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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 6

Royal Gardens, Kew, January 1, 1880

Royal Gardens, Kew,

Sir,

The number of visitors (569,134) to the Royal Gardens during the past year exhibits a very great falling off (156,288) as compared with 1878. No return so small has been recorded since that for 1872. The deficiency may, with confidence, be attributed to the miserable weather which prevailed during the whole of last summer, and which culminated in the disastrous hailstorm of the morning of August 3, which wrecked the greater part of the glass houses and compelled their closure to visitors for the remainder of the summer.

The bank holiday of the following day, August 4, brought the greatest number of visitors (51,949) admitted in any one day during the year.

The experiment of opening the gardens at 10 a.m. on the mornings of the four bank holidays still appears to me to be scarcely justified by its success. The following figures give the total numbers admitted during the day, and also the numbers of persons who on each occasion entered before 1 a.m.

Total number during day. Number before 1 a.m.
April 14 19,430 2,557
June 2 15,205 1,094
August 4 51,949 3,008
December 26 752 286

The lessons given to the young gardeners in the evening twice a week through about nine months of the year still continue to give satisfactory results, and may be regarded as having settled down into part of the routine of the establishment. The demonstrations in elementary meteorology, physics, and chemistry have been given in the large room of the Jodrell Laboratory, which during the dark winter months is seldom required for the purposes of physiological study, the smaller rooms being sufficient for any investigation which may be then in progress.