468 Horticultural Society and Gardeti. 



deserves the serious attention of tlie Fellows of the Society, from the 

 Sunday Times. 



The Price of the Tickets. " The means by which the cost of the tickets 

 for this show has been doubled, seem to us very unworthy of a respectable 

 Society. Unintentionally, no doubt, looking at the character of the ma- 

 nagers, the vouchers for tickets to members were so inexplicit and so loosely 

 worded, that many, with these in their possession, were not aware the limit 

 of time applied not to their sending in their requests, but to the future ex- 

 change of one sort of cards for another. To their surprise, when they came 

 to understand this, they found, that for the pleasure of having kept half a 

 dozen tickets (called orders for delivery of the other tickets of admission) 

 in their pocket a few days, they were charged tivo guineas instead of owe/.' 

 Such an imposition on the members for such a mistake, arising out of the 

 Committee's own want of plain-dealing, must, we fear, excite feelings very 

 injurious to the institution, both with regard to its fetes and to its general 

 interests." {Literary Gazette, June 27.) 



The Fete. " Horticultural fetes do not suit our English gardens and 

 climate, and nothing could be more incongenial than the experiment of 

 Saturday. Rain throughout, plashy grass meadows, gravel and mud walks, 

 above ankle-deep, tents dripping, and too few to shelter the company from 

 the pitiless weather; a rather inferior order of visiters, but these exceed- 

 ingly well wet J a scramble for provisions (though there was plenty); a fight 

 for carriages, and a general experience of utter discomfort, promising 

 diseases and death to many of the fair sufferers, were the 2J^^asures of this 

 unfortunate day. We presume the failure will preclude such attempts in 

 future, and that the space within four walls will be preferred to such ab- 

 surd speculations, which, however productive they may be made to the 

 Society (by such means as we referred to in our last), ought not to be per- 

 severed in at the public expense, and when found to be so prejudicial to 

 the health and safety of its best friends." {Literary Gazette, July 4.) 



The end of June has been hitherto fixed upon for the fete, in consequence 

 of the great variety of fruits, and especially of strawberries, ripe at that 

 season ; but during the last week of June and the first week of July, or 

 rather, we should say, during a period of thirty or forty days, sometimes 

 partly before, but for the most part chiefly after, midsummer, the weather 

 is rainy or uncertain. The first fortnight of June may be considered, as 

 more likely to prove dry, than perhaps any fortnight in the year, and it 

 might be well to have the fete during that period, forgoing the straw- 

 berries. The fete itself we should be sorry to see given up. 



Letter to the Editor of the Sunday Times. " I beg leave to sak a few 

 questions respecting the fete at Chiswick. I could wish to ask if a regular 

 account is kept of the receipts and expenditure in regard to the fete, and 

 furnished to the Fellows of the Society? It is to be hoped that the 

 Council, or Committee of Management, will furnish such a statement ; 

 and then the Fellows will know what is the actual profit, which must be 

 considerable.* The Fellows, or Members, who have been treated with so 



* The number of Fellows of the Society to whom tickets were sold was 

 381, at 1/. \s. each, making 400/. Is. ; tickets sold to non-members at \l. Is., 

 5365, producing 35331. 5s. ; ditto, at ll. 1 Is. 6d., 383, producing 603/. 4s. 6d: ; 

 ditto, at 2l. 2s., 509, producing 648/. Is. The total number of tickets sold 

 was 4438, producing 5185/. 8s. 6d. Of the tickets sold only 3644 were 

 presented at the gardens, owing, no doubt, to the unpropitious state of the 

 weather. The sum due to Mr. Gunter, who provided the repast, was stated 

 to be 3106/. 12s. Other expenses were estimated at 1524/. 19s. 4rf., in- 

 cluding 346/. for work done expressly for the f^te, leaving an estimated 

 balance on the transaction, in favour of the Society, of 123/. 17s. 2rf. {Times, 

 July 22. 1829.) 



