GARDENING UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY 217 



and two were flourishing in 1820, and one remained until 

 1904. 1 Before this visit to the garden, he must have paid many 

 others, as he made most of his botanical studies there, and was 

 encouraged and assisted by Ray. Sloane (born 1660) had been 

 abroad and studied medicine at Montpelier, where a Botanical 

 Garden had existed since 1598. Long years before he con- 

 veyed the land to the apothecaries he was famous for his 

 assiduous studies of Natural History. The first volume of his 

 great work on Jamaica and the West Indies was published in 

 1707. He was in Jamaica as physician to the Duke of Albemarle, 

 the Governor, who died there suddenly, and Sloane returned to 

 England, having in fifteen months collected a large number of 

 curiosities, and no less than eight hundred species of plants. 

 He lived at Chelsea all the latter part of his life, and died there 

 in 1752. His fame as a naturalist is scarcely less than as 

 a physician. The great Linnaeus as a young man came to 

 England to see him in 1736. On every occasion he was the 

 encourager and friend of gardeners, of which the following letter 

 is an example : 



Sir Henry Goodricke to Sir Hans Sloane. Ribstan, near 

 Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, I7r§. 



Sir, 



The civilitys I have received from you do incourage 

 me to give the trouble of a letter, and knowing you to be one 

 who loves to incourage curiosity makes me hope that the 

 subject of my letter won't be so disagreable to you as to 

 another. It is to desire of you that if among your rarities you 

 have any number of seeds, nuts or kernells of foreign and rare 

 trees especially those that are hardy I shall verily thankfully 

 pay for 'em, my pleasure being to raise such things in hot beds 

 and preserve 'em with care ; and I would not rob you of any 

 but what you have so many as you may readily spare a part 

 to one who will as readily supply you again when any accident 



1 This tree was almost dead when the new management took over 

 the garden in 1898, and their care could not save it. It became infested 

 with a fungus, which was rapidly spreading to other trees, and had to 

 be cut down in March, 1904. I give a more full account of the history 

 of the garden and these cedar trees in London Parks and Gardens, 

 Constable, 1907. 



