October 16. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
29 
M W 
OCTOBER 16—22, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clocii 
i>u.y ol 
D j V 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R. & S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
Year. 
16 Th 
Martin last seen. 
30.076 — 30.046 
60—30 
W. 
__ 
27 a. 6 
5 a. 5 
9 
0 
21 
14 
17 
289 
17 F 
Dogwood turns red. 
30.057 — 30.042 
60—34 
s.w. 
— 
29 
3 
10 
0 
22 
14 
29 
290 
IS S 
St. Luke. Lime leafless. 
30.105 — 30.058 
63—44 
w. 
— 
30 
0 
11 
7 
(S' 
14 
41 
291 
19 Sun 
18 Sunday after Trinity. 
29.957 — 29.901 
59-37 
w. 
— 
32 
IV 
morn. 
24 
14 
52 
292 
20 M 
Hen Chaffinches flock. 
29.892 — 29.856 
55—35 
N.W. 
— 
34 
56 
0 
24 
25 
15 
3 
293 
21 Tu 
Suns declination, 10° 36' s. 
30.028 — 29.917 
52—33 
N.E. 
. - 
35 
54 
1 
46 
26 
15 
13 
294 
22 W 
Coddy-moddy Gull inland. 
30.1)0 — 29.777 
52—34 
N. 
0.11 
37 
52 
3 
9 
27 
1 5 
22 
295 
Anthony Wood, the learned and the illiberal, when writing a memoir 
of Richard Carew, says—“ Our author hath written The true and ready 
1 way to learn the Latin Tongue. This is involved in a book published by 
a Dutchman, Samuel Hartlib, Esa.” Now, any one unacquainted 
, with the literature and history of the seventeenth century would never 
conclude from this notice that Mr. Hartlib was one of the most admirable 
j of Anthony Wood’s contemporaries. Yet such was the case; and no 
man has existed who expended the resources of both purse and mind 
i more liberally, not only for the benefit of his adopted country, but for 
mankind at large. He was, however, a supporter of Cromwell, and this 
i was enough to incur Wood’s hatred, though every act of his life had 
been worthy of record with a pencil of light. Evelyn, though a Royalist, 
was more just; for in his “ Diary,” under the date of Nov. 2/th, 1655 , 
he says, “ I went to see York House and gardens, belonging to the 
former great Buckingham, but now much injured through neglect.* 
Thence to visit honest and learned Mr. Hartlib, a public-spirited and 
ingenious person, who had propagated many useful things and arts. He 
told me of the castles which they set for ornament on their stoves in 
Germany (he himself being a Lithuanian, as I remember), which are 
furnished with small ordnance of silver on the battlements, out of which 
they discharge, excellent perfumes about the rooms, charging them with 
a little powder to set them on tire, and disperse the smoke; and, in truth, 
no more than needed, for their stoves are sufficiently nasty. He told me 
of an ink that would give a dozen copies—moist sheets of paper being 
passed on it—and yet remain perfect; and a receipt how to take off any 
print without the least injury to the original. This gentleman was 
master of innumerable curiosities, and very communicative.” Hartlib 
lived then close to the Duke of Buckingham’s gardens ; for in one of 
Walter Blith’s works, published in 1653, the latter says, “ Whoever 
desires to be cordially informed of Mr. Speed, may from Mr. Samuel 
Hartlib, dwelling against Charing-cross, who can give fuller and larger 
description, both of the man and his abilities, having expressed himself 
so far a gentleman of such charity towards him, as he hath maintained 
him divers months together while he was inventing some of his dis¬ 
coveries.” This partaker of his hospitality we believe to have been 
i Adam Speed, who in 1651 published The Reformed Husbandman, and, 
in 1659 , Adam out of Eden. It was by thus fostering the ingenious and 
distressed, of which we gave another example, a few weeks since, in the 
case of Gabriel Plattes, that Mr. Hartlib expended and diminished his 
fortune. His generosity was unrestrained by such considerations as 
political partizanship, and Cavalier or Roundhead shared alike his purse, 
provided they were virtuous, clever, and distressed. The day came, 
however, when he needed pity and assistance, and, to the shame of the 
second Charles and of his ministers, it remains on record that that 
assistance was withheld; and there is too much reason to believe that 
Hartlib died neglected and in penury. Fortunately we have a few frag- 
! ments of his autobiography ; and from these, and some other sources, 
we can form a connected sketch of the progress of this great promoter 
of the culture of our soil. 
Samuel Hartlib was the son of the King of Poland’s merchant, who, 
when the Jesuits prevailed in that country, was obliged to remove himself 
into Prussia, where he settled and built the first house of credit at 
Elbing, which cost him many thousand of rix-dollars, in those cheap 
days. Hence his grandfather, the deputy of the English company at 
Dantzick, brought the English company to Elbing; and that town came 
by trade to the splendour and result which it afterwards attained. 
“ My family,” says Hartlib, writing in 1660, “was of a very antient 
extraction in the German empire, there having been ten brothers of the 
name of Hartlib. Some of them have been privy counsellors to the Em¬ 
peror, some to other inferior princes ; some Syndics of Ausperg and 
Noriinberg. But they passed afterwards not so strictly for Udallanta in 
the Empire, when some turned merchants, which is derogatory to the 
German nobility. I may speak it with a safe conscience, that I never, all 
the days of my life, reflected seriously upon my pedigree, preferring my 
heavenly birth above all such vanities; and afterwards studying more, 
to this very day, to be useful to God’s creatures and serviceable to his 
Church, than to be rich or honourable.” 
He was the issue of a third wife, his father having married two “ Polo- 
nian ladies, of noble extraction.” This third wife seems to have been 
an English woman, for she had two sisters very honourably married here; 
one, first to Mr. Clark, son of a lord mayor, and afterwards to a “ very 
rich knight, Sir Richard Smith, one of the king’s privy council, she 
bringing him a portion of ^10,000 ; after his death, she married a third 
time Sir Edward Savage, and was made one of the ladies of honour to the 
king’s mother. Her daughter married Sir Anthony Irby at Boston, “ a 
knight of 4 or 5,000l. sterling a-year.” The other sister married Mr. 
Peat, a younger brother. 
Warton says that Hartlib came into England in 1640, but we think that 
his arrival must have been ten years earlier, for before 1630, he is known 
to have been intimate with Archbishop Usher and Dr. Mede, in conse¬ 
quence of the strenuous efforts he made to procure a union between the 
Lutherans and Calvinists. An account of these efforts he published 
during 1641, in a work entitled A relation of that which hath been lately 
attempted to procure ecclesiastical peace among Protestants. 
* This house and gardens covered the ground on which now stand 
George-street, Villiers-street, Duke-street, and Buckingham-street. 
In 1645, he published A Discourse of Flanders Husbandry; not then 
knowing who was the author of that, and the “Legacy” to his sons, 
which relates also to the cultivation of their estates, written on the 
author’s death-bed, 1645. The author was Sir Richard Weston, whom 
Harte apprehends to be the Sir Richard Weston, “ who was ambassador 
from England to Frederick V. elector Palatine, and king of Bohemia, in 
1619 , and present at the famous battle 01 Prague, concerning which a 
curious relation of his, by way of letter, is still preserved in MS.” It is 
remarked in the Philosophical Transactions, that England had profited 
in agriculture to the amount of many millions, by following the direc¬ 
tions laid down in this little treatise, which has always been looked upon 
as a capital performance in husbandry. 
Hartlib afterwards, in order to enlarge and better explain this famous 
discourse, published another edition, and annexed Dr. Beati’s anno¬ 
tations to it; so convinced was he that “agriculture is one of the noblest 
and most necessary parts of industry belonging to a commonwealth, the 
first, ground of mutual trading between men, and the well-spring of 
wealth in all well-ordered societies.” 
In 1652, Hartlib published his Legacy, or an enlargement of the 
discourse of Husbandry used in Brabant and Flanders. This famous 
work was only drawn up at Hartlib’s request, and passing under his 
correction and revision was published by him. It consists of one general 
answer to the following query, namely—“ What are the actual defects ' 
and omissions, as also the possible improvements in English husbandry ? ” 
The real author of this work was Robert Child. To it are annexed 
various correspondences from persons eminent for skill in agriculture at 
this time; as C.D. B.W. R.H. T. Underhill, Henry Cruttenden, W. | 
Potter, &c., as also the “Mercurius Leetificans ;” and twenty large ex¬ 
periments by Gabriel Plattes ; together with annotations on the Legacy, j 
by Dr. Arnold Beati, and replies to the animadversions by the author of j 
the Legacy. 
In the preface to the “ Legacy,” Hartlib laments greatly that no 
public director of husbandry was established in England by authority; 
and that we had not adopted the Flemish custom of letting farms upon 
improvement. Cromwell, as Harte says, in consequence of this admirable 
performance, allow'ed Hartlib a pension of .£'100 a-year; and it was the 
better to fulfil the intentions of his benefactor, that he procured Dr. 
Beati’s excellent annotations before-mentioned, with the other valuable 
pieces from his numerous correspondents. 
Hartlib says himself, “ As long as I have lived in England, by wonder¬ 
ful providences, I have spent yearly out of my own between 3 and 4001. 
a-year, sterling; and when I was brought to public allowances, I have 
had from the parliaments and councils of state, a pension of .£'300 sterling 
a-year, which as freely I have spent for their service, and the good of 
many.” He says he “ erected a little academy for the education of the 
gentry of this nation, to advance piety, learning, morality, and other 
exercises of industry, not usual then in common schools.” This probably 
occasioned Milton’s “Tractate on Education,” about 1646, to be ad¬ 
dressed to him; and “Two letters to him on the same subject, by Sir 
William Petty.” 
We have seen, from Evelyn’s Diary, that Hartlib’s attention was di¬ 
rected to other arts besides that of cultivating the soil; and it is certain 
that he was one of the early promoters of those meetings of experimenters 
w hich formed the embryo of the Royal Society. In its archives is a curious 
letter from Hartlib to Boyle, dated Amsterdam, May 18 , 1649, in which is 
the following memorandum : “ Fauxhall is to be sett apart for publick uses, 
by which is meant making it a place of resort for artists, mechanicks, 
See., and a depot for models and philosophicall apparatus.” It is further 
proposed, that “ experiments and trials of profitable inventions should 
be carried on,” which, says the writer, “will be of great use to the 
Commonwealth.” Hartlib adds, that the late king (Charles I.) “ designed 
Fauxhall for such an use.” 
In another letter to Boyle, dated May, 1654, Hartlib says, “The Earl 
of Worcester is buying Fauxhall from Mr. Trenchard, to bestow the use 
of that house upon Caspar Calehof and his son, as long as they shall 
live, for he intends to make it a College of Artisans. Yesterday,” he 
adds, “ I was invited by the famous Thomas Bushel to Lambeth Marsh, 
to see part of that foundation.” 
At length the Restoration brought with it evil days to Hartlib, and all 
his public services were forgotten. In December, 1662 , his pension was 
.£700 in arrears ; and, in a letter to Lord Herbert, he complains “ he 
had nothing to keep him alive, with two relations more, a daughter and a 
nephew, who were attending bis sickly condition.” About the same time 
he presented a petition to the House of Commons, by the name of Samuel 
Hartlib, sen., setting forth his services, and praying relief; in which, 
among other things, he says, that for thirty years and upwards he had \ 
exerted himself in procuring “ rare collections of MSS. in all the parts of 
learning, which he had freely imported, transcribed, and printed, and 
sent to such as were most capable of making use of them ; also the best 
experiments in husbandry and manufactures, which by printing he hath 
published for the benefit of this age and posterity.” The event of these 
applications, and the time of the death of this ingenious man, are unknown. 
Meteorology of the Week. — At Chiswick from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 58.6° and 41.6° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 72 °, occurred on the 21 st in 1826 , and the lowest cold, 20 °, on the 
21st, in 1842. During the period, 89 days were fine, and on 79 , rain fell. 
No. CLrX., Vol. VII. 
