so loud, we must be permitted to call up Southey to our sup- 

 port. He thus sums up in few words, what was known and 

 thought of this London friend of our own Logan, Franklin 

 and Bartram, in his time : 



"Peter Collinson, whose pious memory ought to be a stand- 

 ing toast at the meetings of the Horticultural Society, used to 

 say that he never knew an instance in which the pursuit of such 

 pleasure as the culture of a garden affords, did not find men 

 temperate and virtuous, or make them so. And this may be 

 affirmed as an undeniable and not unimportant fact relating to 

 the lower classes of society, that whenever the garden of a cot- 

 tage or other humble dwelling is carefully and neatly kept, 

 neatness, and thrift, and domestic comfort will be found within 

 doors. 



" When Mr. Allison settled at Thaxed- Grange, English gardens 

 were beginning generally to profit by the benevolent and happy 

 endeavours of Peter Collinson to improve them. That singu- 

 larly good man availed himself of his mercantile connection, 

 and of the opportunities afforded him by the Royal Society, of 

 which he was one of the most diligent and useful members, to 

 procure seeds and plants from all parts of the world, and these 

 he liberally communicated to his friends. So they found their 

 way first into the gardens of the curious, then of the rich, and 

 lastly, when their beauty recommended them, spread themselves 

 in those of ordinary persons. He divided his time between the 

 counting-house in Grace-church street, and his country house 

 and garden at Mill Hill near Hendon ; it might have grieved 

 him could he have foreseen that his grounds there would pass 

 into the hands of a purchaser who in mere ignorance rooted 

 out the rarest plants, and cut down trees which were scarcely 

 to be found in perfection anywhere else in the kingdom at 

 that time. 



" Mr. Collinson was a man of whom it was truly said that, not 

 having any public station, he was the means of procuring 

 national advantages for his country, and possessed an influence 

 which wealth cannot purchase, and will be honoured when 

 titles are forgotten. For thirty years he executed gratuitously 

 the commissions of the Philadelphia Subscription Library, the 

 first that was established in America ; he assisted the directors 



