A young princess, who never became Queen, had a vision of building beautiful gardens at Kew in the 18th Century
Princess Augusta, came to England from Saxe-Gotha when she was only 17 for her arranged marriage to Prince Frederick, the oldest son of King George II. Whilst it wasn’t always an easy marriage, they agreed on their love of developing gardens at Kew.
While Frederick had planned the original Kew garden, having taken a lease of Capel House, later known as the White House (and opposite the Dutch House), Augusta created both a small botanical garden and a large pleasure garden.
Wealth and influence were often shown in the C18th through the design of great gardens and those created at Kew were forging new ideas. In her book, The Princess’s Garden, Vanessa Berridge, writes that gardens were ‘invested with symbolism and were spaces where philosophical ideas could be aired and political comments made.’
In 1750, writer and historian, Horace Walpole, whose country retreat was at Strawberry Hill, confirmed that there were ‘great works in the garden’. But in the following year, Frederick died of pleurisy, aged only 44, leaving the princess widowed at just 31 years old. Now on her own, Princess Augusta relied heavily on the advice Lord Bute, a Scottish aristocrat and highly regarded botanist, who lived at Cambridge Cottage in the gardens.
Bute was probably largely responsible for choosing the plants for the four-acre botanical garden, near the present Orangery. The Princess’s botanical garden was particularly known for its display of herbaceous plants exceeding 2,700 species. The pleasure garden was extended by 113 acres to the east side. Botanist and gardener, Thomas Knowlton, said the Princess’s gardens had one of the best collections in the kingdom, if not the world.
Lord Bute arranged for the planting of the Cedars of Lebanon in the pleasure garden and also advised Princess Augusta on taking on the services of Sir William Chambers, a leading British architect, who designed a formal Walk running from the White House to the east of the Pagoda and back again on the west side. The Walk was broken up by various garden buildings and follies, many designed by Chambers, including the Pagoda, which was completed in 1762. Only six of the original monuments or buildings survive today: the Orangery, Temple of Aeolus, Temple of Arethusa, Temple of Bellona, the Ruined Arch and the Pagoda. In 2018 the dragons on the Pagoda, which disappeared in 1784, were replaced, based on Chamber’s own designs.
Written by John Moses
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