James Garton published, in 1769, The Practical Gardener; 8vo. 3s. Dilly.
---- Wildman published, in 1768, a Treatise on the Culture of Pear Trees: to which is added, a Treatise on the Management of Bees; 12mo. Dublin.
Anthony Powel, Esq. Gardener to George II. published The Royal Gardener; 12mo. 1769.
---- Ockenden, Esq. published, in 1770, Letters, describing the Lake of Killarney, and Rueness's Gardens; 8vo. Dublin.
Thomas Hitt published his Treatise on Fruit Trees, 8vo. 1775. A third edition in 1768. Mr. Loudon calls it "an original work, valuable for its mode of training trees." He also published, in 1760, a Treatise on Husbandry; 8vo. 3s.
Adam Taylor, Gardener to J. Sutton, Esq. at New Park, near Devizes, published a Treatise on the Ananas, or Pine Apple: containing Plain and Easy Directions for Raising this most excellent Fruit without Fire, and in much higher perfection than from the Stove; to which are added, Full Directions for Raising Melons. Devizes, 8vo. 1769.
James Meader, Gardener at Sion House, and afterwards to the Empress Catharine. He published, in 1771, in 12mo. The Modern Gardener, &c. in a manner never before published; selected from the Diary MSS. of the late Mr. Hitt. Also, The Planter's Guide, or Pleasure Gardener's Companion; with plates, 1779, oblong 4to.
Richard Weston, Esq. an amateur gardener, who has given, at the end of his "Tracts on Practical Agriculture, and Gardening," 1762, 8vo. a Catalogue of English Authors on Agriculture, Gardening, &c. There is another edition in 1773, with additions. His intelligent Catalogue is brought down to the end of the year 1772. This volume of Tracts contains an infinity of ingenious and curious articles. One of the chapters contains "A Plan for Planting all the Turnpike Roads in England with Timber Trees."[53] He most zealously wishes to encourage planting. "I believe (says this candid writer) that one of the principal reasons why few persons plant, springs from a fearful conjecture that their days will have been passed, before the forest can have risen. But let not the parent harbour so selfish an idea; it should be his delight, to look forward to the advantage which his children would receive from the timber which he planted, contented if it flourished every year beneath his inspection; surely there is much more pleasure in planting of trees, than in cutting of them down. View but the place where a fine tree stands, what an emblem does it afford of present beauty and of future use; examine the spot after the noble ornament shall have been felled, and see how desolate it will appear. Perhaps there is not a better method of inducing youth to have an early inclination for planting, than for fathers, who have a landed estate, to persuade those children who are to inherit it, as soon as they come to years of discretion, to make a small nursery, and to let them have the management of it themselves; they will then see the trees yearly thriving under their hands: as an encouragement to them, they should, when the trees are at a fit growth to plant out, let them have the value of them for their pocket money. This will, in their tender years, fix so strong an idea of the value, and the great consequence of planting, as will never be eradicated afterwards; and many youths, of the age of twenty-five, having planted quick growing trees, may see the industry of their juvenile years amply rewarded at that early age, a time when most young men begin to know the value of money."[54] Mr. Pope, in one of his letters to Mr. Allen, thus discovers his own generous mind:—"I am now as busy in planting for myself as I was lately in planting for another. I am pleased to think my trees will afford shade and fruit to others, when I shall want them no more." Mr. Addison's admirable recommendation of planting, forms No. 583 of the Spectator. He therein says, "When a man considers that the putting a few twigs in the ground, is doing good to one who will make his appearance in the world about fifty years hence, or that he is perhaps making one of his own descendants easy or rich, by so inconsiderable an expence; if he finds himself averse to it, he must conclude that he has a poor and base heart. Most people are of the humour of an old fellow of a college, who, when he was pressed by the society to come into something that might redound to the good of their successors, grew very peevish. We are always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us."[55] Mr. Weston also published The Universal Botanist and Nursery; 1770, 1774, 4 vols. 8vo. The Gardener and Planter's Calendar, containing the Method of Raising Timber Trees, Fruit Trees, and Quicks for Hedges; with Directions for Forming and Managing a Garden every Month in the Year; also many New Improvements in the Art of Gardening; 8vo. 1773. Mr. Weston then appears to have lived at Kensington Gore. The Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1806, says, that he died at Leicester, in 1806, aged seventy-four. He was formerly a thread hosier there. It gives an amusing and full list of his various publications, particularly of his intended "Natural History of Strawberries."
George Mason. The best edition of his "Essay on Design in Gardening," appears to have been that of 1795, in 8vo. Two Appendixes were published in 1798, which are said to have been written by Mr. U. Price. In Mr. Nichols's fourth volume of Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, are some particulars of Mr. Mason. He published Hoccleve's Poems, with a Glossary; an Answer to Thomas Paine; the Life of Lord Howe; a Supplement to Johnson's Dictionary: in the ill-tempered preface to which, he thus strangely speaks of that Dictionary:—"this muddiness of intellect sadly besmears and defaces almost every page of the composition." This is only a small instance of his virulence against Johnson in this preface. One would have thought that Mr. Mason's sarcasms would have been softened, or even subdued, by its glowing and eloquent preface, which informs us that this great work was composed "without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour." I am sorry to say, that Mr. Mason, even in the above Essay, discovers, in three instances, his animosity to our "Dictionary writer," for so he calls Dr. Johnson. Mr. Boswell, speaking of Johnson's preface, says, "We cannot contemplate without wonder, the vigorous and splendid thoughts which so highly distinguish that performance;" and on the Dictionary he observes, that "the world contemplated with wonder, so stupendous a work, achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies." Linnæus and Haller styled Ray's History of Plants, opus immensi laboris. One may justly apply the same words to this Dictionary. It was well for Mr. Mason that he escaped (what Miss Seward called) "the dead-doing broadside of Dr. Johnson's satire." George Mason omits no opportunity of censuring Mr. Whateley's Observations on Modern Gardening. In the above Essay, he censures him in seven different pages, and in his distinct chapter or division on this book of Mr. Whateley's, (consisting of thirteen pages) there are no less than thirty-three additional sneers, or faults, found with his opinions. He does not acknowledge in him one single solitary merit, except at page 191. In page 160, he nearly, if not quite, calls him a fool, and declares that vanity is the passion to which he is constantly sacrificing.[56] It would be an insult to any one who has read Mr. Whateley's work, to endeavour to clear him from such a virulent and ill-founded attack. Neither Dr. Johnson, with all his deep learning, nor Mr. Whateley, with all the cultivated fancy of a rich scholastic mind, would either of them have been able to comprehend, or to understand, or even to make head or tail of the first half of Mr. George Mason's poem, with which he closes the above edition of his Essay. As he has been so caustically severe against Dr. Johnson, it cannot be ungenerous if one applies to the above part of his own poem, the language of a French critic on another subject:—"Le style en est dur, et scabreux. Il semble que l'auteur a ramassé les termes les plus extraordinaires pour se rendre inintelligible." Percy, Bishop of Dromore, in vol. x. page 602, of the British Critic, has given a critique of Mr. Mason's edition of Hoccleve, in which he chastises its injustice, arrogance, and ignorance. Mr. Mason has been more liberal in warmly praising Kent, and Shenstone, in acknowledging the great taste and elegance of Mr. Thomas Warton, when the latter notices Milton's line of
Bosom'd high in tufted trees,