548 LITERATURE OF GARDENING. 



the art at a still later date, and their works even now take 

 high rank with those of Marshal, Gilpin, Knight, and Price. 

 A fierce controversy raged between some of these writers ; 

 Knight and Price on the one side, and Repton and 

 Marshall on the other, were in the van of the contending 

 schools ; both wrote well but neither seemed to succeed in 

 making the other understand him, and it seems hardly 

 desirable here to open up the controversy. The chief 

 writings on the subject may be occasionally met with on 

 old book-stalls and purchased for a few shillings if any one 

 should wish to indulge in the luxury of an intellectual 

 puzzle. From this time, however, it may be said that 

 gardening took the position of an art, although many 

 years rolled by before it was elevated to the rank of a 

 science. 



To return, John Abercrombie (1744-91) wrote from 

 experience, and his works, which are numerous, had a great 

 circulation, and considerable influence on the gardening of 

 his age. It is related of this author that he was invited to 

 write his first book on gardening " Every Man His Own 

 Gardener" by a London bookseller, and after much hesita- 

 tion consented to do so on condition that Dr Goldsmith 

 undertook the revision of it as to style before publication. 

 Goldsmith consented, but returned the MS. to the pub- 

 lisher saying the author's style was best suited to the 

 subject of which he treated. The number of books on 

 gardening continued to increase, many of them published 

 without the author's name. Garton, Weston, Colin Milne, 

 Meader, Boutcher, William Mason, G. Lindley, Bryant, 

 Felton, and Kennedy, are names worthy of being preserved. 

 William Speechly wrote " A Treatise on the Culture of the 

 Vine, c." (1790), and "A Treatise on the Pine Apple, 

 &c." (1796), which in their day were standard works. 



Dr Erasmus Darwin is entitled to recognition here as 

 the author of " The Botanic Garden " or " Loves of the 

 Plants," a very flowery poem (1781-89) and of " Phytologia" 

 or "The Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening" (1800). 



