Little is known of John Hill’s life before the 1730s. At various times he was an apothecary, an actor, and a gossip columnist. Through his study of botany he became acquainted with various members of London’s scientific community, including Sir Hans Sloane, and was employed by the Duke of Richmond and Lord Petre to arrange their gardens and collections of dried plants. John Stuart, Earl of Bute, later became his patron, and in 1761 obtained for him the post of gardener in the newly established botanical gardens at Kensington Palace (previously the residence of George II). Dr Johnson observed of him to George III that ‘if he would have been contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a very considerable man’. Hill’s exotic plants, such as this (otherwise unidentified) ‘heroic piony’, a native of Senegal, were new to Europe, the majority being raised in the hothouses of his patron, Lord Northumberland, and engraved from life. His introduction describes his technique of reconstituting dried specimens by macerating them in warm water: 'The Plant was laid in a China Dish, and Water was poured upon it, nearly as much as the Cavity would hold; another Dish, somewhat smaller, was turn’d down upon this, and the Edges were cemented with common Paste spread upon brown Paper. This was set upon a Pot half full of cold water, and placed over a gentle Fire …. The Plant, however, rumpled up in drying, expands and takes the natural Form it had when fresh. Even the minutest Parts appear distinctly. The Specimen is destroyed by this Operation, but it shews itself, for the Time, in full Perfection.' Text adapted from 'The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760', London, 2014