DB. JOHN FOTnEEGTLL AND IITS FRTEXDS 57 



Born in Yorkshire in 1712, he graduated M.I), at Edinburgh in 17'3() 

 and in 1740 settled in London, as a ph^^sician, where he died in 1780 : 

 his " public repute during the latter years of his practice throughout 

 Great Britain and Ireland, in some parts of Europe and in the North 

 American colonies and the East and West Indies was probably greater 

 than that of any other London physician." Dr. Fox has not only 

 embodied in his book the not inconsiderable amount of materiiil 

 already published relating to Fothergill, but has supplemented it by 

 an abundance of information derived from various sources, including 

 MSS. in the Botanical Department and at the Koyal and Linnean 

 Societies, and by others in the possession of the Society of Friends, to 

 wdiicli body Fothergill belonged, and of the Fothergill family. One 

 of the most noteworthy features of the volume is the completeness of 

 its references and footnotes, the latter containing much information 

 relating to persons incidentally mentioned and evincing minute and 

 careful research. 



Fothergill's interest in botany is associated with his celebrated 

 garden at L^pton ; to this Dr. Fox devotes a chapter, wherein he 

 traces its history and describes its present condition : it now consti- 

 tutes West Ham Park — "an open space of 80 acres, surrounded by 

 the teeming population of this eastern suburb." Fothergill bought 

 the estate, which he afterwards enlarged, in 1762 : a letter from him 

 to Linnaeus in the Linnean Society's Library, written in 1774 in 

 Latin, translated by Dr. Fox, shows that the suggestion was due to 

 Collinson, who " urged me to form a garden, himself giving me many 

 things ; and oyjportunity favoured the collection of others. Thus has 

 come into being a paradise of plants of small extent, whose master, if 

 slenderly furnished with botanical science, has at least a burning 

 love of botany itself" (p. 183). The garden thus modestly described 

 was regarded by those who knew it far more appreciatively : according 

 to Banks, with the exception of Kew '* no other garden in Europe, 

 royal or of a subject, had nearly so many scarce and valuable plants." 

 On this subject Banks was well qualified to speak : we have in the 

 Botanical Department the " Day-book " from 1777 to 1797 of the 

 Banksian collections, which were at that period the chief source of 

 botanical information for horticulturists. In this book are determi- 

 nations — mostly in the writing of Solander or Dryander, but with 

 occasional entries by Banks — of plants sent from Kew and other 

 gardens to be named : among these the lists of plants from Fother- 

 gill's garden occupy twelve pages, ranging from May 1777 to 1780, 

 the year of his death. There are notes on many of the species by the 

 botanists mentioned and several are indicated as new ; some of these 

 are described in the Solander MSS. and were subsequently published 

 in Alton's Ilortus Kewensis. The specimens from Fothergill in the 

 National Herbarium to which Dr. Fox refers (p. 199) were for the 

 most part sent from the Upton garden for the purpose of naming ; 

 many are types for the descriptions in Ilortus Keivensis — a list of 

 the plants from Fothergill therein and elsewhere described is given 

 by Dr. Fox (pp. 203-7). 



With characteristic energ}'-, Fothergill took every opportunity of 

 enriching his garden — by correspondence at home and abroad, by the 



