Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loudon, Jane

by George Simonds Boulger ‎

LOUDON, JANE (1807–1858), horticultural and miscellaneous writer, was born at Ritwell House, near Birmingham, in 1807. Her father, Thomas Webb, died in 1824, and finding it necessary to earn her own livelihood, Miss Webb wrote ‘The Mummy, a Tale of the Twenty-second Century,’ a romance of the future, containing, among other things, a quasi-prophetic account of the steam plough, which may have furnished some of the ideas of Lytton's ‘Coming Race.’ This was published in 1827, and a copy of it falling into the hands of John Claudius Loudon [q. v.], he not only published a commendatory notice of it in one of the journals which he then edited, but sought the acquaintance of the writer, whom he supposed to be a man. They met in February 1830, and were married on 14 Sept. in the same year. Mrs. Loudon frequently accompanied her husband when on journeys connected with his profession as a landscape gardener, and she acted as his sole amanuensis. When Loudon was encumbered with debt, due to the production of his ‘Arboretum,’ Mrs. Loudon began to write botanical books of a popular character. In 1841 Mrs. Loudon published her most successful work, ‘The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden,’ of which more than twenty thousand copies were sold, the ninth edition appearing in 1879. In 1842 she began ‘The Ladies' Magazine of Gardening,’ which was, however, soon discontinued; nor was ‘The Ladies' Companion,’ 1850–1, more successful. After her husband's death in 1843 Mrs. Loudon received a pension of 100l. from the Civil List, and published numerous works, mostly horticultural, besides new editions of those of her husband. She died at Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, 13 July 1858.

Her chief works are:

1. ‘Prose and Verse,’ 1824, 12mo.
2. ‘The Mummy, a Tale of the Twenty-second Century,’ 1827, 12mo, of which an octavo edition appeared in 1872.
3. ‘Stories of a Bride,’ 1829, 12mo.
4. ‘Conversations upon Chronology,’ 1830, 12mo.
5. ‘Agnes, or the Little Girl who could keep her Promise,’ 1839, 12mo.
6. ‘The Young Naturalist's Journey,’ 1840, 16mo.
7. ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals,’ 1840, 4to.
8. ‘Instructions in Gardening for Ladies,’ 1840, 8vo.
9. ‘The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden,’ 1841, 8vo, already mentioned.
10. ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Bulbous Plants,’ 1841, 4to.
11. ‘The First Book of Botany,’ 1841, 12mo, of which a new edition by D. Wooster was published in 1870, in 8vo.
12. ‘Botany for Ladies,’ 1842, 8vo.
13. ‘The Year-Book of Natural History for Young Persons,’ 1842, 16mo.
14. ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Perennials,’ 2 vols. 4to, 1843–4.
15. ‘Glimpses of Nature during a Visit to the Isle of Wight,’ 1844, 16mo.
16. ‘British Wild Flowers,’ 1844–5, 4to, of which an edition with coloured plates was issued in 1846, and another, illustrated by H. Noel Humphreys, was begun in 1856.
17. ‘The Lady's Country Companion, or How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally,’ 1845, 8vo, which reached a fourth edition in 1852.
18. A memoir of her husband, prefixed to his ‘Self-Instruction for Young Gardeners,’ 1845.
19. ‘Tales for Young People’ (edited), 1846, 16mo.
20. ‘The Amateur Gardener's Calendar,’ 1847, 8vo, of which subsequent editions have appeared.
21. ‘Facts from the World of Nature,’ 1848, 8vo.
22. ‘The Ladies' Flower Garden of Greenhouse Plants,’ 1848, 4to.
23. ‘The Entertaining Naturalist,’ of which a third edition by W. S. Dallas appeared in 1867.
24. ‘Domestic Pets,’ 1851, 8vo.
25. ‘My own Garden, or the Young Gardener's Year-Book,’ 1855, 8vo.

[Cottage Gardener, xx. 255–9; Gent. Mag. 1858, ii. 313.]

G. S. B.