THE ORCHID WORLD. 
57 
KXHIBITIONT £XTR AOR.D INARY mflie KoKTf CLTLTl/RAL ROOM. . ei^uj^fc^i^ 
Caricature of one of (he f^oyal Horlicullural Society's early meetings hy George Cruikshank,, 1826. 
A FLOWER SHOW IN 1848. 
As we are all turning our thoughts to- 
wards the great International Exhi- 
bition of 19 1 2, the following account 
of a flower show held by the Royal Horticul- 
tural Society at Chiswick during the wet sea- 
son of 1 848 may interest many of our readers. 
It was written by Andrew Murray, at that 
time assistant secretary to the Society: — 
" The inconvenience and discomfort arising 
from wet weather to great assemblages of 
people, drawn together for enjoyment in the 
open air, can scarcely be exaggerated ; no 
amount of px'otection by way of tents can 
render them bearable ; and of these unhappy 
occasions when Jupiter Pluvius reigned 
supreme many a miserable anecdote might 
be related. On one of these occasions, 
before the practice of giving the so-called 
breakfast fetes had been abandoned, the day 
turned out unpropitious. Large numbers of 
tickets had been disposed of, which had cost 
not only two guineas a head, but also much 
expense of interest among the lady patron- 
esses who dispensed them. The tickets were 
thus too' valuable to be thrown away, and the 
majority of their holders braved the bad 
weather in the hope of its clearing up. 
"On the part of the Society nothing had 
been omitted to make the entertainment 
worthy of itself and the expected guests. 
9 
