Kew first became a royal residence in the reign of George II., when it was leased from its private owners and used as a country seat by Frederick, Prince of Wales. Owing to his undutiful behaviour to his father, the Prince was banished from Court, when he retired to Kew, forming a sort of opposition Court there. But the actual red-brick Jacobean house, now known as Kew Palace, was then only called the Dutch House, after its original founder, Sir Hugh Portman, who was a Dutch merchant in the time of James I. It stood quite close to the more important building of Kew House, and [pg 60] was as constantly occupied by members of the Royal Family as the larger adjacent palace.

The Dutch House, or Kew Palace as it is now designated, is thoroughly typical of its period—a simple, three gabled, and dignified looking building, unpalatial indeed, but quite befitting the position of the wealthy knight who built it. The interior has been altered to suit the tastes of the royal inmates, who inserted marble fireplaces, and put in new doors, but a good deal of the original Jacobean panelling still remains. On the brass locks of the doors are to be seen the Prince of Wales's feathers, and the cypher of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Kew Palace (the Dutch House) and George III.'s
Castellated Palace, pulled down by George IV.

George III. spent a great part of his youth at Kew, living there with his mother, the widowed Princess of Wales. He was brought up in strict retirement, his mother regulating his life and restricting his intercourse with the outer world. Strangely enough, when he succeeded to the throne of his grandfather, George III. did not revolt from the ordered régime of the early days, but maintained the same careful regularity all his life. He continued to love Kew, where he and his devoted but prosaic Queen spent several months of every year. Buying the two houses from the lease-holders, Queen Charlotte turned the Dutch House into [pg 61] a royal nursery, where her large family was brought up. Both she and the King delighted in getting away to Kew, where no kind of royal state was kept up, and where they could live the ordinary life of quiet country gentlefolk, the only life for which they were really suited. Once a week the public were admitted into the gardens, and allowed the privilege of seeing the King and Queen and the royal children en famille, talking to their friends, and walking about in their private gardens. The little riverside village of Kew became quite gay, and its inhabitants were much loved by Queen Charlotte for the spontaneous enthusiasm with which they welcomed King George, after his attempted assassination by the mad woman, Margaret Nicholson.

In order to ere............