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Contemporary Kew
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Located in southwest London, Kew Gardens has a history that dates back to the 1700's making it over 250 years old. It was originally formed by Lord Capel John of Tewkesbury. After it was originally created, it was expanded several times for several different reasons. The garden has been expanded from 75 acres at one time, to 270 acres, to its current size- 300 acres. Kew is responsible for the world's largest collection of living plants and employs 650 scientists and other staff. But the Kew Gardens are not much like they originally were.
Relation to Arcadia
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| Kew Palace |
We do get some idea of the pastoral in some early scenes in
Arcadia. We don't get an intricate description or vision of the gardens. Mostly we get people coming in from and going out to the gardens. Seemingly some type of oasis for characters, the garden seems to be the retreat away from conflict. However, just as we see with Kew's history, the contemporary is a much altered form of the original. We try to draw binaries between the two eras of the play, and to do so we must find what is similar to the past (i.e. Septimus and Bernard as critics). You could imagine doing something similar if you were walking through Kew Gardens. What's similar, and what has changed?
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