November 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
i2i 
m| w 
NOV. 27—DEC. 3, 1851. 
Weather near London in 1850. 
Sun 
Sun 
Moon 
Moon’s 
Clock 
Day of 
Year. 
D! D 
1 
Barometer. 
Thermo. 
Wind. 
Rain in In. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
R.&S. 
Age. 
bef. Sun. 
27 Th 
Anniversary of Botanical Society. 
29.904 — 29.591 
41—26 
N. 
0.01 
40 a. 7 
56 a. 3 
8 
4 
4 
12 
17 
331 
28 jF 
Elm leafless. 
30.302 — 30.139 
41—21 
N.E. 
— 
41 
55 
9 
10 
5 
11 
5 7 
332 
29 S 
Song Thrush sings again. 
30.314 — 30.215 
37—19 
E. 
N.E. 
0.01 
42 
54 
10 
17 
6 
11 
36 
333 
30)Sun 
Advent Sunday. St. Andrew. 
30.146 — 30.108 
37-31 
— 
44 
53 
11 
23 
3 
11 
14 
334 
1 M 
Grey Plover goes. 
Pipistrelle Bat last seen. 
30.192 — 30.133 
41—34 
S.E. 
— 
YII 
III 
morn. 
8 
10 
52 
335 
2 Tu 
'30.‘256 — 30.227 
47—37 
S. 
— 
47 
52 
0 
29 
9 
10 
30 
336 
3 W 
Pin-tailed Duck comes. 
'30.121 —30.081 
48—26 
s. 
— 
48 
52 
1 
34 
10 
10 
6 
337 
At a time when we were unknown, and encouragement was valuable, 
when we were striving for success, and even slight assistance was sus¬ 
taining, Dr. Patrick Neill, without solicitation, and when we were 
almost ignorant of his existence, cheered us to pursue the course on 
which we had started, and gave the aid that was then so welcome. On 
the 5th of last September, and in the 75tli year of his life, he rested from 
his labours, and we felt, when we read the announcement, that we had 
one friend less in the world. If we had yielded to the promptings of 
feeling, we should have published our tribute of praise, and have gathered 
together at once, such a cairn as was within our power to raise to his 
memory, but we knew of friends who were more intimate with his ways 
and merits than ourselves, and we hoped to obtain from them a worthier 
record, nor have we been disappointed. Two of them have given us such 
coincident sketches, and so characteristic, that they are evidences of each 
other’s truthfulness. We will only preface them by saying that we be- j 
lieve Dr. Neill was born in Edinburgh, and was of the same occupation 
as that pursued by his father. 
“ Dr. Neill was by profession a printer, his office, one of the oldest in 
Edinburgh, being in one of those ancient narrow closes or alleys, which 
descend from the High-street to the Cowgate, in that city. Latterly, his 
business was conducted chiefly by a partner, and the Doctor devoted his 
time principally to literary pursuits, in connexion with his favourite study 
of horticulture. Essentially a tradesman, yet the Doctor was a most 
gentlemanly personage, and exemplified in his life, what may be done in 
the way of uniting of business with literature. The Doctor was several 
times a member of the civic corporation of Edinburgh, and was noted 
for his placid temperament and conservative views. Usually sagacious, 
he was also a little odd in some things. For old-fashioned abuses he had 
a sort of veneration ; a gentle retiringness of character, perhaps, disposing 
him to fear changes, even seemingly for the better. The Doctor lived 
most of his life in a curious out-of-the-way house within a garden at 
Canon Mills, a suburb of the New Town of Edinburgh, and here he 
amused himself with his horticultural operations, and two or three 
domestic pets, such as a venerable gull, which was allowed the range of 
the inclosure. The Doctor was a bachelor, and scrupulous in personal 
neatness. He wore a well-brushed brown wig ; his face was always as if 
fresh shaven from ear to ear; he firmly adhered to the white cambric 
cravat of past times; and in walking, used a gold-headed cane of the 
right old sort. In truth, the Doctor was a “character,” but an amiable 
one. He was a fine relic of the old gentleman, neat, courteous, and 
conservative, with that degree of enthusiasm in pursuing his favourite 
study of horticulture, which placed him above the ordinary stamp. At 
the period of his death, the business of ‘ Neilland Co., printers and type¬ 
founders,’ was one of the most respectable in Edinburgh.” 
Such is the tribute of one friend, and that of the second is as follows : — 
“ I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Neill personally, and a great 
privilege it was. He was a man of a century, and was most devoted to 
the study of every branch of natural history. To the day of his death, he 
was the head of, perhaps, the largest printing and type-founding estab¬ 
lishment in Scotland, and although he was assiduous in business, he 
always found time sufficient to pursue his favourite science. I do not 
know at what age he died, but it must have been considerable, for he had 
become one of those men who had outlived his generation, and for some 
years past has been regarded as one of the “characters” of Edinburgh. 
Not that he was peculiar or eccentric, but only his outward man was 
familiar to everybody, and to many who did not know his name. In the 
print-shop windows might be seen the sketch of an old and rather slim- 
made gentleman, with a slight stoop in his gait, having a thin visage, and 
prominent profile. His dress of sober black, a pure white neckcloth 
i round his neck, his coat of considerable length in the body, such as old 
J gentlemen generally wear for comfort, and by his side a rather turgid 
j brown silk umbrella, in a half-dragging, half-carrying position, such as 
! little boys drag sticks in, when they are playing at horses. This was Dr. 
I Neill, and a very nice, pleasant, and benign-looking old gentleman he 
| was. I do not know anything of his early history, but he has for a long 
series of years been known as a great naturalist. Those who are grand- 
! fathers and grandmothers now in Edinburgh, number among their 
earliest associations, Dr. Neill’s garden, and a curious little garden this 
was. It was a perfect Noah’s Ark, and more than that, for Noah had no 
plants in the Ark. Here might be seen eagles, owls, a fine specimen of 
the Snowy Owl, Passerinte, Gallinacese, Grallatorite, &c., &c., and within 
doors, innumerable specimens of parrots and cats. The Doctor was a 
bachelor, and his sister a spinster. His garden contained botanical 
curiosities rather than showy plants. In the greenhouses were cultivated 
, such plants as Myrtus pimento, Cinnamomtimverum, Laurus camp/iora, 
Coffea Arabica , some orchidacece, and altogether a very interesting col¬ 
lection of stove and greenhouse plants. Out of doors were some inter¬ 
esting herbaceous and Alpine plants, with fine specimens of ornamental 
I trees and shrubs. The garden is situated at Canonmills, on the way 
from Edinburgh to Newhaven, and about sixteen years ago, W'hen the 
Edinburgh and Leith railway was projected, it was intended to destroy 
the Doctor’s dwelling, and demolish his garden. He, however, prepared 
a petition, procured a plan of the garden, with an enumeration of its 
j contents, and proceeded to London, where in the House of Commons he 
1 secured such opposition to the project, that the railway company had to 
j alter their plans, and form a tunnel, even at some distance from Dr. 
j Neill’s house. As is well known, he was a great naturalist. He main¬ 
tained a long correspondence with Baron Cuvier, and other illustrious 
men on the continent. He was one of the founders of the Plinian 
Society of Edinburgh, and for many years walked twice or three times a 
week to the Frith of Forth, to observe the action of the tides. In politics 
he was a conservative, and after the passing of the Municipal Act, he sat 
for some years in the Edinburgh Town Council, as the representative of 
the aristocratic ward of the New Town of Edinburgh. He was much 
opposed to innovation. His garden and dwelling-house were situated on 
a level with, and by the side of, a large stagnant pond, which was con¬ 
tinually green with confervie and duckweed, and was the source of many 
a fever and malaria, but the Doctor for many years strenuously and. 
successfully opposed the authorities in their endeavours to have this pond 
drained, his heart yearning for the fate of a very large and handsome 
specimen of Weeping Willow, which having extended its roots under the 
garden-wall, for many years imbibed the sweets of the Canonmills 
pond.” 
It only remains for us to notice a few more passages in the life of Dr. 
Neill, more immediately connected with gardening. In 18-40, he pub¬ 
lished one of the best compendiums of the art we have, and entitled The 
Fruit, Flower, and Kitchen Garden. It is an amplification of a treatise 
he had written some years previously, for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, a 
treatise which had been largely plagiarized by those who deserved a 
more severe castigation than is contained in this dignified rebuke by its 
author—“ Of that treatise, the writer may be excused for observing, 
various authors have pretty freely availed themselves; among others, the 
author of ‘The Manse Garden;’ thus indirectly tendering their tes¬ 
timony of approbation.” 
At the close of 1809, a meeting was held at Edinburgh, for the purpose 
of establishing a Caledonian Horticultural Society, which was organized 
early in the following year, and incorporated by Royal Charter, in 1824. 
Of that Society, Dr., then Mr. Neill, was one of the first secretaries, 
conjointly with Mr. Walter Nicol, of whom a sketch will be found in our 
last volume, and upon his death, in 1811, except for a short period, Dr. 
Neill became the sole secretary, and retained that office until his death. 
At the first anniversary meeting of the Society, Dr. Duncan observed— 
“ I say no more than the truth, when I assert, that from his industry, and 
from his abilities, this Society has already derived many important ad¬ 
vantages.” Those advantages continued to be reaped by the Society, 
and to mark their sense of the source from whence they were derived, the 
Society voted him a piece of plate in 1821. This took place during his 
absence on a continental tour, in company with Mr. Forbes, the Society’s 
gardener, and the results of that tour appeared in 1823, under the title of 
Journal of a Horticultural Tour through some parts of Flanders, Hol¬ 
land, and the North of France, by a deputation of the Caledonian Horti¬ 
cultural Society. To that volume we shall probably have occasion again 
to refer. At present we must conclude with this testimony, published by 
one of his Edinburgh contemporaries. 
“To a highly cultivated and well-regulated mind, he added a kindly 
disposition and. a genuine modesty, which greatly enhanced the value of 
his general deportment. In his moral character he was temperate, 
friendly, consistent, and truthful. Religion had early taken a strong hold 
of his mind, and, while strictly Calvinistic in principle, and regular in 
the observance of Christian ordinances, he was no formalist. At an early 
period of his life he was a member of the Anti-Burglier communion, but 
for many years he was a steady supporter of the Established Church an 
elder in’St. Mary’s, under Dr.' Grant, and a lay member, of the General 
Assembly, representing the Presbytery of North Isles, in Orkney. He 
enjoyed, however, the friendship of not a few who differed from him in 
ecclesiastical politics ; and we have seen at his table three Professors of 
the Free Church College, including the late Dr. Chalmers the guests 
enjoying the society of their host, and the host delighted with the com¬ 
pany of early and esteemed friends. As a man of business, Dr. Neill 
was uniformly open, honourable, and accommodating, willing to yield a 
great deal for the sake of peace, but possessed of a sufficient share of 
firmness, when an attempt was made to overreach him, or to act in a 
stealthy manner toward him. As a friend he was candid, judicious, and 
conciliatory, and, in this respect, very many will deeply lament his loss, j 
As a citizen, the town of Edinburgh has lost a clear-sighted and deter¬ 
mined supporter. Whether to establish an Experimental or Zoological 
Garden, to decorate the North Loch, or to protect the Flodden Tower, 
Dr. Neill was ever ready and willing, with his pen and his purse, to 
promote every useful improvement, or save from ruin time-hallowed 
relics. The merits of Dr. Neill as a man of science were very generally i 
acknowledged. His published labours as a horticulturist, botanist, | 
zoologist, and geologist, bear but a small portion to his private efforts < 
to advance the "interest of natural science—as Secretary of the Wernerian . 
Society, as the patron of rising merit, and as ever ready to oiler the 
warmest sympathy to congenial spirits. The blank occasioned by his , 
death is severely felt by those who enjoyed his friendship, and by a far 
wider circle who had satisfactory proof of his great worth and public 
' 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 48.5° and 36.7° respectively. The greatest 
heat, 60 °, occurred on the 28th in 1828, and the lowest cold, lb , on the 
29 th, in 1846. During the period, 82 days were fine, and on 8b rain 
fell. 
No. CLXV., Yol YU. 
