Did the wallpaper drive him mad?

THE information in “Kew Palace Reopening to Public” [News, Tips, Bargains, April 23] piqued my curiosity. Reading that Mad King George was confined to the palace and was later determined to suffer from the central nervous disorder porphyria was quite interesting.

When it was further stated that the Kew has now been restored and preserved with bright green wallpaper, it brought to mind a fact that I had read. By the 18th century, green wallpaper was no longer recommended for dining rooms because arsenic was used in the pigment.

Wouldn’t it be sad if Mad King George’s malady, often triggered by environmental substances, may have been due to an interior design choice?

SALLY KOPRIVA

Encino