his health, he resigned his post and retired, at the end of a successful diplomatic career, he left behind him kindly memories in all circles of the society of the Belgian capital.
When he was at Florence, and, later, at Brussels, Hügel resumed his scientific studies, and several of his geographical works were written in these two places. At Florence, he spent much of the summer months at [Quarto] the country seat of Prince Anatole de Demidoff whose gardens [at San Donato] developed to unimagined beauty under Hügel's master-hand. At Brussels he selected a house in the neighbourhood of the Botanical Gardens[1]. In these picturesque gardens, situated in the centre of the town, he might often he seen in the conservatories and among the flowers, where he was always received by the working botanists of the place as an honoured and most welcome guest. Thus the love of the world of flowers accompanied him to Florence, and to Brussels, indeed it was with him to the end of his life! When he retired, his wish was to end his days in England, the country of his beloved wife. But after a three years’ sojourn there, suffering gravely in health, and feeling death approaching, he was drawn strongly towards his own home, and he was on the way to Vienna, when death overtook him, at Brussels, on the second of June, 1870. The body was brought to Vienna, and deposited in the family vault at Penzing, near Hietzing, on the seventh of the same month[2].
Hügel left two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Frederick, lives in London, and is occupied with studies
- ↑ No. 11 Boulevard de l'Observatoire, a house rented from Monsieur C. A. Beriot, the violinist, and which, during 1850, was occupied by Prince Metternich and his family. A. v. H.
- ↑ My father had left England in the company of my mother and sister, and of Miss Redmayne, my mother's school companion and lifelong friend: my brother and I had by some weeks preceded them to Vienna. A. v. H.
