HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



and their advisers, and all offers were fairly and impartially 

 considered by tlieir own Fine Arts Committee, still its having 

 been rejected by the Commissioners did not by any means 

 increase the chance of any work being accepted for the Garden. 

 In point of fact there was no instance where an object rejected 

 by the Commissioners on the score of quality found its way into 

 the Garden. It was not so with those which were rejected for 

 want of space : of these some were rejected, but more accepted ; 

 the most prominent of which were two French fountains ; both 

 of the same material — iron, painted bronze ; new in design 

 and construction, having been prepared expressly for competi- 

 tion at the International Exhibition, and, although not quite 

 of the same dimensions, sufficiently near in size and character 

 to allow of their being jjlaced in juxtaposition to each other, 

 one on each side of the central walk between the two lower 

 terraces, without destroying the symmetry of the Garden. 



The circumstance of two large fountains having been offered 

 for exhibition in the Garden tempted the Council into accepting 

 both, and so almost necessitated their being thus treated as a 

 pair. Had only one been offered or only one accepted, it would 

 have been placed in the central plot of the ground called the 

 Ante-Garden, — a spot which had been laid down for a large 

 fountain in the original plan. Where they were actually placed, 

 two small basins had been projected ; but the place for the 

 fountain was in the centre of the Ante-Garden. 



When these were first offered to the Council for exhibition in 

 the Garden, the offer was accompanied with a condition that 

 the Society should be at the expense of erecting and working 

 them. On inquiry, it was found, in the first place, that a sum of 



