AT SOUTH KENSINGTON, JUNE 5, 1861. 597 



Qitted to a private view. By one o'clock the interior 

 ompleted, and the gates were thrown 

 not however without having been pre- 

 i\hich broke over the Garden shortly 

 after the Queen's departure. 



At this time the appearance of the Garden was most interesting. 

 The open ground scarcely retained a trace of the deluge by 

 which it had been visited, a satisfactory proof of the permeability 

 of the gravel walks and their quickness in drying. The great 

 Conservatory glowed with the brilliant colours of Azaleas, 

 Orchids, Roses, and other distinguished members of the floral 

 nation, relieved by superb groups of Ferns — wonderfully beautiful 

 things— and all manner of parti-coloured or gracefully fashioned 

 exotics, among which were exquisite specimens of the goldsmith's 

 art in the form of vases, statuettes, and racing cups, contributed 

 by Messrs. Hancock. Beneath the long colonnades, in endless 

 profusion, extending many hundred feet on either side, were 

 ranged superb masses of Pelargoniums and innumerable groups 

 of other ornamental plants. Towards one end of the colonnade 

 that leads to the entrance, fruit, the admiration of the spectator 

 and the pride of the gardener, was piled in skilfully arranged 

 confusion — in which disorder there was none. On the other 

 side of the Garden, under the corresponding colonnade, stood an 

 extraordinary and very brilliant assemblage of flowers and fruit 

 prepared for table decoration. 



Soon after the company had begun to arrive, military bauds 



altliough gloomy, seemed to be settling, and fear of rain having 

 subsided the grounds rapidly filled. At four o'clock the main 

 doors of the entrance hall were closed to the public ; the gentle- 

 men intended to take part in the formal ceremony of opening the 

 Garden, collected in their groups ; their Eoyal Highnesses tlie 

 Pbtncess Maby and the Duke of Cambridge arrived; and 

 punctually at half-past four H.R.H. the Pbince Consort 

 with all the junior members of the Pioyal family, the Count of 

 Flandees. Pbince Louis of Hesse, and their respective suites, 

 entered the hall. Immediately afterwards a procession moved 

 into the Garden in the following order, along a line kept by 

 four companies of the ist Middlesex Volunteer Engineers, a 

 line well-disciplined body of men. 



