March  13,  1902. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
239 
his  name,  passing  the  Great  Slave  and  Bear  Lakes  to  the  Arctic 
Sea,  and  was  the  first  to  cross  the  continent  in  its  entire  breadth 
over  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific.  The  interior  of  Africa 
was  but  beginning  to  be  opened  up,  and  the  mighty  vastness  of 
South  Africa  was  an  unknown  measure  till  the  great  and  noble 
Dav.d  Livingstone  spent  his  strength  and  gave  his  life  in  the 
unravelling  of  many  secrets  about  fifty  years  ago. 
Throughout  the  years  of  his  life-span,  Mr.  Loudon  was  pheno¬ 
menally  active.  If  he  was  not  engaged  in  landscape  gardening 
for  the  nonce,  then  it  was  his  literary  labours  that  claimed  his 
thoughts ;  anon  the  study  of  classical  and  modern  languages,  or 
the  practice  of  painting.  During  an  enforced  retirement  to 
Harrow,  in  Hertfordshire,  he  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the 
German  language,  and  took  lessons  in  Greek  and  Hebrew.  The 
cause  that  inval.ded  Mr.  Loudon  on  this  occasion  was  severe 
rheumatism,  contracted  from  his  having  been  obliged  to  sit  on 
the  outside  of  a  stage-coach  all  night  long  in  a  drenching  rain 
while  tiavelling  from  Carnarvonshire  to  Loudon.  The  rheuma¬ 
tism  finally  settled  in  his  left  knee,  leaving  him  with  a  stiff  joint 
ever  after. 
Three  years  after  this  event — that  is,  in  1809 — we  find  Loudon, 
the  polyonymous,  turned  farmer  on  General  Stratton’s  estate  of 
Tew  Park,  in  Oxfordshire.  Mr.  Loudon  had  written  a  pamphlet 
on  the  Scottish  system  of  fanning,  and  this,  having  come' to  the 
notice  of  General  Stratton,  he  urged  the  young  author  and  land¬ 
scape  ga' dener  to  come  and  manage  his  farm,  which  Loudon  was 
induced  to  do,  and  .soon  effected  improvements  in  draining,  crop¬ 
ping,  manuring,  and  the  gerreral  well-keeping  of  the  land. 
Furthermore,  he  established  an  agricultural  college  for  the  train¬ 
ing  of  young  gentlemen,  and  again  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  which 
explained  the  purpose  arrd  general  working  of  this  tuition  scheme. 
Mr.  Loudon  concurrently  maintained  his  larrdscape  gardenirrg 
practice,  and  we  find  him  assiduously  engaged  in  Errgland,  Ire¬ 
land  and  Wales  while  also  farming.  Having  induced  his  father 
to  migrate  southward,  and  seen  him  well  started  in  a  suitable 
farm,  the  elder  son  (who  had  long  nourished  the  desire  to  travel 
abroad)  now  .started  off  on  a  North  European  tour.  But  ere  his 
sojourn  commenced  he  rescinded  the  supervision  of  the  Oxford¬ 
shire  farm,  and  was  handsomely  recompensed  for  the  various 
improvements  he  had  planned  and  completed.  The  completion 
of  two  books,  one  on  plantations,  the  other  on  farming,  was  the 
latest  of  his  literary  labours  up  to  the  date  1809  ;  yet  others  had 
been  produced  intermediately.  In  this  brief  biography  I  can¬ 
not  hope  to  name  each  of  his  books  as  they  appeared,  but  a  list 
of  them  has  been  appended. 
To  Gottenburg,  in  Sweden — a  country  then  renowned  from 
the  fame  of  the  great  Father  of  Botany,  Karl  von  Linne,  or 
Linnaeus,  who  died  in  1778 — Loudon  sailed  on  May  16,  1813. 
The  Continent  had  been  closed  to  English  visitors  for  some  years, 
but  by  general  resent  against  Napoleon  Bonaparte  it  was  thrown 
open  in  1813.  From  Gottenburg  Mr.  Loudon  journeyed  to 
Memel  and  Konisberg.  Here'  he  found  all  the  dread  traces  of 
war,  the  skeletons  of  horses,  the  roads  broken  up,  and  the 
country  houses  burned  to  the  ground.  At  Elbing  he  found  the 
streets  full  of  the  goods  and  cattle  of  country  people,  who  had 
poured  in  for  protection  from  the  French  army.  Through 
Pomerania  he  came  south-west  to  Berlin,  thence  through  Posen 
to  Riga,  and  onward  to  St.  Petersburg.  Proceeding,  he  wended 
his  way  to  Moscow,  on  which  journey  he  got  fixed  in  a  snow¬ 
storm.  His  horses  were  unable  to  extricate  his  vehicle,  and 
judge  of  his  consternation  w’hen  he  saw  his  postillions  unyoke 
their  horses  and  ride  off.  He  remonstrated ;  he  pleaded  that 
he  would  surely  fall  a  prey  to  the  roving  wolves,  or,  if  he  escaped 
them,  the  awful  cold  would  overcome  him.  He  was  calmly  told 
to  go  inside  his  vehicle  and  securely  fasten  the  windows,  upon 
which  no  harm  need  be  feared;  and  the  drivers  added,  as  they 
rode  off,  that  they  would  be  back  sharp  the  next  morning  with 
extra  horses.  And  so  they  left  Mr.  Loudon  alone  on  a  Russian 
wa.ste,  with  a  snowstorm  in  its  fury  around  him  and  the  howls  of 
the  wild  wolves  borne  in  ghoulish  discord  upon  the  screaming 
winds.  "Well  might  he  cower  and  dread  the  worst;  it  would  be 
a  test  to  the  nerves  of  even  the  Great  Duke,  and  the  memory  of 
one  moment  in  that  awful  night  when  a  pack  of  wolves  crossed 
the  road  where  he  was  held  was  never  forgotten  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  Returning  via  Prague,  Dresden,  Leipsic, 
Magdeburg  and  Hamburg,  the  itinerant  again  landed  in  Eng¬ 
land  on  the  27th  of  September,  1814.  During  this  long  and 
interesting  route  of  travel  he  had  sketched  views  of  every  place 
with  any  gardening  merit  attached,  and  had,  of  course,  made 
copious  notes,  which  are  found  embedded  in  his  “  Encyclopsedia 
of  Gardening.”  He  had  made  himself  known  to  most  of  the  lead¬ 
ing  scientists,  and  had  been  elected  Member  of  the  Imperial 
Society  of  Moscow,  the  Natural  History  Society  of  Berlin,  the 
Royal  Economical  Society  of  Potsdam,  and  many  others. 
For  a  time  he  retired  to  Bayswater,  in  London,  with  his 
mother  and  sisters  (his  father  meanwhile-  having  died,  and  he 
himself  .shaken  through  having  lost  the  greater  part  of  his  accu¬ 
mulated  fortune  in  an  insecure  investment),  and  experimented 
with  various  tynes  of  glass  houses.  He  seems  to  have  invented 
the  ridge  and  furrow  system  of  glazing — a  method  which  Sir 
Jo  eph  Paxton  afterwards  adopted  so  extensively  in  construct¬ 
ing  the  conservatory  at  Chatsworth  and  also  the  Crystal  Palace. 
The  curvilinear  houses  were  also  tried,  and  his  observations  are 
embodied  in  the  “  Sketches  of  Curvilinear  Houses,”  published  in 
1818.  The  Napoleonic  troubles  being  now  terminated,  Mr. 
Loudon  at  once  set  himself  to  peregrinate  in  Southern  Europe. 
Accordingly  on  the  30th  of  May,  1819,  he  set  his  face  toward 
Paris,  and  onward  to  the  pleasant  shores  of  Genoa.  This  fii^t 
journey  (for  he  afterwards  voyaged  repeatedly),  emhraciug 
Florence,  Pisa,  Rome  and  Padua,  and  other  cities  of  distinction 
in  history  and  high  art,  to  the  accomplished  and  observant 
Loudon,  must  have  been  inestimably  delectable.  After  five 
months  he  returned.  In  1822  he  e.stabli.shed  ‘‘  The  Magazine  of 
Natuial  Hi.story,”  which  he-  ed.ted  till  1836.  Mr.  Loudon  had 
already  laid  his  plans  for  establishing  an  horticultural  newspaper, 
even  amid  the  multitude  of  his  other  undertakings,  which  space 
disallows  me  to  record.  Tlius  in  the  year  1826  “  Loudon’.s 
Ga.deners’  Magazine”  was  inaugurated,  and  was  continued  till 
the  death  of  the  founder  in  1843,  when  it  ceased  to  exist.  This 
horticultural  journal  first  appeared  as  a  quarterly,  then  bi¬ 
monthly,  and  lastly  every  month.  There  are  nineteen  volumes 
of  the  entire  publication,  which  are  offered  in  1902  for  £2  10s. 
Garden  designing  naturally  occupied  a  very  considerable  space 
in  the  pages  of  the  earlier  volumes  at  least,  but  all  ijhases  of 
gardening  were  compediously  examined.  From  now  onward 
Loudon’s  prolificacy  as  an  author  and  compiler  is  well  nigh 
astounding.  Nor  did  he  altogether  relinquish  the  pleasurable 
exa  tions  incumbent  on  one  who  professed  and  practised  garden 
designing.  During  the  succeeding  thirteen  year.s,  from  1830  till 
death  relieved  this  man,  overburdened  in  work  which  was,  per¬ 
haps,  necessary  to  his  vep?  existence,  he  strained  ceaselessly. 
For  many  years  before  his  early  death  an  amanuensis  aided 
him.  Loudon  was  a  martyr  to  rheumatism  during  most  of  his 
life,  and  about  1830  he  continually  suffered  the  most  excruciating 
pain.  So  severe  was  the  pain  in  his  left  arm  that  two  of  his 
fingers  and  his  thumb  were  contracted  and  rendered  useless. 
And  as  though  this  w'as  not  distressful  enough,  his  right  arm 
was  broken  close  to  the  shoulder  by  one  of  his  physicians  on  an 
occasion  when  twisting  and  pulling  exercises  were  being  indulged. 
Shortly  afterwards  he  had  to  have  his  arm  amputated.  At  the- 
age  of  forty-seven  Mr.  Loudon  was  married  to  Jane  Webb, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Webb,  Esq.,  of  Ritwell  Hall,  near  Birming¬ 
ham,  whose  acquaintance  he  made  after  reading  a  novel  written 
by  her,  and  named  “  The  Mummy,”  with  its  plot  cast  in  the 
Twenty-second  Century !  This  novel  details  a  large  number  of 
projected  inventions.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Loudon  were  most  sympa¬ 
thetic  in  their  married  life.  One  daughter,  named  Agnes,  was 
bo  n,  and  she  wrote  children’s  tales ;  but  what  has  come  of  her 
I  do  not  know. 
Mr.  Loudon  had  long  contemplated  writing  a  book  on  the 
hardy  trees  of  Great  Britain,  but  he  had  never  dreamed  of  the 
great  expense  of  such  a  work.  When,  however,  the  “  Arboretum 
et  Fruticetum  Britaimicum  ”  was  once  commenced,  he  deter¬ 
mined  to  make  it  as  complete  as  possible;  and,  surely,  this 
mj^num  opus  was  his  crowning  success.  The  “  Arboretvim 
Britamiicum  ”  is  an  indispensable  work  to  all  botanists  even  at 
the  present  day,  and  the  best  illustrated  work  of  its  kind. 
During  the  time  this  work  was  in  preparation — that  is,  between 
1833  and  1838 — Mr.  Loudon  underwent  most  extraordinary  exer¬ 
tions  both  of  body  and  mind.  He  resolved  that  all  the  drawings 
of  t’  ees  should  be  from  Nature,  for  which  purpose  he  had  seven 
artists  constantly  employed.  He  used  to  be  out  with  one  or 
other  of  them  all  day,  and  would  come  to  his  literary  work  in 
the  evening,  at  which  he  worked  till  the  small  hours  of  the 
morning. 
And,  after  all,  what  was  his  reward  ?  He  discovered  that  he 
had  £10,000  to  pay.  His  printer,  his  stationer,  his  blockmaker 
had  liabilities  to  that  amount.  These  circumstances  might  have 
quenched  the  power  of  any  other  person ;  but,  thanks  to  his 
indomitable  Scottish  spirit,  this  brave  and  strong-minded  gentle¬ 
man  set  himself  to  do  just  what  his  famous  fellow  countryman. 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  had  done  since  his  calamity  but  ten  years 
before — he  set  himself  to  wipe  away  that  mountain  of  debt. 
But,  alas!  the  worry  of  it  all,  and  his  superhuman  exertions, 
very  soon  relieved  his  spirit  from  its  earthly  labours.  He  sped 
the  pulse  of  life  to  the  utmost;  books  and  parts  of  books  were 
produced  in  a  constant  flow,  and  whose  contents  do  not  go  down 
like  jelly,  “very  sweet  but  not  very  filling”;  on  the  contrary, 
the  multitude  of  facts  and  details  are  encyclopaedic  through¬ 
out — solid,  weighty,  wise.  Thoueh  he  had  to  be  wheeled  in  a 
bath-chair  in  his  last  years,  yet  Mr.  Loudon  travelled  consider¬ 
ably,  and  laid  out  a  cemetery  at  Bath  shortly  before  his  death. 
Mrs.’  Loudon  describes  the  sudden,  pathetic  decease  with  strong 
realistic  force.  In  1843  he  was  cognisant  of  the  fact  that  his 
lungs  were  diseased,  and  gave  up  all  thoueht  of  recovery. 
Being  still  pecuniarily  embarrassed  owing  to  the  debt  on  the 
“Arboretum  Britannicum,”  he  would  not  relax  his  efforts:  and 
even  while  borne  down  under  a  complex  cruel  burden  of  pain 
in  every  form,  he  continued  dictating  “  Self-In.struction  for 
Young  Gardeners”  right  on  till  midnight  on  December  13.  1843. 
He  retired  to  rest,  but  could  not  sleep,  and  during  the  dawn  he 
was  very  restless  and  perturbed.  In  the  concluding  sentences  of 
