Jn-v. IQi; 



KNOWLEDGE. 



283 



Humphreys, who is now the head of the liouse of 

 Hatchard. told the story of the firm in an excellent 

 little book entitled " Piccadilly Bookmen." Both in 

 180J and 1804 John Hatchard was husilv occupied 



Figure 317. 

 The Knightian Medal of the Roy.il Hortieiiltural Society. 



in producing those broad-sheets which did so much 

 to stimulate the popular hatred of " Little Boney " 

 and the national 

 resolve to resist 

 his aggression 

 to the death. 

 The parlour at 

 " Hatchard"s " 

 was now a place 

 of rendezvous for 

 ardent patriots 

 and politicians 

 as well as for the 

 bishops and 

 clergy of the 

 Low Church 

 Part\'. who had 

 latelv seceded 

 from Rivington's 

 house, at the sign 

 of the Bible and 



the Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard. Scott, Crabbe and 

 Sydney Smith were all habitues at ■" Hatchard's " 

 and the latter, in 1810, commenced an article on 

 "Public Schools" in The Edinbitriili Revieiv by 

 observing that : — " There is a set of w ell-dressed 

 prosperous gentlemen who assemble daily at Mr. 

 Hatchard's shop, clean, civil personages well in with 

 the people in power, delighted with every existing 

 institution, and almost with every existing circum- 

 stance : and every now and then one of these 

 personages writes a little book, and the rest praise 

 that little book, expecting to be praised in their turn 

 for their own little books, and of these little books 

 thus written by these clean, civil personages, so 

 expecting to be praised, the pamphlet before us 

 appears to be one."' 



In the very next sentence Mr. Humphreys solves 

 the historical doubt for .which Mr. George Smith 

 and Sir Trevor Lawrence are jointly responsible, for 

 he says: — "While speaking of the place in the early 



Figure 31S. 

 The Flora Medal of the Roval Horticultural Society 



da\s as a rendezvous, it may be appropriate to 

 mention the faj::t that ' The Royal Horticultural 

 Society " received its first definite foundation on 

 the 7th March, 1804, at a meeting held here. 

 .\mong those who thus met and inaugurated 

 that flourishing Society were John Wnd^xamd, 

 Aiidrcic Kni}<ht, the Earl of Dartmouth, and 

 Ciiarles (ireville. It is a matter of tradition, 

 amounting almost to a certainty, that a room 

 now used for despatching orders was once a 

 pri\ate parlour set aside for such gatherings 

 as met when the Horticultural Society was 

 first started." 



It is a curious coincidence that in 1804 

 the Empress Josephine (as keen a lover of 

 garden-craft as Lady Banks) was arranging for 

 the importation of seeds and rare plants from 

 the country her husband was threatening to 

 invade and annihilate. It may also be noted 

 that the next social movement to be set going 

 at Hatchard's was the " Oretinian Society," 

 which was in realit\' tht; primitive inception of 

 a matrimonial agencv. 



Fouroftheearly 

 medals of the 

 Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society are 

 now reproduced. 

 The medal 

 presented to Sir 

 Christopher 

 Hawkins, Bart., 

 on 5th March, 

 1816 (see Fig- 

 ures 320 and 

 321), and the Sir 

 Joseph Banks 

 (see Figure 319), 

 belong to that 

 year, although 

 the reverse of 

 the former bears 

 the date of the foundation of the Society, viz., 1804, 

 with the words Alieiiis mensihus aestas. The 

 Thomas Andrew Knight medal (see Figure 317) 

 and the later Royal Horticultural Society's Flora 

 medal, designed by Wyon (see Figure 318), are 

 dated 1836. Other associations connected ^\ith 



Figure 31u. 

 The Banksian Medal of the Royal 



Horticultural Society. 



