182 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the pursuit, and served bis first apprenticeship under his father in the 

 gardens of Crathie Castle. Thence, in the year 1853, when he was 

 eighteen years of age, he came south to the Marquis of Huntly's gardens 

 at Orton Hall, near Peterborough, where he took part in the enlargement 

 of the celebrated Orton Hall Pinetum, and was present at the planting of 

 the first Sequoia (Well big tonia) gigantea. Thence he came further south 

 to the Duke of Norfolk's gardens at Arundel, which were then under the 

 care of Mr. George McEwen, who was celebrated for his knowledge of, 

 and skill in, fruit-growing, and it was here that Mr. Barron enlarged his 

 experience in this particular branch of horticulture and built up a 

 reputation which afterwards placed him amongst the foremost authorities 

 on the subject of pomology. 



From Arundel he removed to Suffolk and accepted a position at 

 Shrublands Park, near Bury St. Edmunds, where Mr. Donald Beaton 

 was head gardener, a man renowned for his cultivation of flowers. 

 Subsequently he went down into South Wales and joined a brother in 

 farming. 



This varied experience under men who were mostly leaders, each in 

 his own special line, in the gardening world stood Mr. Barron in good 

 stead. For about this time his former chief at Arundel, Mr. McEwen, 

 was appointed superintendent of the Society's gardens, and in 1857 he 

 offered Mr. Barron a position under him at Chiswick. Mr. McEwen 

 lived but a short time after his appointment, and was succeeded by 

 Mr. George Eyles. In 1864 the superintendentship of the Society's new 

 garden at South Kensington was separated from that of the garden at 

 Chiswick, Mr. Barron being appointed to the latter, while Mr. Eyles 

 retained South Kensington ; but on Mr. Eyles's retirement they were again 

 united under Mr. Barron, who continued to hold both offices until South 

 Kensington was given up at the close of 1887. In 1895, owing to 

 increasing years and failing health, he was obliged to relinquish his post at 

 Chiswick, the Council of the Society conferring on him a retiring pension 

 of £180 a year, and the gardening fraternity generally presenting him 

 with a purse of £500. He was also one of the first to receive the 

 Victoria Medal of Honour for horticulture. 



Besides the excellent work which Mr. Barron did for the Society and 

 for horticulture at Chiswick, he made time to act as secretary for that 

 excellent charity, the Gardeners' Orphan Fund, and his well-known 

 influence and personality assisted in no small degree in raising the Fund 

 to its present condition of prosperity. 



As a writer, Mr. Barron will long continue to be known by his ' Vines 

 and Vine Culture,' which will for many years to come remain the standard 

 work upon the subject. 



Mr. Barron died at Chiswick, hard by the garden he had tended so 

 well, on April 15, 1903, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His career, 

 so honourable and brilliant, should serve as an incentive to all young 

 gardeners to practise diligence and observation and all-roundness in 

 their calling. 



