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His wife, who had cultivated her talent for flower-painting,
then resolved to put it to practical use. She took lodgings
in the neighbourhood of Chelsea, and painted medicinal
plants from nature. In this occupation she was encouraged
by Dr Hans Sloane, Dr Mead, and Dr Rand, the Curator
of the Botanical Gardens at Chelsea. After some time
she had gained sufficient money to effect the liberation
of her husband, who now co-operated with her in writing
the scientific nomenclature, with descriptions from Miller’s
Botanicum officinale, for the botanical drawings, which
she had in the meantime engraved on copper herself and
coloured by hand. The work appeared in 1737, in two
volumes folio, under the title, A Curious Herbal,
containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants. A
German translation of it, called Auserlesenes
Kräuter-buch, was printed some years later. This dabbling in
botany seems to have led Blackwell to the study of medicine,
and also to that of agriculture, in good earnest. The Duke
of Chandos took notice of him and made him director of
his parks and improvements at Cannons ; and the Swedish
Minister at London, Wasenberg, who had probably read
Blackwell’s treatise on A New Method of improving Cold,
Wet, and Clayey Grounds (1741), persuaded him to go
to Sweden on what seemed most advantageous terms,
but proved in the end nothing but illusive promises.
However, to Sweden he went, and there can be no doubt
that he soon acquired a certain fame among the nobility
and the influential citizens. He was even appointed one
of the king’s body-physicians (Lif-Medicus), and had
as such access to his Majesty. But otherwise Stockholm
was a dangerous place for a man of Blackwell’s temper. It
was ruled over by a weak king and torn by the two hostile
factions, the Hats and the Caps, and political intrigue had
undermined all principles of morality. There was no
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