260 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



The Royal Institution had a great and an immediate 

 success. It was fashionable. Crowds of people came, 

 and were delighted at the mixture of amusement and 

 instruction which was offered to them, " the female part 

 of the audience" especially. Sir Humphry Davy gave 

 a course of lectures at the Institution in iSoi. 1 His phe- 

 nomenal success as a chemist and physicist, and his 

 personal popularity, carried the Institution along with 

 him ; and, it may be said, the Institution gave Davy his 

 opportunity. Chemical research and electrical studies 

 now became matters of popular interest. And it looked 

 as if the Royal Institution supplied an indubitable want. 

 It was designated " the workshop of the Royal Society," 

 and, as Mr. Weld says (II, 234), it deserved the appella- 

 tion. 



The Royal Horticultural Society was the idea of 

 John Wedgwood, of Betley, in Staffordshire, a gentleman 

 devoted to horticulture and a good naturalist, a friend of 

 T. A. Knight. They were dissatisfied with the prevailing 

 habit of leaving all to the gardener, who generally pursued 

 the dull routine of his predecessor, without science and 

 with little intelligence. They felt sure of being able to 

 improve almost every esculent plant or fruit by the adop- 

 tion of system and foresight in garden operations. Wedg- 

 wood suggested a meeting for gentlemen holding similar 

 views, in order to start a Society for the study of Horti- 

 culture. Accordingly, there met at Mr. Hatchard's 

 shop, on March 7, 1804, Charles Greville, Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Messrs. Salisbury, Aiton, Forsyth, and Dickson, 

 with John Wedgwood. Thus was founded, with the as- 

 sistance of a number of gentlemen, the most distinguished 

 for their love of horticulture, a Society destined to 

 revolutionize the art of gardening, and to popularize it 

 among all classes of Society. 



1 Davy's first start in life was with Dr. Beddoes, at the Pneumatic 

 Institute near Bristol above mentioned. 



