1850.] Lhtnean Society. 83 



and regard of Queen Chailotte, and of the Princes and Princesses of 

 the Royal Family, and in particular by the Duke of Kent, who kept 

 up a confidential correspondence with him to the time of his death. 

 On the accession of King George IV. Mr. Alton was not only con- 

 tinued in all his appointments, but received the Royal command to 

 make the new garden at the Pavilion at Brighton, and also that of 

 Buckingham Palace, in the arrangements connected with which, 

 together with the various alterations made in the Conservatory, 

 Cottage Garden, Virginia Water, the Castle Garden and Slojies, and 

 the extensive plantations of the Royal domain at Windsor, he was 

 long and actively engaged. In connexion with these duties, he was 

 named by the Royal warrant Director-General of all the Royal 

 Grardens and Plantations. Soon after the accession of William IV,, 

 in consequence of the great changes which took place in the esta- 

 blishments of the Royal Gardens, Mr. Alton retired on the charge 

 of the Botanic Garden and Pleasure Grounds at Kew, which he 

 retained till 1841, when they too were voluntarily resigned by him 

 after a service of nearly fifty years. Among the remarkable men 

 with whom he was in habits of kindly intimacy w^ere Dr. Pitcairn, 

 John and William Hunter, Cruickshanks, Sir W. Farquhar, Sir D. 

 Dundas, and Sir E. Home ; and he was also on friendly terms with 

 the poet Cowper, whose biographer, Hayley, regarded him with 

 aflPectionate esteem, as evinced in many of his letters and verses, and 

 by the dedication of Cowper's posthumous poem on the Yardley 

 Oak. In the years 1810-13 he published a second edition of his 

 father's ' Hortus Kewensis,' in 5 vols. 8vo. In this and all his 

 botanical undertakings he constantly received the most friendly 

 encouragement and assistance from Sir Joseph Banks ; and as in 

 the first edition the botanical matter had been supplied by Dr. So- 

 lander and Mr. Dryander, so in the second the general superinten- 

 dence and the complete elaboration of several important families and 

 genera were the work of Mr. Dryander and Mr. Brown. From the 

 period of his final retirement Mr. Alton led a tranquil life, still con- 

 tinuing to occupy the house in which he was born, and which was 

 built expressly for his father by King George the Third, but passing 

 much of his time with his brother at Kensington. He enjoyed in 

 general good health and spirits, notwithstanding that his pulse seldom 

 reached to 50 ; but finding himself unwell in the beginning of last 

 October, he became desirous of being entirely with his brother and 

 under his roof; here he gradually became weaker till the morning of 

 the 9th October, when without apparent bodily suffering he calmly 

 breathed his last, being then in the 84th year of his age. 



