October 5, 1S71. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



255 



I can show a letter from one of our most eminent horticul- 

 turists, who is at the head of a ducal establishment, in which 

 he states that he had shown my little glass houses to one of 

 our princes; and I can also show a letter ordering a large 

 quantity of protectors to be sent to His Eoyal Highness after 

 seeing their value. 



In the spring of last year I had the honour of sending toEnville, 

 the residence of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, more than 

 500 feet of the protectors. They were used with great success all 

 through the spring of 1870, and they answered so well that on 

 the 28 ih of May I received a letter from Mr. Edward Bennett, 

 the well-known gardener at Eaville, who states that his lord- 

 ship was so much pleased with the protectors that he wished 

 to have 500 feet more. Mr. Bennett thoroughly worked them 



all through last winter, and had his Peas three weeks earlier 

 than usual, and on the 23rd of August last he wrote tosme, 

 saying — "The more I see and have to do with your protec- 

 tors the more I am convinced of their utility, and I strongly 

 recommend them to everyone." Mr. D. T. Fish only last 

 week wrote to me end said, that he had the protectors now in 

 full swing for Lettuces, &c., and that they had proved most 

 successful. 



I could give dozens of similar examples of complete success. 



" An kevoik" says " The protectors are liable to be blown 

 down by the wind." This is from mismanagement and care- 

 lessness. The examples exhibited by me at the International 

 Exhibition have been there since the 1st of May, and I do not 

 think a brick has been displaced or a pane of glass broken. In 



the spring I saw several hundred feet at work at Belvoir Castle, 

 and although they have been at work all through the winter, I 

 did not see a single buck cut oi place. " An eevoie " refers 

 to his wife ; perhaps he has some children also, who have been 

 " playing at houses," and other tricks, whilst he has been 

 hard at work in the city. 



Again, "An eevoir" says that the plants are liable to 

 draw. Wrong again ; mismanagement again. If the plants 

 draw he does not give sufficient ventilation. He can open the 

 bricks at pleasure, and leave large or small pigeon-holes as he 

 likes. Both complaints are absurd and frivolous ; but there are 

 some people in the world who will find fault and grumble if 

 they do not exactly understand what they are about. 



I have never despised or found fault with the dear old wooden 



ground vinery ; indeed, in some things I think it is most 

 useful. There is quite room enough for all. My protectors 

 will, I am sure, introduce a new system of gardening, and yon 

 will see that some of our foremost men are already finding it 

 out. They are intended for large establishments for protecting 

 our early and valuable vegetables from the cold and frost of 

 winter and spring, and are not, perhaps, so useful in small sub- 

 urban flower gardens such as that belonging to " An kevoib." 

 If your correspondent wishes to make a choice present to his 

 wife, let me recommend him to have one of the Eev. H. 

 Brebaut's " lawn conservatories," of which the accompanying 

 is a representation. She will be able to lift it from one part 

 of the garden to the other with ease. — W. Edgcumee Eendle, 

 3, Westminster Chambers, S.tV, 



THE FIRST CHIPPENHAM FLOWER SHOW. 



I HAVE often wondered, during my fifteen-years residence 

 near Chippenham, that the town had no flower show, or, as 

 those " high fallutin " writing gentlemen, the reporters of 

 county papers, prefer to call it — "a floral fete." Trowbridge, 

 by no means an inviting-looking town, with its blue-dyed filthy 

 river, obnoxious to eye and nose, has long had its flourishing 

 show, to which Chippenham people go by hundreds every year. 

 Then, out-of-the-way Malmesbury (all towns are necessarily 

 out of the way that are ten miles from a railway station — a 

 great pity this in regard to Malmesbury, with its beautiful 

 abbey ruins and market cross), yes, even out- of- the-woy Malmes- 

 bury has also its prosperous show, and on its show-day this 

 year lines of carriages made my village lane gay, almost noisy ; 

 while Chippenham, easy of access on all sides, with railways 

 to London, Bath, Salisbury, Devizes, and Calne, with these 

 lines branching out into others, is the very place for a flower 

 show, to say nothing of a cluster of parks all round, where 

 there must be gardens and gardeners. Then the place — 

 " though I say it, who, perhaps, hadn't ought "—is very attrac- 

 tive in appearance, is it not ? Let Charles Kingsley answer 

 this question. In his " Madame How and Lady Why," in the 

 chapter entitled " Homeward Bound," he says, " Now we shall 



run downhill for many a mile, down the back of the oolites, 

 past pretty Chippenham, and Wootton Bassett, towards Swin- 

 don spire." 



Bat, in spite of all these advantages, " pretty Chippenham " 

 remained without a flower show, although it sends hosts of 

 young people especially, generally in pairs (curious circum- 

 stance that !), to the Bath shows. It is, however, said that 

 once in older days there was a flower show held at Chippen- 

 ham ; at least, when a couple of old inhabitants get together 

 they are given to talk of the show in old Squire Neeld's time. 

 Bat it was held — oh, the horrors ! — in the Town Hall, and the 

 ladies' skirts, although it was long before crinoline days, 

 knocked over the flower-pots and damaged the flowers, and ex- 

 hibitors said "they'd never send their plants any more." 

 Then the hall was so hofthat the stout perspired, and the fat 

 were fagged out, and the thin fainted ; and so it came to pass 

 that a flower show at Chippenham became a memory — an un- 

 pleasant memory, and nothing more. 



Thus it remained until late last June, when, asked by a few 

 residents, the Mayor convened a meeting to establish a Horti- 

 cultural and Cottage Garden Improvement Society. This 

 meeting was very thinly attended ; almost everybody had, it 



