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HIS MAJESTY'S reply was as follows: 



In the name of the Queen and Myself I thank you for 

 your loyal and dutiful Address* 



I am very glad that you have at length obtained a suitable 

 Hall for your beautiful and interesting Shows, and adequate 

 accommodation for your Library, and for the performance of 

 the official work of the Society ; and it is with great pleasure 

 that the Queen and I are here to-day to declare these new 

 buildings to be open. 



We are pleased, also, to be able to congratulate the Society 

 upon their having acquired the Garden to which you allude, 

 and for which you are indebted to the goodness of Sir Thomas 

 Hanbury. 



The love of horticulture has increased immensely in this 

 country within the last century, owing in part, no doubt, 

 to the greatly extended facilities enjoyed by our people for 

 visiting rural places ; and no science deserves more encourage- 

 ment than that which tends to promote the study of the art 

 of gardening, and to stimulate a taste so wholesome and 

 elevating as the love of trees and of flowers. 



Our visits to your exhibitions have always given us great 

 satisfaction; and I remember, and am touched by your 

 allusion to, the interest which my dear Father took in your 

 Society. 



The Queen and Myself wish that every success may 

 attend the opening of this new Hall and its adjoining 

 premises ; and trust that the Centenary which we are 

 celebrating to-day may prove to be the occasion of an 

 accession of prosperity to the Royal Horticultural Society. 



