The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-19 00:00:00

KEW GARDENS.

In a report on these gardens appended to the
Civil Service Estimates (I.), which is dated 31st
December, 1855, Sir William Hooker observes :
" Of the general conduct of this mass of visitors,
varying in number according to the season and the
weather, sometimes amounting to 12,000. in a day,
I have in former reports expressed great satisfac-
tion, and especially of that of the middling anj
lower classes, who come generally in family parties,
and whose dress and demeanour are creditable and
praiseworthy ; and though improprieties are now
and then committed by persons of these ranks, I
have generally remarked that grosser misconduct,
rudeness, pilfering, &c., are committed by people
apparently of better education and, a higher grade."
Sir William thus describes the area thrown open
to the parties whose conduct he comments upon in
the above extract :
" During the 15 years that I have had the charge
of the Royal Gardens of Kew, there is not ono to
which I can point with more satisfaction than that
which is past, on account of the benefits which the
public in general have derived from them both in
healthful recreation and instruction. Nor can
this be wondered at, seeing that, by the gracious
permission of her Majesty, the pleasure grounds
are open during the summer months as well as the
Botanic Gardens. The whole area consists of nearly
400 acres, ornamentally planted, yearly increasing
in attraction and beauty ; it is stored with the
choicest trees and plants that can be procured,
either for decoration or use ; and likewise contains
a museum, in -which are exhibited the products of
the various vegetable tribes from all parts of the
orld."
Sir William Hooker has made judicious and suc-
cessful efforts to induce the visitors of Kew Gar
dens to combine instruction with amusement.
With reference to this subject he says in his re-
port :--
c 4 Happily botany is not new what it was a
century, or even half a century, ago—a dry study,
mainly employed to determine the names or a few
medical virtues of plants. A desire on my part,
as director, to popularise the science, and to
render it generally available, has been approved
and encouraged by the several First Commis-
sioners in a way which cannet fail to be of ser-
vice to all classes of society. If proof were want-
ing, no better could be given than the rapid sale
of a " Guide to the Royal Botanic Garden,' illus-
trated with 80 wood-cuts (price 6d.), which has
gone through thirteen editions(each of 2,500 copies)
in the short space of eight years. Indeed the vt ry
peasant who never read a bsok on the subject may
here see attached to the plant itself the name ver-
nacular and scientific, of the more useful kinds,
while the child from school may acquire an impres-
sion of the form and aspect of many plants whose
names he had learnt in books."
The great and steady increase in the annur

number of visitors to these gardens since 1841

very remarkable. In 1841 the number of visitors
during the year was 9,174 ; in 1855 it was 318,818.
The increase has been steadily progressive with two
exceptions. The yearly number of visitors which
from 179,627, in 'lB5O, rose to 327,900 in 1851,
declined in 1852 to 231,210. And the number fell
to 318,81.8, in 1855, from 339,164 in 1854. The
cause of the apparent diminution in 1n52 is oh-
vious ; in 1851 (the year, of the Great Exhibition)
the number of visitors was swollen by the influx of
foreigners. Of the real decline in 1855 Sir Wni.
Hooker observes
" The diminution is capable of easy explanation
by the singularly unfavourable weather which pre-
vailed during the spring and early summer mon 1-s.
The number of visitors from January to July, in-
clusive, was 41,844 les3 than in the' corresponding
months of 1854 ; but during the months of August
and September the number in 1855 was 13,272 in
excess over the same months in 1854 ; notwith-
standing the attractions of the Great Exhibition at.
Paris, which must have drawn numbers away from
their ordinary avocations in the neighbourhood of
London.
Let it be remembered that the visits of the
middle and working classes—according to Sir
William Hooker the best-conducted of the visitors
—to the gardens must be principally made on the
Sundays. Yet an agitation is now on foot to
exclude these classes from' the gardens on that the
' only day they can visit thorn. This was admitted
by the Sabbatarian deputation which lately waited
upon Sir Benjamin Hall. The advoCates of a
coercive Judaical celebration of the Sabbath are so
cock-a-hoop with their victory ou Sir Joshua
- • Walmsley's motion for opening the British Museum
arid National Gallery on Sunday, that they are
bent on an aggressive movement to have Kew Gar-
dens and Hampton-court Palace and grounds closed
on that day.