Patrick Neill was a Scottish printer and horticulturalist, known as a naturalist. A founding member, and the first secretary, of both the Wernerian Natural History Society and the Caledonian Horticultural Society, he is mainly remembered today for having endowed the Neill Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Neill' works include A Tour Through Some of the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, which caused much public debate at the time, due to its descriptions of the economic misery of the islanders. He also authored the Gardening article in the seventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. This article was subsequently expanded and published as a separate book under the title of The Fruit, Flower, and Kitchen Garden, which was popular and ran through several editions. When the Nor Loch was drained in 1820, Neill was commissioned to plan the scheme of planting of 5 acres of land, which is now West Princes Street Gardens. This included the planting of 77,000 trees and shrubs. The rosaceous genus Neillia is named after Neill.
A short time before his death he became enfeebled by a stroke of paralysis, and after several months of suffering he died at Canonmills on 3 September 1851, and was buried in Warriston Cemetery, on the western wall in the extreme south-west corner of the original cemetery, just west of the archway to the southern extension. His tombstone states that he was "distinguished for literature, science, patriotism, benevolence, and piety". The memorial was restored by the Friends of Warriston Cemetery 2014/2015. He died unmarried, and among his various charitable bequests was one of £500 to the Caledonian Horticultural Society to found a medal for distinguished Scottish botanists or cultivators, and a similar sum to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for a medal to distinguished Scottish naturalists. He is botanically commemorated by the rosaceous genus Neillia. Edinburgh is indebted to Neill for the scheme of the WestPrinces Street Gardens. In 1820, that portion of the north loch was drained, and five acres of ground were laid out and planted with seventy-seven thousand trees and shrubs under his direction. He also intervened to preserve several antiquities that were on the point of being demolished.
Works
In 1806 appeared his Tour through Orkney and Shetland, a work which gave rise to discussion because of its reports of poverty. In 1814 he issued a translation, An Account of the Basalts of Saxony, from the French of Dubuisson, with Notes, Edinburgh. He was the author of the article "Gardening" in the seventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and it was subsequently published as The Flower, Fruit, and Kitchen Garden. In 1817 Neill, with two other deputies from the Caledonian Society, made a tour through the Netherlands and the north of France, and he wrote an account of it, which was published in 1823.
