INTRODUCTION CXXXIX 



through the c-upidity, it is supposed, of a servant, who knew that his 

 master had recently received a considerable sum of money, of vrhich 

 no trace could be found among the ruins. The property being un- 

 insured at the time through an oversight, Hudson's loss was very 

 serious. He removed ^o a smaller house and -recommenced his 

 favourite studies, but his health had been for some time seriously 

 impaired, and he died eventually on March 23, 1793. He was buried 

 in the Church of St. James, Piccadilly. Linnaeus named the genus 

 Hudsonia after him. 



The Reverend John Lightfoot, born at Newent, in Gloucestershire, Light- 

 in 1735, became a member of Pembroke College, in the University foot. 

 of Oxford, in 1753. He took his M.A. degree in 1765, and having 

 entered Holy Orders became Chaplain to the Dowager Duchess of 

 Portland. He was Eector of Maiden in Hampshire in 1765, of Gotham 

 in Nottinghamshire in 1777, and subsequently of Cowley in Middlesex. 

 In 1772 he travelled through Scotland in company with Pennant, and 

 in 1777. aided b\- Pennant's generous kindness, he published his Flora 

 Scotica in two thick octavo volumes, vrith thirty plates of botanical 

 subjects. Several species are recorded in this work for the first time 

 as native to Scotland, and some of Lightfoot's species are still retained. 

 Lightfoot came to Oxford subsequently to consult the Dillenian 

 herbarium with John Sibthorp, and then made some excursions in 

 the neighbourhood, adding several new plants to the local flora. He 

 appears, curiously enough, to have been the first discoverer of the 

 Fritillary about Oxford. In the Library of the Oxford Botanic Garden 

 is a copy of Hudson's Flora Anglica, and one of Ray's Synopsis, with 

 manuscript notes by Lightfoot, and these afford some Berkshire 

 records; Senecio caynpestris, Campanula Eapunndus, Centunculus minimus 

 (cf. How's Phyiologia , Lafhrata Squamaria (1780), Diplotaxis ienui/olia, 

 Gagea fascicularis, Schoenus nigricans (1780), Geion tivale, and probably 

 Carex canescens are mentioned. 



Lightfoot became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was one of the 

 founders of the Linnean Society. He now took up his residence at 

 Uxbridge. where his daughter lived (two letters, dated 1785, Uxbridge, 

 from Lightfoot to Smith, are contained in the Smith Correspondence) ; 

 but disappointment, it is said, at not obtaining another living 

 from Lord Chancellor Thurlow, preyed upon his spirits, and he died 

 suddenly in the spring of 1788 at the eai'ly age of fifty-three. His 

 herbarium, containing many plants collected by himself in his rambles 

 and a large number collected by Sir Joseph Banks during his foreign 

 journeys, and being therefore of considerable interest, was purchased 

 after his death by George III for 100 guineas as a present to the Queen, 

 and deposited at Frogmore. The specimens after a time became infected 

 with insects, and Sir J. E. Smith was requested to examine them. 



