Jobbing Gardener. 25 



years in the line, and was one of the first who set agoing the 

 London Gardeners' Lodge, described in your Encyclopaedia, 

 though I have long since left it, from not being satisfied with 

 its management. I left Edinburgh in the year 1777, and, after 

 working some time in Mr. Christopher Gray's nursery at Ful- 

 ham, I got a very good place with a Mr. Rolls, a great stock- 

 broker, whose affairs went wrong after I had been six years 

 with him, and I was obliged to quit. After going down to 

 Scotland to see my friends, I came up again and got a place 

 from Mr. Hare, then a seedsman in St. James's Street, to go 

 to Mrs. Wilson at Putney, where I remained till her daughter 

 married, when her husband having an aversion to Scotch ser- 

 vants, I was obliged to leave. Soon after this, a fellow-work- 

 man and myself attempted to set up a small nursery at Epsom, 

 part of which is now occupied by Mr. Young of that place; 

 but, after struggling hard for little more than two years, we 

 were obliged to give up, after losing all we had saved, and 

 about 50/., which my partner had borrowed from his aunt at 

 Kinross, and which preyed so upon his mind, that I verily 

 believe it was the cause of his death, which happened about a 

 year afterwards at Windsor ; where he got into a small place 

 to look after a garden, and some fields in which vegetables 

 were grown for sale. 



Not liking to go into servitude again, I began jobbing on 

 my own account, and a poor business I have found it ever 

 since. When I first began, the highest wages I could get 

 were 3s. a day, and obliged to find my own tools. I had a 

 good deal of employment at first, partly from the circumstance 

 of being a Scotchman, being called by the people who employ 

 jobbers, a professed gardener. My wife also took up a green- 

 grocer's shop about this time, and we did very well till we lost 

 our only daughter, which obliged us to take in a maid-servant, 

 who let in some fellows into the house one Sunday afternoon 

 when we were at chapel, and took away all my savings, most 

 of my wife's clothes, and concealed the bedding in an out- 

 house, to be taken away no doubt at night. The maid was never 

 seen again, and we never could hear any thing of the thieves. 

 We now left Camberwell altogether, and both my wife and I 

 took a situation in a small family near Hammersmith, "where 

 my wife was cook, and I had a man under me for the garden 

 and for looking after a horse and chaise. This place did not 

 suit, and I advertised for another, and got one in a large board- 

 ing-school, which was worse, as my wife was expected to look 

 after the milk of two cows, and I was obliged to assist in brew- 

 ing. After doing nothing for some time, I began the jobbing 

 again at Paddington, and my wife took in washing ; but she 



