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JOURNAL OP HOBTIOULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARUENEB. 



[ April 19, 1877. 



and managing woods, and on the best mode of draining and 

 otherwise improving estates, several ideas struck him, which 

 he afterwards embodied in a book published in Edinburgh by 

 Constable ifc Co., and by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme in 

 London. This, then, was the first work of Mr. Loudon's pre- 

 .sented to the public through the Messrs. Longman, with whom 

 lie continued to transact business of the same nature for nearly 

 forty years. The book alluded to was entitled " Observations 

 on the Formation and Management of Useful and Ornamental 

 Plantations ; on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gar- 

 dening, and on Gaining and Embanking Land from Rivers or 

 the Sea." 



Before Mr. Loudon left Edinburgh he published another 

 work, entitled " A Short Treatise on some Improvements 

 lately made in Hothouses." This was in 1805, and the same 

 year he returned to England. On this second voyage to Lon- 

 don he was compelled by stress of weather to land at Lowes- 

 toft, and he took such a disgust at the sea that he never after- 

 wards travelled by it if it was possible to go by land. He now 

 resumed his labours as a landscape gardener, and his journal 

 is filled with the observations he made and the ideas that 

 suggested themselves of improvements on all he saw. Among 

 other things ho made some remarks on the best mode of har- 

 monising colours in flower gardens, which accord in a very 

 striking manner with the principles afterwards laid down by 

 M. Chevreul in his celebrated work entitled " De la Loi du 

 Contraste simultane des Couleurs," published in Paris in 18.'i9. 

 Mr. Loudon states that he had observed that flower gardens 

 looked best when the flowers were so arranged as to have a 

 compound colour next the simple one, which was not contained 

 in it. Thus, as there are only three simple colours — blue, red, 

 and yellow— he advises that purple flowers, which are com- 

 posed of blue and red, should have yellow next them; that 

 orange flowers, which are composed of red and yellow, should 

 be contrasted with blue; and that green flowers, which are 

 composed of blue and yellow, should be relieved by red. He 

 accounts for this on the principle that three parts are required 

 to make a perfect whole, and he compares the union of 

 the three primitive colours formed in this manner with the 

 common chord in music, an idea which has since been worked 

 out by several able writers. He had also formed the plan of a 

 " Pictorial Dictionary," which was to embrace every kind of 

 subject and to be illustrated by finished woodcuts printed with 

 the type. 



In 1806 Mr. Loudon published his " Treatise on Forming, 

 Improving, and Managing Country Residences, and on the 

 Choice of Situations appropriate to every Class of Purchasers. 

 With an Appendix containing an Inquiry into the Utility and 

 Merits of Mr. Eepton's Mode of Showing Effects by Slides and 

 Sketches, and Strictures on his Opinions and Practice in Land- 

 scape Gardening. Illustrated by Descriptions of Scenery and 

 Buildings, by References to Country Seats and Passages of 

 Country in most Parts of Great Britain, and by 32 Engravings." 

 This work was much more voluminous than any of the pre- 

 ceding ones, and it was ornamented by some elegant copper, 

 plate engravings of landscape scenery, drawn by himself, which 

 in 1807 were republished, with short descriptions, as a separate 

 work. 



During the greater part of the year 180(j Mr. Loudon was 

 actively engaged in landscape gardening, and towards the close 

 of that year, when returning from Tre-Madoc in Carnarvon- 

 shire, the seat of W. A. Madocks, Esq., he caught a violent 

 cold by travelling on the outside of a coach all night in the 

 rain and negltcting to change his clothes when he reached the 

 end of his journey. The cold brought on a rheumatic fever, 

 which settled finally in his left knee, and from improper 

 medical treatment terminated in a stiff joint — -a circumstance 

 which was a source of great annoyance to him, not only at 

 the time when it occurred, but during the whole of the re- 

 mainder of his life. This will not appear surprising when it 

 is considered that he was at that period in the prime of his 

 days, and not only remarkably healthy and vigorous in con- 

 stitution, but equally active and independent in mind. While 

 suffering from the effects of the Odmplaint in his knee he took 

 lodgings at a farmhouse at Pinner near Harrow, and while 

 there the activity of his mind made him anxiously inquire into 

 the state of English farming. He also aumaed himself by 

 painting several landscapes (some of which were exhibited at 

 the Royal Academy) and by learning German, paying his ex- 

 penses — as he had done before when he learned French — by 

 selling for publication a pamphlet which ho had translated by 

 way of exercise, la this case, the translation being of a 



popular work, it was sold to Mr. Cadell for £15. He also took 

 lessons in Greek and Hebrew. The following extract from his 

 journal in 1806 will give some idea of his feelings at this 

 period : — " Alas ! how have I neglected the important task of 

 improving myself! How much I have seen, what new ideas 

 have developed themselves, and what different views of life I 

 have acquired since I came to London three years ago ! I am 

 now twenty-three years of age, and perhaps one-third of my 

 life has passed away, and yet what have I done to benefit my 

 fellow men?" 



Mr. LouJon, during the length of time he was compelled to 

 remain at Pinner, became so interested respecting English 

 farming, and so anxious that the faults he observed in it should 

 be corrected, that he wrote to his father stating the capabilities 

 of the soil and the imperfect state of the husbandry, and urg- 

 ing him to come to England. It happened that at this period 

 the farm called Wood Hall, where he had been staying so long, 

 was to be let, and Mr. Loudon, sen., in consequence of the 

 recommendation of his son, took it, and removed to it in 1807. 

 The following year Mr. Loudon, who was then residing with 

 his father at Wood Hall, wrote a pamphlet entitled " An Im- 

 mediate and Effectual Mode of raising the Rental of the Landed 

 Property of England, and rendering Great Britain independent 

 of other Nations for a Supply of Bread Corn. By a Scotch 

 Farmer, now farming in Middlesex." This pamphlet excited a 

 great daal of attention, and General Stratton — a gentleman 

 possessing a large landed estate called Tew Park in Oxford- 

 shire — having read it, was so much interested in the matter it 

 contained that he offered him a portion of his property at a 

 low rate, in order that he might undertake the management of 

 the rest, and thus introduce Scotch farming into Oxfordshire. 



The farm which Mr. Loudon took from General Stratton, 

 and which was called Great Tew, was nearly eighteen miles 

 from the city of Oxford, and it contained upwards of 1500 acres. 

 " The surface," as he describes it, " was diversified by bold 

 undulations, hills, and steeps, and the soil contained consider- 

 able variety of loam, clay, and light earth on limestone and 

 red rook. It was, however, subdivided in a manner the most 

 unsuitable for arable husbandry, and totally destitute of car- 

 riage roads. In every other respect it was equally unfit for 

 northern agriculture, having very indifferent buildings, and 

 being greatly in want of draining and levelling." At thia 

 place he established a kind of agricultural college for the in- 

 struction of young men in rural pursuits ; some of these, being 

 the sons of landed proprietors, were under his own immediate 

 superintendence, and others, who were placed in a second class, 

 were instructed by his bailiff, and intended for land stewards 

 and farm bailiffs. A description of this college and of the im- 

 provements effected at Great Tew was given to the public in 

 180!) in a pamphlet entitled " The Utility of Agricultural 

 Knowledge to the Sons of the Landed Proprietors of England, 

 and to Young Men intended for Estate Agents ; illustrated by 

 what has taken place in Scotland. With an Account of an 

 Institution formed for Agricultural Pupils in Oxfordshire. By 

 a Scotch Farmer and Land Agent resident in that County." 

 In this pamphlet there is one passage showing how muoh 

 attached he was to landscape gardening — an attachment which 

 remained undiminished to his death, and how severely he felt 

 the misfortune of having his knee become anchylosed from 

 the effects of the rheumatic fever before alluded to. The 

 passage, which occurs in the introductory part of the work, is 

 as follows:— "A recent personal misfortune, by which the 

 author incurred deformity and lameness, has occasioned his 

 having recourse to farming as a permanent source of income, 

 lest by any future attack of disease he should be prevented 

 from the more active duties and extensive range of a beloved 

 profession on which he had formerly been chiefly dependent." 



Notwithstanding the desponding feelings expressed in thia 

 paragraph, Mr. Loudon appears from his memorandum booka 

 to have been still extensively engaged in landscape gardening, 

 as there are memoranda of various places that he laid out in 

 England, Wales, and Ireland, till the close of 1812. Before 

 this period he had quitted Tew, and finding that he had 

 amassed upwards of £15,000 by his labours, he determined 

 to relax his exertions, and to gratify his ardent thirst for 

 knowledge by travelling abroad. Previously, however, to doing 

 this he published two work!<, one entitled " Hints on the For- 

 mation of Gardens and Pleasure Crrounds, with Designs in 

 various Styles of Rural Embellishments : comprising Plans for 

 laying-out Flower, Fruit, and Kitchen Gardens ; and the Con- 

 struction and Arrangement of Glass Houses, Hot Walla, and 

 Stoves ; with Directions for the Management of Plantations, 



