December 24, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
568 
direction will be appropriate now, and we therefore give a review of its 
history as published in the Official Guide-book. 
About the middle of the seventeenth century the spot that now 
orms the Royal Gardens of Kew, together with a residence called Kcw 
Hnnse, bdonged to R. Bennett, Esq., whose daughter and heiress married 
if?, ° a P eU , K ew House and Grounds then passed into the hands of Mr. 
Molyneux, who was secretary to King George IL when Prince of Wales, 
and who married Lady Elizabeth Capel. The Prince of Wales, who 
was son to George II. and father to George III., admiring the situation 
iwn A 10 * a long lease of it: from the Ca P el fami[ yabout tbe 
year 1 too, and began to form the pleasure groun Is, then containing about 
and of Mr. Allan Cunningham to Australia ; the expeditions of Bowie and 
Masson respectively to Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope—all these 
enriched the gardens of Kew with the vegetable productions of the 
southern hemisphere to an extent unparalleled before ; besides which, 
other collectors were employed during a long period in various countries, 
and the produce of their researches was deposited at Kew. On various 
occasions, especially during the life of King George IIL, many houses, 
stoves, and pits were erected; but on the demise of that monarch and of 
Sir Joseph Banks, who died shortly after the King, the establishment 
suffered from want of Royal and scientific encouragement. During the 
reigns of George IV. and William IV. the botanic gardens retrograded. 
270 acres. They were completed by his widow, Augusta, Princess 
Dowager of Wales, who delighted in superintending the improvements, 
then conducted upon a most extensive scale. The exotic department of 
this garden was commenced by the same Princess and much favoured by 
the Earl of Bute, about the middle of the eighteenth century. Many of 
the finest foreign trees were coutribut.d by Archibald, Duke of Argyle 
(styled by Horace Walpole the Tree-monger), who sent them from his 
once richly stored garden at Whitton, near Hounslow. 
“ About the year 1789 His Majesty George III. purchased Kew House, 
and Queen Charlotte evinced much interest in the increase of the collec¬ 
tion of plants. Under such auspices, and aided by the enlightened 
patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, it was only to be expected that the 
gardens of Kew should become celebrated all over the world. 
“ The voyage of Capt. Cook and Sir Joseph Banks round the world ; 
those of Capt. Flinders and Mr. Robert Brown (Botanicorum Princeps), 
and matters must have been much worse hut for the able exertions of 
Mr. Aiton, and of his foreman (the late Curator), Mr. John Smith, A.L.S. 
Throughout the country an opinion existed, which soon began to be loudly 
expressed, that either the gardens should be entirely abolished or placed 
upon a very different footing, and rendered available as a great popular 
yet scientific establishment for the advantage of the public. 
“ Government was, happily, ready to respond to this latter feeling, 
and in 1838 the Lords of Her Majesty’s Treasury appointed a committee 
to inquire into the management, condition, &c., of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens. The result was in May, 1840, a return was made to the House 
of Commons in the shape of a report by Dr. Lindley, who, at the desire 
of the Committee, had surveyed the gardens in conjunction with two 
well-known practical gardeners. 
“Many useful suggestions offered by Dr. Lindley were acted upon, 
especially the following :—A national garden ought to be the centre 
