90
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
gardener to Lord Petre, having previously been with James
Sherard at Eltham.
To return to Richard Warner. He was a friend of David
Garrick, Brunei Thornton and Hogarth—and perhaps this
accounts for his taste in garden design. Fourteen years after his
death it was recorded that "The gardens are laid out with rural
"and elegant taste. There is a large and intricate maze, and a
"thatched house in the middle, with lines Latin and English,
"emblematic of the situation . . . There is likewise an
"artificial ruin of an abbey, which does honour to the designer;
"the walls, which are entwined with ivy, are decorated with
"Gothic windows and painted glass; the broken arches, and
"romantic disposition of the ruins, are so artfully contrived as to
"make the observer imagine it is in reality what it artificially
"means."
Strange to say, it is from a Swede that we learn most about
Warner's botanical interests. Pehr Kalm, one of Linnaeus's
pupils, was commissioned to go to North America to collect
plants. He was detained in this country for six months in 1748
while waiting for a ship to Philadelphia. During his stay he
travelled around London studying agricultural methods. He
was introduced to Warner by Sir William Watson, and became
very friendly with him and with Philip Miller. Writing to
Linnaeus, Kalm describes Warner as "the greatest fancier in
"all the world for collecting and cultivating every kind of trees,
"plants and herbs; from the sun's uprising until its going down
''(as we sing in our Psalm) and still later, he remains in his
"garden; he has there 4 beautiful orangeries stuffed full with
"every kind of foreign plants, of which he has, in a word,
"abundance. You can easily imagine how quickly we agreed;
"while he was at home I was hardly absent from him one hour;
"he shared with me all the seeds he had, and I think I may
"safely say, that in liberality as regards seeds, he surpassed
"you; I had many occasions of this, for when he had only a
"few of certain rare seeds which he could save last spring, say 4,
"he gave me 2, or one half. He is a very learned man, and
"thorough in everything."
Again he writes that he has selected a great number of seeds
which Mr. Miller received last autumn from America "a large