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glories of the period. There was Charles Duval, Brennus, 

 Blairii No. 2, Fulgens, Charles Lawson, and I think Madame 

 Laffay. I delighted in my sudden but very complete conversion. 

 Love at first sight —first-born heir of all — made this night thus, 

 and the next morning I wrote for " Rivers on the Rose." I 

 devoured, I digested every word of it. I marked under almost 

 every rose — like a young lady's letter, where all the adjectives 

 are scored under — and, as soon as it was possible, in the month 

 of November, came one of those delightful baskets that we 

 rosarians love as much as the school-boy does the hamper from 

 home. I delighted to cut the cords and unravel the matting. 

 The roses responded to my admiration and smiled upon me, and 

 never since the days of Paradise had there been such roses seen 

 in Nottinghamshire. Friends came to admire them, and I 

 planted more and more, until at last our garden was like the 

 Crystal Palace under a pyrotechnic influence- -it was all couleur 

 de rose. I was not satisfied with the admiration of friends ; the 

 public must gaze and wonder and see the first prize written 

 beneath. Still I was dissatisfied ; hunger and appetite came 

 with eating. I was indignant that the queen of flowers should 

 be treated more like a lady-in-waiting than as royalty itself. 

 It was put into a corner of the show, and judged very often by 

 men who hardly knew a rose from an artichoke ; and while other 

 flowers, the carnation, the chrysanthemum, and the dahlia, had 

 exhibitions all to themselves, there was no such thing as a rose 

 shown in its own unaided dignity and beauty. Year by year this 

 feeling grew upon me, and at last I made a public protest, and a 

 strong appeal, not only in the magazines, but by private letters, 

 that we might have a National Rose Show, until, more than 

 thirty years ago, a few of us — the fewer men, the greater share 

 of honour — met at Webb's Hotel in Piccadilly : Mr. Rivers, of 

 Sawbridgeworth ; Mr. William Paul, whom I am delighted to 

 meet to-day ; Mr. Charles Turner, of Slough ; and Mr. Francis, 

 of Hertford. Only two of us remain now of that little company. 

 But our heart was in our work, and it prospered. We collected 

 a sum of £200, and had our first great National Rose Show in 

 St. James's Hall, just then finished, and for which we paid thirty 

 guineas, on July 3, 1858. I had the happiness of giving away 

 thirty-six silver cups, as the saying is, with my own hands, 

 because I could not very well do it with anybody else's, and when 



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