226 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. c September s. issi. 
somewhere in England. After two months’ search we found a field 
at Rusholme near Manchester, which we rented, and there we pitched 
our tent. We know that there is in this world a living for every¬ 
body who likes to go out to fetch it. I now became my own master, 
and this I liked very much, for I am somewhat afflicted with im¬ 
patience under restraint. In my nursery at Rusholme I built a 
dwelling-house and greenhouse, worked hard for thirteen years, and 
did very well. My place at Rusholme was sold for building pur¬ 
poses, and I went to Sale, built a dwelling-house and three large 
vineries, and grew Grapes for eight years. This year I sold the 
place to Messrs. Stansfield, retired to Bowdon, one of the finest towns 
in England, most beautiful for situation, and here we shall keep bees, 
sell honey, and enjoy life as much as we can by helping others. And 
now I have to beg the reader’s pardon for writing this long letter 
about myself. All I warned to do has been simply to write for the 
benefit of young gardeners some lessons I have learned in my time. 
These lessons can be given in a second letter.—A. Pettigrew. 
P.S.—I may add that while an apprentice at Carstairs and a jour¬ 
neyman at Wrotham Park I kept bees in the woods and plantations, 
and when I became head gardener to gentlemen I managed their 
hives, wrote papers and treatises on the subject of bee-keeping, and 
noticed all that was going on in the apiaries around me. With one 
or two breaks while acting in the capacity of head gardener, I have 
managed bees for fifty years.—A. P. 
NOTES ON CIRCUIT. 
I imagine that no Rose lover who had the pleasure of being 
present at the National Rose Society’s Sheffield Show is ever likely 
to forget it. They have probably seen larger displays of flowers, 
they can recall stands which perhaps surpassed any that they saw 
there, and they may easily have recollected shows where the 
flowers remained longer in perfection, for with the thermometer 
at 80° they had but little chance in a tent; but there was a fresh¬ 
ness and heartiness in all the arrangements which told upon 
everybody, and made them feel that the object of their affection 
was being honoured in a way that satisfied them of the pre-emi¬ 
nence accorded by universal consent to the queen of flowers. 
From the very first day that the idea was entertained the good 
people of Sheffield, to whom flower shows are a somewhat unusual 
sensation, entered into it con amove. The then Mayor (Mr. 
Alderman Tozer), Mr, Marshall the Secretary of the Botanical 
Gardens, Mr. Ewing the Curator, and last, not least, Mr. Charles 
Fisher of the firm of Fisher, Son, & Sibray, were the leading spirits 
of the enterprise, and the Committee of the Gardens readily 
entered into their plans. Everything was done ungrudgingly. 
A grand schedule was arranged, while what may well be called 
an additional one had been prepared by the townspeople. The 
cups, so liberally given, were no make-believes, but real, solid, 
substantial ones; and the prize for a seedling Rose offered by 
Messrs. Maples & Son, and which unfortunately was not won, 
comprised the most splendid set of garden tools I ever saw. By- 
the-by, this eminent firm have most liberally offered the same 
prize at the Bath Show of 1882. Two disappointments only can I 
deplore. One was that I failed in my attempt to see Ben Simonite’s 
garden. I attempted it on the evening of the Show, but he 
was not at home, and after a weary tramp I had to abandon it. 
Of course I have been there, but it is always a pleasure to talk 
with so enthusiastic a florist, who is at the same time so thoroughly 
honest and genuine, working under difficulties which would 
discourage most men, and succeeding where few could hope to 
succeed. 
It was a great comfort, after all the fatigues and anxiety of 
Sheffield, to be accosted on the morning of the Wirral (Birken¬ 
head) Show—“ I have had a message from the office to say you 
are not to trouble yourself about the Exhibition to-day, as I am 
here to report itfor it is not an easy matter, after one has been 
engaged as I was, to have to take notes and then write off a report 
of the Show. I had reached Rock Ferry the day before, and there 
with my good friend Canon Hole we had somewhat rested from 
our labours. We saw in our host’s (T. B. Hall, Esq., of Lamb- 
wood) garden the most abundant evidence of an enthusiasm in 
Rose culture which will account for the success he has already 
obtained—an augury, let us hope, of higher awards. He has built 
a house for Tea Roses which has succeeded admirably, and which 
has enabled him to show them in great beauty. His Hybrid 
Perpetuals were very vigorous in growth and gave fine blooms, 
although he had been hit hard by mildew. Roses abound, and I 
doubt not will soon overflow into the farm, where there is a grand 
piece of fine loamy soil, in which they would thrive. He encou¬ 
rages by his words and his success his neighbours to increase their 
growth of Roses. He can show what can be done in the wind¬ 
swept promontory of Birkenhead, and Rose houses are springing 
up around him. Canon Hole told him that it was all very well 
to say the new room he had just added to his house was a library. 
Nothing of thesort, he said ; it was simply a room in which he 
would set out his Roses the day before the Show. In fact, he said, 
all the arrangements of the place—cowsheds, piggery, poultry 
houses, &c., were only secondary. The grand point was how they 
could help forward his Rose culture. 
I have mentioned what I saw and heard with regard to the 
Nottingham in respect to the low ideas of honesty entertained by 
the artisans there. Let me give an instance of a contrary cha¬ 
racter. “I want,” said Mr. Hall, addressing Canon Hole and 
myself, “ to introduce you to one of our most successful florists 
and forthwith brought forward a steady-looking bricklayer, who 
in a few words told us his history. “ I was,” he said, “ one of 
the wickedest creatures on God’s earth, and now, thank God, I 
am happy and comfortable.” He had seen the folly of his ways. 
He took to gardening and a good wife. “ And now,” he said, 
“I should like to show you my little place.” “Well,'’ we said, “we 
must go up and see you. Is it far off ?” “ Oh, no !” he said ; 
“ but there, gentlemen, if you will come I’ll stand the cab for 
you.” This delightful, honest, and simple speech took us by 
storm ; and although we did not accept his offer made in the 
overflowing of his heart, we went next morning to see him. He 
lives at Higher Bebington, and there in a small garden he has 
achieved an honest independence. He is the best bricklayer in 
this country side. He bought a piece of ground, on which he says 
he discovered a gold mine—a bed of building sand. He is a 
nurseryman too in a small way. He and his son have built their 
greenhouses, where he grows Fuchsias, bedding plants, Pelargo¬ 
niums, See., and after the plants are out Cucumbers. “ They hardly 
pay,” I said, “ do they ?” “ Well, if I cuts sixty or seventy dozen 
a week and gets 3s. a dozen for them, why it do pay,” was the 
practical reply. Out of doors Pansies, Dahlias, and Roses were 
well grown ; and as to the latter, pointing to where the excavation 
had been made for the sand—“ There,” said he, “ is a nice spot, 
warm and sheltered, where I should like to put up a nice house 
for growing Roses, and shouldn’t I like to beat Mr. Hall ? but 
there, they wo’n’t let me do it because I sells.” He introduced us 
to his excellent hardworking wife, who quietly laughed at him 
and said, “Ah, John 1 there’ll be no speaking to you ; now that 
these gentlemen have come to see you the house wo’n’t hold you.” 
Whether it be the elevating influence of a garden, or that a man 
is what a woman makes him, or both combined, certainly the 
history of John Lee of Bebington is an illustration of what can be 
done, and may well encourage others to imitate his example. He 
was not a little proud when he took at the Wirral Show the second 
prize for a bouquet of Roses, in the construction of which I should 
imagine his excellent wife had a good share. 
That same Wirral Show has been so fully reported in the columns 
of the Journal of Horticulture that it may seem superfluous to 
say anything at this distance of time, but still there are some few 
things connected with it that I would like just to allude to. As 
a whole it was not equal to the grand Show of 1880. There was 
not the quantity of Roses which made that Show so memorable 
a one, nor was there such a grand box as that one of thirty-six 
which Mr. Jowitt exhibited then ; but this was easily accounted 
for. The intensely hot weather (would that we might have had 
some of it in August) had had such an effect on the Roses that 
the more distant growers—Messrs. Paul & Son, Mr. Cant, Mr. 
Hawtrey, and others—could not venture to come with theirs. A 
journey in such weather would have been disastrous. There was, 
however, a marked improvement amongst the local growers. Mr. 
Hall’s flowers, especially his Tea Roses, were much in advance 
of those he had previously shown, and I was particularly struck 
with the zeal and energy with which the subject of Roses and 
Rose culture was discussed ; and if only one-half of the projected 
plans is carried out we shall see a great impetus given to the 
Exhibition at Birkenhead. I would have given something to have 
seen the bloom of A. K. Williams exhibited by Mr. Jowitt when 
he cut it the day before ; and I can. well believe that, as he said, 
it was the grandest Rose he ever cut. It was fully 5 inches across, 
most perfect in shape and substance, and altogether a most won¬ 
derful flower. There was another in his stand—a bloom of Dr. 
Andry, which was certainly very remarkable, so much so that 
several Rose-growers questioned whether it could be of that va¬ 
riety. There was, however, no doubt about it, and this judgment 
was confirmed by a lady whom I cannot but think about one of 
the best judges of Roses I ever met—Miss Watson, the very able 
coadjutor of Mr. Prince ; but I do not think that anyone ever saw 
this fine old Rose shown in such form. Mr. Cranston’s new Rose 
Mrs. Jowitt wms shown by him in excellent form, and promises 
to be a very grand and useful Rose. It seems to be constant and 
of a very vigorous constitution. 
In one thing I was certainly disappointed—the attendance of 
the general public. The day was fine, the place of meeting con¬ 
venient, and one might naturally have expected a large concourse 
