1106 



STATISTICS OF GARDENING. 



Part IV. 



1760. Anon. 



Adam armed : or an Essay endeavouring to prove the Ad- 

 vantages and Improvements the Kingdom may receive, and 

 the Inconveniences and Impediments it may avoid and re- 

 medy, by the Means of a well-ordered and duly rectified 

 Charter for Incorporating and Regulating the Professors of the 

 Art of Gardening ; humbly ottered and presented by the Master 

 and Company of the same. Fol. no date ; supposed about 1760. 



1762. Home, Henry, , commonly called Lord 

 Kaimes, from his official legal situation ; an 

 eminent Scotch lawyer, philosopher, and critic, was 

 born at Kajmes in Berwickshire, 1696 ; died 1782. 

 He was originally bred a writer or attorney, but by 

 assiduous application raised himself to be a judge. 

 He farmed his own estate at Kaimes for several 

 years ; and afterwards resided at Blairdrummond 

 in Stirlingshire, his wife's estate, where he displayed 

 his taste in laying out grounds. His life has been 

 written by Lord Woodhouselee. 



Essay on Gardening ; in the Elements of Criticism. Lond. 

 3 vols. 8vo. In this work he recommends a judicious use of 

 both the ancient and modern styles. 



1763. Wheeler, James, a nurseryman at Glou- 

 cester. After his death the nursery was carried on 

 by his two daughters, who separated some years 

 ago, and it is now carried on by one of them. 



The Botanist's and Gardener's New Dictionary; containing 

 the Names, Classes, Orders, Generic Characters, and Specific 

 Distinctions of the several Plants cultivated in England, ac- 

 cording to the System of Linneus : to which is prefixed, an In- 

 troduction to the Linnean System of Botany. Lond. 1763. 8vo. 



1764. Dodsley, Robert, an ingenious English poet, 

 miscellaneous writer, and bookseller ; was born in 

 Nottinghamshire, 1703. 



A Description of the Leasowes, the Seat of William Shen- 

 stone, Esq., accompanied by a Plan. Lond. l'imo. 



1764. Museum Rusticum, a periodical work, con- 

 taining various papers on planting and horticulture. 



Museum Rusticum et Commerciale ; or select Papers on Ag- 

 riculture, Commerce, Arts, and Manufactures. Drawn from 

 experience, and communicated by Gentlemen engaged in these 

 Pursuits. Revised and digested by several Members of the 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and 

 Commerce: in 6 vols. 8vo. 



The Museum Rusticum was succeeded by a similar work in 

 1768, entitled De re rustica, completed in 2 vols. 8vo. in 1770. 



1764. Shenstone, William, Esq., a poet and coun- 

 try gentleman, celebrated for his taste in landscape- 

 gardening ; born in Shropshire 1714, died 1763. 



Unconnected Thoughts on Landscape Gardening. In his 

 works collected after his death, in 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 



1766. Abercrombie, John, son of John Abercrombie, 

 who had a nursery and garden in the neighborhood 

 of Edinburgh ; and was in the habit of supplying 

 the markets of that city with vegetables. 



John Abercrombie, our author, was born in 1726; 

 and was educated at a grammar school, till he at- 

 tained an age to be of service in his father's busi- 

 ness, for which he had always a predilection. After 

 he had arrived at manhood, on some trifling family 

 differences occuring, he left his father, and came 

 to London ; in the vicinity of which he worked for 

 some years as a journeyman gardener. To note the 

 particulars of most interest, he was long employed 

 in the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at Leicester 

 House, now Leicester Fields 5 and in these situ- 

 ations he occasionally contributed to the boyish 

 diversions of his present majesty. He lived as 

 principal gardener with several noblemen and per- 

 sons of high rank and respectability, and particu- 

 larly with that eminent botanist, Doctor Munro 

 (father of the present celebrated physician), at 

 Sunning Hill, near Windsor : here he continued 

 several years, and was married while in the doctor's 

 service, to a young woman in the family of Sir 

 James Douglas, where he had before lived. He 

 afterwards had a garden and nursery at Hackney, 

 whence he sent his goods to Spitalfields Market ; 

 and the profits of his business enabled him to sup- 

 port his increasing family with comfort and decency. 

 At this crisis, some time about 1770, Mr. L. Davis, 

 an eminent bookseller of London, accompanied by 

 Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, having previously ordered a 

 handsome entertainment at an inn in Hackney, 

 surprised Abercrombie with an invitation to dine 

 with them with a view to induce him, by encou- 

 raging overtures, to compose an original work 

 on Practical Gardening. Abercrombie consented, 

 with reluctance, fearful it might call off his at- 

 tention too much from his garden and nursery; 

 and at last, only on the condition of his materials 

 being revised, and the style improved by Dr. Gold- 

 smith. This celebrated writer, however, did not 

 perform his part of the undertaking: after the 

 papers had been handed to him by the humble 

 gardener, then an inexperienced writer, and anxious 

 to have his luxuriances pruned, the doctor said, as 

 an apology to the bookseller for returning the MS. 

 unrevised, that " Abercrombie's style was best 



suited to the subjects of which ittreated." Abercrom- 

 bie, however, frequently lamented, and the public 

 possibly may do the same, that this very perspicuous 

 and elegant writer did not fulfil his engagement. 



Abercrombie's first work was entitled Every 

 Man his own Gardener, which had a rapid sale; 

 and, from the temporary profits being considerable, 

 he was induced to neglect, and soon after to give 

 up, his nursery; and to enter upon a course of au- 

 thorship on horticultural subjects. 



On first publishing Every Man his own Gar- 

 dener, the diffidence of Abercrombie induced him 

 to affix to the title-page the name of Mawe, who 

 was gardener to the Duke of Leeds. After the 

 publication of a second edition, he accepted of an 

 invitation from the nominal author of his book, 

 who had been much flattered by the compliment, 

 to visit him in Yorkshire. When introduced to 

 Mawe, whom he had never before seen, poor Aber- 

 crombie (as he used facetiously to narrate) encoun- 

 tered a gentleman so bepowdered, and so bedaubed 

 with gold lace, that he thought he could be in the 

 presence of no less a personage than the duke him- 

 self. However, they soon came to a right under- 

 standing ; for he continued his visit for more than 

 a fortnight, and " fared sumptuously every day." 

 He likewise received much information from 

 Mawe, as the groundwork of improvements which 

 he afterwards made in his book, Every Man his own 

 Gardener, and in other publications. They subse- 

 quently maintained a friendly correspondence for 

 years. 



About the year 1774, Abercrombie took a tea- 

 garden at Hoxton, near the Shepherd and Shep- 

 herdess ; and exhibited In the grounds his practical 

 skill in raising exotics and choice fruits : his arbors 

 there are, to this day, spoken of as rural curiosi- 

 ties. In different parts of the garden he was ac- 

 customed to fix pieces of his own humble poetry. 



At length he left it, on the expiration of the 

 lease, which he was unable to get renewed. Un- 

 fortunately, just before the lease had expired, the 

 original proprietor of the grounds under whom 

 Abercrombie held, and who was disposed to do him 

 the most friendly offices, died. This gentleman was 

 an eminent goldsmith, and an alderman of the 

 city of London : during his illness, his relations 

 prevented Abercrombie from visiting him, or from 

 access to the house. On his death, Abercrombie 

 experienced another severe disappointment, in not 

 being noticed in the alderman's will ; although he 

 had been led, by professions of friendship and pro- 

 mises of assistance, to form the highest expectations 

 from this quarter. 



Previous to the year 1790, Abercrombie's family 

 had grown up and had settled away from home. 

 From this period to the time of his death, he 

 chiefly depended for support on the occasional im- 

 provements which his several works required. 

 From 1796 to the time of his decease, he resided at 

 Charlton Street, Somers' Town, except when he 

 was visiting a friend at Cambridge, or was engaged 

 in any professional pursuit at a considerable dis- 

 tance from town. When out of business, he was 

 a constant visitor, being a great walker, of the 

 nursery-grounds and botanic gardens around the 

 metropolis, with the object of collecting horticul- 

 tural and botanical information. He was also oc- 

 casionally employed in planning new gardens and 

 ornamental grounds, as a horticultural surveyor 

 and improver ; for which he was sometimes hand- 

 somely remunerated. 



In the spring of 1806, being in his eightieth year, 

 Abercrombie met with a severe fall, by which 

 he broke the upper part of his thigh-bone. This 

 accident, which happened to him on the 15th of 

 April, terminated in his death. After lying during 

 the interval, in a very weak exhausted state, with- 

 out much pain, he expired in the night between 

 April and May as St. Paul's clock struck twelve. 

 He was lamented by all who knew him, as cheer- 

 ful, harmless, and upright. 



1. Every Man his own Gardener, being a New Gardener's 

 Calendar, with complete Lists of Forest-trees, Flowering Shrubs, 

 Fruit-trees, Evergreens, annual, biennial, and perennial Flow- 

 ers: Hot-house, Green-house, and Kitchen -garden Plants, with 

 the Varieties of each Sort cultivated in the English Gardens. 

 Lond. l'imo. . ,. , . , 



Of this very useful and popular work the editions have been 

 numerous. From " a diffidence in the writer, it was first pub- 

 lished as the production of Thomas Mawe, gardener to His 

 Grace the Duke of I-eeds, and other gardeners ; but it was en- 

 tirely written by Abercrombie, whose claim has since been, 

 in some measure, asserted, by subjoining in the titlepage the 

 name of John Abercrombie, to the more popular one of Mr. 

 Mawe." It is to be lamented, Professor Martyn observes, that 



