86 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
"Rare Exotic Tree & Aloes &c that had been barely kept alive
"During his Minority. . . . but the old House & part of the New
"in such a State of Decay is to be pulled down & Erected at the
"Head of the Park."
He gives the measurements of a Larch tree planted from seed
twenty-eight years previously as five feet round two feet above
the ground. "It is surpriseing to see the Growth of all Trees
"on a very Barren Soil but Elm & Horse Chestnut dont thrive
"in it."
He wrote to Bartram on Aug. 4th, 1763: "Consider, my
"dear John, what a pleasure I feel, now that I can give them
"an order for a ten guinea box, for young Lord Petre." To this
Bartram replied (Oct. 3rd, 1763): "I am heartily glad that
"young Lord Petre is possessed of the botanical taste of his
"father. I wish he may resemble him in virtue. I have
"intended to inquire after him & his mother in every late letter.
"The Pear raised from her seed hath borne a number of the
"finest relished fruit. ... I think a better is not in the world."
The Pear is known as Petre's Pear and still fruits in Bartram's
garden. Collinson in a reply on Jan. 1st says: "It has been
''thy patience to wait, but my pleasure to hear of the delicious
"pear, raised from Lady Petre's seed; but she, dear good woman,
"is gone to rest."
There is a further note in the common place book (f. 318):
"In Spring 1740 Lord Petre planted his Evergreen Mounts and
"Evergreen plantations at the Head of the Park and now this
"year 1764 is the Mew House began, about which they will have
"a charming Effect returned this 4th September from seeing it."
It was while on a visit to Lord Petre in August, 1768, that
Collinson was seized with the illness which ended fatally on his
return home.
Much information could doubtless be obtained if "a handsome
"mahogany cabinet with twenty drawers divided into compart-
"ments and filled with botanical specimens," had not had its
contents scattered and its labels lost, to be converted into a
wardrobe.
Petre's best known introduction is the Camellia which George
Edwards in his Natural History of Birds (1747) says "was raised
"by the late curious and noble Lord Petre, in his stoves at