Douglas visited Liverpool Botanic
Garden on June 4th, 1823, immediately after completing his arduous
stagecoach journey from London. What did
he find there?
The Garden was well-established by
then, having been opened by William Roscoe, an eminent Liverpool citizen, in
1802 on a 10 acre site at Mosslake Fields, Mount Pleasant.
William Roscoe (Martin Archer Shee, 1815-1817, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)
At that time Mount Pleasant was still
in the countryside outside the built-up area of urban Liverpool. So Douglas had a little more travelling to do
to reach it; no doubt he was grateful for an opportunity to stretch his legs
after a day and a half on a stagecoach. The
Garden had quickly become established as one of the major botanic gardens in
the world, sending collectors out in their own right, and focusing particularly on
items of economic importance.
John Bradbury, another Scottish
botanist, had been sponsored by the Liverpool Botanic Garden to explore and
collect on the Missouri River in the USA.
Bradbury was, for a time, part of the Astor expedition which played such an important part in opening up the Pacific North West to European influence. The erstwhile headquarters of that expedition in Astoria would later be Douglas's first sight of European habitation in the PNW, in April 1825.
In many ways, Bradbury’s travels, and travails, anticipated those of Douglas
himself and many of his collections were on display in Liverpool. Bradbury duly reported back to his sponsors “'It
is perhaps right to mention for the satisfaction of the [Liverpool Botanic
Gardens] Committee that I remain in perfect health although the bad weather has
been much against me, as also have some scrapes I have got into in my walks,
from which I could only extricate myself by swimming...” The
parallel with Douglas’s own adventures is striking, although the two men never met as Bradbury had returned to North America in 1817 and died
there in 1823.
Roscoe himself is commemorated by Roscoea purpurea, native to the Himalayas
and first observed to flower at Liverpool in 1823; perhaps Douglas saw it?
By Whf_purple_04_adjusted.jpg: *Whf_purple_04.jpg: Woudloperderivative work: Peter coxheadderivative work: Peter coxhead - This file was derived from Whf purple 04 adjusted.jpg:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21298108
Mr Shepherd, as referenced by
Douglas, was the curator and the two of them seem to have hit it off. Douglas mentions that “Mr Shepherd received me in the most handsome manner; showed me all his
treasures (of which not a few were from North America [the Bradbury
connection!])
By this time (1823) the Garden was
a substantial endeavour, with five different conservatories and well over 1000
different specimens.
Courtesy of Liverpool Record Office, Liverpool
Libraries.
Douglas returned the following day (June 5th) when his ship’s sailing was delayed and “…thus had full scope of seeing it in perfection.” By 1830, though, the Garden had begun to run out of room and in the next five years was gradually moved to a new site in Wavertree. Sadly, therefore, we cannot walk where Douglas walked in 1823.
