XXX11 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



" In 1838 ploughing matches were introduced, and applauded by 

 the labourers ; it might have been supposed by the farmers too ; 

 but with characteristic obstructiveness they for many years con- 

 tinued to throw in the apple of discord, and rendered fair play im- 

 possible. Upon this Professor Henslow took higher grounds, and 



rescence, are as familiar to them as household words. They are engrafted on the 

 memory by their continual practical illustration. The spelling-book gives them 

 names equally hard and important, such as ple-ni-po-ten-ti-a-ry and ag-grand- 

 ize-ment, but as these things are unfamiliar and have no practical illustration 

 among them, they are forgotten almost as soon as learned. Of Wild Flowers, 

 a prize of Is. and four of 6d. are offered for the five best nosegays, not exceeding 

 18 inches by 12, prepared by children between eight and fourteen years of age ; 

 and a prize of Is. and two of 6d. for similar nosegays from children under eight 

 years of age ; and three prizes of 2s. 6d., 2s. and Is. 6d. are offered respectively 

 to the children of the parish school who shall answer best some questions about 

 the local wild flowers. There is, however, an important N.B. in the corner of 

 the prospectus. The children who compete for botanical honours must have 

 received a ticket for regularity of attendance at either Day or Sunday School. 



" The day approaches, and great are the preparations at the Rectory. On the 

 broad green lawn, skirted with lofty elm trees, — God's house in the distance, — 

 are being erected tents and booths, round-abouts and see-saws. The ladies, ever 

 forward in works of charity and kindly encouragement, are preparing all sorts 

 of embellishments — flags of divers patterns, not intended to brave the battle, 

 but only the breeze, and rosettes of economical pseudo-satin, pinked to perfec- 

 tion, to dignify the stewards ; and it is whispered that the servants are preparing 

 a surprise. All that is to be seen in the kitchen at present are the little bags 

 of Congou, milk, and sugar, in solution, brewing in a mash-tub ; and mountains 

 of good brown cake sufficient for a feast of ogres. The day arrives, and the 

 village botanists are sauntering up the long walk with the produce of their 

 rambles. Presently they are buzzing under a group of horse-chestnut trees, 

 making up their nosegays — eighteen inches by twelve — and anon they show 

 them in the exhibition booth, in the quaintest possible stands — from a ginger- 

 beer bottle to a cocked-hat Damon of the time of Watteau, with his arms 

 akimbo, looking as proud of his load as a Linnaean herbalist. Opposite to them are 

 arranged the fuchsias, geraniums, roses, pinks, stocks, pansies, annuals and per- 

 ennial-, i s and device nosegays, and at the end the rustics are peeping with 

 astonishment into a polyoramaand a stereoscope. On the opposite side of the green 

 is a tent devoted to general curiosities. Eggs of alligator, and eggs of ostrich, eggs 

 of humming-birds, and eggs of some other wonderful birds incubating lilliputian 

 COttagei in yolk of -lu lls and moss, casts of Echini in their flinty matrices and 

 Echini in chalk, vegetable ivory, from the nut to its process of turning into pin- 

 (mshioni ;md umbrella handles, Ammonites and nautili, bright enamelled shells 

 of all kinds, butterflies and scorpions, grasses and sedges, lace bark and choco- 

 late in the pod ; but it is beyond our memory to enumerate the specimens of 

 this in->f ruetive museum, all set out and stored away again in one day by the 

 busy Profe.-sor in his St. Albans hat of plaited straw. The company has arrived, 

 and probably eight hundred or more, some in fustian and coarse print, some in 

 surtout and gros de-naples, are assembled on the lawn, the carriage gentry 



