BOSWELL BOTANICAL GARDENS. 



(J37 



which was gathered together by his ancestors, and 

 lias acquiredthe well-known title of the " AUCHINLECK 

 LIBRARY." From the stores of this collection, in 

 1804, Sir Walter Scott published ihe romance of " Sir 

 Tristram." Besides this invaluable present to the 

 literary world, the Auchinleck Library furnished, in 

 1812, the black letter original of a disputation held 

 between John Knox and Quentin Kennedy at May- 

 bole in 1562, which was printed at the time by Knox 

 himself, but had latterly become so scarce, that 

 hardly another copy, besides that in the Auchinleck 

 Library, was known to exist. Mr Boswell was at 

 the expense of printing a fac-simile edition of this 

 curiosity, which was accepted by the learned, as a 

 very valuable contribution to our stock of historical 

 literature. Alexander Boswell possessed a great fund 

 of volatile talent, and, in particular, a pungent vein of 

 satire. At an early period of his life, some of his 

 poetical j'eux d'esnrif occasionally made a slight 

 turmoil in that circle of Scottish society in which he 

 moved. In 1803, he published a small volume, en- 

 titled, " Songs chiefly in the Scottish Dialect." Some 

 of these songs had already acquired a wide accepta- 

 tion in the public. We may instance, " Auld Gude- 

 man, ye're a Drucken Carle," " Jenny's Bawbee," 

 " Jenny Dang the Weaver," and " Taste Life's Glad 

 Moments." In 1810, Mr Boswell published a kind 

 of city eclogue under the title, " Edinburgh, or the 

 Ancient Royalty, a Sketch of former Manners, by 

 Simon Gray." At a subsequent period, he estab- 

 lished a private printing press at Auchinleck, from 

 which he issued various trifles in prose and verse, 

 some of which are characterized by much humour. 

 In 1816, appeared a poetical tale, somewhat like 

 Burns's Tarn o' Shanter," entitled " Skeldon Haughs, 

 or the Sow is Flitted !" being founded on a traditionary 

 story regarding an Ayrshire feud of the fifteenth 

 century. In 1821, Mr Boswell was honoured with a 

 baronetcy of Great Britain. About this period, 

 politics ran very high in the country, and Sir Alex- 

 ander, who had inherited all the Tory spirit of his 

 father, sided warmly with the ministry. A newspaper 

 was started in Edinburgh styled the Beacon, to which 

 Sir Alexander Boswell contributed some articles, 

 aimed at the leading men on the other side, which 

 were alleged to have far exceeded the proper line of 

 political sarcasm. These being continued in a subse- 

 quent paper, which was published at Glasgow, under 

 the name of the Sentinel, at length were traced to 

 their author by James Stuart, Esq., younger of 

 Dunearn, who had been the object of some of the 

 rudest attacks, and repeatedly accused of cowardice. 

 The consequence of this discovery was a challenge 

 from Mr Stuart to Sir Alexander, and the hostile 

 parties having met near Auchtertool in Fife, March 

 26, 1822, the Tatter received a shot in the bottom of 

 the neck, which terminated his existence next day. 

 Mr Stuart was tried for this offence, by the high 

 court of justiciary, but most honourably acquitted. 

 Sir Alexander left a widow and several children. 



James Boswell, the second son of the biographer of 

 Johnson, was educated at Westminster school. He 

 possessed talents of a superior order, sound classical 

 scholarship, and a most extensive and intimate know- 

 ledge of our early literature. In the investigation of 

 every subject he pursued, his industry, judgment, and 

 discrimination, were equally remarkable ; his memory 

 was unusually tenacious and accurate ; and he was 

 always as ready, as he was competent, to communi- 

 cate his stores of information for the benefit of others. 

 Mr Malone, influenced by these qualifications, se- 

 lected him as his literary executor ; and to his care 

 this eminent commentator intrusted the publication 

 of an enlarged and amended edition of Shakspeare, 

 which he had long been meditating. As Mr Malone's 



papers were left in a state scarcely intelligible, it is 

 believed that no man but one of kindred genius like 

 Mr Boswell, could have rendered them at all avail- 

 able. This, however, Mr Boswell did in the most 

 efficient manner; farther enriching the work with 

 many excellent notes of his own, besides collating the 

 text with all the earlier editions. This work, indeed, 

 which extends to twenty-one volumes, 8vo, must be 

 considered as themost elaborate edition of Shakspeare. 

 In the first volume, Mr Boswell has stepped forward 

 to defend the literary reputation of Mr Malone against 

 the severe attacks made by a writer of distinguished 

 eminence, upon many of his critical opinions and 

 statements; a task of great delicacy, and which Mr 

 Boswell performed in so spirited and gentlemanly a 

 manner, that his preface may be fairly quoted as a 

 model of controversial writing. In the same volume 

 are inserted " Memoirs of Mr Malone," originally 

 printed by Mr Boswell for private circulation ; and 

 a valuable essay on the metre and phraseology of 

 Shakspeare, the materials for which were partly col- 

 lected by Mr Malone, but which was entirely indebted 

 to Mr Boswell for arrangement and completion. Mr 

 James Boswell died Feb. 24, 1822, aged forty-three. 

 BOSWORTH ; a small town in the county of Leicester, 

 England, about three miles from which is Bosworth 

 field, where was fought, in 1458, the memorable 

 battle between Richard III. and the earl of Richmond, 

 afterwards Henry VII. This battle, in which Richard 

 lost his life, put a period to the long and bloody wars 

 of the roses, between the houses of York and Lancas- 

 ter. 



BOTANICAL GARDENS ; establishments in which 

 plants from all climates, and all parts of the world, 

 are cultivated in the open air, in green-houses, and 

 hot-houses. The object of such an establishment is 

 partly information and the improvement of science, 

 partly pleasure and luxury. Theophrastus seems to 

 have instituted the first botanical garden. He be- 

 queathed it to his scholars. Attalus Philometor, 

 king of Pergamus, and Mithridates Eupator of Pontus, 

 vied with each other in the establishment of gardens, 

 where they cultivated poisons and antidotes. Pliny 

 mentions a botanical garden which was laid out in 

 Italy by Antonius Castor, son-in-law of king Dejo- 

 tarus. In the middle ages, Charlemagne exerted a 

 favourable influence, by establishing gardens near the 

 imperial palaces and castles, specifying even the 

 single shrubs, which were to be planted. In the be- 

 ginning of the fourteenth century, Matthaeus Sylvati- 

 cus, at Salerno, founded the first botanical garden, 

 properly so called. The republic of Venice, soon 

 afterwards, in 1333, instituted a public medical gar- 

 den, and had the plants painted by Amadei. The 

 paintings are still preserved. After the time of the 

 revival of learning, the first botanical gardens, which 

 contained, however, for the greater part, merely me- 

 dicinal plants, were laid out in Italy. Duke Alfonso 

 of Este was the founder of an excellent institution of 

 this kind in Ferrara ; then followed the gardens in 

 Padua, Pisa, and Pavia. Montpellier, in France, 

 first imitated his example. The academical garden 

 in Leyden was instituted in 1577 ; that of Paris, in 

 1633; and about the same time the first botanical 

 gardens in Germany and England were founded. At 

 present, the largest and most renowned in Germany 

 are the imperiafAustrian, at Schonbrunn, under the 

 inspection of Jacquin ; the royal Prussian, near Ber- 

 lin, under Link and Otto ; that of Weimar, in Belvi- 

 dere ; that of the grand duke of Baden, at Schwetz- 

 ingen ; and the royal Hanoverian, in Herrnhausen. 

 In Great Britain, the royal garden at Kew; the 

 Chelsea garden, founded for the London apothecaries; 

 and that at Liverpool, under the superintendence of 

 Shepherd, are the most celebrated scientific institu- 



