1 6 LIFE OF JOHN C. LOUDON. 



honorable testimony to his profu-ienry in the various branches of liis education, 

 and particularly notinjj his unwearied perseverance in inakinfr himself thoroujfhly 

 master of whatever lie undertook. Mr. Loudon was not a man of nniny words, 

 and he was never fond of showin<? the knowle(l<;e he possessed ; but il was aston- 

 isliinu' ht)w much he did know on every sul)jeet to which he had turned hisattention. 



In LSOo, he lirst arrived in London. The foHowinji: day he called on Mr. 

 Sowerby, Laml)elh ; he was exeeedinj^ly deli-ihted with the models and mineralo- 

 jrieal specimens, which were so admiral)ly arranjred as to frive him the greatest 

 satisfaction from his innate love of order ; he afterwards devised a ]»lan for his 

 own books and j)apers, partly founded on thai of Mr. Sowerby, but much more 

 complete. 



As he l)rou!rht a g^reat number of letters of recommendation to difTerent noble- 

 men and gentlemen of landed property, many of them from Dr. Coventry, he 

 was soon extensively employed as a landscape-cardener ; his journal is filled with 

 accounts of his tours in various parts of England. It is curious, in turnin<^ over 

 his memoranda, to find how many improvements suprfrested themselves to his active 

 mind, which he was unal)le, from various circumstances, to carry into elfeet at the 

 time, but which, many years afterwards, were executed either by himself or by 

 other persons, who, however, were unaware that he had previously supjrested them. 

 Thronirhout his life, similar occurrences were continually taking ])lace ; and nothing 

 was more common than for him to find persons taking the merit to them.selves of 

 inventions which he had suggested years before. When this hapiiened, he was 

 frequently urged to assert his |)rior claim ; but he always answered, that he thought 

 the person who made an invention useful to the ]n]blic, had more merit than its 

 original contriver; and that, in fact, so long as the public were benefited by any 

 invention of his, it was perfectly indifferent to !iim who had the merit of it. There 

 never lived a more liljcral and thoroughly public-spirited man than Mr. London. 

 He had not a single particle of selfishness in his disposition, and in all his actions 

 he never took the l^enefit they would produce to himself into consideration. AVhen 

 writing a book, his object was to obtain the best possible information on the sub- 

 ject he had in hand; he was never deterred from seeking this by any considera- 

 tions of trouble or expense. 



That these feelings inQuenced him from the time of his first arrival in England, 

 may be traced in every page of his Journal ; that they continued to influence him 

 to the last day of his life, was only too evident to every one around him at that 

 mournful period. 



When Mr. Loudon first arrived in London, he was very much struck with the 

 gloomy ap])earance of the gardens in the centre of tlie pulilic scpiares, which were 

 then i)lanted almost entirely with evergreens, particularly with Scotch pines, yews, 

 and spruce firs; and, before the close of the year 1803, he ])ublished an article in 

 a work called The Literary Journal, which he entitled " OI)servations on Laying 

 out the Public S(juarcs of London." In this article, he blamed freely the taste 

 which then prevailed, and suggested the great im])rovement that would rcsultfrora 

 banishing the yews and firs (which always looked gloomy from the effect of the 

 smoke on their leaves), and mingling deciduous trees with the other evergreens. He 

 particularly named the Oriental and Occidental j)lane trees, the sycamore, and the 

 almond, as ornamental trees that would bear the smoke of the city ; it is curious 

 to observe how exactly his suggestions have been adopted, as these trees are now 

 to be found in almost every square in London. 



About this time, he appears to have become a member of the Linntean Society, 

 'J probably through the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, to whom he had brougl 

 of introduction, and who, till his death in 1820, continued his warm frie 



