The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-10-09
WAKEMANSW ANDERINGS
He TELLS OF a VISIT TO THE GAR
DENS OF ROYAL KEW.


LONDON. Sept. 26.-"Hus Is downtrod,
the Lord Knows. but hus as our regular
houtings, cheap enough to get to, and
wariouser than can be named in jiffy."
Thus spoke hearty London stoker, who
sat beside me on top Of q fourpenny HAM
mersmith bus. Along with him were his
buxom wife and four red-cheeked children.
1t was early Of a Saturday afternoon, and
there was not a happier family, "downtrod"
or otherwise, in all London.
"My missus 'ere," proudly clsDping his
huge haGd on his wife's abundant knees,
IAN Hi an the young uns be goin' Ger to
Kew Missus Ioikes were she can PUNK
,erser fat T. grass, tho Hi allus says, POL,
grass en- rheumatic grows t'gether,' an the
Young uns romps and gallops like mad. Hi
saws, 'Pol, them young unsIl waste their
sei's 10 bone from 'oppin' an steaming
round Kew But Pol says back to me,
scat, Handrew, hit makes EN- sleep like
haldermen and heat like paupers,' an so
Kew hit is If takes my last bob for hour
houting. Been TO Kew, sir"
No, had not, but l should be glad to see
the gardens, told him.
IVY Lord bless hus! come right long
VII bus. Hill do ye good, sir!"
And so it did, for kept in the delightful
company Of the "downtrod" all the way
out on the pleasant journey, returned to
the city with them, and never lost sight of
them until the blazing evening lights of the
winding Strand shone on the tired family
safely ensconsced on the deck of White
chapel bus, which whirled them away to
their lowly home in that worlds foulest
slave pen-the east end of mighty London.
1t is an interesting little journey by I'M
foreground railway, by river or by road to
Tnfaraotipp halOvy Ton.
the glimpses of the folks who live down there
in the bowels of the earth-station masters,
porters news clerks and bar msids-out Of
whose faces, like the Cornish miners, the
n light and color have gone. and who move
n about III a desolate, discouraged way, as
q though hopeless prisoners there. You read
pathOs and heartache all along under these
4 foul underground ways; breathe a prayer
that our cities shall never know them; and
wish you could whisk all these white faced
toilers with "Handrewn aud the young
uns" for romp about the lovely gardens Of
Kew.
thousand historic places and Iordly
structures are passed should you 60 by boat
upon the Thames. 1t is not only these aud
the vast throng of craft you see from your
steamers side, but you recall the royal pro-
esssions OF boat and barge OF other days
passing and repassng from London TO Won
drous Hamilton Court, and these bear you
COMPANY AUS WnOle bIE6hIu IL
soundful with music. German bands,
Italian bands, Swiss bands, Hungarian
bands and gypsy bands crowd these boats,
and give good music, too. Swift are the
steamers, and mighty wash is left behind
them, while all the tiny boats sfoat seem
to dance and curvet in your wake TO the
endless music of the Thames.
From the roof Of your bus you see miles
upon miles Of the wealthiest part OF West
London. Here is Picadllly, with its aristo-
cratic clubland on the right; Green Park
and lordly Buckingham palace are on the
left; Hyde PARK Corner, KDightsbridge,
Albert memorial, Kensington gardens, Ken
sington, Holland park. Olympia and Ham
mersmith follow, and then you coma TO
where the hedges, avenues and villages hint
Of the restful country scenes Of England.
Bright, indeed. is this road to Kew, through
busy Hammersmith and drowsy Chiswick,
with its nursery grounds and glass houses
by the wayside aud fine market gardens
crowded close by new houses, and dreamful
Gunnersbury, where the ancient forests
show in dark masses against the horizon.
There are lush orchards, too, where the rich
fruit dapples the failing leaves, and mead
ows wavy and rich, where the late butter
cups and daisies star the tender green.
The old days are remembered more than
once in this winding hIghway-mOst sug-
gestlvely, perhaps. where on a new red
brick wall is seen the inscription, London
Sule." Who that has read Dickens or
Thackeray or Albert Smith (who barely es-
capped being as great as either does not In
fancy instantly live in the old coaching days
and see disappearing to the west in a cloud
Of dust the "Flying Mailn or the Nv onder, :"
or with pathetic recognition remember the
country yokels resting on that broad stile,
the meantime munching their crusts as they
gazed down the Thames to Westminster's
towers and st. Paul's dome and dream of
. the wondrous London streets all paved with
shining goldl
And then the NOISY bridges, with steep,
n old-fashioned pitch and broad, crumbling
a parapets, where rosy-cheeksd lass eS still
hnger and marvel as your bus goes rum
bling by; gray turDstiles leading to brown,
deep footpaths that wind through gardens
and fields, whore some one, as in the old
days, always tarrles and turns TO gaze at
n passerS, gazing in their turn, as though the
n tWo were the only ones seen in whole
days journey; the gay but stolid looking
oarges lying here and there in the back
water against the shore, aud finally, quaint
old Kew Green, where the years bring no
change and where everything is SO little,
~ cod and antiquated that you could feel no
surprise if Farmer George aud Queen Char
io1te, with numbering caleche and six
hI'rses came dashIpg through the gates Of
4 Royal Kew.
-, About 200 years ago Lord Capel laid out
th9 garden which has since become not only
one Of London's most beautiful pleasure
y GROUNDS, but scientific institution, whose
llnlence and benefits reach to all quarters
oL the globe On the death of LORD Capel
n m 1876, the estate passed into the hands OF
us son-in-law, who made the place still
more famous as the headquarters of English
n economists. Under the advice OF the Earl
VI Butte the dowager Princess Augusta
made it a scientific establishment, and it
was called the "Physlc Garden" AS early
as los Sir John Hill published a catalogue
4l The plants Of Kew. There were then fifty
.erns, 600 trees ana shrubs and several
thousand herbaceous plants. In 1889 the
estate was bought by George Ill. He de-
1o,ed much money to and attention to its
Improvement Farmer George" he was
4 called, in praise by scientists and in deris-
ION by Taxpayers, for his pains. For a
lohG time after this monarch's death the
q gardens sank into neglect. 1t was then pro
posed to disestablsh and disendow them. A
A protest was raised and the whole kingdom
opposed whereupon the gardens we're sur
.sudered by the crown and became ma
"oIlal establishment in 1910.
= 4hen Royal Kew In name became Royal
NNew in fact under the directorships OF Sir
-. Hooker, who remained in charge
gnu his death, in 1865, and his son, Sir
Oooeph Hooker the renowned traveller ana