CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



69 



Bahama Islands. All the most interestmg trees of America are 

 beautifully figured in these volumes ; and the appearance of such 

 figures for the first time, in England, must have greatly con- 

 tributed to induce the wealthy to procure the introduction of 

 the trees they represented into this country. Ryall, who wrote 

 the preface to Catesby's Hortus Americanus Eurojjceus (which 

 was not published till 1767, nearly twenty years after Catesby's 

 death), observes, " that very little regard was had to the trees 

 and shrubs of America on our first settling in that country; nor, 

 indeed, was any considerable step taken about introducing them 

 into England till about the year 1720," chiefly in consequence 

 of Mr. Catesby's exertions, Catesby lived many years at 

 Hoxton ; but in the latter part of his life he removed to Ful- 

 ham, where he occupied a house, and had a garden within the 

 site of what is now the Fulham Nursery, in which some trees 

 remain that w^ere planted with his own hand. [Lysons, vol. ii. 

 p. 829.) Catesby was born in 1679, and died in 1749. In a 

 notice of his death, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1749 

 (xx. 30.)? he is called the " truly honest, ingenious, and modest 

 Mr. Mark Catesby." 



On a blank leaf of Collinson's copy of Catesby's Natural 

 History of Carolina (which, in January, 1835, came into the 

 possession of A. B. Lambert, Esq.), is the following curious 

 memorandum in Mr. Collinson's own handwriting, and signed 

 with his name, " The ingenious author, Mr. Mark Catesby, 

 was born of a gentleman's family at Sudbury in Suffolk, Some 

 of his family being settled in Virginia, and having himself a turn 

 of mind to natural history, he went over there to see his sister 

 and improve his genius. From thence he travelled to Carolina, 

 Bahama Islands, &c., and painted all the subjects from the life. 

 On his return, the subscription being at an end, he was at a 

 great loss how to introduce this valuable work to the world, 

 until he met with a friend (Peter Collinson) to assist and pro- 

 mote his views. He learned to engrave, and coloured all him- 

 self, yet it proved so very expensive, that he was many years 

 in accomplishing the work, being himself the principal operator. 

 So noble and so accurate a performance, begun and finished by 

 one hand, is not to be paralleled : but it afforded a subsistence 

 to himself, his wife, and two children, to his death ; and his 

 widow subsisted on the sale of it for about two years afterwards, 

 then the work, plates, &c., sold for 400/., and about 200/. more 

 left by the widow, was divided between the two children, a son 

 and a daughter." At the bottom of the titlepage is written : — 

 " This edition of this noble work is very valuable, as it was 

 highly finished by the ingenious author, who in gratitude made 

 me this present for the considerable sum of money I lent him 

 without interest, to enable him to publish it for the benefit of 



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