erform what he did. He died towards
Christmas in the year 1713."
In the preface to his Iconologia, he again mentions them:--"Had their
leisure been equal to their experience, the world might from them have
reasonably expected the compleatest System of Gardening that any age or
country has produced. It is to them we owe most of those valuable
precepts in gardening now in use, and their memory ought to be
transmitted to posterity, with the same care as those of the greatest
and most laborious philosophers and heroes, who by their writing and
practice have deserved so well of the world."
He again mentions his old master, Mr. London:--"In fine, he was the
person that refined the business and pleasure of kitchen and fruit
gardens to a pitch beyond what was ever till that time seen, and more
than was thought possible for one man ever to do; and (till the
succession of two eminent persons in these kingdoms, who have very much
outstript him) has not had his fellow in any century that history gives
us account of."
Switzer, speaking of Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, says, "He was a
great encourager of Mr. London, and probably very much assisted him in
his great designs. This reverend father was one of the first that
encouraged the importation, raising and increase of exoticks, in which
he was the most curious man in that time, or perhaps will be in any
age. He had above one thousand species of exotick plants in his stoves
and gardens."
No monument has, I believe, been erected to Mr. London's memory,
deservedly eminent and esteemed as he was in his day, _courted and
caressed by all_, nor can I find out even where he was born or buried.
If one could obtain a resemblance of him, one hopes his Picture, or his
Bust, may not deserve the censure of our noble poet:
What is the end of fame? 'tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper;
* * * * *
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched _picture_, and worse _bust_.[37]
The two following works were published by them:--
The Complete Gardener, &c. by Mons. de la Quintinye. Now compendiously
abridged, and made of more use; with very considerable Improvements. By
George London and Henry Wise. To which is prefixed, An Address to the
Nobility and Gentry, by J. Evelyn, Esq.; folio, 1693; octavo, 1699,
1717. Seventh edition in 1719. There is a curious plate of a garden
prefixed, and two neat ones at page 22. Ther
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