In consequence of travelling upon a rainy night on the outside of a coach, and
neglecting afterwards to change his clothes, so severe an attack of rheumatic
fever ensued that he was obliged to take lodgings at Pinner, near Harrow.
Here, during the days of convalescence, he had an opportunity of observing the
cumbrous, wasteful, and unskilful modes of farming pursued in England, and
so much at variance with those which were beginning to be put in practice in
his own country. With London, to see an evil was to labour for its removal,
and persist until it was removed. For the sake of giving practical illustrations of his proposed amendments, he induced his father to join with him
in renting Wood Hall, near London, where their operations were so successful, that in 1807 he was enabled to call public attention to the proof,
in a pamphlet entitled " An Immediate and Effectual Mode of Raising the
Rental of the Landed Property of England, &c., by a Scotch Farmer, now farming in Middlesex." This excellent work introduced him to the notice of
General Stratton, by whom he was induced to farm Tew Park, a property
belonging to the General in Oxfordshire. On moving to this new locality, Mr.
Loudon did not content himself with reaping the fruits of his superior farming; anxious that others should share in the benefit, he established an academy or
college of agriculture on the estate of Tew Park, where young men were instructed in the theory of farming, and the best modes of cultivating the soil; and anxious to diffuse this knowledge as widely as possible, he published, in
3809, a pamphlet, entitled, "The Utility of Agricultural Knowledge to the Sons of the Landed Proprietors of Great Britain, &c., by a Scotch Farmer and Land-Agent."
In this way, while Loudon was generously doing his uttermost to be the Triptolemus of England, and teaching the best modes of increasing and eliciting the riches of its soil, his own success was a practical comment upon the efficacy of his theories; for, in 1812, he found himself the comfortable possessor of 15,000. This was enough for one who had a higher aim in life than mere money-making, and to fit himself more effectually for that aim, he resolved to improve his mind by travel. Accordingly, he resigned his profitable farm, and in March, 1813, commenced his travels on the continent, visiting the principal cities of Germany and Russia. Short though this tour was, for he returned to England in the following year, it was associated with a variety of interesting adventures, of which he published a full account, illustrated by sketches from his own pencil. On returning to London, he found that the greater part of his property had disappeared, from the faithlessness of the investments to which it had been intrusted, and thus he had to begin the world anew. He returned to his original occupation, that of landscape gardening, on which he resolved to produce an extensive work; and for the improvement of his knowledge on this subject, he made, in 1819, a tour of France and Italy. Three years after the work appeared, under the title of "The Encyclopædia of Gardening;" and such was the high reputation it acquired, that its author was reckoned the first horticulturist of his day. Of this work a second edition appeared in 1824, containing great alterations and improvements. Encouraged by the success that attended it, Loudon commenced another equally copious, and upon the same plan, which appeared in 1825, entitled "The Encyclopædia of Agriculture." In 1826 he commenced the Gardener's Magazine," the first periodical that had ever been devoted to horticultural subjects. In 1828 he commenced the "Magazine of Natural History," which was also the first periodical of the kind.
