314 



considerable time, whether to accept the inheritance, with its 

 restrictions ; but consideration for his sisters and their families, 

 induced him at last to go to England, and take the rural estate 

 left to him. He returned only once to this country after 

 this ; and, as he could not be more than three months absent 

 in the year, he took the three last months of 1847 and the 

 three first of 1848, thus passing with us about five months 

 of the inclement season, when the nature he loved so much 

 was dead to him. only to revive when he was forced to turn 

 his back upon her. 



In this short visit, his usefulness at once revived. Finding 

 himself at the Academy, among his old associations, with ma- 

 terials at hand, he at once set to work, and studied the plants 

 brought by the late Dr. William Gamble, from the Rocky 

 Mountains and Upper California ; the descriptions of which 

 were published in August, 1848, in the Journal of the Acade- 

 my of Natural Sciences. 



It does not appear that the bequest of the Nutgrove estate 

 had placed Mr. Nuttall in a position of affluence. The estate 

 was, it is said, incumbered with annuities, and burdened with 

 a heavy income tax. He had, moreover, a numerous family 

 of relatives to support. By his old American friends, who 

 visited him at his English abode, he was found living in the 

 fashion of a plain farmer, w^orking on his grounds and nur- 

 series among his men, like one of them, and eating at the 

 same table with them. He used to say that it was difficult, 

 in England, to enjoy the benefits of a moderate fortune, for 

 the government took good care to exact the superfluous. 



When, in April, 1854, Dr. Pickering visited Mr. Nuttall at 

 Nutgrove, he perceived him, on entering his grounds, stooping 

 on one knee, examining a growing plant. Nuttall, turning 

 his head and recognizing his old friend, arose and came for- 

 ward, saying — " How strange it seems to me to see you in 

 this country ! " He invited him in, and they spent several 

 hours together, conversing about old acquaintances, walking 

 through his conservatories, and looking over his collection of 

 living Rhododendrons. Dr. Pickering saw him again some 

 months after, and perceived a change that he could scarcely 

 account for, namely, — that he who had been accustomed to 



