John Evelyn the diarist noted: 'Hence I went to my worthy friend Sir Henry Capel, brother to the Earl of Essex: it is an old timber house, but his garden certainly has the choicest fruit of any plantation in England, as he is the most industrious understanding of it.' And in 1688 Evelyn observed 'orangerie and myrtetum are most beautiful and perfectly kept. He was contriving very high palisadoes of reedes to shade his oranges during the summer, and painting those reedes in oil.' Sir John Capel had married Dorothy the daughter of Sir Richard Bennett of Kew Park and their house was close by the Dutch House.

O/S Co-ords:1864.7747
Source(s):

Kew Past

Aiton had been working at Chelsea Chiswick Garden. His appointment by Lord Bute and Lady Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, is taken as the foundation date for Kew Gardens although the times of Henry Capel or of Frederick, Prince of Wales, can also be claimed as the starting point for the gardens' development.

O/S Co-ords:1864.7747
Source(s):

Kew Past