Life of John Claudius Loudon his wife
Early life London
Country Residences Ferm
ornee Russia Loss of
fortune Hothouses France and Italy Gardeners
Magazine Marriage Birmingham Scotland Arboretum Suburban
Gardener Cemeteries Last illness Death Anecdotes Elegy
Marriage to Jane
About this time Mr. Loudon formed his first acquaintance with
me. My father died in 1824; and, finding on the winding up of his
affairs that it would be necessary for me to do something for my
support, I had written a strange wild novel called The
Mummy, in which I had laid the scene in the twenty-second
century, and attempted to predict the state of improvement to which
this country might possibly arrive. Mr. Loudon chanced to see the
review of this book in the Literary Gazette, and, as among
other things I had mentioned a steam-plough, it attracted his
attention, and he procured the work from a circulating library. He
read it, and was so much pleased with it, that he published, in
The Gardener's Magazine for 1828, a notice of it under the
head of "Hints for Improvements;" and he had from that time a great
desire to become acquainted with the author, whom he supposed to be
a man. In February, 1830, Mr. Loudon chanced to mention this wish
to a lady, a friend of his, who happened to be acquainted with me,
and who immediately invited him to a party, where she promised him
he should have the wished-for introduction. It may be easily
supposed that he was surprised to find the author of the book a
woman; but I believe that from that evening he formed an attachment
to me, and, in fact, we were married on the 14th of the following
September.
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