114 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



feature of which would be a Conservatory or Winter Garden of consider- 

 able extent ; and also to provide reasonable facilities for the admission of 

 the public at a low price. The Council could not but feel that such an 

 offer was deserving the favourable consideration of the Society, and they 

 were of opinion that the income to be expected from a place of such mag- 

 nificence, in the finest situation in London, would justify the acceptance of 

 the terms, if not in their integrity at least in some modified form. They 

 also learned with the highest satisfaction that the Queen had been 

 graciously pleased to signify her Majesty's intention to contribute to the 

 fund that would have to be raised for carrying out the works. 



The result of the Committee's unremitting labours, and the liberal 

 patronage the Society has received, is, that the garden is now in process 

 of construction. The diagram, on another page, will enable our readers to 

 judge of the general plan of the new garden as designed by Mr. Kesfield. 

 It is wholly ornamental, and in the most florid style possible, consistent 

 with the site and the absence of architectural masses. The ground slopes 

 from north to south, and this feature will be turned to account for a series 

 of terraces. On the upper terrace will be placed a grand conservatory, 

 with a colonnade extending round it, which will afford a promenade three- 

 quarters of a mile in length, wholly sheltered from the weather. Mr. 

 Eyles, the garden-superintendent, is pushing forward the earthworks with 

 the utmost possible speed, and it is expected that the garden will, for the 

 most part, be completed by Midsummei*, 1861. In the meantime the 

 garden at Chiswick has been considerably restored, under the able direc- 

 tion of Mr. Eyles, and a course of experimental culture has been com- 

 menced for the purpose of determining the relative merits of various edible 

 vegetables and fruits, in which the Society has been largely assisted by 

 contributions from various trade and private growers. 



The references to the plan will explain its details sufficiently for the 

 present. While this progresses, and the day of completion draws near, we 

 would suggest to the Council the necessity of providing for the day when 

 the novelty of the new garden will be over; when the excitement 

 consequent on the revival of the Society will be past, and the general 

 public prepared to support whatever new and attractive candidate for 

 favour may present itself. Corporations are apt to be over conserva- 

 tive when rich, and over radical when poor; and as the Society is now on 

 the tide of prosperity, the Council will not perhaps be too ready to take 

 into consideration the interests of the middle and working-classes as 

 identical with the interests of the Society. The thousands who are now 

 liberated on Saturdays from the centres of trade and industry in the me- 

 tropolis, need for their relaxation just such a garden, and in just such a 

 position as that on which the Council are engaged. At holiday times, the 

 working-classes would crowd to such a place, if they could obtain admis- 

 sion for a small sum, and we would adduce the practice of the Zoological 

 Society as the example for the Horticultural to follow. The Regent's Park 

 Gardens are crowded on Mondays, and during the Easter and Whitsuntide 

 holidays. The sixpenny fee brings a large account to the Society's ex- 

 chequer, and the attractions at Kensington Gore would prove equally re- 

 munerative, if the Council would open a wide door for the entrance of the 

 million. Instead of following the example of the Regent's Park closely, we 

 would have the Horticultural Society go one step further, and admit 

 the working-classes after a certain hour on Saturdays, as well as the whole 



