Abercrombie 1 s Works. 167 



speaks of a man likely to get admission into 

 a cry of players as wearing two Provencal 

 roses in his slashed shoes. 



Abercrombie's work, Every Man his oivn 

 Gardener (1766), had a very lengthened run, 

 and was no doubt deserving of the popularity 

 which it so long enjoyed. Although it did 

 not appear till the latter half of the eighteenth 

 century, it represented the experience of a 

 man who must have recollected Pope and 

 the traditions of 1688. I have before me 

 an edition printed in 1827, in which it is said 

 to be " by Thomas Mawe, Gardener to His 

 Grace the Duke of Leeds, and John Aber- 

 crombie, sixty years a Practical Gardener," 

 and now to be " Enlarged and Improved 

 by R. Forsyth." This I take to be the son 

 of the Forsyth who was so much patronised 

 by George III. 



In 1784 Abercrombie followed up Every 

 Man his own Gardener by an even more> 

 important work: The Propagation and 

 Botanical Arrangement of Plants and Trees, 

 Useful and Ornamental, Proper for Cultiva- 

 tion in every Department of Gardening ; Nur- 



