CONCERNING ROSE-SHOWS. 211 



We should never be weary of talking about our 

 favorites; and, you may depend upon it, we 

 should grow something. 



In all sobriety, I often wish that we, who, in 

 these locomotive days, frequently find ourselves in 

 our great cities, especially when our exhibitions 

 are open, might have better opportunities from 

 time to time of gratifying our gregarious inclina- 

 tions. Why, for example, should not the Horti- 

 cultural Club in London have a permanent building 

 like other clubs, of course on a scale proportioned 

 to its income, where we might write our letters, 

 read our newspapers, and (dare I mention it ?) 

 smoke our cigars, with every probability that we 

 should meet some genial friend ? Not only in 

 London, but in Edinburgh, in Dublin, in Paris, I 

 would have a horticultural club, where gardeners 

 (a title which every man is proud of, if he 

 feels that he has a right to claim it) might assem- 

 ble in a fraternal spirit, as brethren of that Grand 

 Lodge whose first master wore an apron of leaves, 

 and whose best members were never yet ashamed 

 if their own were of purple baize.* As time went 



* Since this was written, the " Horticultural Club" has been suc- 

 cessfully established — 3 and 4 Adelphi Terrace, London, May the 

 brethren, a6eA</)oi, long enjoy its commodious and comfortable ar- 

 rangements ! 



14 * 



