BRIEF REMARKS. 



f79 



might naturally occur to myself is, what business have I to be in the 

 chair on such an occasion, and to have thus the privilege of addressing 

 you ? for it is scarcely necessary that I siiould observe that I do not 

 myself exercise the very honourable profession of a gardener, and fur- 

 thermore I am sorry to say I am not fitted to hold the place amongst 

 you I am now occupying, by any icnowledge or proficiency I have ac- 

 quired in your deligiitful science. (" Hear, hear," and a laugh.) But 

 there seems to me to be tliis peculiarity in the business or profession of a 

 gardener, that while it admits of tlie liighest possible degree of progress 

 and perfection, it also, in its most humble grades, and in artificial 

 methods, opens up sources of Iiealihful, innocent, and pleasurable em- 

 ployment. (Cheers.) The art of the gardener, dealing as it does with 

 perhaps the most exquisite of all the raw materials which Kature sup- 

 plies — the flowers of tiie earth ; the art of the gardener seems to me to 

 combine the healthy exercise and sturdy out-door life of tlie agricultural 

 labourer, with the more intellectual and studious employment of fur- 

 nishing models for the most ingenious imitations of the milliner, the 

 most delicate enamellings of the jeweller, the riciiest colourings of the 

 painter, the brigiitest day dreams of the poet — (hear, hear) — and there 

 is hardly a spot of earth so rugged, scarcely a tribe of man so rude, 

 that tlie art of the gardener will not be found to produce something 

 like loveliness to the scene, and some idea of beauty to lift up the mind 

 to the supreme foimtain of light and beauty, and the Giver of all good- 

 ness (cheers) ; and the pursuit of gardening, gentlemen, seems to me 

 not only to enhance, but also to make compensation for the beauties of 

 nature — for the charms of scene, and the loveliness of landscape, are 

 necessarily confined to limited portions of the globe's surface. The full 

 enjoyment of these can be but the privilege of the few, and it is only 

 some amongst us who can visit, and comparatively very few can enjoy 

 permanently, such scenes as the valley of Caslimere, the Bay of Naples, 

 the shores of Genoa, or even our own Windermere, Locii Lomond, or 

 the lakes of Killarney, present to us. (Cheers.) But we must remem- 

 ber that there is hardly any spot of ground so built on but the monotony 

 of the scene may be diversified by the gay parterre — scarcely a cottage 

 so small that it may not have tiie Woodbine twining round its porcii ; 

 nay, more, there is iiardly a lodging or dwelling in the most squalid 

 alley of this metropolis, but it may iiave its Geranium in the window- 

 sill — (hear, hear) — and I have heard, and I believe the statement is 

 true, that the poor weavers of Betiinal-green take especial pride in 

 rearing tiieir Geraniums, their Hyacinths, and their Tulips. (Cheers.) 

 It would tiius appear that there is a sort of spell or charm about 

 flowers, something like magnetism or mesmerism, which, independently 

 of fasliion, or tiie pleasures of sight and smell, tends to soothe the 

 spirits and compose the mind. (Hear, hear.) I need not seek, gen- 

 tlemen, to coroborate the respectability or honour of your craft, by 

 alluding to its antiquity ; but you will not forget tiiat tiie first spot on 

 ^vhich man was jilacod on earth was a garden, and it is fair to presinne 

 that tlie first avocation of man must have been tiiat of a gardener — 

 (cheers) — and the shrubs must have been green, and the flowers must 

 have looked bright among tlie glades of Eden before sickness, pain, 

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