248 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



prominence, namely : a New Garden and a New Hall ; and it was soon 

 generally agreed that the celebration of the Centenary should take one or 

 other of these forms. After long and anxious debate it was at length 

 determined to adopt the scheme for a New Hall. "While, however, the 



Fig. 53. — The Victoria Medal of Honour in Horticulture, 1897. 



Council was busily engaged in raising funds and in searching for a suit- 

 able site on which to build, the unexpected happened : Sir Thomas 

 Hanbury, K.C.V.O.,. V.M.H., offered to purchase the late Mr. G. F. 

 Wilson's celebrated Wisley garden and estate, and give it in trust for the 



Pig. 54. Wxbley when Mb. Wilson first bought it. 



perpetual use of the Society : and so it came to pass that the Centennial 

 year of the Society found it possessed of both a New Garden and a New 

 1 lull and ottices. 



The need of a new Garden had been felt for a long time, and felt by 

 none so much as by the officers of the Society. For years past Chiswick 



