HENRY NICHOLAS ELLACOMBE 51 



1847, and in 1850 succeeded his father: after this his "life was centred 

 almost wholly in Bitton parish, Bitton Church, and in his vicarage and 

 garden." In 1852 Ellacombe married ; one of his sons, Dr. Gilbert 

 Ellacoinbe, has sent from Rhodesia interesting plants to Kew, and is 

 commemorated in Kalanchoe Ellacombei. In 18G1 he became a 

 member of the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, of 

 which in 1894 he was president, in succession to Leonard Blomefield : 

 he contributed various papers to the Club ; the first (in 1869) was 

 on " The Common English Names of Plants," a subject that much 

 interested him and which he further developed in The Plant-Lore of 

 Shakespeare, first published in 1878. This ran to three editions : 

 the second (1884) contained a useful appendix of names from fifteenth 

 and sixteenth century writers with which Shakespeare might have 

 been familiar. The flowers of early writers always attracted Ella- 

 combe ; those of Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton formed the 

 subject of papers in the Gardeners' 1 Chronicle for 1915. The contents 

 of his In a Gloucestershire Garden (1895) and In my Vicarage 

 Garden (1902), notwithstanding their titles, are miscellaneous in 

 character ; the best account of the garden is that by Mr. W. J. 

 Bean in the volume before us, and in the delightful chapter by 

 Miss Ellen Willmott, a frequent visitor to Bitton, headed '• Canon 

 Ellacombe and his Flowers." In this she mentions, among those 

 which their owner regarded with especial affection, the little black 

 pansy, which was " brought from Italy by his father in the early 

 part of the nineteenth century ; it became a permanent occupant of 

 the garden, and very few visitors left Bitton without a plant of it. 

 The Rev. H. T. Ellacombe had identified it in Van der Grass's (sic) 

 picture 'II Presepio,' circa 1450, now in -the Pitti Gallery. The 

 Canon paid a special visit to Florence to see the picture his father had 

 mentioned, and he was greatly pleased to recognize unmistakably the 

 little flower which is now so widely known as the Bitton black pansy." 

 Those who have visited the Sala Hugo Van der Goes will not forget 

 the charming representation of this little flower, which is strewn 

 about at the foot of the vase of exquisitely-drawn flowers in the 

 foreground of the picture. 



The connection with Kew, which had been begun by his father, 

 was renewed by the Canon in 1869, and continued throughout his 

 life under three Directors, with each of whom he was on cordial 

 terms. Sir Joseph Hooker dedicated to him the volume of the 

 Botanical Magazine for 1881, and various species from the Bitton 

 garden are figured in that periodical — it will be remembered that the 

 editor of the book we are considering is Assistant-Director of the 

 Royal Gardens, and to his personal reminiscences of Ellacombe, 

 dating from 1912, much of its interest is due. Others have also 

 contributed their quota : Miss Ellen Willmott, already cited, gives an 

 attractive study of that admirable composer of madrigals, Robert 

 Lucas de Pearsall (1795-1855), who was closely associated with both 

 the Ellacombes — where, by the way, did he find in " the old Roman 

 Catholic Requiem " the words " Da nobis pacem," wJ.iich are quoted 

 in his letter as from that source ? Reviews of Ellacombe's books 

 come from Mr. D. C. Lathbury and Sir Arthur Hort — the author of 



