THE 



GARDENER. 



SEPTEMBER 1870. 



THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND 

 PROVINCIAL EXHIBITIONS. 



HE Eoyal Horticultural Society has held another provincial 

 show — in many respects a good one j but there has re- 

 sulted what some predicted, and many more feared — a 

 pecuniary loss to the Society of something like £300. 

 This year the show was held at Oxford, and, in keeping with cus- 

 tom, at the same time as that of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of 

 England, but at a considerable distance from it. At Bury St 

 Edmunds, Leicester, and Manchester, the two shows were held almost 

 immediately contiguous to each other ; at Oxford they were some 

 mile apart. Everybody seemed to know the whereabouts of the Agri- 

 cultural meeting, scarcely any one that of the Horticultural. Those who 

 could point out its locality knew a flower-show was being held ; of the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society they appeared to know about as much 

 as they did of the state of the weather at Timbuctoo. Those who 

 went to Oxford exulting in the prominent position given to Horticul- 

 ture on that day in that classic region, had a kind of woe-begone 

 aspect when its place of location was reached : there was little, if any, 

 of outward symbol to indicate what w r as within, and placards announc- 

 ing the locality of the show were as absent as the much-needed 

 showers of rain. True, the two great societies w T ere at Oxford together, 

 but they appeared to have nothing in common, except that each had 

 provided a public entertainment, to which they prayed visitors would 

 come. 



It is stated that the Agricultural Society sustained a loss, but that 

 is a matter of small moment to that powerful organisation ; it is a 



2b 



