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Flanders, along with our worsted manufactures, during the equally 
unchristian and unwise persecutions of the bloody Philip II. Such 
an innocent luxury, and so rare a taste, were not unworthy of 
minds which had tinned with disgust from the tyranny and foul 
corruption of their native country. Truth, virtuous liberty, and 
disinterested science, are congenial and flourish under the influence 
of similar circumstances. 
The great Sir Thomas Browne, well known by his various 
learned writings, who died here in 1682, appears not to have 
neglected botany. The Salsola fruticom was first observed by 
him on the Norfolk coast. It does not, however, appear that 
systematic botany was particularly studied in Norwich till towards 
the latter end of the 18th century. There was indeed a set of 
botanists very distinct from the florists, though like them mostly 
in humble life, and who amused themselves in herborising in the 
country, and who referred their discoveries to the names and 
descriptions of old English authors, particularly Gerarde and Park- 
inson, sometimes, perhaps, to Pay. Some of these are still in being, 
and a Society, founded many years ago, now exists. But the 
numbers of these properly called botanists, have been always in- 
considerable compared with the cultivators of fine flowers, who 
among the journeymen weavers and other persons employed in the 
manufacture, are very numerous, and I believe very successful. 
The long intercourse between this country and Holland has been 
favourable to their pursuit. 
The oldest names I have been able to discover among the botanists 
is that of Mr. Wilson, a tailor, who made frequent journeys to 
London about the years 1738 and 1740. Part of his herbarium, 
very scientifically named, has fallen into my hands. From thence 
it appears that he collected and dried many plants from the Physic 
Gardens at Chelsea, and from Gray’s nursery at Fulham. Among 
his pupils were Mr. Christopher Smart, of the same profession, and 
Mr. Christopher Newman, a man in a more elevated situation of 
life, both living in my time ; as well as Mr. William Humfrey. 
To the latter, an amiable and communicative man, I have many 
obligations. He first discovered the Lycoperdon phalloidcs of Mr. 
Woodward, the Buturrer of Persoon, a most singular fungus not 
known in this neighbourhood. I shall only mention one more of 
these humble cultivators of science, Mr. Joseph Fox, a weaver, of 
