Country Meeting of 1894 : Invitation from St. Albans, xxv 
befitting a great occasion. Oiher 
arguments in their favour were the 
accessibility to all parts of the United 
Kingdom by three lines of railway, 
and the propinquity of St. Albans to 
London. A whole week not only of 
enjoyment, but of instruction and 
edification on agricultural matters, 
might be imparted both directly or 
indirectly to those connected with 
or interested in agriculture in the 
Metropolis. A new line would be 
opened out for the Eastern portion of 
the inhabitants of London who had 
not the opportunity of attending 
either the Kilburn or the Windsor 
Show during the last twenty-five 
years. They had had the honour 
of supplying for the Inspection Com- 
mittee five alternative sites, three of 
which were practically of permanent 
pasture. They possessed in Hertford- 
shire a gravelly, porous, and chalky 
soil, which would reduce the incon- 
venience and perhaps the irritability 
which would arise from humidity, 
even in the wettest of all possible 
seasons. The most eligible of the 
three sites could be prepared in the 
least possible time, with the greatest 
possible convenience, and the least 
possible expense. Hertfordshire had 
never had within its area the 
benefit of a visit from the parent 
Society of the agricultural societies 
of England ; and although he wished 
to say nothing with regard to their 
rival in the field, Cambridge had 
already had a visit from the Society. 
In proportion to the acreage, the 
number of members of the Society in 
Hertfordshire was larger than that in 
the county of Cambridge. It was for 
these reasons that the invitation was 
sent last June by the Hertfordshire 
Farmers’ Club, the Hertfordshire 
Agricultural Society, and later in the 
year by the Hertfordshire County 
Council ; and it was for these reasons 
that they renewed that invitation 
once more, with the firm and earnest 
hope that the Council would give to it 
their most favourable consideration. 
The Marquis of Salisbuky said he 
was in a position which was not 
unfamiliar to the members of that 
Society, of succeeding to an occupa- 
tion which had been entirely exhausted 
by the person who had gone before 
him — (laughter) — and therefore no 
great performance could be expected 
of him. There was very little to add 
to what his noble friend (Lord Claren- 
don) had stated, but he could not 
imitate his chivalrous action in not 
noticing the claims of their com- 
petitor. After all, it was the com- 
parison of the claims of St. Albans 
with the claims of their competitor 
which must decide the judgment of 
that assembly. In the first place, 
Cambridge was a good deal further 
off. With all their high education, 
they could not compete with St. 
Albans — not only because that by 
going to Cambridge they would shut 
out to a great extent the instruction 
which the Royal Agricultural Society 
should give to the large population 
in this Metropolis, but also because 
the Society would be deprived of a 
vast amount of payments which would 
be made by the inhabitants of that 
great city. Therefore, on purely 
financial grounds, he thought the 
neighbourhood of the Metropolis was 
something which should weigh with 
that Council. St. Albans could claim 
this: that it was an agricultural 
borough. The most important occu- 
pation of the town of Cambridge was 
not agriculture. It was something 
else — perhaps something nobler. It 
produced undergraduates. (Laughter .) 
But, as they well knew, they could 
not have competitions for a prize for 
undergraduates, in whatever state of 
development they might be. He now 
referred to a very painful matter, 
and this was that Cambridge would 
draw the main portion of its exhibitors 
from the Eastern Counties to a greater 
extent than they could ; and the 
Eastern Counties were not at this 
moment in such a position that they 
could undertake the burden of an 
exhibition. He was far from saying 
that the Royal Agricultural Society 
should not give them all the encou- 
ragement in its power; but it could 
not expect them to go to a great 
expense at a period when the most 
necessary outgoings were curtailed. 
He would press the claims of Hertford- 
shire upon the Council, and would 
remind them that Hertfordshire had 
never shared in the sunshine which 
the Royal Agricultural Society had 
so freely shed over the rest of the 
country. 
