THE BOOK OF THE EOYAL 



the drawing-room ; and the competition for these prizes excited 

 a great deal of interest. At the second Great Show, when Sir 

 Wentworth DiLke's prizes for dinner-table decoration were com- 

 peted for, there were forty-six Exhibitors, each showing three 

 vases or other vessels filled mth flowers and fruit (many of the 

 vessels being of magnificent plate, in themselves worthy of a 

 prize), and the public took so much interest in the competition 

 that it was difficult to get near the tables to see the articles 

 exhibited. 



The Great Shows in June and July gave large returns, but 

 the promenades in the month of June (although at the cheapest 

 price) were still rmproductive, and it was not rmtil after the 

 11th of July that a favourable change took place. That day, 

 however, presented a combination of circrmistances, of which the 

 Council successfully availed themselves to improve the position 

 of matters. 



The Commissioners of 1862 had applied to them for per- 

 mission to hold their great ceremonial, on the occasion of 

 announcing the awards of their Juries, in the Society's Garden 

 on the 11th of July. Tliis the Comicil readily granted. It does 

 not fall within the scope of this work to give an account of the 

 proceedings on that day. That properly belongs to the history 

 of the Exhibition. The Society's share in it was limited to the 

 loan of the Garden for the day to the Commissioners, under 

 reservation of the rights of their own Fellows. This stipulation 

 secured to them the right to be present at the whole of the 

 ceremonial, whether in the Exhibition or in the Garden ; the 

 two places were merged into one for the day. A magnificent 

 dais and throne of colossal altitude, covered with crimson velvet 



