77 



be known. Is it not mortifying to behold the nurserymen of Eno-land 

 displaying more taste and wealth than our nobility? Perhaps I shall 

 be answered, " It is only possible in England j only the natives of 

 that opulent isle could do so !" — I beg pardon : Mr. Loddiges, the 

 celebrated gardener and botanist, is no Enghshman ; he is — a Ger- 

 man, a Hanoverian. In his youth he came over to this country 

 as a gardener, possessing no other fortune than industry, talent and 

 worth ; and he is now an old man of eighty-six ; a millionnaire, the 

 father of many hundred English citizens ( I ), who for almost half a 

 century have afforded to others the maintenance, witliout which they 

 miglit have starred. He has the felicity of seeing two of his sons 

 grow n up, and very much like him ; and grandsons who promise to 

 be so too. His name Will shine conspicuous in the annals of British 

 Horticulture, and be pronounced with respect by all who honour 

 virtue and good sense. The respectable old Loddiges strongly re- 

 minded both njy son and myself of my immortal friend the late 

 Bertuch of Weimar. 



I b 



I have asked of many, I may say of very many Englishmen, why 

 the great island in the west, called Ireland, is less known with re- 

 spect to its botany, than Canada, Greenland, and Iceland. From all 

 of whom I have received, instead of an answer, the remark, " That is 

 a land of /' Also I am assured that *' it is safer to travel among 



i 



savages than in the west coast of Ireland, where one is pestered by 

 the Catholic clergy, and in momentary danger of being knocked down 

 by the slaves/' The exasperation of the English against the Irish 

 is truly excessive, and can never be removed while so many causes of 

 irritation remain. It appears to me that the blackguards must set 

 the good neighbours together by the ears j and this coursing, as they 

 say in England, will be kept up from the east and from the north- 

 east with gold and silver ** tam-tams" ( ? ). There are two large 

 islands in Europe, of whose Flora we are totally ignorant ; — one is 

 Sardinia, the other Ireland : both belong to the Infallihh Church : 

 had they belonged to the other, we had long ere now been furnished 



h 



hith 



history 



Since writing the above remark, — that Ireland and Sardinia are 

 still terrce prorsus incognitee in the European Flora,— I have received 



