PAXTON, Sir Joseph (1803-1865), architect and ornamental gardener, was born of humble parents at Milton Bryant, near Woburn, Bedfordshire, and was educated at the grammar-school of that town. Having served his apprenticeship as gardener, he obtained employment at Chiswick, the seat of the duke of Devonshire, and eventually became superintendent of the duke’s gardens and grounds at Chatsworth, and manager of his Derbyshire estates. The design according to which he remodelled the gardens and grounds has awakened the general admiration of landscape gardeners; and he also built a grand conservatory, in which he introduced various improvements of great value in construction and arrangements. To this edifice there attaches a peculiar interest from the fact that it formed the model for the Great Exhibition building of 1851. The happy suggestion of Paxton solved a difficulty which threatened to render it impossible to hold the exhibition, and in recognition of his great services he received the honour of knighthood. On the formation of the Crystal Palace Company he was invited to prepare the design for the building at Sydenham, and was also appointed director of the gardens and grounds. Subsequently he received several commissions as an architect, his most important design being that for the mansion of Baron James de Rothschild at Ferrières in France. His versatility of invention was also shown by his organization of the Army Work Corps which served in the Crimea. In 1854 he was chosen M.P. for Coventry, which he continued to represent till his death, which occurred at his residence near the Crystal Palace, 8th June 1865. Paxton was elected in 1826 a Fellow of the Horticultural Society, in 1833 a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1844 he was made a knight of the order of ...