59 



source of many of the finest examples of this gi'acef ul tree now in existence. He 

 i)it.roiTuccu m:iny vr.ricties of friiit, as the Elton Pine, and Downton Scarlet 

 Strawberries, the Elton Cherry, the Downton Pippin Apple, and the Wormisley 

 Grainge Pippin (one of the very best cooking apples of the present day), and 

 many others. 



jMr. Thomas Andrew Knight published a work on " The Culture of the 

 Apple and Pear," ■which went through several editions. Several of his papers 

 are pulilished in tJio Transactions of the Royal Society, and he received the 

 gold Copley medal. Had Thomas Andrew Knight been alive in these days 

 it may safely be said that the Woolhope Club would have had his most cordial 

 suijport (applause). 



Postscript. 



One other circumstance must yet be mentioned, for it is one that has 

 thrown a gloom over this lovely valley, that will only disappear with the genera- 

 tion that witnessed it — the melancholy death of 3Ir. Andrew Knight's only son. 

 On the 28th of November, 1827, all was gaiety at Downton. A lai-ge party of 

 visitors had assembled at the Castle, and at Ludlow that evening a grand ball 

 was to take jdace, at which the younger Jlr. Knight was to be the president. He 

 was pheasant shooting with some of the party in the dingles of Bringewood 

 chase when a single shot glancing from a tree struck him in the eye. The 

 terrible nature of the accident was not at first apparent. "You've spoilt my 

 dancing," was his first remark, and for the two short hours that consciousness 

 remained to him he did his utmost to alleviate the distress of the friend from 

 whose gun the fatal shot had fled. The next day he was dead. "Wlio shall 

 picture the deep sorrow of his family, or represent the painful shock that 

 pervaded aU classes of society. Even now, after a period of 42 years, the writer 

 of this notice has been called upon in a way ho cannot refuse to express it once 

 more. 



Mr. Knight's sudden death was indeed a great loss. He fully inherited 

 the family talents, and combined in a rcmark.able manner the liter.ary ability of 

 his uncle, with his father's love of Natural Science ; and he possessed moreover 

 very stiikingly that tender regard for the feelings of others which also distin- 

 guished liis father, and which made him so beloved by all about him. He died 

 at the age of 32. His death caused the lawsuit, which had begun before, to be 

 carried on more actively, until, by the decision of Lord Langdale in the RoUs 

 Court, which was confirmed by the House of Lords, the estates descended to a 

 sister's son, Mr, Andrew Rouse Boughton Knight, the present possessor. 



The geologists then crossed the Forge Bridge, whose curious turrets were, 

 appropriately enough, connected by a thick iron bar running along the top — "a 

 proof of the abundance of iron," one gentleman thought, but BIr. Cocking 



