November G, 1873. ] 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



355 



account of Mr. Robert Fish, and yon spoke in high terms of 

 him as a man, and with much feeling of the long friendship, 

 now bronght to a close, which had subsisted between you and 

 him. It may be gratifying to you to know how he used to 

 speak of the Journal and its Editors. 



I was very intimate with him, and not long ago when talk- 

 ing about these matters he spoke of the great pleasure it had 

 been to him to have been connected with you for so many 

 years; and he said, •' You would be s;irprised if I were to toll 

 you of the inducements I have had to leave the Journal, but it 

 was of no use. The kindness with which I have always been 

 treated by the Editors, and the gentlemanly bearing they have 

 always shown towards me, render any separation impossible. 

 Nothing shall ever disturb my allegiance to my idol. No ! 

 never, never I " — Lctox. 



[We were not without experience of Mr. Fish's attachment 

 to us. It was one of real affection. Only a fortnight before 

 his death one of the Editors visited him, and the affectionate 

 embrace with which he was received brought tears in the eyes 

 of both. He was indeed a noble-minded man. On that oc- 

 casion he alluded to the efforts that had been made to " dis- 

 turb his allegiance," and to the quarters whence these efforts 

 came ; but the effect of them was only to rivet him more 

 closely to his old love. In the last letter we believe he ever 

 wrote, he says, " I have not dared to look at my idol — the 

 Journal, all my medical advisers say I will get right if I only 

 keep quiet. I have got no end of ideas for the old Journal if 

 ever I should be able to write them.'" 



AsD so our dear kind old teacher and friend has fallen 

 asleep and gone home to his well-earned rest. May he rest in 

 peace! I have now one friend the less. lu all the future I 

 shall miss the voice of one firm and faithful guide, who was 

 ever ready to point out the way, and who also took care to warn 

 the young travellers of the dangers of the road. I never saw 

 my old friend, yet I seem to know him as well as if I had seen 

 him every day for years. It has long been the great desire of 

 my heart to be able to accept his kind invitation, often given, 

 to go and see him. Now that is past, and on this side of the 

 grave I shall never hear his cheery kindly voice. My loss is 

 great. Fifteen years ago, at a most anxious period of my expe- 

 rience as a gardener, I was much bothered with some point in 

 gardening; I forget what it was now, but it was, I thought, 

 too insignificant to send to the Editors of The Journal of 

 IloiiriciLTfRE, and so I violated the notice at the head of 

 " iVnswers to Correspondents," and wrote to him ; and instead 

 of his answering me shortly and plainly, as any perfect stranger 

 might reasonably have done, he replied to me at some length, 

 going into all the details of the subject, making it all per- 

 fectly plain to me, and doing it all in that simple, loving, 

 fatherly way which was such a part of his nature, that my 

 heart warmed to him in deepest gratitude. I never can forget 

 that act of kindness ; as long as I live it will be for ever green 

 in my memorv-. 



Many times since then I have written to him, and no matter 

 how he was surrounded by other most pressing duties, he would 

 always reply, and always doing it wisely, lovingly, fatherly. He 

 is now gone, and I shall never be able to thank him in person 

 for all his kindly acts ; but through you, who knew him so well, 

 and who knew something of me too, I wish to make known 

 my sorrow for his death, and my sympathy with all his friends 

 and relatives at his loss. We must not grieve too much, for 

 the Master has called His servant to Him, that servant who 

 has made bo good use of the talents committed to him. — 

 N. H. PowsAix, Iladcliffe-on-Trent , Notlingham. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



Tfte great success which attended the Provincial Exhi- 

 bition of the Royal Horticultural Society when held at the 

 Lower Grounds, Aston, Birmingham, in June, 187"2, and 

 which again waited on the Horticultural Exhibition held in 

 the same place in connection with the Warwickshire Agricul- 

 tural Association in June of the present year, has induced 

 Mr. H. G. Quilter, the spirited proprietor of the Lower Grounds, 

 to arrange for holding in the coming year a Grand Midland 

 Counties Horticii.tcral Exhirition, to commence on Tues- 

 day, July 7th, and continue over the three following days. 



Ir has long been known that the Dahlia was first 



bloomed in Flngland at Holland House, but not until the 

 publication of Princess Marie Liechtenstein's volumes, entitled 



" Holland House," were the circumstances of the plant's in- 

 troduction published. The imperious Lady Holland of George 

 Ill.'s reign aimed at beijig first in everything — even her culi- 

 nary productions were to be unparalleled. When in the south 

 of France she first became acquainted with Palestine soup, a 

 name wittily applied because its characteristic ingredient is 

 the Jerusalem Artichoke. She obtained some tuber.=;, which 

 were believed to be of that vegetable, and they were sent the 

 gardener at Holland House. Instead of the Artichoke they 

 were tubers of the Dahlia, and she had the value of the acqui- 

 sition impressed upon her by a London florist offering thirty 

 guineas for a tuber. Another mode of its acquisition, how 

 ever, is that she was at Valentia hi 1804, and had it given tc 

 her as a rarity just arrived from South America. However, 

 she was the introducer, and thus occasioned the graceful 

 verses written by her husband — 



" The Dahlia you brou^bt to our isle. 

 Your praises for over shall speak, 

 In gardens as sweet as yonr smile, 

 And colours as bright as yonr cheek." 



Messrs. Sutton & Sons at their approaching Show at 



PiEADiNG offer many very valuable prizes, in silver cups and 

 money, for various farm and garden products. Messrs. Morris 

 and Griflin, Messrs. Long & Co., and the Guarantee Manure 

 Company, offer silver cups for roots to which their manures 

 have been applied. 



HiGHpraise is given inforeign journals to the St. Aueeet 



Plum, of Belgian origin, closely resembling the Golden Drop, 

 but ripening a month earlier, and superior to it in quality and 

 productiveness. It is oval in form, rounded at both ends ; skin 

 greenish, suffused vrith gold, spotted and marked here and there 

 with a crimson blush, and having flesh coloured and flavoured 

 like the best Green Gage. — {New York Tribune.) 



CHABLCOTE, 



The Residence of H. Spencer Luct, Esq. 



Amidst the host of old domains which England boasts, there 

 are few which by their associations direct themselves more to 

 an Englishman's heart than tbat of Charlcote, associated as 

 it is so closely with the rise of one of the greatest poets the 

 world has known, one of the keenest and most accurate of 

 observers of nature animate and inanimate, one who was as 

 far before his time in natural science as be was before other 

 men as a poet. But it is not of Shakspere that we have to 

 write but of Charlcote, which, if history be true, was the 

 scene of doings which led to his departure from Warwickshire 

 and entering on a career which led to fame. There are many 

 things in man's life which, viewed at the time and judged by 

 our limited knowledge, seem misfortunes, but which looked at 

 in the retrospect are clearly seen to be the reverse ; and so 

 with Shakspere. Events probably drove him from bad com- 

 panions, made him adopt a fresh, more energetic cnur.sft of 

 life, and gave a spur to that intellect of which the utterances 

 are admired and repeated by all ranks from youth to age. 



The little village of Charlcote is about six miles from 

 Warwick, whence there is a broad and remarkably well-kept 

 road, with numerous seats at the sides ; along this wo travel 

 for five miles or so, then there is a branch road to the right 

 which leads to the village, and beyond this arc the park 

 gates. 



In Domesday Book the parish is called Cerlecote (Anglo- 

 Saxon for Husbandman's Cot), and the earliest lord of its 

 manor known tons is William, son of Walter de Cherlcote, 

 who about the end of the twelfth century assumed the name of 

 Lucy. From him was descended tho Sir Thomas Lucy, the 

 generallj' believed prosecutor of Shakspere, knighted by Queen 

 Klizabeth in the eleventh year of her reign, and whom the 

 poet satirised as Justica Shallow. The family then had assigned 

 to them by the Heralds three luces (or fish known now as the 

 pike) ; so this points the jest which is uttered by Slender that 

 some other member of tho family may have " the dozen white 

 luces in their coat" when ancient. Sir Thomas Lucy rebuilt 

 Charlcote House about the year IS.'iit, and as then constructed 

 the mansion remains. His body and that of Lady Lucy were 

 deposited in Charlcote church; and on their tomb no record 

 of him is inscribed, but a feeling and graceful tribute to her 

 memorv' is upon it, testifying by its concludmg couplet that 

 he was its author. 



" Set down by him that best did t-now 

 \\ hat hath been written to bo true." 



That wife was Jocasta, familiarised as Joyce, heiress of the 



