FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



and appliances could help them, and brought with 

 them many problems in manipulation which had 

 previously baffled them, in the hope of the Society's 

 experts finding a solution of them. 



The Society's Council were not content with 

 such information regarding cider-making as was 

 obtainable in this country, and were desirous of 

 ascertaining in what respects the methods adopted 

 abroad, in connection with the cultivation of cider 

 fruit and the manufacture of the beverage, differed 

 from those pursued in our own country. Nowhere 

 is cider-making pursued with more thoroughness 

 and enterprise or with a keener appreciation of the 

 importance of the industry than in Normandy and 

 Brittany. So, as the Pomological Society of 

 France, one of the most important representative 

 associations of its kind, was holding its Annual 

 Exhibition and Conference in 1895 at St. Brieuc, 

 I communicated, by direction of the Bath and 

 West Council, with the French Society, expressing 

 the desire of the Council to be represented at its 

 meetings. There was a very cordial response to 

 this conveying a full assurance that any repre- 

 sentatives the Council might send would be 

 heartily welcomed, and I may add that this 

 promise was more than fulfilled. Accordingly, 

 Mr. Neville Grenville, the late Mr. F. G. Farwell 

 (the Society's cider steward), Mr. F. J. Lloyd, 

 and myself were deputed by the Council to attend 

 the exhibition and meetings, which were held on 

 October 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, with a view to 

 picking up all the information we could. Aboard 

 the boat which took us across were the late Mr. 

 Radcliffe Cooke, M.P., the Founder and President 



156 



