82 lAnnean Society. [May 24, 



May 24. 



Anniversary Meeting. 



R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



This day, the Anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus, and that ap- 

 pointed by the Charter for the election of Council and Officers, the 

 President opened the business of the day, and the Secretary read the 

 following notices of those Members who had died since the last 

 Anniversary. 



William Townsend Aiton, Esq., one of the oldest Members of the 

 Society, having been elected a Fellow in 1797, was the eldest son of 

 William Aiton, gardener to the Princess Dowager of Wales, mother 

 of King George the Third, and was bom on the 2nd of February 

 1766. When seven years old he was sent to the school of Dr. Rose 

 at Chiswick, and after remaining there for six years he was removed 

 to that of the Rev. W. Smith at Camberwell, where he continued 

 for two years and a half. At the close of his school education he 

 was placed under his father, who was appointed in 1783 Superin- 

 tendent of the forcing and pleasure gardens at Richmond and Kew, 

 and he had thus ample opportunities of becoming a practical gardener 

 and botanist, and of pursuing his studies as a landscape gardener, 

 the profession for which he was destined, and in which he attained 

 much skill and eminence. In this capacity he was employed by the 

 Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Boston, Sir William Ashton, Lord Har- 

 rowby, the Earl of Powis, Lord Palmerston, the Hon. E, Greville, 

 Lord Heathfield, Sir F. Drake. Sir H. Stracey, H.R.H. the Duke 

 of Kent, and many other noblemen and gentlemen. On the death 

 of his father in 1793, he was appointed to succeed him in the Royal 

 gardens at Kew and Richmond ; and like his father, he was highly 

 esteemed by King George the Third, to whom his own early abode 

 at Kew Palace, together with the subsequent appropriation of it as 

 a residence for his children, had rendered that garden a favourite 

 place of resort. To his intercession on behalf of his friend William 

 Forsyth, that he might succeed his father as gardener at Kensington 

 Palace, the King replied that the place was already disposed of ; and 

 on his return home he found a letter, written in the King's own 

 hand, appointing him to the duties of gardener at Richmond, Kew 

 and Kensington, and his brother John gardener at Windsor Castle 

 and the Great Park. He was also honoured with the kind notice 



