Warner, Richard

, who merits notice for his regard to the science of botany, and the respect and honour he ever shewed to the lovers of it, was the son of John Warner, a banker, who is somewhere mentioned by Addison or Steele, as having always worn black leather garters buckled under the knee, a custom most religiously observed by our author, who in no other instance affected singularity. He was born in 1711, educated at Wadham college, Oxford, and being bred to the law, had chambers in Lincoln’s Inn, but possessing a genteel fortune, he principally resided in an ancient family seat with an extensive- garden belonging to it, on Woodford Green, in Essex. Here he maintained a botanical garden, was very successful in the cultivatioii of rare exotics, and was not unacquainted with indigenous plants. The herborizations of the company of apothecaries were, once in the season, usually directed to the environs of Woodford, where, after the researches of the day, at the table of Mr. Warner, the products of Flora were displayed. The result of the investigations made in that neighbourhood was printed for private distribution by Mr. Warner, under the title “Plantae Woodfordienses; or a | catalogue of the more perfect plants growing spontaneously about Woodford in Essex,” Lond. 1771, 8vo. As none of the graminaceous or cryptogamous tribes are introduced, the list does not exceed 518 species. The order is alphabetical, by the names from Ray’s Synopsis; after which follow the specific character at length, from Hudson’s “Flora Anglica,” the Linnsean class and order, and the English name, place, and time of flowering.

Mr. Warner was also distinguished for polite learning, and eminently so for his critical knowledge in the writings of Shakspeare. He published “A Letter to David Garrick, esq. concerning a glossary to the Plays of Shakspeare,” &c. 1768‘, 8vo. He bad been long making collections for a naw edition of that author; but on Mr. Steevens’s advertisement of his design to. engage in the same task on a different plan, he desisted from the pursuit of his own. In his youth he had been remarkably fond of dancing; nor till his rage for that diversion subsided, did he convert the largest room in his house into a library. To the last hour of his life, however, he was employed on the te Glossary" already mentioned, although it never was completed. At his death, which happened April 11, 1775, he bequeathed all his valuable books to Wadham college, Oxford, where he received his education; and to the same society a small annual stipend to maintain a botanical lecture. He also translated the comedies of Plautus left untranslated by Thornton, which were published in 1772 and 1774. The books he left to Wadham college form a good, although not a complete collection of the old English poets, with many editions of Shakspeare, some of which are interleaved with writing paper, obviously intended for annotations, &c. had he pursued his design of a new edition. ¹