648 
president’s address. 
at Holkham. 6 At No. 37, on the 2nd of December, 1759, was 
born their eldest son James Edward, the eldest of seven, who 
for nearly five years was their only child, thus obtaining a 
large share of his mother’s attention. It was from her that he 
derived his great love of flowers. “ I can just remember 
tugging ineffectually with all my infant strength at the tough 
stalks of the wild succory on the chalky hillocks about 
Norwich.” 6 
Not strong enough to attend school, he was visited by the 
best tutors in the city, and acquired a knowledge of French, 
Italian, mathematics, and the rudiments of Latin. He was 
much interested in Natural History, but had neither teacher 
nor books to help him : “ I wandered long in the dark, till some 
of the principal elementary works, the publications of Lee, 
Rose, Stillingfleet, and a few others came in my way, and were 
devoured over and over again. At length, however, I found I 
wanted something more, and to apply to practise what had thus 
been acquired. I was then furnished with systematic books, 
and introduced to Mr. Rose, whose writings had long been 
my guide. I was shown the works of Linnaeus ; nor shall I 
ever forget the feelings of wonder excited by finding his whole 
system of animals, vegetables and minerals contained in three 
8vo. volumes.” 6 
We see James Smith, a youth of eighteen, during the 
summer of 1778 frequently carrying a parcel of flowers and 
Berkenhout’s “ Botanical Lexicon,” material for a botany 
lesson, to No. 8, Tombland, the house built outside the wall of 
the Close at the south side of the Erpingham Gate — a house 
with pillared entrance and rounded portico — where Hugh Rose, 
apothecary, had resided for twenty years. 13 This house (last 
inhabited by Mr. Emmanuel Cooper) was pulled down in 1878, 
also the stable adjoining on the south side, which had always 
been leased separately to the same person as the house. 
At No. 8, Tombland, Rose, with the assistance of the Rev. 
Henry Bryant, had written the “ Elements of Botany,” pub- 
lished in 1775, “ a translation of the “ Philosophia Botanica, 
and other Treatises of the celebrated Linnaeus.” The works 
