THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT AND HIS 
WORK IN THE ORCHARD. 
Born August 12th, 1759. Died May nth, 1838. 
“ Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes 
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo,” 
Virgil sEn. vi. 663. 
“ Inventors, who by arts refined 
The common life of human kind, 
With all who grateful memory won 
By services to others done.” 
Conington. 
During the first quarter of the present Century, Thomas Andrew Knight stood at the head of 
Scientific Horticulture in Great Britain. The vigour and originality with which he carried out his 
numerous experiments in Vegetable Physiology, and the great success which attended his efforts 
to introduce new varieties of fruits and vegetables by means of hybridization, proved him to be the 
best practical gardener of his time. The distinguished position he held for many years as President 
of the Royal Horticultural Society in its most palmy days, afforded him the opportunity he was 
so well able to use, of making known the results of his own work, and of spreading widely the 
influence of his example. England thenceforth took her rightful place in advancing the science of 
plant growth, and to Mr. Knight’s original experiments is unquestionably due the great merit of 
beginning the work. 
The only printed account of Mr. Knight’s life is to be found in the introduction to a Volume 
of his Miscellaneous Papers, which was published in 1841, only a few years after his death. He 
was born at Wormsley Grange, and spent the earlier years of his life in the retired seclusion of that 
part of Herefordshire. For his companion he had his brother, Richard Payne Knight, nine years 
older than himself. Together the boys ran wild through the fields, and orchards, and beautiful 
woodland scenery that surround the Grange, and there doubtless they imbibed that love of nature, 
which distinguished them both in after life, in their respective, and very different ways. 
On emerging into the world, Richard Payne Knight quickly became distinguished. His 
great talents found a congenial field in the study of the language and literature of ancient Greece. 
He became known as a refined scholar, and an elegant poet. He was the author of “ An 
Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste',' and of many poems and other works. His best 
