BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 13 



upon which the hereditary chiefs of the great house of 

 Devonshire have for nearly three hundred years lavished 

 all the resources of ample wealth and cultivated taste ; the 

 historic domain which William the Conqueror gave to his 

 natural son, William Peveril ; which Sir William Cavendish 

 bought, and began to improve, in the reign of Elizabeth; 

 which for thirteen years was the prison of Elizabeth's cousin 

 and enemy, Mary, Queen of Scots ; which before and since 

 has been famous in English song and story, and which to- 

 day is a sight well worth crossing the ocean to see. 



Mr. Shaw returned in December, 1851. The mansion at 

 Tower Grove had been finished in 1849 and the one at the 

 corner of Seventh and Locust streets was then being built. 

 Erom this time forward he was in St. Louis, with the ex- 

 ception of short summer vacations at the Atlantic coast or 

 the Northern lakes. Apparently a man of elegant leisure, 

 he was in reality a very busy man for the next thirty years. 

 An idler he never was until physical weakness compelled 

 him to be such. The idea born at Chatsworth was develop- 

 ing and taking shape. 



In 1857 the late Dr. Engelmann, then in Europe, was 

 commissioned in a general way by Mr. Shaw to examine 

 botanical gardens and obtain such suggestions as he might 

 deem of value. The Missouri Garden was begun, by trench- 

 ing and other preliminary preparation, in that year. About 

 the same time a correspondence was begun with Sir Will- 

 iam J. Hooker, then Director of Kew Gardens, who wrote, 

 under date of August 10, 1857 : " Very few appendages to 

 a garden of this kind are of more importance for instruc- 

 tion than a library and economic museum, and these grad- 

 ually increase like a rolling snow-ball." This appears to 

 have decided Mr. Shaw to provide a small library and mu- 

 seum ; the building for which was erected in 1858-59. The 

 selection of books was largely entrusted to Dr, Engelmann, 

 in consultation with Hooker, Decaisne, Alexander Braun, 

 and other of his botanical friends. At the same time Dr. 

 Engelmann urged upon Mr. Shaw the purchase of the large 



