235 



CHAPTER XII. 



Miscellaneous Letters to and from Sir J. E. Smith, from 1817 to 

 1827. — Sir Thomas Gage. — Hon. DeWitt Clinton. — Rev. R. 

 Walpole. — Sir J. E. Smith. — Dr. Wallich. — Sir T. Gage. — 

 Sir T. G. Cullum. — Sir T. Frankland. — Panzer. — Rev. J. 

 Yates. — D. Turner, Esq. — Mr. Sinclair. — Professor Hooker. 

 — Bergsma. — Mr. Lambert. — Mr. Talbot. 



From Sir Thomas Gage*. 



Florence, Casa Dini Borgo Santa Croce, 

 My dear Sir James, June Li, 1817. 



I have for a very long time had in my possession 

 the books from Mr. Targioni, which I have at last 



* Of Hengrave Hall in the county of Suffolk, Bart. Sir Tho- 

 mas Gage died at Rome on the 27th of December, 1820, in the 

 40th year of his age, and was buried there in the chiesa del Gesu. 

 " Enthusiasm and delicacy distinguished his character, and were 

 blended in a manner as happy as unusual. Had these been sup- 

 ported by strong health, there was no perfection in art or science 

 to which he would not have been capable of attaining. His tastes 

 and pursuits were all elegant. Whatever he said or did was emi- 

 nently marked by gentlemanly feelings. It was both from nature 

 and from cultivation, and scarcely less from cultivation than from 

 nature, that he possessed a tact, which, while it was essential to 

 the pursuit of botany, his favourite science, rendered him trem- 

 blingly alive to the beauties of art and the more sublime charms 

 of creation. In the more abstruse parts of the vegetable world 

 he had laboured hard, by the lamp as well as the sun ; studying 

 the works of his predecessors in his closet, and exploring the 

 objects themselves in the fields." — History and Antiquities oj 

 Hengrave. 



