November 20 , 1890. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
441 
DEATH OF MR. SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 
Death has been busy in the ranks of horticulturists during the 
present year, but the announcement we have to make with the 
deepest regret this week will come as a painful surprise to a large 
number of our readers. Few of those who assembled at the 
He appears to have been somewhat better the following day and on 
Saturday, but on Sunday morning he became rapidly worse and 
died in a few hours. 
Our old friend and fellow worker was born in the year 1825 in 
what was then the rural village of Stepney—the son of an old 
sailor. In early life he was intended for a bookseller, but he soon 
National Chrysanthemum Society’s banquet on Thursday evening 
last, and who listened to Mr. Shirley Hibberd’s eloquent speech, 
could have imagined that it was the last time his clear and ringing 
voice would be heard in public. It was, however, remarked that 
he seemed unwell, that he did not speak with his usual fluency, and 
that he left early in the evening ; beyond this no one thought there 
■was anything of a serious nature. It was said he had contracted a 
cold at the Chrysanthemum Conference held in one of the rooms at 
the Aquarium on Tuesday, but though feeling unwell he fulfilled 
his engagement at the banquet to the satisfaction of all present. 
embarked upon a literary career, and contributed short essays and 
pieces of poetry to some of the periodicals which appeared during 
the mental and political ferment which followed the revolutionary 
period of 1848, 1849, and 1850. They display something of the 
originality and intellectual vigour which characterised him in after 
life. At'the early age of twenty-five he became the editor of a 
weekly newspaper, and in this he published the essays he afterwards 
gave in the volume termed “ Brambles and Biyleaves.” In these 
rural subjects were illustrated from a sentimental rather than from 
a practical point of view. 
