Paxton

Paxton, SIR JOSEPH, English architect and horticulturist, was born at Milton-Bryant, near Woburn, Bedfordshire, on 3d August 1801. He began life as a working-gardener in the service of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chiswick, and was thence transferred to Chatsworth; there he was put in charge of the gardens, and entirely remodelled them, and was made manager of the duke's Derbyshire estates. The experience he obtained in designing capacious glass conservatories at Chatsworth (q.v.) found wider scope in his proposal for a palace of glass and iron for the Great Exhibition (q.v.) of 1851. It was the first time these materials had been employed on so extensive a scale, and visitors found an inexhaustible theme of admiration in a fairy palace so novel, beautiful, and magnificent. His design obtained for him the honour of knighthood. He then designed the Crystal Palace at Sydenham (q.v.), and superintended its construc- tion from the materials of the exhibition in Hyde Park. He also laid out the terraces, and planned the gardens, with their fountains, cascades, &c. Besides publishing a very popular Cottage Calendar, he edited the Botanical Magazine, Paxton's Flower-Garden, Pocket Botanical Dictionary, and other works. He died at Sydenham, 8th June 1865, having represented Coventry since 1854.