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I found myself moreover in the centre of a school 
of botanists. Ever since the Spanish tyranny and 
folly had driven commerce and ingenuity from 
Flanders, to take refuge in Britain, a taste for 
flowers had subsisted in my native county along 
with them. Our weavers, like those of Spitalfields, 
have from time immemorial been florists, and many 
of them most excellent cultivators; their neces- 
sary occupations and these amusements were pecu- 
liarly compatible. And it is well worthy of remark 
that those elegant and virtuous dispositions which 
can relish the beauties of nature, are no less strictly 
in unison with that purity of moral and religious 
taste which drove the founders of our Worsted 
manufactory from foul and debasing tyranny to the 
abode of light and peace and liberty. 
“Our circle of naturalists at Norwich, far from 
being confined to florists, had long contained some — 
systematic botanists. They were students of Ge- 
rard, and Parkinson, and even of the learned works 
of Ray. In my young time this circle was pecu- 
liarly enriched by the possession of Mr. Rose, Mr. 
Bryant, and Mr. Pitchford, three names well known 
to all who are conversant with the botany of Bri- 
tain. They were often favoured with the society 
of the learned and amiable Stillingfleet, and the 
correspondence of Hudson; and they may all to- 
gether be considered as the founders of Linnean 
Botany in England, to the promulgation of which, 
the publications of Rose, Stillingfleet, and Hudson, 
have contributed more than any others whatever ; 
while the indefatigable practical labours of Mr. 
