SELF-INSTRUCTION FOR YOUNG GARDENERS. 
501 
entering Kosnow three Cossacks attacked his 
carriage, and endeavoured to carry off the 
horses, but they were beaten back by the 
whips of the driver and servants. At Mitton 
,he was obliged to sleep in his britzska, as every 
house was full of the wounded ; and he was 
awakened in the night by the cows and other 
animals, of which the inn-yard was full, eating 
the hay which had been put over his feet to 
keep them warm. He reached Eiga on the 
30th of September, and found the town com- 
pletely surrounded by a barricade of waggons, 
which had been taken from the French. 
Between this town and St. Petersburg, while 
making a drawing of a picturesque old fort, 
he was taken up as a spy ; and, on his exami- 
nation before the prefect, he was much amused 
at hearing the comments made on his note- 
book, which was full of unconnected memo- 
randa, and which puzzled the magistrates and 
their officers excessively when they heard it 
translated into Russ. 
" Mr. Loudon reached St, Petersburg on the 
30th of October, just before the breaking up 
of the bridge,- and he remained there three or 
four months ; after which he proceeded to 
Moscow, where he arrived on the 4th of 
March, 1814, after having encountered various 
difficulties on the road. Once, in particular, 
the horses in his carriage being unable to drag 
it through a snow-drift, the postilions very 
coolly unharnessed them and trotted off, telling 
him that they would bring fresh horses in the 
morning, and that he would be in no danger 
from the wolves, if he would keep the windows 
of his carriage close, and the leather curtains 
down. There was no remedy but to submit ; 
andfew men were better fitted by nature for 
bearing the horrors of such a night than Mr. 
Loudon, from his natural calmness and patient 
endurance of difficulties. He often, however, 
spoke of the situation he was in, particularly 
when he heard the howling of the wolves, and 
once when a herd of them rushed across the 
road close to his cai*riage. He had also some 
doubts whether the postilions would be able to 
recollect where they had left the carriage, as 
the wind had been very high during the night, 
and had blown the snow through the crevices 
in the curtains. The morning, however, 
brought the postilions with fresh horses, and 
the remainder of the journey was passed with- 
out any difficulty. 
"When he reached Moscow, he found the 
houses yet black from the recent fire, and the 
streets filled with the ruins of churches and 
noble mansions. Soon after his arrival news 
was received of the capture of Paris, and the 
entrance of the allied sovereigns into that 
city ; but the Russians took this intelligence 
so coolly, that though it reached Moscow on 
the 25th of April, the illuminations in honour 
of it did not take place till the 5 th of May. 
He left Moscow on the 2d of June, and 
reached Kiov on the 15th. Here he had an 
interview with General Rapp on account of 
some informality in his passport. He then 
proceeded to Cracow, and thence to Vienna ; 
after which he visited Prague, Dresden, and 
Leipsic, passing through Magdeburg to Ham-' 
burg, Avhere he embarked for England, and 
reached Yarmouth on the 27th of September, 
1814."— Pp. xxi.— xxiv. 
The account of Mr. Loudon's marriage is 
perfectly romantic. Mrs. Loudon touches 
upon the subject lightly, but it is curious as 
well as interesting. She says > — 
" About this time Mr. Loudon formed his 
first acquaintance with me. My father died 
in 1824; and, on the winding up of his 
affairs, finding that it would be necessary 
for me to do something for my support, I 
had written a strange wild novel, called 'The 
Mummy,' in which I had laid the scene in the 
twenty-second century, and attempted to pre- 
dict the state of improvement to which this 
country might possibly arise. Mr. Loudon 
chanced to see the review of this book in the 
' Literary Gazette,' and, as among other things 
I had mentioned a steam-plough, it attracted 
his attention, and he procured the work from 
a circulating library. He read it, and was 
so much pleased with it, that he published, in 
the ' Gardener's Magazine' for 1828, a notice 
of it under the head of ' Hints for Improve- 
ments;' and he had from that time a great 
desire to become acquainted with the author, 
whom he supposed to be a man. In February 
1830 Mr. Loudon chanced to mention this 
wish to a lady, a friend of his, who hap^ 
pened to be acquainted with me, and who 
immediately invited him to a party, where 
she promised him he should have the wished- 
for introduction. It may be easily supposed 
that he was surprised to find the author of 
the book a woman; but 1 believe that from 
that evening he formed an attachment to me, 
and, in fact, we were married on the 14th of 
the following September."— P. xxxv. 
We shall return to this work, for there is 
much to notice. The passage in which allusion 
is made to his connexion with the 'Gardener's 
Gazette' is short. 
" In 1839 Mr. Loudon began to lay out the 
Arboretum so nobly presented by the late 
Joseph Strutt, Esq., to the town of Derby. 
In the same year he published his edition of 
'Repton,' and his 'Second Additional Supple- 
ment to the Hortus Britannicus.' In 1840 
he accepted the editorship of the ' Gardener's 
Gazette,' which, however, he only retained 
about a year." — P. xl. 
With one more extract we shall close for 
the present. It is the closing scene of his 
