February 17,1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 135 
Bowood Park sights. He had a warm and gentle heart for the 
animal world, for his favourite dog, and for every bird that flew. 
Now he would show me some favourite seedling Pelargoniums, 
and as evening came on would pet his bantams on their perch. 
The powerful man with the kind mouth was as gentle to and as 
fond of his pets as a delicate woman. 
Such was John Spencer—a successful man, an able man, and, 
best of all, a good man, who amid unbelieving men of science was, 
though a man of science, a devout Christian. A few years since 
—some two or three—he received his warning in the failure of 
his health, and had he then retired he might have been alive now 
and perhaps seen fourscore ; but he held on too bravely and died 
in harness, for, leaving his home in Wilts one cold day on business 
for London by the early train, the cold struck in and he never 
recovered. Would it had been otherwise. Nature gives an old 
man her warning. If it be obeyed he lives awhile ; if it be dis¬ 
obeyed and he works on he soon dies, and hence relatives and 
friends have at too early a day to mourn the loss—the removal 
to the better world, of John Spencer of Bowood.— Wiltshire 
Rector. 
P.S.—I append the following note from the Devizes Gazette — 
“ Mr. Spencer came in 1836 to Bowood as head gardener. The 
gardens, vineries, and pleasure grounds are his monument. In 
1861 he succeeded to the vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr 
Phelps, and from his accession to the estate management dates 
the steady course of improvement which has of late years distin¬ 
guished the Bowood estate. “ I began there,' 1 Mr. Spencer used 
to say, pointing to three small houses near the old Quemerford 
turnpike. He would have desired to live a few years longer to 
see the last bad farmhouse and the last ricketty cottage. But this 
was not to be. This active and energetic man is now no more ; 
but if in one sense his works do follow him, in another they 
remain to stimulate by their example and remind the living of 
the dead.”—W. R. 
We have only to add that Mr Spencer was buried on Saturday 
the 25th ult, at Derry Hill, Wilts. He was followed to the grave 
by the following members of his family :—Mrs. Spencer, his 
widow ; Mr. Spencer Castle, his nephew : Mrs. F. H. Phillips, his 
niece ; Mr. F. H. Phillips, the Rev. J. M. Hall, and Mrs. David 
Spencer. The Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, 
M.P., the Mayor of Caine, and upwards of one hundred of his 
oldest friends and principal tenants of the Lansdowne estate 
personally attended. The service at the church was conducted by 
the Rev. W. H. Hitchcock, Rector of Derry Hill, and the Rev. 
Canon Duncan, Vicar of Caine. 
Auriculas after the late Severe Weather. —These 
commenced a vigorous growth the moment the late frost ceased. 
I am now referring to those on stands out of doors, on which 
