Part 8

In the Ashmolean Museum, is a portrait of the SON, _in his garden_, with a spade in his hand. In Mr. Nichols's "Illustrations to Granger," consisting of seventy-five portraits, appear those of the Tradescants, father and son. Smith also engraved John Tradescant, with his son, and their monument, 1793. Mr. Weston, in his Catalogue, fully describes the _Museum Tradescantium_. Dr. Pulteney observes, that "in a work devoted to the commemoration of Botanists, their name stands too high not to demand an honourable notice; since they contributed, at an early period, by their garden and museum, to raise a curiosity that was eminently useful to the progress and improvement of natural history in general. The reader may see a curious account of the remains of this garden, drawn up in the year 1749, by the late Sir W. Watson, and printed in vol. xlvi. of the Phil. Trans. The son died in 1662. His widow erected a curious monument, in memory of the family, in Lambeth church-yard, of which a large account, and engravings from a drawing of it in the Pepysian Library, at Cambridge, are given by the late learned Dr. Ducarel, in vol. lxiii. of the Phil. Trans."

SIR HENRY WOTTON, Provost of Eaton. His portrait is given in Isaac Walton's Lives of Wotton, and others. It, of course, accompanies Zouch's, and the other well-known editions of Isaac Walton's Lives. In Evans's Illustrations to Granger, is Sir H. Wotton, from the picture in the Bodleian Library, engraved by _Stow_. In Sir Henry's Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, is his chapter "On Ancient and Modern Agriculture and Gardening." Cowley wrote an elegy on him, which thus commences:--

What shall we say since silent now is he, Who when he spoke, all things would silent be; Who had so many languages in store, That only Fame can speak of him with more.

Isaac Walton published the "_Reliquiæ Wottonianæ_, or, Lives, Letters, Poems, &c. by Sir Henry Wotton," 12mo. 1654, with portraits of Wotton, Charles I., Earl of Essex, and Buckingham. Sir E. Brydges printed at his private press, at Lee Priory, Sir Henry's Characters of the Earl of Essex and Buckingham. In the _Reliquiæ_, among many curious and interesting articles, is preserved Sir Henry's delicately complimentary letter to Milton on receiving from him _Comus_. Sir Henry, when a resident at Venice, (where he was sent on three several embassies by James) purchased for that munificent encourager of painting, the Duke of Buckingham, several valuable pictures, which were added to the Duke's magnificent collection. Isaac Walton's Life of Wotton thus concludes:--"Dying worthy of his name and family, worthy of the love of so many princes, and persons of eminent wisdom and learning, worthy of the trust committed unto him for the service of his prince and country." And, in his Angler, he thus sweetly paints the warm attachment he had for Wotton:--"a man with whom I have often fished and conversed, whose learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind. Peace and patience, and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton."

SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Mr. Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, mentions the following portrait of Sir Thomas:--"At Devonshire-house is a family groupe, by Dobson, of Sir Thomas Browne. He is smiling with the utmost complacency upon his children, who surround him." His portrait is also prefixed to his works. The Biograph. Dict., folio, 1748, says, "his picture, in the College of Physicians, shews him to have been remarkably handsome, and to have possessed, in a singular degree, the blessings of a grave, yet cheerful and inviting, countenance." The same work farther gives him a most amiable character. Mr. Ray, in his Ornithology, does not omit paying a just compliment to his assistant and friend, "the deservedly famous Sir Thomas Browne." Evelyn, in 1671, mentions Sir Thomas Browne's garden at Norwich, as containing a paradise of varieties, and the gardens of all the inhabitants as full of excellent flowers. Switzer says, "The noble elegance of his style has since induced many to read his works, (of which, that of _Cyrus's gardens_ is some of the brightest,) though they have had little inclination to the practice of gardening itself. There remains nothing that I have heard of his putting gardening actually into practice himself; but some of his last works being observations on several scarce plants mentioned in Scripture; and of Garlands and Coronary garden plants and flowers, 'tis reasonable to suppose he did; and the love he had so early and late discovered toward it, was completed in the delightful practice thereof." He further says, " his elaborate and ingenious pen has not a little added to the nobleness of our subject."[65] His works were published in 1 vol. folio, 1686, with his portrait, engraved by White. His portrait appears also to his "Certain Miscellany Tracts," 8vo. A list of his numerous works may be seen in the Biogr. Dictionaires, or in Watts's Bibl. Britt. To his "Christian Morals," Dr. Johnson has prefixed his Life. It is so masterly written, that it is impossible to give even an abstract. Dr. Kippis has, however, in part, transcribed it. He was chosen Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians, as a man _virtute et literas ornatissimus_. In 1671, he received the honour of Knighthood from Charles II., a prince, (says Dr. Johnson) "who, with many frailties and vices, had yet skill to discover excellence, and virtue to reward it with such honorary distinctions, at least, as cost him nothing, yet, conferred by a king so judicious and so much beloved, had the power of giving merit new lustre and greater popularity." Thus he lived in high reputation, till, in his seventy-sixth year, an illness, which tortured him a week, put an end to his life, at Norwich, on his birth-day, October 19, 1682. "Some of his last words (we are told by _Whitefoot_) were expressions of submission to the will of God, and fearlessness of death." Dr. Johnson observes, "It is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings, that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity; of which he will not be easily deprived, while learning shall have any reverence among men: for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success. His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, sometimes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the clearness of his decisions. On whatever subject he employed his mind, there started up immediately so many images before him, that he lost one by grasping another. His memory supplied him with so many illustrations, parallel or dependent notions, that he was always starting into collateral considerations. But the spirit and vigour of his pursuit always gives delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, through his mazes, of themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point originally in view. There remains yet an objection against the writings of _Browne_, more formidable than the animadversions of criticism. There are passages from which some have taken occasion to rank him among deists, and others among atheists. It would be difficult to guess how any such conclusion should be formed, had not experience shewn that there are two sorts of men willing to enlarge the catalogue of infidels. When _Browne_ has been numbered among the contemners of religion by the fury of its friends, or the artifices of its enemies, it is no difficult task to replace him among the most zealous professors of christianity. He may perhaps, in the ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an expression, which a mind intent upon faults may interpret into heresy, if considered apart from the rest of his discourse; but a phrase is not to be opposed to volumes. There is scarcely a writer to be found, whose profession was not divinity, that has so frequently testified his belief of the sacred writings, has appealed to them with such unlimited submission, or mentioned them with such unvaried reverence."

JOHN EVELYN, ESQ. His portrait by Nanteuil, and that by Kneller, holding his _Sylva_ in his hand, are well engraved in Mr. Bray's Memoirs. The following remark is from the Quarterly Review, in its review of the same work, in 1818:--"At four years old he was taught to read by the parish school-master, whose school was over the church porch; and 'at six his picture was drawn by one Chanteral, no ill painter.' If this portrait, as is not unlikely, be preserved in the family, it should have been engraved for the present work; it would have been very interesting to compare the countenance of such a person, in childhood, in the flower of years, when his head was engraved by Nanteuil, and in ripe old age, when he sat to Sir G. Kneller." In Aubrey's Surrey, vol. iv. are many interesting particulars of Mr. Evelyn, and his family, and he gives a list of his works. He says "his picture was thrice drawn in oil; first, in 1641, by one Vanderborcht, brought out of Germany at the same time with Hollar, the graver, by the Earl of Arundel; a second time in 1648, by Walker; and the third time by Sir G. Kneller, for his friend Mr. Pepys, of the Admiralty, of which that at the Royal Society is a copy. There is a print of him by Nanteuil, who likewise drew him more than once in black and white, with Indian ink; and a picture, in crayon, by Luterel." Mr. Evelyn lived in the busy times of Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., James II., and William. He had much personal intercourse with Charles II. and James II., and was in the habits of great intimacy with many of the ministers of those two monarchs, and of the eminent men of those days. Foreigners, distinguished for learning or arts, who came to England, did not leave it without visiting him. His manners we may presume to have been of the most agreeable kind, for his company was sought by the greatest men, not merely by inviting him to their own tables, but by their repeated visits to him at his own house. Mr. Evelyn lived to the great age of eighty-six, and wished these words to be inscribed on his tomb:--"all is vanity that is not honest, and there is no solid wisdom but in real piety."[66] Cowley, in a letter to him, says, "I know nobody that possesses more private happiness than you do in your garden; and yet no man who makes his happiness more publick, by a free communication of the art and knowledge of it to others. All that I myself am able yet to do, is only to recommend to mankind the search of that felicity, which you instruct them how to find and to enjoy." The Quarterly Review thus speaks of his _Sylva_:--"The Sylva remained a beautiful and enduring memorial of his amusements, his occupations, and his studies, his private happiness, and his public virtues. The greater part of the woods, which were raised in consequence of Evelyn's writings, have been cut down; the oaks have borne the British flag to seas and countries which were undiscovered when they were planted, and generation after generation has been coffined in the elms. The trees of his age, which may yet be standing, are verging fast toward their decay and dissolution: but his name is fresh in the land, and his reputation, like the trees of an Indian Paradise, exists, and will continue to exist in full strength and beauty, uninjured by the course of time." Mr. Loudon, in his Encycl. of Gardening, thus speaks of him:--"Evelyn is universally allowed to have been one of the warmest friends to improvements in gardening and planting, that has ever appeared. He is eulogized by Wotton, in his _Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning_, as having done more than all former ages." Switzer calls him "that good esquire, the king of gardeners." His life (says Mr. Walpole) "was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction, and benevolence. He knew that retirement, in his own hands, was industry and benefit to mankind; in those of others, laziness and inutility."

There appears the following more modern publications respecting Mr. Evelyn:--

1. Sylva, with Notes by Hunter; in 4to, and 8vo.

2. Memoirs and Correspondence of Mr. Evelyn. Edited by Mr. Bray. 5 vols. 8vo. _Portraits_, and other plates. £3. 10s. Another edition, in 2 vols., 4to.

3. Evelyn's Miscellaneous Writings, collected and edited, with Notes, by Mr. Upcott. Forming a Supplement to the Evelyn Memoirs. 1 vol. 4to. with plates, 1825. £3. 10s.

The Encycl. of Gardening enumerates the whole of Mr. Evelyn's works. So does Dr. Watts in his Bibl. Britt.; and Mr. Johnson in his History of English Gardening.[67]

ABRAHAM COWLEY. The portraits of him are well known. That in Bishop Hurd's edition is very neat. This same portrait is also well engraved for Ankars's edition of Cowley; and also in that by Aikens, in 8vo. Dean Sprat has prefixed to his edition of Cowley, his portrait, engraved by Faithorne, and, in his preface, pays a warm and just tribute to his memory. When his death was announced to Charles II., he declared, that Mr. Cowley had not left a better man behind him in England. Cowley addresses his chapter _Of Gardens_ (which strongly paints his delight in them) to Mr. Evelyn. He wrote this epitaph for himself:--

From life's superfluous cares enlarg'd, His debt of human toil discharg'd, Here COWLEY lies, beneath this shed, To ev'ry worldly interest _dead_: With decent poverty content; His hours of ease not idly spent; To fortune's goods a foe profess'd, And, hating wealth, by all caress'd. 'Tis sure he's _dead_; for, lo! how small A spot of earth is now his all! O! wish that earth may lightly lay, And ev'ry care be far away! Bring flow'rs, the short-liv'd roses bring, To _life deceased_ fit offering! And sweets around the poet strow, Whilst yet with life his ashes glow.

JOHN ROSE, head gardener to the Lord Essex, at Essex-house, in the Strand. He sent him to study the celebrated beauties in the gardens of Versailles. He became afterwards the chief gardener to Charles II., at the royal gardens in St. James's Park. His portrait may be seen at Kensington, in an oil painting, where he is presenting a pine to his Majesty, whilst on a visit to the Duchess of Cleveland, at Downey Court, Buckinghamshire. It has lately been engraved in mezzotinto. He was the author of "The English Vineyard Vindicated, and the Way of Making Wine in France;" first printed with Evelyn's French Gardener, in 1672, 12mo. Other editions in 1675, 1676, and 1690, in 8vo. The preface is by Evelyn, as well as The Art of Making Wine. Rose brought to great perfection dwarf fruit trees, in the gardens at Hampton Court, Carlton, and Marlborough House. Switzer thus speaks of him:--"He was esteemed to be the best of his profession in those days, and ought to be remembered for the encouragement he gave to a servant of his, that has since made the greatest figure that ever yet any gardener did, I mean Mr. London. Mr. Rose may be well ranked amongst the greatest virtuosos of that time, (now dead) who were all well pleased to accept of his company while living."

CHARLES COTTON. He published "The Planter's Manual," 12mo. 1675. There is prefixed to it a rural frontispiece, by Van Houe. Mr. Johnson properly calls him "one of the _Scriptores minores_ of horticulture." His "devoted attachment to Izaak Walton, forms the best evidence we have of his naturally amiable disposition." His portrait is finely engraved in Mr. Major's extensively illustrated and most attractive editions of the Angler; a delightful book, exhibiting a "matchless picture of rural nature." Mr. Cotton's portrait is also well engraved in Zouch's Life of Walton; and in the many other curious and embellished editions of Walton and Cotton's Angler. He translated with such truth and spirit, the celebrated Essays of Montaigne, that he received from that superior critic, the Marquis of Halifax, a most elegant encomium. Sir John Hawkins calls it "one of the most valuable books in the English language." A complete list of Mr. Cotton's works appears in Watts's Bibl. Britt. When describing, in his _Wonders of the Peake_, the Queen of Scot's Pillar, he thus breaks out:--

Illustrious _Mary_, it had happy been, Had you then found a cave like this to skreen Your sacred person from those frontier spies, That of a sovereign princess durst make prize, When Neptune too officiously bore Your cred'lous innocence to this faithless shore. Oh, _England_! once who hadst the only fame Of being kind to all who hither came For refuge and protection, how couldst thou So strangely alter thy good nature now, Where there was so much excellence to move, Not only thy compassion, but thy love? 'Twas strange on earth, save _Caledonian_ ground, So impudent a villain could be found, Such majesty and sweetness to accuse; Or, after that, a judge would not refuse Her sentence to pronounce; or that being done, Even amongst bloody'st hangmen, to find one Durst, though her face was veil'd, and neck laid down, Strike off the fairest head e'er wore a crown. And what state policy there might be here, Which does with right too often interfere, I 'm not to judge: yet thus far dare be bold, A fouler act the sun did ne'er behold.[68]

Plott, in his Staffordshire, calls Mr. Cotton "his worthy, learned, and most ingenious friend." Sir John Hawkins thus speaks of him:--"He was both a wit and a scholar; of an open, cheerful, and hospitable temper; endowed with fine talents for conversation, and the courtesy and affability of a gentleman." He farther thus speaks of one of his poems:--"It is not for their courtly and elegant turn, that the verses of Charles Cotton ought to be praised; there is such a delightful flow of feeling and sentiment, so much of the best part of our nature mixed up in them, and so much fancy displayed, that one of our most distinguished living poets has adduced several passages of his Ode upon Winter, for a general illustration of the characteristics of fancy." He must have possessed many endearing qualities, for the benevolent and pious Walton thus concludes a letter to his "most honoured friend, Charles Cotton, Esq.:"--"though I be more than a hundred miles from you, and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon: for I would die in your favour, and till then will live, Sir, your most affectionate father and friend, Isaac Walton." One cannot wonder at the good old man wishing to visit the courteous and well-bred Mr. Cotton, and to enjoy the intercourse of hospitable urbanity, near the pastoral streams of the Dove, when he had received such an invitation as the following, addressed to his "dear and most worthy friend, Mr. Isaac Walton:"--

Whilst in this cold and blustering clime, Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar, We pass away the roughest time Has been of many years before;

Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks The chillest blasts our peace invade, And by great rains our smallest brooks Are almost navigable made;

Whilst all the ills are so improved, Of this dead quarter of the year, That even you, so much beloved, We would not now wish with us here;

In this estate, I say, it is Some comfort to us to suppose, That, in a better clime than this, You, our dear friend, have more repose;

And some delight to me the while, Though nature now does weep in rain, To think that I have seen her smile, And haply may I do again.

If the all-ruling Power please We live to see another May, We'll recompense an age of these Foul days in one fine fishing day.

We then shall have a day or two, Perhaps a week, wherein to try What the best master's hand can do With the most deadly killing fly:

A day with not too bright a beam, A warm, but not a scorching sun, A southern gale to curl the stream, and, master, half our work is done.

There, whilst behind some bush we wait The scaly people to betray,-- We'll prove it just, with treacherous bait To make the preying _Trout_ our prey.

And think ourselves, in such an hour, Happier than those, though not so high, Who, like _Leviathans_, devour Of meaner men the smaller fry.

This, my best friend, at my poor home Shall be our pastime and our theme; But then--should you not deign to come, You make all this a flattering dream.

In wandering over the lovely scenes, the pleasant brooks, the flower-bespangled meadows, which the moral pages of Isaac Walton so unaffectedly delineate, it is impossible not to recur to the name of the late author of _Salmonia_, and to reflect, that on these pages he oft unbended his vigorous mind from his severe and brilliant discoveries. We can now only lament the (almost) premature death of this high-ranked philosopher, this great benefactor to the arts, and deep promoter of science, whose mortal remains were consigned to his unostentatious tomb, at Geneva, in one of the finest evenings of summer, followed by the eloquent and amiable historian, De Sismondi, and by other learned and illustrious men. One may apply to his last moments at Geneva, (where he had arrived only one day before) these lines of his own favourite Herbert:--

_Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky, Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die!_[69]

SAMUEL GILBERT'S portrait is prefixed to his "Florist's Vade Mecum;" 12mo. In his "Gardener's Almanack," is a particular description of the roses cultivated in the English gardens at that period. He was the author of "Fons Sanitatis, or the Healing Spring at Willowbridge Wells." He was son-in-law to John Rea, the author of Flora, and who planned the gardens at Gerard's Bromley. Willowbridge Wells are at a little distance from where these once superb gardens were.

JACOB BOBART, the elder, is an admirable portrait, by D. Loggan, taken at his age of eighty-one, and engraved by Burghers. Granger says it is extremely scarce. Beneath the head, which is dated 1675, is this distich:--

_Thou Germane prince of plants, each year to thee, Thousands of subjects grant a subsidy._

It is a venerable countenance, of deep thought. Richardson re-engraved this among his Illustrations to Granger. Granger mentions also a whole-length of Bobart in a garden, dog, goat, &c. 4to. The Encycl. of Gardening says, "Bobart's descendants are still in Oxford, and known as coach proprietors." Do none of them possess the original painting? The munificence of the Earl of Danby placed Bobart in the physic garden at Oxford, in 1632, as supervisor; and this garden flourished many years under his care, and that of his son Jacob, whose zeal and diligence Dr. Pulteney records. The elder Bobart was the author of the _Hortus Oxoniensis_, 1648. Wood, in his Athenæ, informs us, that "Jacob Bobart died in his garden-house, in February, 1679, whereupon his body was buried in the church of St. Peter, Oxon." He left two sons, _Jacob_ and _Tillemant_. Tillemant became a master coachman between Oxford and London, but having had the misfortune to break his leg, became one of the beadles of the university. In the preface to Mr. Nicholls's late curious work on autographs, among other _albums_, in the British Museum, it mentions that of David Krein, in which is the autograph of Jacob Bobart, with these verses;--

----"virtus sua gloria.

Think that day lost whose descending sun Views from thy hand no noble action done.

Yr success and happyness is sincerely wished by Ja. Bobart, Oxford."