July 19, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



55 



after he had reoeived the solid education of hiB native parochial 

 school he was placed under his uncle, who was gardener to 

 Mr. Skene of Skene, where he was employed in the garden 

 and plantations. He then removed to Haddo House, the seat 

 of the Earl of Aberdeen, where he remained till 1820, and then 

 left for the garden at Danottar Castle, the residence of Lord 

 Kennedy. After remaining there for one year he removed in 

 November, 1821, to the gardens of Robert Ferguson, Esq., of 

 Raith in FifeBhire, where he was for nearly three years. 



In 1824 Mr. Thompson reached London, and went directly 

 to the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick, 

 to whioh he had been recommended by his late employer's 

 brother, Sir R. Ferguson. The garden was then nearly com- 

 pleted ; the collection of fruit trees had just been planted, some 



of them, which were worked on Paradise stocks, were coming 

 into fruit ; and the walls which enclose the orchard and kitchen 

 garden had then been just finished. Mr, Thompson was at 

 once placed in the fruit department, which was then superin- 

 tended by Mr. Christie, and no time could have been more 

 opportune for his entering on his duties, as from the first he 

 had under his observation the immense collection of fruits 

 which then and subsequently has existed in the gardens. Early 

 initiated by Mr. Knight and Mr. Sabine into a knowledge of 

 the characters and merits of the then existing varieties, Mr. 

 Thompson acquired a knowledge and taste for the study of 

 fruits and fruit trees whioh increased with his years, and which 

 he retained to the last. During the whole of the forty-four 

 years of his active life at Chiswick pomology was his special 



and passionate study, not only as it was exhibited under bis 

 eye in the garden, but in the literature and practice of the 

 pursuit as existing on the Continent. It was this well-grounded 

 and thorough knowledge of the subject which enabled Mr. 

 Thompson so well to produce that laborious work, the "Cata- 

 logue of Fruits Cultivated in the Garden of the Horticultural 

 Society of London," which has formed the foundation of 

 modern pomologioal synonymy. No one except such a person 

 as Mr. Thompson could have done this work so well. His 

 proverbial patience and painstaking, his excessive care and 

 oaution, admirably fitted him for such a work, and stamp it 

 with an authority which has never been assailed. It was not, 

 however, in pomology alone that Mr. Thompson excelled. 

 Every department of horticulture received from him its due 

 share of attention ; and not in the practice only, but also in 

 the higher principles of the pursuit, did Mr. Thompson emi- 

 nently shine. His love of physical science was equalled only , 

 by his love of gardening ; and his knowledge of mathematics ! 

 was of a high order. No better evidence of the combination 

 of these qualities can be given than that which is furnished 

 in that admirable compendium of horticulture " The Gar- 



deners' Assistant." Meteorological science is much indebted 

 to him for the constancy and correctness of the observations 

 he conducted at Chiswick from 1830 till within a few months 

 of his death, a period of thirty-nine years. And here we 

 may take the opportunity of noticing a remark we some- 

 times have heard made by others who note meteorological ob- 

 servations. Doubts have been expressed as to the correct- 

 ness of the instruments used at Chiswick. It has been said 

 that the temperatures announced by Mr. Thompson were, 

 when excessive, too high or too low, and that they did not 

 correspond with those of other observers. It is, nevertheless, 

 a striking fact that on an average of thirty years' observations 

 —from 1826 to 1855— the difference in the records of mean 

 temperature between Chiswick and Greenwich amounts only 

 to 0'06° — a lasting tribute to the care with which the Chiswick 

 meteorological observations were made. 



Mr. Thompson was a voluminous writer, though he does not 

 appear as the author of many works. In the " Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society," besides the bulky meteorological 

 tables, there are many valuable papers on horticultural sub- 

 jects. To Loudon's " Gardener's Magazine," the Gardeners' 



