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Occasional Papers from the Lindley Library Volume 15 The RHS, LINDLEY LIBRARY Occasional Papers from nineteenth century RHS in gardens the MAY 2017 FIFTEEN VOLUME RHS LindleyLibrary Cover illustration: View of the Gardens from the International Exhibition. From Andrew Murray, The Book of the Royal Horticultural Society (1863) Occasional Papers from The RHS Lindley Library Volume 15, May 2017 F. Davison. The Horticultural Society’s eagle 5 T. Logan & B. Elliott. A little Chiswick mystery 13 B. Elliott. The garden library at Chiswick 19 S. McDonald. Urban landscape photography: documenting 37 the RHS Kensington Gardens, 1859–1862 R. Feely. Rediscovering the British Institution busts 51 L. Taylor. Mr Wilson’s Wisley garden 74 Date of publication of previous volume Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library Volume 14 (October 2016) was published on 20 October 2016. Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library ISSN 2043–0477 Published by: The RHS Lindley Library, The Royal Horticultural Society, 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PE Printed by: Cambrian Printers Ltd (Wales) © Royal Horticultural Society 2017 Charity registration number 222879 / SC038262 Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library Editor Vol 15: Dr Brent Elliott. Editor Vol 16: Elizabeth Koper Production & layout: Richard Sanford Printed copies are distributed to libraries and institutions with an interest in horticulture. Volumes are also available on the RHS website (www. rhs.org.uk/occasionalpapers). Requests for further information may be sent to the Editor at the address (Vincent Square) below, or by email ([email protected]). Access and consultation arrangements for works listed in this volume The RHS Lindley Library is the world’s leading horticultural library. The majority of the Library’s holdings are open access. However, our rarer items, including many mentioned throughout this volume, are fragile and cannot take frequent handling. The works listed here should be requested in writing, in advance, to check their availability for consultation. Items may be unavailable for various reasons, so readers should make prior appointments to consult materials from the art, rare books, archive, research and ephemera collections. It is the Library’s policy to provide or create surrogates for consultation wherever possible. We are actively seeking fundraising in support of our ongoing surrogacy, preservation and conservation programmes. For further information, or to request an appointment, please contact: RHS Lindley Library, London RHS Lindley Library, Wisley 80 Vincent Square RHS Garden Wisley London SW1P 2PE Woking GU23 6QB T: 020 7821 3050 T: 01483 212428 E: [email protected] E : [email protected] Volume 16 will contain further research from the collections of the RHS Lindley Library. Occasional Papers from the RHS Lindley Library Volume Fifteen May 2017 RHS gardens in the nineteenth century Published in 2017 by the RHS Lindley Library The Royal Horticultural Society 80 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PE All rights reserved. The RHS asserts its copyright in this publication. No part of it may be reproduced in another publication without written permission from the Publisher. ISSN 2043–0477 Copyright © The Royal Horticultural Society 2017 except where otherwise stated Printed by: Cambrian Printers Ltd (Wales) visit the Royal Horticultural Society at: www.rhs.org.uk This volume of the Lindley Library Occasional Papers series is dedicated to Dr Brent Elliott, the first editor of this series, who retires at the end of May this year. Dr Elliott joined the Lindley Library in 1977. He was Head Librarian from 1982 to 2007, charting the Lindley Library through its move to new premises within Vincent Square and overseeing the mammoth task of creating a digital catalogue of the printed collections. In 2007 Dr Elliott was appointed to a post created specifically for him, that of RHS Historian. As an undoubted authority on the history of the Society and British horticulture in general, and as a generous and committed librarian who has supported countless researchers and colleagues, Dr Elliott has made a unique contribution to the Royal Horticultural Society and the Lindley Library in particular. OCCASIONAL PAPERS FROM THE RHS LINDLEY LIBRARY 15: 5–12 (2017) 5 The Horticultural Society’s eagle FIONA DAVISON c/o The RHS Lindley Library, The Royal Horticultural Society, London The archive of the RHS, housed at the Lindley Library, includes a collection of minute books for the Garden Committee tasked with overseeing the Society’s garden at Chiswick. I have been consulting these minute books to help with a research project looking at the training scheme for gardeners that the Horticultural Society ran from 1822 to 1829. As I was looking through the Garden Committee minute book for 18231, one word in one entry leapt out, sparking one of those detours that are the hallmark of archival research. That word was “eagle”. Amongst routine references to plants acquired and gardeners hired, the minutes for the Garden Committee meeting of 2 June 1823 state, “Captain Sabine’s offer of the Eagle brought by him from Maraham [sic] be accepted and that a proper place be proposed for the bird, in the Ornamental Experimental Garden”. Further research revealed that the bird was a male Harpy eagle. The Harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is the most powerful raptor to be found in the Americas and is one of the largest eagles in the world. It inhabits tropical lowland rainforests in Central and South America. This entry prompted a number of questions, not least what made the Horticultural Society decide to take on the care of a large, and apparently dangerous bird? The eagle was to be placed in the Society’s garden at Chiswick, which it had taken on in April of the previous year. The garden was on a plot of land between Turnham Green and the grounds belonging to the Duke of Devonshire’s Chiswick House. The primary purpose of the garden was to grow fruit, vegetables, ornamental trees and plants in order to correct nomenclature, test varieties and cultivation techniques. The place that the Council proposed to house the eagle was the Ornamental Experimental garden, the area of the Chiswick Garden where new ornamental plant introductions and cultivation techniques were trialled. Unfortunately none of the garden plans that survive indicate the exact positioning of the eagle’s new home. However, we know that the eagle would have shared that part of the garden with exotic plants from around the world, some sent back by 1 RHS Archive ref: RHS/minutes/VS/Garden Committee/2 6 FIONA DAVISON the Society’s own plant collectors, others sent by generous Fellows and a network of “Corresponding Members”. There is a long history of affluent British landowners acquiring exotic creatures to add interest and beauty to their gardens and parklands. Just next door to the Society’s Chiswick Garden, the Duke of Devonshire kept a menagerie in the grounds of Chiswick House which included tigers, emus and a kangaroo. The eminent garden writer John Claudius Loudon even seriously suggested that the new glasshouse technology could be used to create miniature exotic worlds where plants, animals and even people should be exhibited together, with natives in costume acting as guides and curators (Loudon, 1817: 49). However, it is highly unlikely that the members of the Garden Committee had the concept of the eagle as an ornamental or educational addition to the plant display in mind when they accepted this gift. Whilst the Garden was open to Fellows of the Society and their guests, the Garden was most definitely intended as a resource for serious horticultural study. It was not a public pleasure ground and it is highly unlikely that the eagle was acquired as a visitor attraction. Public fêtes and garden shows were not introduced until 1827 and even then with resistance from some quarters. Moreover at the time that the Council decided to take on the care of an eagle, the Garden was still under construction. Fences were still being built, paths laid, glasshouses constructed. The Society was incurring expense at an alarming rate. Already by 1823 there were concerns that subscriptions to the garden were lower than anticipated and that the Society was struggling to cover the ever-escalating costs of creating and running the garden. In this context the decision to accept Captain Sabine’s offer appears eccentric. In fact the acquisition of the eagle was emblematic of a combination of high-minded horticultural ambition, scientific curiosity, social deference and a staggering lack of basic common sense that was to bring the Horticultural Society to the brink of financial ruin. The answer to why the Horticultural Society of London decided to accept this inconvenient gift can be found in the identity of the person offering it, and his connections. Captain Edward Sabine was the younger brother of Joseph Sabine, the Secretary of the Horticultural Society. In 1823 Joseph Sabine was at the height of his influence in the Society, masterminding and overseeing virtually every aspect of the formation and operation of the Chiswick Garden. He was not paid a salary and had already donated sizeable collections of plants to the garden. Members of an eminent Anglo-Irish family, both brothers were fascinated by science and natural THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S EAGLE 7 Y R A R IB L EY L IND RHS, L Fig. 1. “Harpyia destructor”. The harpy eagle as illustrated in the Penny Cyclopaedia, 1838. © 2017 The Royal Horticultural Society 8 FIONA DAVISON history and were active collectors of plant, animal and mineral specimens. Edward Sabine was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1818, and would eventually become its President. He served in the military but was given leave of absence to pursue scientific experiments. Edward Sabine was a diligent and careful scientist. By 1821 he had turned his attention to the science of geodesy, the branch of mathematics dealing with the shape and area of the earth.
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