Horticultural Society and Garden. 



247 



business has ever been brought under the dis- 

 cussion of the Garden Committee? 



A. No, certainly. 



Q. No business at all ? 



A. With one exception, as t have stated. 

 There was a certain routine gone through, the 

 minutes have been gone through, but nothing 

 ever was submitted for the approbation or dis- 

 cussion of the Committee. The thing was 

 all ready prepared, I believe, whatever it was. 



Q. Have the Garden Committee, since their 

 appointment, ever examined into the expendi- 

 ture? 



A. They have not. 



Q. Have they ever enquired as to the ma- 

 nagement or the expenditure of the garden ? 



A. No, they have not 



Q. Are you a member of the Council of the 

 Society ? 



A. No. There are no instructions for the 



duties of the Garden Committee laid down in 

 the book "that I have seen. If you look over 

 the by-laws of the Society, I believe you will 

 not find any instructions for the guidance of 

 the Garden Committee with respect to their 

 duties. 



Q. Then no account whatever of the duties 

 of the Garden Committee was ever submitted 

 to you ? 



A. No, never. 



Q. Then you do not conceive the Garden 

 Committee has a right to take credit to them- 

 selves for any good management of the garden, 

 or any discredit for very bad management ? 



A. Certainly not. 



Q, Did any discussion ever arise in your 

 presence among the different members of the 

 Garden Committee, as to the proceedings that 

 should take place ? 



A. No. 



The Plan of the Garden, and of the different Horticidtural Structures erected 

 in it. — Extracts from the evidence of Mr. Atkinson, the Architect. 



Q. Have you any complaint to offer to this 

 Committee? 



A. Yes. I consider that I have been treated 

 very unhandsomely, and very ungentlemanly 



by the Society. At the first commencement, 

 after the Society had taken the ground at 

 Turnham Green, I happened to be here one 

 day with Mr. Sabine, and he put some ques- 

 tions to me about what I would charge to make 

 a plan for him ? I told him I would consider of 

 it till the next day, and I would write to him, 

 and this is a copy of the letter which I wrote 

 (producing the letter). In consequence of this 

 1 went on, and made all the plans, and all the 

 designs, and every thing they wanted. I never 

 neglected them a single moment. But what 

 was very extraordinary, when the buildings 

 were to be erected, or there was any thing to 

 do, never, except in one instance, was I called 

 upon to attend the Committee or Council to 

 give my opinion. The plans were agreed to in 

 some way or other, and then Mr. Sabine, as he 

 constantly does, made some alteration of his 

 own, so that hardly a single plan was executed 

 correctly. 



Q. You mean that the Council took no su- 

 perintendence of the plans that were submitted 

 by you ? 



A. I doubt it very much. I should like to 

 know whether this letter was ever laid before 

 the Council or not. I rather doubt it. 



Q. When is the date of this letter ? 



A. The 5th February, 1822. As an instance 

 of the interference of the Secretary, he wanted 



General Management. — Extracts from the evidence of Henry Bellenden 



Ker, ~ 



a plan of the first pine-house that was built. 

 It was only upon a small scale, and I made out 

 a plan for the house, as I supposed it was or- 

 dered by the Council. When it came to be 

 executed Mr. Sabine insisted upon the tail of 

 the "house forming the walls of the back pit. 

 Now any person that knows any thing about 

 that at all, must know that the back pit would 

 be endangered by drying the bricks with the 

 flue, and if it got overheated it would set fire 

 to the back pit. 



Q. State what you suppose to be the result of 

 your plans not being attended to ? 



A. I wrote a strong letter to Mr. Sabine on 

 the subject, telling nim what would be the 

 consequence. Mr. Sabine still persisted that it 

 should be according to his plans and not mine, 

 till, at last, when the thing was going to be 

 done, Mr. Lindley went to him, and said, 

 " Now, Sir, is it to be done according to your 

 plan or Mr. Atkinson's?" He said, "Mine, 

 certainly." Mr. Lindley said, " You know 

 what the consequences may be ; will you be 

 answerable for the building if it should be 

 burnt down?" " No," said he, " I will not 

 be answerable for any thing." Then it was 

 built according to my plan. Afterwards there 

 were two other pine pits built, which I remon- 

 strated against as bad things, and very expen- 

 sive things, and it was proved so afterwards by 

 me, which they called Buck's Pit. There were 

 two, one called Buck's Pit, and the other 

 Scot's Pit. 



The expenditure on the gardener's house, 

 which I took considerable interest in, you will 

 find from Mr. Lindley's letters. The gar- 

 dener's house was taken at 84/. a year, for the 

 purpose of lodging Mr. Munro, the gardener, 

 and some one clerk. Mr. Sabine conceived the 

 house too large, and at too high a rent, and he 

 said he would pay 50/. of the rent. The taxes 

 are considerable : 34/. a year, I think, and the 

 rent 84/. ; and Mr. Sabine paid 501. a year of 

 the rent. There appears to have been an ex- 

 pensive housekeeper, and expensive repairs, 

 amounting to 41i I. or more, for putting up 

 water-closets, and making the house comfort- 

 able ; and there is the housekeeper's board- 

 wages, and coals and candles, and so on : so 

 that, allowing 10 per cent on the money laid 

 out on repairs, and allowing for Mr. Sabine's 

 advance of 50/. a year, it makes the expense of 

 lodging the gardener and clerk 230/. a year ; 

 and that I consider to be a grossly indecent 

 and almost fraudulent mode of applying the 

 funds of the Society. If the house is now 

 given up, it will have cost the Society, incfud- 



R 



Esq. 



ing repairs, more than 300/. a year. I have not 

 the slightest doubt about that. I consider this 

 sort of jobbing as to the houses, that is, getting 

 a good house for the Secretary, under pretence 

 of its being for the gardener, one of the great- 

 est grievances of an honorary secretary, and 

 which I consider to be a main feature in the 

 management of this Society. 



If there were a little more democracy intro- 

 duced, and the members had a little more 

 influence in the Society, instead of the oligar- 

 chy of the Council, I think it would be a great 

 improvement. 



Q. Do you say that the minutes of the Gar- 

 den Committee are kept secret ? 



A. Yes, they are kept secret ; so, as I before 

 said, are the minutes of the Council. I wish to 

 observe, that there is no library for the young 

 gardeners. According to my opinion there is 

 not a man in the garden, except, perhaps, Mr. 

 Munro, fit to teach them to prune a tree. No 

 onegivesthemjectures, and the result is, they 

 send out ignorant uneducated gardeners. 



