Royalty, and for 
down, thereby isolating it. At the same time what is described as 
an unsightly wooden porch was removed from the entrance, reveal- 
ing the letters and date alluded to above. At the Diamond Jubilee 
of Queen Victoria (1897), her Majesty directed that the Palace 
should be opened to the public. After it had been put into repair, 
this was done in 1899. In 1905 the old stables of Kew House, which 
is considered to have certain Dutch features ; it came 
to be known, at any rate, as the “ Dutch House,” a 
name which clung to it for 150 years. Beneath the house 
A Royal 
Residence. 
ownership until 1781, when the freehold was purchased by 
George III. The house had, however, been occupied by 
Recent 
Alterations. 
about eighty years it remained unoccupied and unused. 
In 1880 a low building, which connected the Palace 
with the offices of the present Works Yard, was pulled 
