ROMANTIC CAREER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 23

ROMANTIC CAREER

PAXTON THE GARDENER

MAKER OF CRYSTAL PALACE

FRIEND OF A DUKE

The rise, to', fame,, riches, and universal esteem of Joseph Paxton is one of the (most extraordinary and one of the most romantic stories •of nine-teenth-century England, writes A. G. Macdonald in "John o' London's Weekly." For some reason, the self-made man in England is almost always a townsman (whereas in Scotland the children of crofters and flsherfolK have often risen to great heights), but Joseph" Paxton was an exception. His father-was a, small. farmer at the village of Milton Bryant; on the'estates of ; the Duke of Bedfordshire, and Joseph's first position was as gardener's boy at a neighbouring mansion. From this obscure beginning he climbed; steadily to an astonishing pin-

|a man-to fetch them, and an intelligent under-gardener was dispatched to India, armed with presents of seeds and roots for the Calcutta garden and with air-tight, boxes in ,which:..to bring back his spoil. '.The mission was a huge, success, except that'the; greatest prize of all, Orchid Amherstia, died on the way home. Chatsworth reeled to its very foundations. Paxton then dispatched two young men on a plant-hunting expedition to Canada, but the whole party was drowned in the Columbia; River, and he was so shocked at the catastrophe —for he was a very warm-hearted man —that he never again took part in sending collectors to dangerous places.

!Paxton's position had undergone a startling change since his arrival at Chatsworth twelve years before. A weekly wage of 25s had yielded place to the possibility of a salary-'of £1000 a year at Windsor. He was already an experienced v man of affairs, an established.writer, on horticultural subjects, and had served en an important Gov.ernment. inquiry. • ■ ■>. ■;

An important milestone, was his journey with the Duke to Switzerland and across the mountains into Italy, and thence to Athens, ■ Constantinople, Smyrna, and. home via Malta. "Life

but "he was ahead of his time, and he was haunted for the rest. of. his lire by the miserable state of his ribbonmaking constituents. But even now this astonishingly fertile man..was not at the end; of ihis:schemes. In -the Crimean War..lie suggested.Vand was given the task of organising, a Labour Corps to do the entrenching,- road-making, and navvying work which is usually done by soldiers, who are far less expert at digging than ■ a trained navvy. The idea was sound- in' theory, but again Paxton was ahead of his time, and in practice a thousand difficulties cropped up, not the least being the ordinary stupidity of the regular soldier.

In 1858 the duke died, and Paxton's soul died with him. T.he coffin was followed by the great ones of the land, "Howards and' Granvilles, Spencers and Pitzroys, Lascelles and , Gowers." But the chief mourner was the head gardener,' the boy who had once tended the plants in the Chiswiek Gardens. A few days later Paxton wrote to the new duke and resigned from the. service of- the Cavendish family. There could, be no double allegiance for him. He lived for seven years more, active ■ years, vigorous years, but for Paxton, empty years.-.For the duke was dead, "and the world had come to an end, . •