July 7, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
13 
was sold as old lumber at a sale at Leeds Castle in Kent, the seat 
of the Fairfax family, on its coming into possession of the late Mr. 
Wykeham-Martin. The purchaser was a shoemaker of Maidstone, 
who cut up the letters as he required them to take measurements 
in his trade. On one occasion when be called on Mr. Hughes, 
and in his business capacity made use of a portion of an ancient 
manuscript, the keen eye of the antiquarian was arrested, and 
after an examination of the precious documents Mr. Hughes be¬ 
came the purchaser of them. When they came into Mr. Johnson’s 
possession he offered them to Mr. Richard Bentley with a view to 
publication, and they were eventually published in four large 
octavo volumes, the first two of which were edited by Mr. Johnson 
in 1848. 
We come now to a period of Mr. Johnson’s career when his 
Fig. 3.—MU. GKOUGE WILLIAM JOHNSON. 
name became more familiarly and intimately connected with hor¬ 
ticulture. He entertained an opinion that the time had come 
when the gardening taste of the country had so greatly developed 
among the middle classes that a journal issued weekly, giving 
advice as to the operations to be attended to in small gardens, 
would meet with a ready circulation. Mr. Johnson consulted Mr. 
Orr, at that time an extensive publisher in Paternoster Row, on 
the subject, and the result of the consultation was the publication 
on the 5th of October, 1848, of the first number of The Cottage 
Gardener. It was a modest production of twelve pages, but it 
was stored with wisdom and knowledge communicated by some of 
the best practical men of the day. The venture was justified by 
the result, fur The Cottage Gardener was a wonderful success 
from the first. 
In the year 1851 a friendship sprang up between Mr. Johnson 
and the present editor, Dr. Hogg, which through all these years 
