Obituary. ^39 



Art. VII. Obituary. 



DiRD, at Dulwich, July 25. in his G8th year, WiUiam Clai-Jc, Esq., of Croy- 

 don, an eminent florist in liis time, and an honourable and upright man. He 

 raised many tulips from seed, among others, Lawrance's La Joie (p. 601.). 

 It was broken by Mr, Lawrance, and hence the cause of its bearing his 

 name. The merit of selecting the best-formed flowers, saving their seeds, 

 sowing them, and raising the plants, belongs to Mr. Clark. He was an ama- 

 teur, and never received money for flowers ; but, when he gave a seedling 

 bulb away, he generally arranged to have one bulb of every flower that 

 broke. — aV. Aug. 1831. 



Died, at Packington, Warwickshire, August 5. in the 92d year of his 

 age, Mr. Richard Jones, who, during a period of more than thirty years, 

 filled the situation of gardener to the late Earl of Aylesford, at Packington 

 Hall. This excellent man was the eldest son of Mr. Thomas Jones, a 

 maltster and brewer of Morvil in the county of Salop, and was born May 2. 

 O.S. 1740. When about 12 yeai's old, his father placed him under [the 

 care of a Mr. Farmer, gardener to Sir Richard Acton, Bart., at Aldenham, 

 near Bridgenorth, to whom he served an apprenticeship of seven years. 

 In this situation his good conduct happily acquired for him the favoiu'able 

 notice of that most eminent and highly gifted man, Launcelot Brown, Esq. 

 (then principal gardener to King George II.), who, at the expiration of 

 his apprenticeship, engaged him to work in the royal gardens, under his 

 own immediate superintendence and tuition. With this gentleman (who 

 may be justly styled the father of his profession, and who was, in fact, the 

 founder of a new era in landscape-gardening), IVL'. Jones continued about 

 three years, his tune being at first chiefly divided between the gardens of 

 Kensington Palace and Hampton Court, and subsequently among those of 

 Richmond, Kew, and Buckingham House. Mr. Brown afterwards pro- 

 cured for him the situation of gardener to Lord Holland, at Holland House, 

 Kensington, where he saw much of the celebrated Charles James Fox, in 

 whom (although he was then a mere child) Mj\ Jones's penetration led 

 him to discover the germs of that noble and independent spirit for which 

 he was afterwards so much distinguished in public life. About the year 

 1766, he quitted the service of Lord Holland, and (at the recommend- 

 ation of his friend, Mr. Brown) was engaged by Lord Sandys to superintend 

 the gardens attached to Ombersley Court, Worcestershire. In this latter 

 situation he had resided about three years, v.'hen Lady Torrington pre- 

 vailed upon him to enter the service of her brother, the Earl of Cork and 

 Boyle, at Marston House near Frome, in Somersetshire, whither, accord- 

 ingly, he now removed. Here it was his happiness to form a matrimonial 

 connection v/ith Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Ball, a respect- 

 able former, residing at Postlebury House, near Frome, by whom he had 

 fifteen children. She died on the 23d of May, 1829, after having shared 

 with her husband, for more than half a century, the vicissitudes of an 

 active and a happy life. In the discharge of the arduous duties of a wife 

 and mother her conduct was most exemplary ; and she enjoyed, with her 

 husband, the peculiar gratification of witnessing the marriages of twelve of 

 their children, and the births of fifty-five grandchildren and great-grand- 

 children. After retaining his situation under the Earl of Cork for about 

 twelve years, during which time he acquired the esteem and confidence of 

 his noble employer, he was engaged by the Marchioness of Bath, of Long- 

 leat House, Wiltshire, to undertake the management of the extensive 

 gardens of her son-in-law, the late Earl of Aylesford, at Packington Hall, 

 near Coventry, to which place he removed in the spring of the year 1781. 

 In the quiet and retirement of this rural spot (the site of the ancient 

 forest of Arden, some of whose oaks, contemporary with Henry VIII.', 

 are still to be seen in the park) Mr. Jones was destined to pass the re- 

 mainder of his davs ; and he had already been actively engaged in the 



