Bute met Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1747. He the Prince and the Princess Augusta, had a common passion for gardening. Following Frederick's death in 1751 he became closely involved with the upbringing of the new Prince George, then 13. He was also much involved with the Dowager Princess, resident at the White House, in the development of what was to become the Kew Botanical Gardens. Augusta and Bute employed Chambers as an architect and William Aiton as the gardener. Aiton's appointment in 1759 is considered the founding date for the gardens. When the lad became King George III, in 1760, he made Bute his prime minister but Bute was a gardener or, more precisely, a plant collector. He was an inept politician and, probably to his great relief, he was forced from office in 1763. By that date he, Augusta, Aiton and Chambers had expanded the botanic gardens and the landscaping of the estate of the White House. The attacks of the press and politicians on him focused on imputations of his adultery with Augusta. He had to leave Kew. He died when he fell from a cliff whilst trying to obtain a specimen of a rare plant.

O/S Co-ords:1886.7745
Source(s):

Kew Past