G. S. ROUSSEAU. The Letters and Papers of Sir John Hill 1714–1775. AMS Press, New York. 1982. ISBN 0-404-61472-8. Pp.lii + 208. Price $37.50.

Abstract

Sadly it is not uncommon for a person's work to be despised by his contemporaries and then greatly praised long after his death. Such a fate has befallen Sir John Hill. In 1750 he was described by Henry Baker as formerly getting "a poor Livelihood by picking up Weeds about the Countries, which he dryed and placed in Books, for a few People that would purchase them" but now "lives by scribbling Nonsense and Abuse" to produce publications which are "large dull unintelligible. .. equally fit for Waste Paper" (John Forster MSS F. 47. c. 12 f. 222-223, Victoria and Albert Museum). Critical appreciations of Hill's fine botanical work did not appear until the present century (see Stearn in Taxon 16: 494-498 [1967]), beginning with the works of G. C. Druce. Sir John was a remarkably prolific and energetic writer, producing 96 publications between 1740 and 1775. These were by no means all botanical, because he was also interested in literature, journalism, theatre, mineralogy, medicine, etc. He suffered several disappointments, evidently mainly due to his quarrelsome and controversial nature, and it is this aspect of his personality which has attracted particular attention in recent years. Indeed, George Rousseau, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of California, has made a detailed study of his work and his relationships with his contemporaries. The present book is in part a culmination of this research, and seeks to provide an insight into social and scientific matters of the mid 18th century. a critical estimate of Hill's life and career. Meanwhile, he should be appreciated at first hand by studying his original major works, such as The Vegetable System (1759-1775) already mentioned. Professor Rousseau's book is available in England from Eurospan, 3 Henrietta Street, London WC2E 8LU, price £32.95 including postage. J. R. LAUNDON DAVID McCLINTOCK (Editor). Guernsey's Earliest Flora (Flora Sarniensis by Joshua Gosselin "begun in 1788" collated and edited with an introduction and commentaries by David McClintock). The Ray Society, London, 1982. Pp. [iv] + 210; frontispiece [portrait J. Gosselin]. Price £14. Joshua Gosselin was born in Guernsey in 1739, and apart from visits to London and brief holidays in southern England and Wales, he spent almost the whole of his life on the Island, although he died in 1813 at his son's house in Hertfordshire. He was educated at City of London School, and later became Clerk to the Royal Court in Guernsey from 1767 to 1792 and Colonel of the Militia there from 1789 to 1801. David McClintock gives some, but not all, of these facts in the introduction to the present work. His The Wild Flowers of Guernsey (1975) is a little more informative, and he has written a biography entitled Joshua Gosselin of Guernsey (1976) which the reviewer has not seen. Gosselin's only botanical publication is Flora Sarnensis, which appeared two years after his death as an appendix to History of the Island of Guernsey by William Berry (1815). C. C. Babington is on record as believing it to ...