Right: 

Portrait of J C Loudon 

Courtesy Derby Local Studies Library, Unknown artist, from Self Instruction For Young Gardeners, J. C. Loudon 

c 1843 

Left: 

J. C. Loudon

Biography Portrait, 

John Claudius Loudon was born on the 8th of April, 1783, at Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, the residence of his mother's only sister.

The eldest of a large family,  he had a taste for landscape gardening which began to show itself at an early age, as his principal pleasure was in making walks and flower beds in a little garden his father had given him. 

He was sent to live with an uncle in Edinburgh, so that he could attend classes at the public schools. Here he overcame his dislike of Latin, and made extraordinary progress in drawing and arithmetic. He also attended classes of botany and chemistry, making copious notes, illustrated with very clever pen-and-ink sketches. He still he could not make up his mind whether or not to learn French.

At the age of 20 suffered a severe bout of rheumatic fever, as a consequence, suffered a severe pain in his right arm for many years.  He was eventually advised by his doctors that amputation was the only cure for the condition.  

Loudon was the first major advocate of the provision of public parks for the burgeoning cities of 19th century England. Throughout most of his adult life he conducted a sporadic crusade for more public open spaces, largely through his prolific literary output of articles, books, and magazines. He began his career as an advocate for public open space in 1803 with an article entitled Hints of Laying Out the Ground in Public Squares. In the early 1820s his Encyclopedia of Gardening (1822: 1826) became his forum for voicing concerns about the state of public open space in Britain:

Works devoted to the parks cause included a design for a green-belt system of breathing zones for London, published in Loudons widely circulated magazine, The Gardeners Magazine and register for rural and domestic improvement, in 1829, and an 1835 article in the same publication entitled, Remarks on Laying Out Public Gardens and Promenades. The last provided a detailed account of his notions on park design, including the principles of the recognition of art in the landscape; unity of expression; variety; and relation or order.