Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/120

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
384
REV. JOHN LOVE, D.D.

unabated; and when he could no longer write or draw, he had recourse to the services of the draughtsman and amanuensis.

We have already mentioned the ill success of London's "Arboretum Britannieum." This was the heaviest blow of all, and tended to accelerate the disease that terminated in his death; but still, come what might, he resolved that to the last he would be up and doing. Accordingly, as soon as the above-mentioned work was finished in 1838, he began the "Suburban Gardener," which was published the same year, and also his "Hortus Lignosus Londonensis;" and in the year following he published his edition of "Repton's Landscape Gardening." In 1840 he undertook the editorship of the "Gardener's Gazette," and in 1842 he published his "Encyclopædia of Trees and Shrubs." During the same year he finished his "Suburban Horticulturalist;" and, in 1843, appeared his last work, on "Cemeteries." Disease in the lungs had been meanwhile going on for three months, from which he endured much suffering, until his life and labours were terminated together on the 14th of December, 1843, in the sixty-first year of his age. Few men have written so much under such depressing circumstances as John Claudius Loudon, or whose writings were so well adapted to the purpose for which they were produced; and while their practical character and utility have been universally acknowledged, they are pervaded throughout with an earnest desire to improve the character and elevate the standing of those classes whose occupations are connected with gardening and agriculture. Add to this that "he was a warm friend, and most kind and affectionate in all his relations of son, husband, father, and brother, and never hesitated to sacrifice pecuniary considerations to what he considered his duty."

We have already made a passing allusion in this memoir to Mrs. Loudon, by whose aid he was materially benefited when aid was most needed. To her he was married in 1831, and in her he found a fellow-student and literary co-operator, as well as a domestic companion and comforter. Her works, which also were numerous, were chiefly connected with her husband's favourite departments of gardening and botany; and these she endeavoured to simplify and recommend to the attention of her own sex, a labour of love in which she was highly successful. She and one daughter survived Mr. Loudon, of whom she has written an affectionate and truthful biography.


LOVE, Rev. John, D.D.—This profound theologian and eloquent preacher, whose reputation, though confined within a limited circle, has survived that oi many distinguished characters in the church whose high popularity seemed to insure a more lasting remembrance, was born in Paisley, on June 4th, 1757. Even during his early education in the grammar-school of his native town, he was distinguished not only for his remarkable aptitude in learning, but the precocious gravity and thoughtfulness of his disposition circumstances which probably influenced his parents in directing his training towards the clerical profession. When only ten years of age, John Love became a student of the university of Glasgow; and during the long career of study which he prosecuted at that ancient seat of learning, he distinguished himself by his classical attainments, and his proficiency in the several departments of mathematics. These studies he continued to the end of his life; and there are several yet living who can remember his happy facility in the quotation of Greek and Roman authors upon any subject of conversational intercourse. With the contents of Scripture, however, which formed his chief study, he was more conversant still; and even before he was twelve years old, he had read the Bible, according to his