! November 0 . THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 70 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
w 
D 
NOVEMBER 6—12, 1851. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
near London 
Thermo. .Wind. 
N 1850. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
1 Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year, 
Tn 
Cherrv leafless. 
30.100 — 30.061 
57—36 i W. 
4 n. 7 
24 a. 4 
3 43 
13 
16 
14 
310 
F 
Hooded Crow comes. 
30.1 13 — 29.(132 
58—46 1 S.W. 
02 
0 
22 
4 56 
14 
16 
11 
311 
S 
Birch leafless. [born 1841 
30.153 — 29.909 
53—29 w. 
01 
7 
20 
rises. 
© 
16 
7 
312 
Sun 
21) Sunday after Trinity. P. Wales 
30.315 — 30.265 
53—50 S.W. 
-- 
9 
19 
5 a 6 
16 
16 
3 
313 
M 
Primrose blossoms again. 
30.248 — 30.183 
5S—46 S.W. 
— 
n 
5 36 
17 
15 
5 7 
314 
Tu 
St. Martin. Bunting mute. 
30.108 — 29-999 
58—48 S.W. 
— 
13 
16 
6 11 
18 
15 
51 
315 
\v 
Wood-pigeons flock. 
29-999 — 29.980 
56—26 IN.W. 
— 
14 
14 
6 56 
19 
15 
44 
316 
In St. James’s Church, Piccadilly, locked up from general utility by 
being Latinized, is the following monumental inscription— 
Here lies interred 
Benjamin Stillingfleet 
To whom the sciences afforded a perpetual delight; 
More especially as Religion was the first object of all his studies. 
From his learned grandfather, Edward Stillingfleet, 
Bishop of Worcester, 
He drew his love of letters, 
And veneration for the Christian faith. 
He departed the 15th of December, 1771 , aged sixty-nine. 
The biography of Mr. Stillingfleet, who is thus justly commemorated, 
offers many points of warning, as well as of example worthy of imitation. 
Prominently among which, is the fact that he was one of those most 
pitiable of mankind, a gentleman by birth, without a competency, and 
without a profession. Too truly can such a man say, “ I cannot dig; to 
beg I am ashamed,” and too often dp they have recourse to measures 
similar to those which he adopted whose words W'e have quoted. It was 
not so with Benjamin Stillingfleet. Left the only son of a widowed 
mother, and that mother in straitened circumstances,—for her husband 
was the deservedly disinherited son of Bishop Stillingfleet,—he strove to 
afford her that support which her husband had failed to secure. At the 
age of twenty-two, after obtaining a Bachelor’s degree at Cambridge, 
he became tutor to the only son of Ashe Windham, Esq., of Felbrig, in 
Norfolk, and, from his salary, spared much for his mother’s comfort. 
Nor was his love of his family narrowed to her alone, nor did his hand 
close with her life. 
He possessed a mind truly noble, and even in the times of his greatest 
embarrassment, preserved a high spirit of independence, and commanded 
respect from all with whom he had intercourse. He adapted his style of 
expense to his income, and declined pecuniary assistance from the most 
intimate of his friends; yet the narrowness of his circumstances, and the 
habits of economy, which he was compelled to practise, neither con¬ 
tracted his mind, nor rendered him unfeeling to the distress of others. 
His humanity was unbounded, and hisaffec:ion for his relations displayed 
in the most active and benevolent exertions. Even under pressing 
exigencies, he always assisted the family of his sister, Mrs. Sabourn ; and 
at one period gave fifty pounds a-year from an income of not more than 
an hundred. After his income was increased by Mr. Windham’s legacy, 
and the place given him by Lord Barrington, lie did not relinquish his 
habits of economy, nor change his mode of life, but devoted his super¬ 
fluities to the service of his family, and to works of benevolence. 
Whilst tutor to Mr. Windham, he strove strenuously to obtain inde¬ 
pendence in a Fellowship of Trinity College. In this he failed ; and it 
is to be feared that the failure was due to its Master, Dr. Bentley, who, 
forgetting the obligations he had receive from Mr. Stillingfleet’s father, 
is said to have barbed his successful opposition to his election, by observ¬ 
ing, “ Mr. Stillingfleet is too fine a gentleman to be buried in a college.” 
The next blow before which he had to bow was still more keenly felt, 
for when the lady to whom, for ten years, he was attached by mutual 
pledges, snapped them asunder, and sank into a wealthier alliance, we 
are told he became an altered man, and an indifference to the avocations 
of life came over him, which he never afterwards was able to shake off. 
What he suffered, these verses from his pen seem to tell— 1 
Oh ! save me from the jilt’s dissembling part, 
Who grants to all, all favours but her heart; 
Perverts the end of pleasing, for the fame; 
To fawn, her business ; to deceive, her aim. 
While all are pleas’d, and wretched soon or late,— 
All but the wise, who see and shun the bait. 
Passing over Mr. Stillingfleet’s travels on the continent, we next find 
him settled in a little cottage near Foxley, in Herefordshire, for the sake 
of being in the vicinity of the family of his friend, Mr. Price, father of 
the more widely-known Uvedale Price, so connected with our literature 
on picturesque gardening. Writing from his cottage in 17-17, he says: — 
“ I did not comply with your kind invitations in the summer, for I am 
absolutely unfit lor company by my bad health ; especially when I alter 
my way of life in the least. The little enjoyment 1 have of health is 
owing to the sweat of my brows; no sooner do I leave off working many 
hours in the day than I relapse again. You thought, no doubt, what I 
said to you some time ago about my being turned gardener, was all 
exaggeration ; but believe me, it is literally true : that is my employment 
from morning to night.” 
This occupation naturally led a man of so inquisitive and contem¬ 
plative a turn to the examination of plants. From the Bishop of Durham 
(Dr. Barrington), who at an early period of life frequently accompanied 
him in his excursions, we learn, that in the commencement of his bota¬ 
nical studies, he had recourse to Gerarde’s Herbal, Parkinson, and Ray ; 
and his knowledge of the learned languages enabled him ulso to consult 
Theophrastus and Dioscorides. But he was afterwards led to the study 
of the more perfect, simple, and comprehensive system, which was about 
this time promulgated by Linnaeus. He soon became a master and 
zealous partizan of the new method, and was called by the opponents 
which it found in England, as well as in other parts, one of the body¬ 
guards of Linnaeus. 
Mr. Stillingfleet thus briefly traced the peculiarities of each of the 
botanical systems which had been successively in vogue:—“Theo¬ 
phrastus sketched the classes of plants, and had a glimmering of the 
genera; Gesner and Ctesalpinus established the genera, and had a glim¬ 
mering of the species; Tournefort, Ray, and Morison, established the 
species by the fruit; Tournefort added the flowers; Boerhaave the 
stamina: Linnaeus took in the style. Among them all plants are ranged 
according to the characters taken from all the parts.” 
This brings us to the publication which especially entitles Mr. Stilling¬ 
fleet to our notice— Miscellaneous Tracts on Natural History, and its 
contents shall be particularized by his biographer, Mr. Coxe :—“The 
wotk itself contains translations of various tracts from the writings of 
Linnaeus and his pupils, read as Theses in the University of Upsul. 
which were at once calculated to develope his principles, and to point out 
new ways for the improvement of natural history The first is the 
Oration on the Benefit of Travelling in our Native Country, delivered 
by Linnteus when he was appointed Professor of Physic, 1741. In this 
oration the learned Professor traces the general benefits of travelling, 
more particularly to the physician and naturalist. He reprobates the 
custom of early travelling, and urges the necessity of laying a previous 
foundation at the University, without which preparation every thing 
appears trite and uninteresting. He gives just and sensible rules in re¬ 
gard to the pursuit of knowledge, and the method of observation. He 
adds, that by knowledge thus acquired at home, we can alone be qualified 
to improve our own customs by those of other nations, and to render our¬ 
selves usetul to our country. He gives a rapid though modest sketch ol 
his own studies, labours, and travels ; and after tracing the benefits 
which he had derived from them, he bursts into an animated tribute of 
gratitude to the divine Being, which we here quote as a testimony of his 
piety and zeal. ‘ First to thee, Oh omnipotent God, I humbly offer up 
my thanksgiving for the immense benefits that have been heaped upon 
me through thy gracious protection and providence. Thou from my youth 
upwards hast so led me by the hand, hast so directed niv footsteps, that 
I have grown up in the simplicity and innocence of life, and in the most 
ardent pursuit after knowledge. I give thee thanks that thou hast ever 
preserved me in all my journeys through my native and foreign countries, 
amidst so many dangers that surrounded me on every side; that in the 
rest of my life, amidst the heaviest burdens of poverty, and other incon¬ 
veniences, thou wast always present to support me with thy Almighty 
assistance: lastly, that amidst so many vicissitudes of fortune to which 
I have been exposed, amongst all the goods and evils, the joyful ana 
gloomy, the pleasing and disagreeable circumstances of life, thou 
endowest me with an equal, constant, manly, and superior spirit on every 
occasion.’ The second Treatise is an interesting disquisition On the 
(Economy of Nature, by Isaac Biherg, tracing the means of propagation, 
preservation, and destruction, which may be observed throughout tin- 
mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The third is a Tract On the 
Foliation of Trees, and the fourth is a Treatise On the Use of Curiosity, 
by Christopher Gedner. it is intended to excite and encourage the most 
minute researches into the secrets of nature, by pointing out some cir¬ 
cumstances, which, though apparently insignificant, are productive ol the 
most important benefits, and shewing, that throughout the whob 
ceconomy of Nature, no creature or inanimate substance is unnecessary ; 
but that all, however noxious or inconsiderable, are productive of im¬ 
portant advantages, either immediate or remote. The filth is a sensible 
Treatise On the Obstacles to the Improvement of Physic, and the sixth, 
intituled The Swedish Pan, was written by Nicholas Hasselgreen in 1740 , 
and treats on different plants as the proper nutriment of different 
animals. The work was closed by a Treatise, written by Mr. Stillingfleet 
himself On the English Grasses, in which he reprobates the slovenly 
mode adopted in that branch of husbandry, and points out the properest 
species for the improvement of the turf, and the nourishment ot cattle. 
The subject is treated in a methodical and judicious manner ; and to Mr. 
Stillingfleet the British public is indebted for the introduction of must ot 
the trivial names now in use, and the principal part of that knowledge 
which has been acquired of this valuable species of plants. In the second 
edition of these Miscellaneous Tracts, which Mr. Stillingfleet published 
in 1762 , the Observations on Grasses were accompanied by plates of the 
different species recommended by the author, most of them w'ell-drawn 
from nature by his lamented and excellent friend Mr. Price, of Foxley. 
The piece was also improved with considerable additions. On the sub¬ 
ject of this Treatise on Grasses, Mr. Curtis sensibly remarks :—‘ Mr. 
Stillingfleet was not one of those speculators who promulgate precepts 
which they do not practise, and lay down rules which they do not follow. 
From his own manuscripts and writings, I find that he not only gave to 
the public his Observations on Grasses, and recommended his friends to 
pursue his rules, but himself employed his scanty means to reduce his 
theory to practice, by laying down lands, and selecting seeds. An in¬ 
stance of thiB kind is recorded by Kent in his Hints to Gentlemen 0 ] 
Landed Property. Meadow and pasture land is oftener neglected than 
ploughed ground, notwithstanding it generally admits of a greater pro- 
if V I K‘f aTm. 
No. CLXI£ > Vol, vii 
