Annotation:Kew Gardens
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KEW GARDENS. English, Country Dance and Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The country dance directions and tune were also printed in Thomas Skillern's Skillern's Compleat Collection of Two Hundred & Four Reels...Country Dances (London, 1780).
The botanical gardens at Kew, west London, date to 1759, begun by Princess Augusta (mother of King George III), assisted by gardener William Aiton and botanist Lord Bute. King George III inherited the property, along with the nearby country house and estate of King George II, and he decided to combine the two gardens, putting Joseph Banks in charge of the project. Banks had recently returned from a circumnavigation of the globe with Captain Cook, bringing back with him a variety of exotic plants. It was banks who established the reputation of Kew Gardens as a leading horticultural research center.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Straight and Skillern (Two Hundred and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), c. 1775; No. 83, p. 42.
Recorded sources: