Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/155

  ‘Stories of a Bride,’ 1829, 12mo.  ‘Conversations upon Chronology,’ 1830, 12mo.  ‘Agnes, or the Little Girl who could keep her Promise,’ 1839, 12mo.  ‘The Young Naturalist's Journey,’ 1840, 16mo.  ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals,’ 1840, 4to.  ‘Instructions in Gardening for Ladies,’ 1840, 8vo.  ‘The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden,’ 1841, 8vo, already mentioned.  ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Bulbous Plants,’ 1841, 4to.  ‘The First Book of Botany,’ 1841, 12mo, of which a new edition by D. Wooster was published in 1870, in 8vo.  ‘Botany for Ladies,’ 1842, 8vo.  ‘The Year-Book of Natural History for Young Persons,’ 1842, 16mo.  ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Perennials,’ 2 vols. 4to, 1843–4.  ‘Glimpses of Nature during a Visit to the Isle of Wight,’ 1844, 16mo.  ‘British Wild Flowers,’ 1844–5, 4to, of which an edition with coloured plates was issued in 1846, and another, illustrated by H. Noel Humphreys, was begun in 1856. <li> ‘The Lady's Country Companion, or How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally,’ 1845, 8vo, which reached a fourth edition in 1852. <li> A memoir of her husband, prefixed to his ‘Self-Instruction for Young Gardeners,’ 1845. <li> ‘Tales for Young People’ (edited), 1846, 16mo. <li> ‘The Amateur Gardener's Calendar,’ 1847, 8vo, of which subsequent editions have appeared. <li> ‘Facts from the World of Nature,’ 1848, 8vo. <li> ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Greenhouse Plants,’ 1848, 4to. <li> ‘The Entertaining Naturalist,’ of which a third edition by W. S. Dallas appeared in 1867. <li> ‘Domestic Pets,’ 1851, 8vo. <li> ‘My own Garden, or the Young Gardener's Year-Book,’ 1855, 8vo.</ol>

<section end="Loudon, Jane"/> <section begin="Loudon, John Claudius"/>LOUDON, JOHN CLAUDIUS (1783–1843), landscape-gardener and horticultural writer, son of a farmer, was born at Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, 8 April 1783. As a child he evinced fondness for gardening, and was sent to live with an uncle in Edinburgh in order to obtain a good education. He made rapid progress in drawing and arithmetic, overcame an initial dislike to Latin, and took copious notes on botany and chemistry, illustrated with clever pen-and-ink sketches. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a nurseryman and landscape-gardener, but continued to attend classes, sitting up two whole nights in every week to prepare for them. At this period he acquired a knowledge of French and Italian, paying his teachers himself by the proceeds of translations which he made for an Edinburgh publisher, and for many years he kept a journal in French in order to familiarise himself with the language.

In 1803 Loudon came to London, where he readily obtained employment, and in the same year published his first essay, ‘Observations on Laying-out Public Squares.’ In 1806 he was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society; but in the same year he had an attack of rheumatic fever, which disabled him for two years, leaving him with an ankylosed knee and a contracted left arm. While convalescent he lodged at Pinner, and was impressed by the inferiority of English to Scottish farming. He accordingly persuaded his father to join him in taking a lease of Wood Hall, near Pinner, and published a pamphlet entitled ‘An Immediate and Effectual Mode of Raising the Rental of the Landed Property in England.’ In 1809 he rented the large farm of Tew Park, Oxfordshire, where he took pupils in agriculture, and by 1812 he had made a profit of 15,000l. He then threw up his farm, dismissed his pupils, and started on a continental tour, apparently with the view of studying European methods of farming and gardening. He visited Gottenburg, Memel, Berlin, Riga, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, which he reached in March 1814, following the line of march of the French army. On his return to England he found that his investments had failed, and his fortune was gone. After a short interval, however, he again went abroad, visiting France and Italy in 1819–20, and making preparation for his ‘Encyclopædia of Gardening,’ which first appeared in 1822; it bears little trace of his foreign experiences. He knew the wants of the class for whom he wrote, and his judicious compilation proved successful. It was followed in 1825 by the ‘Encyclopædia of Agriculture,’ and in 1829 by the ‘Encyclopædia of Plants.’

In 1820 his right arm was broken; it was badly set, and in 1825 was amputated. During these years of pain he acquired the habit of taking laudanum, gradually increasing the dose until it reached a wineglassful every eight hours; but after the amputation, with characteristic decision, by gradually diluting the doses, he freed himself from the habit.

In 1826 he began to publish the monthly ‘Gardener's Magazine,’ which he continued to edit until his death. It was for some years very successful, affording him an income of 750l. per annum; but its circulation declined in 1831 after the appearance of Paxton's ‘Horticultural Register.’ In 1828 Loudon had begun the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ In 1831, after superintending the laying out<section end="Loudon, John Claudius"/>