of his knowledge of vegetation as a science, by his two successive publications of The Gardener's and Florist's Dictionary, two volumes, octavo; and The Gardener's Kalendar, a single octavo, which has gone through numerous editions. To one of them, in 1761, he appended A Short Introduction to a Knowledge of the Science of Botany, with five plates, illustrative of the system of Linnæus, to which he had, at this time, become a convert; though formerly a staunch disciple of Tournefort and Ray. He had previously communicated some papers to the Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he was a fellow, and published A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, Plants, and Flowers, both exotic and domestic, which are prepared for sale in the gardens near London; accompanied with twenty-one coloured plates, after the drawings of Van Huysen. It was succeeded by his celebrated work, The Gardener's Dictionary; which may be said to have laid the foundation of all the horticultural taste and knowledge in Europe. It went through eight editions during the life of the author; and a very excellent one has since been published by the late regius professor of botany at the University of Cambridge, the Rev. Thomas

Martyn, B. D. who incorporated with it the substance of all modern botanical discoveries. In 1755, Miller commenced publishing his Figures of Plants, adapted to his Dictionary, which he completed in 1760, having extended them to three hundred coloured plates, with descriptions and remarks, making two volumes, folio. His object was, to give one or more of the species of each known genus, all from living plants; which he accomplished as far as possible, and his plates exhibit more dissections than any that had appeared previously, in this country. He continued to attend to his duties and favourite pursuits, till age obliged him to resign the charge of the Company's garden; and he died soon after, at Chelsea, on the 18th of December, 1771. No English botanist, perhaps, ever had a more thorough acquaintance with its principles, as a science, than Mr. Miller; and his works exhibit that excellence which render them authorities in all

subjects upon which they profess to treat. His Gardener's Dictionary is a monument of intellectual and acquired knowledge and perception, of which England may be proud. Linnæus bestowed upon it his unqualified praise, and pronounced it a botanical as well as a horticultural work. Miller was a member of the Horticultural Society of Florence, and maintained an extensive communication relative to seeds with all parts of the world. The ample Herbarium, which he left behind him, was purchased by Sir Joseph Banks.

BROWN, (LANCELOT,) known by the soubriquet of Capability Brown, from his constant use of that word in reference to the scites submitted to his judgment, was born at Kirkdale, in Northumberland, in 1715. He came early to London, where he soon obtained a high reputation as an ornamental gardener, and established a school, the chief merit of which consisted in its nearer approach to nature than that of his predecessors. By his taste and management, and the great celebrity he obtained, he realized a good fortune; and, in 1770, had the honour to serve the office of high sheriff for the county of Huntingdon. He died, in great respectability, in 1773. He does not seem to have written any work; but, as a practical horticultural designer, was considered the most eminent man of his day. "Nor was he," says a writer in The Annual Obituary, for 1819, "only an able artist, but an honest man; for, on being requested to improve the grounds at Hampton Court, he actually declined the hopeless task, out of respect to himself and his profession."

DUFF, (JAMES, Earl of Fife,) the second son of William, Earl of Fife, by his second wife, was born at Bamff, in Scotland, in 1729. He was educated with a view to the law as his profession, and studied at the University of Edinburgh; but the death of his elder brother, leaving him heir to the family title and honours, he returned home, and with the title of Lord Braco, commenced the life of a country gentleman. A taste for agriculture, highly conducive to the improvements of his patrimonial fortune, soon developed itself

His

in his lordship; and in the course of a few years, the sides and tops of hills, on his father's lands, nearly inaccessible, and hitherto unproductive, began to assume an aspect of fertility. Having previously sat in parliament, for the county of Moray, he succeeded to his father's title and estate, in 1763, and immediately commenced a series of agricultural improvements upon the immense possessions which he inherited. In the meantime he was not a passive spectator of political events; and having given his support to ministers, on the subject of the French Revolution, he was, in 1793, created a British peer, by the title of Baron Fife. Towards the conclusion of the war which preceded the peace of Amiens, however, he openly declared his hostility to Mr. Pitt, and continued to oppose the measures of government until the accession to office of Lord Sidmouth, then Mr. Addington, to whom he gave his unqualified support, as well as to the subsequent administration of Fox and Grenville. labours, as an agriculturalist, excited the wonder of the country in which his estates lay. Previous to his death, which took place in 1809, he planted fourteen thousand acres; and so profitable did this become, even during his own time, that the thinning alone sold, in one year, for £1,000. He also undertook works of great public utility; dug a canal, from sixty to eighty feet wide, between a lake and the sea; and it may be said, in direct opposition to Nature, erected a harbour on the borders of the Moray Frith. He was a frequent contributor to the annual volumes of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and during the progress of his agricultural labours, received from that body two or three gold medals. He married, in 1760, Lady Dorothea, sole heiress of the Earl of Caithness; and is remarkable for having made a will after the model of the celebrated Mr. Thelluson, as far as the act of parliament to which the latter gentleman's testament gave rise would permit him.

HUNTER, (Alexander,) was born at Edinburgh, in the year 1733, and received both his classical and medical education at that university.

In 1754, he studied his profession in London, and went afterwards to France, where he became the pupil of Labat, at Rouen, and of Petit, at Paris. On his return from abroad, he took his degree of M. D., at Edinburgh; and after practising for a short time at Gainsborough, removed to Beverley, where he remained till 1763, when he settled at York, and continued to enjoy an extensive practice till his death, which occurred in May, 1809. He was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and distinguished himself by several publications, chemical, agricultural, and medical. He was the founder of an agricultural society at York, and published the writings of the various members, in six volumes octavo, under the title of Georgical Essays. He also projected the plan of the Lunatic Asylum, in that city, which was opened for the reception of patients, in 1777. In addition to the Georgical Essays, he published several other small agricultural treatises, and edited Evelyn's Sylva and Terra, in which he was partially assisted by Sir Joseph Banks and others. Among his remaining works are, A Lecture on the Sulphur Water of Harrowgate, and a singular publication entitled, Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ ; or, Receipts in Cookery, worthy the Notice of those Medical Practitioners who ride in their Chariots, &c.

ANDERSON, (JAMES,) the son of a farmer, was born at Hermiston, near Edinburgh, in the year 1739. At an early age, he lost both his parents, and after having received an ordinary education, commenced the study of agriculture on his paternal farm. He subsequently removed to another of one thousand three hundred acres, in Aberdeenshire, where he made some experiments, of which he gave an account, in The Edinburgh Weekly Magazine, under the name of Agricola. It was succeeded by his Inquiry into the Nature of the Corn Laws; and Essays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in three volumes, octavo, which procured him much reputation, and reached a fifth edition in 1800. In 1779, appeared his Inquiry into the Causes that have retarded the Advancement of Agriculture in Europe;

and in the following year, the University of Aberdeen conferred upon him the degree of L. L. D. In 1783, he took up his residence near Edinburgh, and, about the same period, printed Proposals for establishing the Northern British Fisheries, which produced a request to him, from government, to survey the western coast of Scotland, with a view to obtain further information on the subject. His report of the survey, which he, in consequence, made, was presented to the Treasury, in 1785, but he does not appear to have received any other reward than that of their approbation. He now resumed his literary labours, and printed, in 1789, Observations on Slavery; and, in 1791, commenced a weekly publication, called The Bee, which he carried on till 1794, making eighteen volumes, octavo. In this, he not only supplied the greater part of the anonymous papers, but all those signed Senex, Timothy Hairbrain, and Alcibiades. After publishing, among other works, Remarks on the Poor Laws in Scotland, and A Practical Treatise on Peat Moss, he removed to London, and commenced a periodical work, entitled, Recreations in Agriculture, which, having reached six octavo volumes, he discontinued in the month of March, 1802. These, and other publications too numerous to mention, procured Dr. Anderson considerable reputation as an agriculturist, and led to a correspondence between him and Washington, which appeared in 1800. His writings, which evince considerable learning, energy, and penetration, led the way to many improvements in agriculture; and, in political as well as rural economy, tended to important and beneficial results. He died on the 15th of October, 1808, leaving a widow, who was his second wife, and six children, the survivors of a family of thirteen, by his first. He was a contributor to several periodicals besides those of which he was the establisher, and wrote the articles Dictionary, Winds, Monsoons, &c., for the Encyclopædia Britannica.

COLQUHOUN, (PATRICK,) a talented writer on civil and domestic economy, was born at Dumbarton, in Scotland, in 1745, and went, early in

VOL IV.

life, to America, to enter upon a commercial occupation. He returned to Scotland, at the age of twenty-three, and settled at Glasgow, as a merchant; in which city he became lord provost, and chairman of the chamber of commerce. In 1792, he removed to London, where he was made a police magistrate; a post in which he displayed great judgment, activity, and application; and, in 1796, he gave the world the result of his experience, in a publication, entitled, A Treatise on the Police of the British Metropolis; a work that attracted general attention, and for which the University of Glasgow honoured him with the degree of L. L. D. This was followed, in 1800, by a work On the Police of the River Thames, suggesting a plan, afterwards adopted, for the protection of property on that river, and in the adjacent parts of the metropolis. He resigned his official situation, about 1818, and died, on the 25th of April, 1820. Besides the above works, he published A Treatise on Indigence; A Treatise on the Population, Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire; and a Tract on the Education of the Labouring Classes.

MARSHALL, (WILLIAM,) an ingenious writer on agricultural and rural economy, born in 1745, was, as he himself says, "a farmer bred to traffic, and returned again to the plough.' Having turned his attention to the advancement of agricultural knowledge, he printed, in 1778, Minutes of Agriculture, made on a farm of three hundred acres, of various soils, near Croydon, in Surrey. This singularly written, but practically useful work, was succeeded by a quarto volume of Experiments and Observations concerning Agriculture and the Weather; and an octavo one, entitled, Arbutrum Americanum; or an Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, natives of the United States of America. This appeared in 1785, about which time he commenced a journey into various counties of England, agricultural histories of which, he continued to publish from 1787 to 1796. In the progress of these labours, he turned his attention to planting and ornamental gardening, upon which subjects he

published A Practical Treatise, which reached a third edition. In 1801, he published a pamphlet on The Appropriation and Enclosure of Commonable and Intermixed Lands; in 1804, a work on The Landed Property of England; also, on the Management of Landed Estates; and, in 1808, appeared his Review of the Reports of the Board of Agriculture, in the formation of which he aided. He died, at Pickering, in Yorkshire, in 1818.

COCHRANE, (ARCHIBALD, Earl of Dundonald.) This scientific and talented agricultural and domestic economist, father of the celebrated Admiral Lord Cochrane, and descended from an ancient Scotch family of the name of Blair, was born on the 1st of January, 1748-9. In 1764, he entered as a cornet in the third dragoon guards, which he soon resigned for the post of midshipman, under Captain Douglas, and he was afterwards acting lieutenant on board a vessel stationed on the coast of Guinea, where he was remarkable for always appearing without a hat, when off duty, for the purpose, he said, of "keeping his head cool." He succeeded to his family honours on the death of his father, in 1778, and having already addicted himself to scientific pursuits, he now determined to devote both his time and fortune to the trial of a variety of useful experiments. His first discovery was that of the virtue possessed by coal tar, to secure ship timber from the ravages of the worm, for the exclusive manufacture of which he obtained a patent. He then turned his attention to the preservation of ship bottoming, and having discovered a very durable wood for that purpose, it was adopted by the British government, and the subject of our memoir had the patent secured to him for twenty years; but previous to the expiration of that period, his improvement was superseded by the introduction of copper bottoms. His next great discovery was the use of refuse salt for the manure of land, which he first recommended to the notice of agriculturists in 1785. His recommendation has since been acted upon; and he further enforced its utility, in 1795, by the publication of his Treatise on the Connexion between

Agriculture and Chemistry. In 1802, he took out a patent for extracting from lichens, and from certain other plants, a substitute for gum Senegal. He made a variety of experiments upon alum stone; and procured a patent for improving the method of preparing heinp flax, by which the improved sailcloth, used in the royal navy, was preserved from mildew. Lord Dundonald has expended nearly his whole fortune in speculations, the invariable failure of which, as a matter of profit, is said to have reduced him to great necessities. Of the extent of these, some idea may be formed from the following notice, in The Annual Address of the Registrars of the Literary Fund, in 1823. "A man born in the high class of the old British peerage," observes that record, "has devoted his acute and investigating mind solely to the prosecution of science; and his powers have prevailed in the pursuit. The discoveries effected by his scientific researches, with its direction altogether to utility, have been in many instances beneficial to the community, and in many, have been the sources of wealth to individuals. To himself alone, they have been unprofitable; for, with a superior disdain, or (if you please,) a culpable disregard of the goods of fortune, he has scattered around him, the produce of his intellect, with a lavish and wild hand. To this man, thus favoured by nature, and thus persecuted by fortune, we have been happy to offer some little alleviation of his sorrows; and, to prevent him from breathing his last under the oppressive sense of the ingratitude of his species." Besides the work already named, he is the author of A Treatise on the Manufacture of Salt; another on Coal Tar; A Memorial to the Directors of the East India Company; and, The Principles of Chemistry applied to the Improvement of the Practice of Agriculture. He has been thrice married: first, in 1774, to Ann, daughter of Captain James Gilchrist, R. N., by whom he had six sons and one daughter; secondly, to Mrs. Mayne, in 1788; and, thirdly, in 1819, to Anna Maria, the eldest daughter of the late Francis Plowden, Esq., of the Middle Temple, the Irish historian, by whom he had one daughter.

REPTON, (HUMPHREY,) a writer on rural economy, and the inventor of slides and sketches, to shew the effects in landscape and scenery, was born at Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, in 1752. He early distinguished himself for a superior taste in landscape scenery and picturesque gardening; in connexion with which pursuit, he published several popular works: the chief of these were, Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening; Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, including some Remarks on Grecian and Gothic Agriculture, &c. with a view to establish fixed principles in the respective arts; and, A Treatise on the Introduction of Indian Architecture and Gardening. He also published a literary work, called, Variety, a Collection of Essays. He died at his residence, in Essex, on the 24th of March, 1818. Most of his productions were embellished with plates from his own drawings; and his pencil, for twenty years, furnished the vignettes to The Polite Repository.

ELLMAN, (JOHN,) was born about the year 1755, and has long been considered one of the most eminent agriculturists in the kingdom. He was, for many years, one of the judges of the Smithfield cattle show, and was the confidential adviser of Bakewell, whose manner of treating sheep was pursued by Mr. Ellman in the south, where he effected those changes in the habits and constitution of the South-down sheep, which gave them the high reputation they at present enjoy. In 1800, twenty-seven of the nobility, and principal land owners, in the county of Sussex, presented him with a silver cup, for "his exertions and assiduity in making the merits of this valuable breed of sheep generally known and demanded;" and, in 1805, he was presented with a silver cup, by his Grace the Duke of Bedford. In 1819, the Board of Agriculture awarded him the gold medal, for the best cultivated farm in Sussex; and several medals, at various periods, have also been presented to him, for the exhibitions of his breed of sheep at Smithfield. During the existence of the Board of Agriculture, Mr. Ellman was frequently consulted by the members, and was several times

examined as a witness before the House of Commons, on agricultural questions. He retired from his labours in 1829, when the principal agriculturists presented him with a silver tureen, "for the zeal he had, at all times, evinced, for upwards of half a century, and his readiness to come forward, on every occasion, to promote the cause of agriculture, and particularly, to improve the breed of South-down sheep."

CURWEN, (JOHN CHRISTIAN,) was born in July, 1756, and at the age of twenty, married a Miss Taulman. His paternal name was Christian, but, on his second marriage, he took the name of Curwen, being that of his wife's father. He was made high sheriff of Cumberland, in 1784, and, in 1786, he was returned to parliament for Carlisle. He retained his seat till 1812, when he was thrown out by Mr. Fawcett, but, in 1816, was re-elected; and also, in 1818. At the general election of 1820, he was returned for the county of Cumberland, and again in 1826. He died on the 11th of December, 1828, at his seat, Workington Hall. Mr. Curwen was a staunch Whig, but did not often speak in parliament. He is principally known as the father of what is called the "soiling system;" or confining animals to the spot where they are fed, by which means a more abundant quantity of dress is collected and prepared, to be returned to the partly exhausted soil, whence the food has been produced. The drill husbandry was also successfully adopted by Mr. Curwen, who appears to have neglected no expedient, which could in any way tend to the perfection of agricultural science. He published two speeches, made by him in parliament, and a pamphlet, entitled, Hints on the Economy of Feeding Stock, and Bettering the Condition of the Poor.

BROWN, (ROBERT,) was born at the village of East Linton, in Scotland, in the year 1757. Relinquishing trade for agricultural pursuits, he commenced his career as such, at Westfortune, but soon after removed to his more celebrated abode, at Markle. Here he followed the bent of his genius with the most singular success, and has become celebrated throughout Europe,