A Pioneer Garden Journalist

Abstract

A SHOBT chapter of garden history in the early eighteenth century is unfolded by Mr. W. Roberts, in a paper on Richard Bradley, F.R.S. (J. Roy. Hort. Soc., 64, Pt. 4; April 1939). Bradley was the first professor of botany at Cambridge, and though he does not appear to have conferred much sound teaching upon his students, nor given academic dignity to the University, he was responsible for a series 6f volumes which exerted considerable influence upon horticulture at that period. “A General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening” was one of his greatest contributions, and forms the main subject of Mr. Roberts's paper. The text introduces “Such Observations and Experiments as are New arid Useful for the Improvement of Land”, and, indeed, Bradley's experiments represented his major contribution to horticulture, at a period when it was the fashion only to copy and quote. He states that his expenses in the study of the nature of plants and soils cost him upwards of £2,000, and he also travelled widely. Though his undertaking to establish a Botanical Garden at Cambridge did not flourish greatly, he distributed much garden knowledge of an exact order.