April 19, 1877. J 



JOURNAL OP HORTICDLTUBE AND OOTTAGB GARDENER. 



293 



paid hie master himself by the sale of a translation which he 

 afterwards made for the editor of a periodical then publishing 

 in Edinburgh. He subsequently studied Italian and paid his 

 master in the same manner. He also kept a journal from the 

 time he was thirteen, and continued it for nearly thirty years, 

 writing it for many years in French in order to familiarise 

 himself with the language. 



Drawing was hia favourite pursuit, and in this he made such 

 profioienoy, that when his father at last consented to his being 

 brought up as a landscape gardener he was competent to take 

 the situation of drauRhteman and assistant to Mr. John Mawer 

 at Easter Dairy near Edinburgh. Mr. Mawer was a nursery- 

 man aa well as a planner (as the Scotch call a landscape gar- 

 dener), and while with him Mr. Loudon learned much of gar- ' 



dening generally, particularly of the management of hothouses. 

 Unfortunately Mr. Mawer died before hia pupil was sixteen, 

 and for three or four years afterwards Mr. Loudon resided 

 with Mr. Dickson, a nurseryman and planner in Leith Walk, 

 where he acquired an excellent knowledge of plants. There 

 he boarded iu Mr. Dickson's house, and though remarkable 

 for the nicety of bis dress and the general refinement of hia 

 habits, his desire of improvement was so great that he regu- 

 larly sat up two nights in every week to study, drinking strong 

 green tea to keep himself awake, and this practice of sitting 

 up two nights in every week he continued for many years. 

 While at Mr. Dickson's he attended classes of botany, chemis- 

 try, and agriculture. 

 In 1803 he first arrived in London. The following day he 



Fig. 8fi.— John claudids loddon. 



called on Mr. Sowerby, Mead Place, Lambeth, who was the 

 first gentleman he visited in England, and he was exceedingly 

 delighted with the models and mineralogical specimens, which 

 were so admirably arranged aa to give him the greatest satis- 

 faction from his innate love of order, and he afterwards de- 

 vised a plan for his own books and papers, partly founded on 

 that of Mr. Sowerby, but much more complete. 



Aa ho brought a great number of letters of recommendation 

 to different noblemen and gentlemen of landed property, many 

 of them being from Dr. Coventry, with whom he was a great 

 favourite, he waa soon extensively employed as a landscape 

 gardener, and his journal is filled with accounts of his tours 

 in various parts of England. There never lived a more liberal 

 and thoroughly public-spirited man than Mr. Loudon. He 

 had not a single particle of selfishness in his disposition, and 

 in all hia actions he never took the benefit they would produce 

 to himself into consideration. When writing a book his object 

 was to obtain the best possible information on the subject he 

 had in hand, and he was never deterred from seeking this by 

 any considerations of trouble or expense. 



When Mr. Loudon first arrived in London he waa very much 



atrnck with the gloomy appearance of the gardens in the centre 

 of the public squares, which were then planted almost entirely 

 with evergreens, particularly with Scotch Pines, Yews, and 

 Spruce Firs ; and before the close of the year 1803 he published 

 an article in a work called " The Literary Journal," which he 

 entitled " Obaervationa on Laying-out the Public Squares of 

 London." In this article he blamed freely the taste which 

 then prevailed, and suggested the great improvement that 

 would result from banishing the Yews and Firs (which always 

 looked gloomy from the effect of the smoke on their leaves) 

 and mingling deciduous trees with the other evergreens. He 

 particularly named the Oriental and Occidental Plane trees, 

 the Sycamore, and the Almond as ornamental trees that would 

 bear the smoke of the city, and it is curious to observe how 

 exactly his suggestions have been adopted, as these trees are 

 now to be found in almost every square in London. 



In 1801, having been employed by the Earl of Mansfield to 

 make some plans for altering the Palace gardens at Scone in 

 Perthshire, he returned to Scotland and remained there several 

 months, laying out grounds for many noblemen and gentlemen. 

 While thus engaged, and while giving instructiona for planting 



