Obituary Notice. 75 



wherever his works were read. The following notice of his deatli is 

 copied from his own Magazine, now closed forever: — 



On the 14th of December, 1843, died at his house at Bayswater, John 

 Claudius Loudon, Esq., who for nearly half a century, has been before 

 tlie public as a writer of numerous useful and popular works on gardening 

 agriculture, and architecture. 



Mr. Loudon's father was a farmer, residing in the neighborhood of Edin- 

 burgh, where he was highly respected ; but Mr. Loudon was born on 

 April 8, 1783, at Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, where his mother's only 

 sister resided, herself the motlier of the Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, 

 afterwards celebrated for his philanthropic labors in India. Dr. Buchanan 

 was several years older than Mr. Loudon, but there was a singular coin- 

 cidence in many points of their history. The two sisters Avere, in both 

 cases, left widows at an early age with large families, which were brought 

 up by the exertions of the eldest sons ; and both mothers had the happi- 

 ness of seeing their eldest sons become celebrated. Mr. Loudon was 

 brought up as a landscape gardener, and began to practice in 1803, when 

 he came to England with numerous letters of introduction to some of the 

 first landed proprietors in the kingdom. He afterwards took a large farm 

 in Oxfordshire, where he resided in 1809. In the year 1813-14-15 he 

 made the tour of northern Europe, traversing Sweden, Russia, Poland 

 and Austria ; in 1819 he travelled through Italy ; and in 1828 through 

 France and Germany. 



Mr. Loudon's career as an author began in 1803, when he was only 

 twenty years old, and it continued with very little interruption during the 

 space of forty years, being only concluded by his death. The first works 

 he published were the following: — Observations on Laying out Public 

 Squares in 1803, and on Plantations, in 1804; a Treatise on Hothouses in 

 1805, and on Country Residences, in 1806, both 4to ; Hints on the Foiina- 

 tion of Gardens, in 1812 ; and tlaree works on Hothouses, in 1817 

 and 1818. In 1822 appeared the first edition of the EncyclopfBdia of 

 Gardening; a work remarkable for the immense mass of useful mat- 

 ter which it contained, and for the then unusual circumstance of a great 

 quantity of wood cuts being mingled with the text : this book obtained an 

 extraordinary sale, and fully established his fame as an author. Soon after 

 was published an anonymous work, written either partly or entirely by 

 Mr. Loudon, called tlie Greenhouse Companion ; and shortly afterwards, 

 Observations on Laying out Farms, in folio, with his name. In 1824 a 

 second edition of the Encyclopoidia of Gardening, was published, with 

 very great additions, alterations, and improvements ; and the following 

 year appeared the first edition of the Encyclopcedia of Agriculture. In 

 1826, the Gardener''s Magazine was commenced, being the first periodical 

 ever devoted exclusively to horticultural subjects. The Magazine of 

 JVatural History, also the first of its kind, was begun in 1828. Mr. Lou- 

 don was now occupied in the preparation of the EncyclopfBdia of Plants, 

 which was published early in 1829, and was speedily followed by the 

 Hortus Britannicus. In 1830, a second and nearly rewritten edition of the 

 Encyclopaedia of Agricidture was published, and this was followed by an 

 entirely rewritten edition of the EncyclopfBdia of Gardening, in 1831 ; and 

 the Enq/clopetdia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture, the first he 

 piiblished on his own account, in 1832. The last work was one of the 

 most successful, because it was one of the most useful he ever wrote, and 



