1132 STATISTICS OF GARDENING. Part IV. 



7702. The oldest gardeners' lodges seem to be those in Aberdeenshire, and Adam's lodge, 

 held in the city of Aberdeen, is considered the oldest in Britain : there is another of 

 nearly equal antiquity, called Solomons lodge, held in Banf. These lodges profess to 

 be for the mutual instruction of the members in their art ; for the assistance of brethren 

 in distress; and for the benefit of travelling members. The first object is attained both 

 by secret instructions, and also by competitory exhibitions of garden productions, as 

 flowers and fruits ; the second, by annual subscriptions, from which a fund is formed, 

 managed by a committee of the .society ; and the third, by signs and pass- words, as in 

 masonry. They have a general meeting, formal procession with symbols and flowers, 

 and afterwards a feast, once a-year. There were formerly a number of gardeners' lodges 

 in Scotland, and there are still a' few besides those of Aberdeen and Banf, but chiefly 

 confined to the counties of Aberdeen, Forfar, and part of those adjoining. 



7703. The principal Scotch gardeners' lodge, though it has no connection or control 

 over the others like the metropolitan masons' lodge, is the Caledonian lodge of Edin- 

 burgh, founded about the end of the last century : its object is the same as that of the 

 Aberdeen lodge ; but it has no shows of flowers, or other garden productions. Their 

 meetings are respectable, their processions pompous, and their funds considerable. 



7704. There are very few gardeners' lodges in England j the only one of which we have 

 been able to obtain any distinct account is" Adam's Lodge, of London," founded 

 June 4, 1781, of which the rules and orders have been published. This lodge is de- 

 scribed in the Rules, &c. as a " Fraternity or community for improving the art of 

 Gardening ; to establish a fund for the mutual support and relief of each other in the 

 time of sickness, lameness, or distress ; and also to ascertain the characters and abilities 

 of such gardeners who shall belong to, or may be recommended by this society, to 

 obviate the difficulty so commonly complained of by the nobility, gentry, and others, of 

 obtaining skilful and experienced persons to undertake the employment." At present it 

 consists of about one hundred and fifty members, and is on the decline. The allowance 

 to the sick or disabled has been gradually diminished from insufficiency of funds ; and 

 from having been originally fixed by a random guess, instead of estimations of the value 

 of lives, &c. as ought to be done in all benefit societies. 



7705. Gardeners' charter. About the middle of the last century, Lee, Gordon, Rus- 

 sel, and Malcolm, all Scotch gardeners, commenced their nurseries at Hammersmith, 

 Mile-end, Lewisham, and Kennington. Their success excited the jealousy of the esta- 

 blished commercial gardeners, who, between 1760 and 1770, held several meetings, and 

 entered into resolutions not to employ young men from the north. These resolutions 

 were not long adhered to ; but a tract, entitled Adam armed (see p. 1106. A.D. 1760.), 

 published by this association at the time, shows the extent of what they intended. From 

 this tract it appears, that James I. had granted a charter to certain persons inhabiting within 

 London, and six miles of it, who were capable to educate and instruct young men in the art of 

 gardening. This charter was granted in the third year of this king's reign, and renewed in 

 the fourteenth ; but in the tract alluded to it is stated never to have been put in force, and 

 not to be sufficiently extensive; and therefore it is proposed, that a charter be granted to 

 extend over the whole kingdom, to prevent mere laborers and other unqualified person* 

 from assuming the profession of gardeners, and thereby doing " great injury to the nobi- 

 lity's and gentry's gardens and plantations," as well as to proprietors who let ground to 

 such as "undertake to furnish the market with eatables." Only a certain number of 

 gardeners were to be licensed to take apprentices, and of these the number was to be 

 limited, &c. This attempt at monopoly of skill does not appear to hav^ met with serious 

 attention, and all that resulted from the association, as far as we have been able to learn 

 (from a gardener, Duncan, upwards of 90 years of age), was the partial exclusion, for a 

 year or two, of young Scotchmen from a few of the nurseries and gentlemen's gardens 

 near town, which were managed by Englishmen. 



7706. The origin of florists' societies we have not been able to discover. It is more than 

 probable that meetings for the display of fine flowers and the estimation of their merits, 

 were first held at Norwich, where, as Sir J. E. Smith informs us (Supp. Encyc. Brit. art. 

 Hot. 336.), a love of flowers, and a great degree of skill in their culture, had been intro- 

 duced into that city with its worsted manufactures, about the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. At all events, there were florists' feasts held there so early as 1637 ; a play called 

 lihodon and Iris, being extant, which was acted before the company in that year. 

 (Linn. Trans, vol. ii. p. 226.) The next florists' meetings, it is probable, sprang up 

 about London ; and Nathaniel Rench, of Fulham, is said (Faulconers Historical Account 

 of Fulham) to have been the first who established them, probably about the end of the 

 seventeenth century. According to Davey, florist, King's Road, whose father was also an 

 eminent florist, and lived to be upwards of ninety years of age, the florists' feasts and 

 meetings were at their greatest height about London* between 1 740 and 1 770. They were 

 then attended by many noblemen and gentlemen, as the horticultural societies are at pre- 

 sent. They declined towards the end of the last century, but have since revived, and are 



