Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 6

Of the Royal Gardens at Kew

page break

Of the Royal Gardens at Kew,

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.

Hail-storm.—

Early in the morning of August 3, Kew was visited by a severe hail-storm, which is believed to have inflicted damage upon the Royal Gardens to which their previous existence fortunately supplies no parallel. There is, in fact, no record of breakage of glass by hail in Kew on any previous occasion. The hailstones averaged 5 inches in circumference, and descended with such violence as to bury themselves in the ground.

The amount of glass broken was necessarily very great and was unavoidably increased in the repairs. The total number of panes replaced is shown in the accompanying enumeration:—
No. 1 House 186
No. 2 House 1,152
No. 3 House 412
No. 4 House 3.500
No. 5 House 2,059page 6
New Range 3,946
Palm House 4,558
Water-Lily House 581
Temperate House 8,666
Nursey Pits 3,194
21 House 1,028
Forcing Pits 900
Old 18 House 460
Propagating Pits (glazed with Hartley's rough plate) 239
Herbaceous Ground Pits 1,293
Decorative Department Pits 4,194
Store Pits 523
Cinchona House 500
Geranium House 54
Bulb Pit 831
Engine House 208
Herbarium, Official Residences, &c. 165
Total 38,649

Some idea of the magnitude of the destruction may be obtained from the fact that the broken glass amounted to 18 tons.

The large extent of the repairs which had to be immediately undertaken involved much replacement of decayed woodwork and extensive repainting. The progress of the works was rendered still more a matter of anxiety and labour by the comparatively low temperature and heavy rains which closed the summer of last year. This involved a heavy expenditure in tents and tarpaulins to temporarily protect the denuded houses. Two large temporary buildings had also to be erected for the protection of the workmen. Thanks to the energetic action of the Board, the necessary works were carried out with the aid of contractors with promptitude and despatch. The whole expenditure was covered by a supplementary vote in the Estimates. Although the collections generally suffered much from exposure to wet and cold, the actual number of losses has not been large. The injury done under such circumstances can, however, only be expected to slowly reveal itself.