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Robert James Petre, 8th Baron Petre (3 June 1713 – 2 July 1742) was a renowned horticulturist and a British peer. Lord Petre was the son of Robert Petre, 7th Baron Petre (1689–1713) and his wife Catherine Walmesley (1697 – 31 January 1785), heiress of the Walmesley family of Lancashire. Petre was born three months after his father's death and spent his childhood at Ingatestone Hall, instead of at Thorndon Hall, the family seat, as his grandmother was still in residence there. ==Botany and horticulture== He developed an interest in botany and horticulture as a child, and by his teenage years was friends with some of the most eminent botanists, horticulturists and landscapers of the day, including; Philip Miller, Keeper of the Chelsea Physic Garden, Philip Southcote, a leading pioneer of landscape design, and Peter Collinson, the Quaker Haberdasher turned horticulturist who was to remain a lifelong friend and colleague. In 1727, when he was 14, he received, as a Christmas gift from Ralph Howard, one of his mother’s suitors, a specially made pruning knife and saw, which, it is recorded, was “well taken”. Robert’s interest in botany and horticulture was practical as well as academic. By 1729, it seems that, at least in part, he had taken over the management of his grandmother’s gardens at Thorndon. The old lady herself evidently had a keen interest in horticulture, growing orange trees, ‘jesamines’ and myrtles in her greenhouses. In 1732 released from guardianship, his mother handed over to him by special permission the family estates. Now in complete control of Ingatestone and Thorndon Halls, Robert was able to give full expression to his enthusiasms and immediately embarked on an ambitious plan to remodel both the house and the park, which had been held in Trust for him since his father’s death.〔(No. 189 Petition 53 Catherine, Lady Petre to Robert James Lord Petre her son 29 July 1732 makes over to him ‘all the fumiture, plate, jewells & books, pictures and other goods and Chattles £8,527’)〕 John Martin, visiting in 1729, was amazed by what he saw; he confessed he had never witnessed the like of the ‘stoves’ or hothouses and found in them some species that he, a professional botanist, had never seen before. The raising of exotic species from seed was a particular passion of the time, encouraged by the work of Philip Miller in developing the technique of using beds of tanner’s bark to achieve safely and efficiently the high soil temperatures required and Robert had adopted the technique to spectacular effect. Writing to Linnaeus some years later, Collinson exclaims, “Such stoves the world never saw, nor may ever again”. The Great Stove, reputed to be the largest hothouse in the world, was fully high and contained trees and shrubs 10 to tall including specimens of guava, papaw, plantain, hibiscus, ''Hernandia'' (Jack-in-a-Box), ceroid cacti, Sago Palm, annatto (a red berry used for edible dye) and bamboo cane. The walls were hung with trellises covered with passion flowers, a wide variety of clematis and creeping cereus. There were also two other stoves maintained at a slightly lower temperature for more temperate plants, a house long exclusively for the cultivation of bananas and pineapples and another the same size for storing apples. From these stoves came the first camellia to flower in this country and, in 1739, a gift of bananas sent to Sir Hans Sloane (along with ‘2 uncommon fowls of the widgeon kind’). Nonetheless, there were failures too; Robert was particularly fond of the white lilac and, on one occasion, culled sufficient seed to raise in his nursery 5,000 new plants. Unfortunately, the principles of plant genetics and cross-pollination were then little understood; all but twenty of them bore purple blossom. Between 1740 and 1742, some 60,000 trees of at least 50 different species were planted at Thorndon Hall. For the most part, these were arranged in mixed thickets, with dark green foliage contrasting with light green and blue green with yellow green, the whole set off by highlights of white bark or leaves with white undersides. This style of planting was not in itself a new idea but was made, in this case, particularly striking by the variety of effects achieved by the wide range of species including: acacias, Acer (Virginia), camphor tree, Cedar (Lebanon), Cedar (Red), Cherry (Pennsylvanian), Maple (Virginia), Oak (Carolina), tulip trees. By 1762, however, Collinson, on a visit to Thorndon, found a scene of desolation: the house was falling down, the nurseries overgrown and the stoves empty, apart from two date palms, a cactus and a few sickly shrubs. The redesign of the estate by his son swept away much of Lord Petre's work, only traces of the plantings, the two mounts adjacent to the present house and the ruins of the ziggurat by the old mill pond can be found today. The menagerie only survives in the name of Menagerie Plantation. Furthermore, Robert’s impressive botanic library, including 17 folio volumes of dried specimens, were sold, together with the rest of the family library by the unworldly 13th lord and his mahogany cabinet with 20 drawers stuffed with botanic curiosities was turned into a wardrobe and the contents thrown away. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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