Queen Charlotte | Author, Jane Lark's stories

In the 1700s knowledge was power. In a world where literacy was still rare, learning was something to be respected, and therefore anyone who needed to be respected had to be able to talk with a perspective of knowledge. A king, of course, then, must have enough knowledge to ensure they could stand out amongst other knowledgable people, so their wealthy and powerful courtiers would serve them out of respect and loyalty.

A king also needed knowledge to ensure they would not be fooled or tricked by others who were hungry for power. There were new challenges in the 1700s too, because the world had opened up for wealthy young men to travel, explore, and see the achievements of the world’s cultures for themselves. This immediately put princes at a disadvantage because travel was still dangerous, and in a volatile time for uprisings it was far more of a risk for the heir to the throne to travel.

King George III’s mother, Princess Augusta, realised this and created a space King George III could experience and learn. She wanted her son to succeed when he became king. The White House that was at the time the palace used at Kew, on the edge of the Thames, then outside London, was where the princes were tutored, so, to enable George’s learning Princess Augusta redesigned the gardens.

Below is the garden she planned for her son with designers and architects who sought to recreate the experiences of the world outside the palace gardens.

The image above, however, does not really express the spectacle of the gardens in the 1700s. Some of the folly buildings have gone, but the tall, dramatic, Chinese style Pagoda on the left in the above image has recently been refurbished, and this alone shows just how much was invested into creating a stunning landscape for young George to explore and expand his understanding of the world outside the palace. The Pagoda is thought to be the tallest building in the country at the time it was built, and George III would have studied and watched how this was built.

The Images below are of the Pagoda as it is now. I hope from these pictures you can see how grand this is and therefore how much the Princess invested into her son’s garden and the development of his knowledge and experience.

To give you an idea of the size of the Pagoda, someone is standing in the circular porch, there is also a video about the restoration available here . (You can click on the images below to view them in full).

When I saw this amazing Pagoda built in a Chinese style in the palace gardens at Kew, I thought of the Chinese inspired interiors of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. The Royal Pavilion in Brighton was built for George III’s son and heir, Queen Charlotte’s eldest son. The Regent who became King George IV. The Royal Pavilion looks like an Indian Palace on the outside but is dressed like a Chinese palace inside with gold dragons holding up chandeliers and curtains. You can see inside the Royal Pavilion here on the museum website. My mind connected the two buildings because George IV did not get on well with his father and I can imagine him wanting to make something even more impressive than the Pagoda. Or perhaps, as a boy King George IV would have lived amongst his grandmother’s follies too and perhaps he held on to fond memories of the Pagoda from his childhood. King George IV was an obsessive collector of foreign artefacts.

King George III was well known for his interest and knowledge in botany, he was nicknamed ‘the farmer’ because of his involvement in the practical management of his royal land estates. It’s commonly known he returned to Kew when he became mentally ill because Kew palace and its gardens were a comfort to him. He loved Kew, and from this perspective, of an Eden created especially for him by his mother, I can understand why.

The layout of the garden at Kew has changed since the 1700s, but the garden is now The Royal Botanic Gardens, which is a wonderful legacy of Princess Augustus’s desire to teach her son. What she started is still a place of learning that’s now accessible to everyone.

I have used follies in my Regency Romances because I love the idea of building something just for fun, just for adult entertainment, be that entertainment innocent or sinful. The Georgian eras were renowned for pleasure seeking, from the pleasure gardens that people paid to attend, like Vauxhall, to the tunnels and rooms dug beneath the Chiltern Hills created for the Hellfire Club. One of the most popular follies for innocent entertainment at the time, was to build a cottage in the garden. Just a single room that could be used for more simple pleasures like stopping for a cup of tea during an afternoon stroll.

I have used the folly in the images below, which is in the grounds of Stourhead, as an example to make up my own cottage folly for scenes in a book. I have always thought it quite impressive that so much detail was built into something people only occasionally used. But that was the whole point of a folly, it was a stupid waste of money, but it was also, therefore, an expression of how wealthy you were because you had money you could afford to waste on such a luxury.

So when I saw the cottage built for Queen Charlotte in the grounds of the palace at Kew, London… Below. Well, what a folly, or you could say what a silly waste of money. Or you could say what an impressive investment in luxury. Royal luxury.

This cottage folly serves exactly the same purpose as the much smaller version at Stourhead, and I love that they are built in a similar style, displaying the same fashion, with a chimney/s and thatched roof. Just like the cottage at Stourhead, the cottage in the grounds of Kew Gardens, is a place to stop while they took some exercise in the grounds, they may have ridden or walked to reach it, and the servants would be there already with a luncheon prepared. It is not a place where anyone can live, or stay, it is literally for a short period of pleasure.

I have to say, this is not the tallest folly I have ever seen, but I think it well maybe the largest.