LIFE OF JOHN C. LOUDON. 



at Crosslec Cottntre, near Paisley, the residence of Ari'liil)al(l "Woodhonsc, Esq., 

 one (if liis most Iiiu^hly esteemed friends, he received a letter from IJayswater, iu- 

 furniinir him of the severe iUness of his mother, and her earnest wish to see him. 

 Mr. Loudon was warmly attached to his mother, and as, nnfortiinatoly, we did not 

 receive the letter till late at nijjlit, for wc had been dinincr in tlie nei<rhljorhood, 

 we did not tro to bed, biif ])acl<ed np everything so as to lie able to set olT with 

 daylitrht the ne.\t morning for Glasgow, where we left Mr. lioudon's man with the 

 horse and carriage, and proceeded to Edinburgh by coach, thougli we could only 

 get outside jtlaces, and it rained ; besides which, Mr. Loudon had never ridden on 

 the outside of a coach since his knee had become still", and he could not ascend the 

 ladder without the greatest difhculty. Nothing, however, could stop him in the 

 performance of what he considered his duty, and, indeed, I believe his eagerness 

 to see his mother overpowered every other feeling. It was also a singular circum- 

 stance, that, on his return to Edinburgh, after an absence of nearly thirty years, 

 he should be obliged to pass through it almost without stopping; yet such was 

 the case, as we found, on our arrival at the inn, that a packet was just about to 

 sail for London, and that if we did not avail ourselves of it we should be compelled 

 to wait several days. We, therefore, hurried down to the pier, and finding that 

 the captain of the vessel was just going on board, we hired a boat, and were, luckily, 

 in time to save our passage. We had a very quick voyage, and arrived at Bays- 

 water about half an hour after the letter we had sent from Glasgow to announce 

 that we were coming. Mr. Loudon's mother was so delighted to see her son, 

 that she seemed partially to revive ; so much, indeed, that we had hopes of her 

 recovery. Nature, however, was too far exhausted, and she died about six weeks 

 after our return, in October, 1S3L 



In 1832, Mr. Loudon commenced his Encyclopcedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa 

 Architecture, which was the first work he ever published on his own account, and 

 in which I was his sole amanuensis, though he had several draughtsmen. The 

 labor that attended this work was immense ; and for several months he and I used 

 to sit up the greater part of every night, never having more than four hours' sleep, 

 and drinking strong coffee to keep ourselves awake. The First Additional Supple- 

 ment to the Hortus Britunnictis was also prepared and published in 1832. 



The great success of the Cottage Architecture, which is perhaps the best and 

 most useful of all Mr. Loudon's works, tempted him to publish the Arboretum 

 Bntannicum also on his own account. lie had long intended to write a work on 

 the hardy trees of Great Britain ; but he did not contemplate the expenses which 

 he should incur by so doing. When, however, the Arboretum was once begun, 

 he found it was impossible to compress it into the limits originally intended ; and, 

 in his determination to make the work as perfect as possible, he involved himself 

 in the difficulties which hastened his death. Notwithstanding the immense labor 

 attending the Arboretum, which was published in monthly numbers, Mr. Loudon, 

 in March, 1834, began the Architectural Magazine, the first periodical devoted 

 exclusively to architecture, though, like the Magazine of Natural History and the 

 Gardener''s Magazine, it only served as a pioneer to clear the way for others, which 

 afterwards followed in the same course with much greater success. 



From the year 1833 to midsummer, 1838, Mr. Loudon underwent the most 

 extraordinary exertions both of mind and body. Having resolved that all the 

 drawings of trees for the Arboretum shonld be made from nature, he had seven 

 artists constantly employed, and he was frequently in the open air with them from 

 his breakfast at seven in the morning till he came home to dinner at eight in the 

 evening, having remaiutd the whole of that time without taking the slightest 

 hment, and generally without even sitting down. After dinner, he resumed 



