138 



Philip Miller died at the age of eighty, and was empha- 

 tically styled by foreigners hortulanorum princeps, Switzer 

 bears testimony to his " usual generosity, openness and free- 

 dom." Professor Martyn says, " he accumulated no wealth 

 from his respectable connection with the great, or from the 

 numerous editions of his works. He was of a disposition too 

 generous, and too careless of money, to become rich, and in 

 all his transactions observed more attention to integrity and 

 honest fame, than to any pecuniary advantages." There is 

 a finely engraved portrait of Mr. Miller, by Maillet, prefixed 

 to the " Dictionnaire des Jardiniers, de Philipe Miller, tra- 

 duit de l'Anglois," en 8 torn. 4to. Paris, 1785. 



Dr. Pulteney says of him, " He raised himself by his 

 merit from a state of obscurity to a degree of eminence, but 

 rarely, if ever before, equalled in the character of a gar- 

 dener." Mr. Loudon (in that " varied and voluminous mass 

 of knowledge," his Encyclopaedia), thus remarks: — " Miller, 

 durino- his long career, had no considerable competitor, until 

 he approached the end of it, when several writers took the 

 advantage of his unwearied labours of near half a century, 

 and fixed themselves upon him, as various marine insects do 

 upon a decaying shell-fish. I except Hitt and Justice, who 

 are both originals, as is also Hill, after his fashion, but his 

 gardening is not much founded in experience." The sister 

 of Mr. Miller married Ehret, whose fine taste and botanical 

 accuracy, and whose splendid drawings of plants, are the 

 finest ornaments of a botanical library. 



Mr. Miller fixed his residence adjoining that part of Chel- 

 sea church-yard where he lies interred. He died December 

 18, 1771. Mr. Johnson gives a list of his writings, and of 

 the different editions of his celebrated Dictionary, which he 

 terms " this great record of our art." He farther does full 

 justice to him, by associating his name, at p. 147 and p. 151, 



