It was to this little cottage in its idyllic woodland setting, that George III and Queen Charlotte went to relax when they were in residence at Kew Palace. Built in 1770, the cottage provided an informal setting for rustic meals when the royal family felt like slumming it and it was also used for the celebration of formal weddings including that of Edward Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria. Next door to the cottage there used to be a menagerie of exotic animals – including kangaroos. Among the traces of the Georgian decor still visible in the cottage are remnants of wallpaper, Hogarth prints, Chinese-style chairs and bamboo furniture and a wall painted by one of George III's daughters, the Princess Elizabeth.
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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
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