The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
William Gardener assesses the handiwork of Sir William Jackson Hooker and John Lindley.
I am His Highness’ dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
He is a wise poet who refrains from explanations, and Pope did not disclose his innuendoes. But the lines are a reminder that Kew Gardens are Royal, not as a mark of patronage and honour, but in plain statement of fact. They were the King’s before they were the public’s; and, as now administered by the Government, they comprise parts not of one Royal Garden but of several.
The rights and wrongs of the antagonism between Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and George II and Queen Caroline his parents, are outside the present subject. It is worth remarking, however, that those who are the most scathing about the Prince have generally the least to say about a substantial positive achievement, the extension of a garden at Kew which soon became, and thereafter continued as, a notable Physic, or Botanical, Garden.
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