CENTENAEY OF THE SOCIETY. 



229 



all the plants and the fruit trees, of which a very large collection had 

 been made, were transferred to Chiswick, which continued to be the site of 

 the Gardens till the present Centennial year 1904. Chiswick quickly rose 

 in popular favour, and Garden Fetes, on a very extensive scale, were held 

 there from 1827 to 1857. 



The first President of the Society was the Earl of Dartmouth, 1804- 

 1810, and he was succeeded by Thomas Andrew Knight, 1811-1838, a 

 man whose name will always hold a very prominent place in the respect 

 of all British fruit-growers. (Fig. 36.) A medal was founded in his 

 honour in 1836. A medal had already been founded in memory of 

 Sir Joseph Banks at his death in 1820. (Figs. 39, 40.) 



Fig. 38. — Garden Fete at Chiswick : The great Iron Tent. 



In 1858, His Royal Highness the Prince Consort (who, with Her 

 Majesty Queen Victoria, had always taken the greatest interest in the 

 Society) consented to become President, and threw himself heartily into 

 the work, and by his influence a new Charter was in 1860 obtained from 

 Her Majesty, which, amongst other things, altered the style and title of the 

 Society to the Royal Horticultural Society. It was through the Prince 

 Consort also that a lease of the Gardens at South Kensington was 

 obtained from the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition, on the site of 

 what is now the Imperial Institute and the Royal College of Music. 

 These new Gardens were opened with great eclat in J une 1 860, and great 



