James Henry Mangles, RHS

James Henry Mangles was born in 1832, the eldest sone of Charles Edward and Rose Mangles of Poyle Park, Surrey. He was educated at Brighton College and East India College and served for seven years in the bengal Civil Service. He returned to England in 1858. Although he trained in Law he is most famous for horticulture - specifically for Rhododendrons. After being elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1874 he also served as an active member of the Royal Horticultural Society. He contributed some twenty three notes and articles to gardening magazines between 1879 and 1884.

Mangles died in August 1884 aged 52

He wrote "The Diary of James Mangles" edited with an introduction by Earl A Knies. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1984

It was discovered at Valewood, Mangles estate, in 1961, in an outbuilding once used as a laundry room. It was soaking wet when found but after careful drying the ink survived leaving the text still readable. It consists of approximately 50 pages and was recorded in a ledger previously used as a scrapbook for newspaper clippings from the 1790s. The clippings still remain in the diary.

Mangles was a friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson from 1870 when Tennyson went to Sussex, having built the estate 'Aldworth' - he was a neighbour of Mangles. The conversations between the two men are recorded by Mangles and are the main content of the diaries.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seale,_Surrey

Manor Farm Cottages, and Seale Lodge Cottages stand opposite the church [Seale], clustered around the craft shop/tea room. These date to the early 18th century. Beside them is Stable Cottage of later that century.

James Mangles, who lived at Valewood, Haslemere, was one of the earliest rhododendron collectors and hybridisers. When James died in 1884, most of his plant collection was brought to Littleworth Cross and Harry continued hybridising and exhibiting rhododendrons, with the help of his sister Clara. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), who lived nearby at Munstead, knew the Mangles family and was visiting one afternoon in May 1889 when she was introduced to a young architect, Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) who was designing a gardener's cottage and some garden buildings for Harry Mangles. The meeting was important for both Lutyens and Jekyll: she discovered someone with a similar love of the vernacular architecture of south-west Surrey, who would design her new home, Munstead Wood (qv), and through her, he was introduced to many potential clients. Lutyens and Jekyll began a collaboration of building and garden design that would last until her death in 1932.