THE GARDENERS OF THE EIGHTH LORD PETRE 203
would trust no one except Huntback to pack a plant of value. He
was still at Thorndon when Lord Petre died in 1742.13
Huntback never seems to have become "Head Gardener".
Perhaps he was too old to learn all the new tricks and the gar-
dener invariably associated with Lord Petre's name is James
Gordon. Gordon had succeeded a Mr Sampson as gardener to
James Sherard at Eltham, but when he left to enter Lord Petre's
service is not known.11 It is clear from Lord Petre's letters to
Collinson in the British Museum that he was firmly in the saddle
at Thorndon by early 1737 and it is almost certain that he arrived
there a good deal earlier. Gordon was a gardener of quite excep-
tional ability. Thomas Knowlton, who was admittedly prejudiced,
claimed that as a gardener Gordon was "abounding with more
knowledge than 500 Millers of Chelsey put together", but Peter
Collinson was hardly less eulogistic.15 However, sometime towards
the end of 1741 Gordon left Thorndon to set himself up as an
independent nurseryman and by December he was established at
Mile End, where he became famous as a cultivator of exotic
plants.16 He also became a correspondent of Linnaeus and a
number of his letters to him are preserved in the library of the
Linnean Society of London. He died in 1781.
The problem of a successor to Gordon now arose and Lord
Petre was in correspondence with Collinson on the subject. At
one time he seems to have been contemplating taking on the
gardener of a Mr Newland, a gentleman whose identity has not
yet been established, but who owned a park and woodlands large
enough to be suitable for the breeding habitat of a pair of elks
which Lord Petre greatly coveted.17 Whether or not John Miller
whom he eventually engaged was this Mr Newland's gardener
has not been confirmed. Miller's name, together with that of
Huntback, figures as gardener in a list of servants at Thorndon,
drawn up in July 1742, in the second hierarchical tier immediately
after the chaplains and the estate manager.13 In his will (he died
on 2nd July 1742) Lord Petre directed: "that all the Timber Trees
in the Nursereys at and about Thorndon shall be disposed in the
properest manner in the Park there under the direction of Mr John
Miller at such a moderate and reasonable Expense as shall be
judged proper by my dear Wife".
The list of servants quoted above gives the names of other
persons employed in the gardens and Park at Thorndon. The
kitchen gardener was James Barnes and under him were an under
kitchen gardener, Edmound Tourner, and two apprentices, George
Hondin and Thomas Willoughby. In addition there was a park-
keeper, John Grinstead, who presumably looked after the cutting
and rolling of the "plains" or lawns about which Lord Petre was
most assiduous. Finally, there was a Dutch "Pheasandre" who
besides having charge of the rearing of pheasants for game pur-
poses (there was an ordinary gamekeeper as well) almost certainly
was responsible for the menagerie and the various birds, such as
bustards, ornamental ducks and pheasants, etc., which Lord