458 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
windows, tickets announced that comfortable accommodation might 
be had within by strangers. The hotels were all prepared to be 
besieged by an overpowering force of visitors, and no garrison 
threatened by a strict blockade ever laid in provisions of all kinds 
with greater care. At the railway terminus immense quantities 
of stock arrived by every train, and these, as they passed along the 
road to the show-yard, became objects of great attention. The 
larger animals made out the distance on foot, while the pigs and 
sheep were conveyed comfortably in vans, the exertion of a mile’s 
walk being quite out of the question with them. In the selection of 
the spot where their exhibition took place the Society have this year 
been less guided by an eye to the picturesque than to the convenient ; 
and the preference they have thus shewn is, no doubt, a wise one, 
though the general public might wish, while gratifying their 
curiosity in matters agricultural, to have it combined in some 
degree with scenic effect, as has generally been the case at previous 
meetings. The show-yard lay south east from the city about a 
mile, in a field belonging to Mr. Turner, of Barton, and enclosed 
on nearly every side by hedge-row elms, the ornament of Devon- 
shire landscapes, although an obstacle to its agriculture. 
The meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Exeter, as 
a whole, may well be regarded as the most satisfactor} 7 of any 
hitherto recorded in the annals of the Society. The cordial and 
enthusiastic reception given to the members and visitors by the in- 
habitants of this ancient city, and the Devonians generally, is such 
as cannot fail to make a lasting impression on all who were so 
fortunate as to experience it. Having attended every country 
meeting since the establishment of the society, we can state with 
confidence that the Exeter meeting is without a parallel. Tri- 
umphal arches, constructed with laurel and oak branches, sur- 
mounted with crowns and transparencies — the latter containing 
inscriptions expressive of loyalty to the Sovereign, welcome to the 
society, and hearty aspirations for the prosperity of agriculture, 
met the eye in every direction ; while union-jacks, and innu- 
merable flags and banners with appropriate devices, were sus- 
pended across the streets, or projected from the windows in such 
numbers as to hide the greater part of the houses from view. The 
appearance of the whole carried the mind back to those periods in 
ancient history when the people of Greece or Rome honoured with 
a triumphal entry into the metropolis some citizen who, by noble 
deeds of arms, had successfully vindicated the honour of his coun- 
try, or rescued her from some foreign aggressor. How much more 
gratifying to witness such a demonstration of feeling at the advent 
of a society, the object of which is to promote that peaceful art so 
essential to man’s existence, and which, from its very nature, is 
