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took an active part in laying out and improving the amenities of 

 the foreign settlement. At the same time he distinguished 

 himself during the troublous times of the Taiping rebellion, 

 which was in progress when he went to China, and was not 

 finally put down till 1864, by his unbroken friendship for the 

 native merchants and by his protection of their interests, so that 

 more than any Englishman of his time he gained the confidence 

 and affection of the Chinese business community. 



Tn March, 1867, during his second holiday in Europe, Hanburv, 



to escape the rigours of the English spring, visited the south of 



France, where his brother Daniel had already travelled and 



sketched. While staying at Mentone he paid a visit to the 



promontory of La Mortola two miles within the Italian frontier, 



where the ruined Palazzo Orengo stood among its olive groves and 



vine terraces. Realising its possibilities as regards gardening,;and 



charmed with its natural beauty, Hanbury purchased the house 



and a piece of ground round it in May 1867, with the intention of 



making the place his home on retirement, and of creating, in 



conjunction with his brother Daniel, the eminent authority on 



medicinal plants, a botanic garden in the grounds around the 

 house. 



In March 1868, Hanbury married Katherine Aldam Pease, the 

 eldest daughter of Thomas Pease, of Westbury-on-Trym, near 

 Bristol, member of a branch of the well-known North Country 

 family of the name belonging to the Society of Friends. After 

 two years' residence at Shanghai, where their eldest son was born, 

 Hanbury and his wife settled down to a winter life at the Palazzo 

 Orengo, their summers being spent in England, or in the mountains 

 of the Alpes Maritimes, or in Switzerland. 



Education in Liguria when Hanbury first settled there was in a 

 very backward state. To remedy this so far as he could he built 

 in 1880 a school for the boys and girls of the three villages of 

 La Mortola, Ciotti, and Grimaldi, and in 1892 another for the 

 children of the valley of Latte and its villages. In the latter year 

 also he built a Botanical Institute at Genoa which he presented to 

 the University there in commemoration of the fetes in honour of 

 Columbus. In 1897 he built at Ventimiglia a library to hold the 

 books of the ancient Approsian library which had long been 

 neglected. In the same year he built at Alassio a hall and library 

 for the benefit of English winter visitors, and to commemorate the 

 Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, he presented a 

 memorial drinking fountain to the town of Mentone. A short 

 time ago it was announced that he had provided funds for the 

 establishment of a public garden at Ventimiglia. 



Hanbury 's services to the cause of Italian education were 

 recognised by his being created in 1885 Cavaliere, and in 1888 

 Commendatore, of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Later he 

 was further honoured by being created Commendatore of the 

 Order of SS. Maurizio and Lazzaro, and in 18'.'2 he was awarded a 

 gold medal as a benefactor of public instruction. 



The fame of the garden at La Mortola, which is known through- 

 out the world of horticulture, has grown with the years that have 

 elapsed since its first inception. The task of originally furnishing 



