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AITON, WILLIAM, an eminent horticulturist and
botanist, was born, in 1731, at a village in the neighbourhood of Hamilton.
Having been regularly bred to the profession of a gardener, as it was and
still is practised by numbers of his countrymen, with a union of manual
skill and scientific knowledge, he removed to England in 1754, and, in the
year following, obtained the notice of the celebrated Philip Miller, then
superintendent of the physic garden at Chelsea, who employed him for some
time as an assistant. The instructions which he received from that eminent
gardener laid the foundation, it is said, of his future fortune. His
industry and abilities were so conspicuous, that, in 1759, he was pointed
out to the Princess-Dowager of Wales as a fit person to manage the botanical
garden at Kew. His professional talents also procured him the notice of Sir
Joseph Banks, and a friendship commenced which subsisted between them for
life. Dr Solander and Dr Dryander were also among the number of his
friends.
The encouragement of botanical studies was a
distinguished feature of the reign of George III., who, soon after his
accession, determined to render Kew
a repository of all the vegetable riches of the world. Specimens were
accordingly procured from every quarter of the globe, and placed under the
care of Mr Aiton, who showed a surprising degree of skill in their
arrangement. Under his superintendence, a variety of improvements took place
in the plan and edifices of Kew gardens, till they attained an undoubted
eminence over every other botanical institution. In 1783, on a vacancy
occurring in the superintendence of the pleasure-gardens at Kew, Mr Aiton
received the appointment from George III., but was, at the same time,
permitted to retain his more important office. His labours proved that the
king's favours were not ill bestowed; for, in 1789, he published an
elaborate description of the plants at Kew, under the title, "Hortus
Kewensis," 3 vols. 8vo, with a number of plates. In this production, Mr
Aiton gave an account of no fewer than 5600 foreign plants, which had been
introduced from time to time into the English gardens; and so highly was the
work esteemed, that the whole impression was sold within two years. A second
and improved edition was published by his son, William Townsend Aiton, in
1810. After a life of singular activity and usefulness, distinguished,
moreover, by all the domestic virtues, Mr Aiton died on the 1st of February,
1793, of a schirrus in the liver, in the 63d year of his age. He lies buried
in the churchyard at Kew, near the graves of his distinguished friends,
Zoffany, Meyer, and Gainsborough. He was succeeded by his son, Mr William
Townsend Aiton, who was no less esteemed by George III. than his father had
been, and who, for fifty years, ably superintended the botanical department
at Kew, besides taking charge of the extensive pleasure-grounds, and being
employed in the improvement of the other royal gardens. In 1841, he retired
from office, when Sir William Jackson Hooker was appointed director of the
botanic gardens. Mr Aiton died at Kew, in 1849, aged 84. |
