138 KEW GARDENS 



himself took notice of the young rustic as carry- 

 ing a book with him to work, and was so pleased 

 by his talk as to desire that he should be kept 

 on; but I do not remember any statement to 

 this effect in Cobbett's own writings. In later 

 life, the doughty demagogue became something 

 of a nursery gardener himself, carrying on near 

 Kensington, by the Kew road, a seed-farm from 

 which he was zealous to propagate a kind of 

 acacia he introduced, and also, with less success, 

 the cultivation of maize under the name of 

 " Cobbett's corn." All through life he kept up 

 his interest in gardening, as shown by more than 

 one of the works whose style has been happily 

 compared to a kitchen-garden's relation with a 

 flower-garden. 



Another gardener rose to note, who about 

 the same time was seeking jobs in Mortlake, 

 Kingston, or any parish around Kew where he 

 could find poor lodging and ill-paid work. His 

 real name was William Hunt, but he changed 

 this to Huntingdon, as would appear, by way of 

 hiding himself from the consequence of some 

 youthful ill -doing; and he afterwards justified 

 the alias in characteristic fashion by claiming 

 to have undergone " the new birth " under that 



