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it is as a lover of Nature that thla notice Is given of him. lie took up the subject 

 of Landscape Gardening with his usual energy and originality of thought. AVith 

 his friend, Sir Uvcdale Price (then Uvedale Price, Esi].), of Foxley, he attacked 

 the prevailing taste of the day — represented by Piepton, the pupil and successor 

 to " CapabiUty" Brown. He published a poem in three books " The Landscape," 

 dedicated to Sir Uvedale Price, and another work called " An Analytical Enquiry 

 into the Principles of Taste," in which he vigorously attacked the artificialism 

 then in fashion, and enters fully on the best means of i)roducing and varying 

 picturesque effects. Had the lively efforts of "Our Own Commissioner" 

 been produced in those days, they would have had to run the risk of a 

 fierce attack in "A Didactic Poem in three books," for Mr. Knight was of the com- 

 bative order of men and delighted in the effort to hold his own views. 



Eichard Payne Knight built Downton Castle, which was completed in 

 1778, He died in 1824, bequeathing his works of art to the British Museum, 

 when they were valued, it is said, at £50,000. He carried his originality one 

 point too far, for he made his own will and worded it bo ambiguously as to give 

 rise to a lawsuit, which lasted for several years. 



Thomas Andrew Knight succeeded to the Downton Estates on his brother's 

 death, though he had lived at the Castle for many years before. He was a great 

 lover of nature, a clever, original thinker, and followed out with great per- 

 severance the subject of experimental physiology nd . horticulture. He was at 

 Baliol College, Oxford, and intimate there with Dr, Baillie the celebrated 

 physician of the last century. 



The friend of Sir Joseph Banks, and Sir Humphry Davy, and the Presi- 

 dent of the Koyal Horticvdtural Society for the last 27 years of his life, he 

 had ample opportunity of promoting horticultural science, and he never failed 

 to do so to the utmost. Ingenious in his own experiments, he was quick to appre- 

 ciate and recognise those of others, and thus he obtained a well-deserved 

 popularity. The want of an early scientific education was a serious drawback in 

 the path of practical physiology which he laid down for himself, and caused him to 

 waste much of his energy in experiments which were necessarily futile. Notwith- 

 standing this great difficulty, his great natural talents, his extraordinary memory 

 and his untuing perseverance, could not fail to obtain considerable success. He 

 was the first man to prove by actual experiment the impossibility of propaga- 

 ting in perjietuity by grafting any particular kind of apple. He was the first 

 man also, or amongst the very first, to practice the artificial hybrydizing of 

 plants, which has since been carried to such successful results. Perhaps no 

 amateur ever grew a greater number of seedlings of all kinds of fruits and trees 

 under his own iramediato supervision for the i>urc love of science and for the 

 benefit of mankind. Some well-ki\own examples of his success in this way 

 may be mentioned. The Wormisley Elm, which Lindlcy thought worthy of 

 being a separate species, rather than a variety ; and his Wueping Elm is the 



