August •», K88. i 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
119 
Show, and the same at South Kensington in 1887. For family table use, 
however, I prefer Green Windsor. Peas require more space to notice 
than you can spare, so I shall merely mention half a dozen my gardening 
friends give a preference to, in the order of succession—Lightning, 
Anticipation, Daniel O’Rourke, Stratagem, Telephone, and Pride of the 
Market, with Ne Plus Ultra as a substitute for any other. 
Garden Turnips.— I find I have exhausted the permitted space and 
without including many vegetables that most gardens require. I am 
among the majority in preferring golden or yellow-fleshed varieties. 
They are firm, sweet, and of better flavour. None better than Golden 
Rose. If white is desired take Jersey Lily ; if black, Chirk Castle is 
still unique.—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY TO THE WIRRAL SHOW. 
There were seyen on Tuesday night in one carriage on the Irish 
■mail from London ; four were warriors of the Rose, wending their 
■weary way to Wirral Show. Consequently, some of us had to court the 
god of sleep sitting bolt upright. The carriages were beautifully 
cushioned, though the oscillation was considerably more than on the 
two other northern lines. One of our party was one of the two inde¬ 
fatigable ladies without whom no great Rose Show would be complete. 
At Crewe some of the western exhibitors joined our contingent, and by 
■2.30 we reached Chester. Here we changed to the Birkenhead train. 
The guard, on being asked if our van of Rose boxes would be put on 
.all right, replied that he knew nothing whatever about it, but would 
see what could be done. Most of our party had already settled them¬ 
selves into various corners of the carriage ; I was w aiting news from 
the guard. Suddenly looking round, I saw the train—without any 
apparent reason, except that it seemed tired of waiting—making head¬ 
way out of the station. After a sharp run I landed into the guard’s 
wan, among the mail-bags and parcels... No guard was there,, though. 
-Evidently, I thought, we are only shunting. On and on we went, 
stopping at last within a ten-minutes run of Birkenhead. Presently 
the door opened and a light appeared. “ Good morning,” said I. “ Good 
morning, sir. Where’s the guard ! ” “ I am the guard ; what do you 
*want? ” “ But where’s the other guard ? ” “ Can’t say ; all I know is 
I’m the only guard on this end of the train.” *‘ Well, I’m a passenger 
guard sent down to look after you.” I told him all I knew, and he 
seemed to believe that, as the mail-bags were quite safe, I had not 
pitched the man out of the train. “ This was the rummest go he’d 
knowed for a long time.” 
Imagine the dismay of our exhibitors when they heard that all 
-their Roses were at Chester, and the next train would not arrive till 
nearly niue o’clock in the morning. A telegram soon quieted their 
fears, and in due time the boxes and guard arrived by a special train. 
By this time it was nearly four o’clock, and some of our party, as no 
waiting-room or other accommodation was provided, went across to the 
Homeside Hotel to turn in for awhile. The enthusiastic jovial 
Gloucestershire parson, the Herefordshire ex-champion amateur, the 
professional holder of the challenge trophy, and the Wiltshire nursery¬ 
man exhibitor grouped themselves round the door of the hotel, while all 
due efforts were made to arouse attention from the inside. It seemed 
surprising how much wit and wisdom could be displayed in spite of the 
■early hour, the pelting rain, and the sodden thoroughfares. For some 
time the ominous growl of a dog inside was the only response to our 
appeal to the bell. Presently, just as we were about to move on, a 
sound was heard, and an unwashed, half-awakened, half-arrayed child 
of man, with just the amount of clothes on that never leaves him, 
peered his sleepy eyes round the door. He was greeted with a volley of 
questions. After a vigorous application of first one, then both, fists to 
each eye, to assure himself that we really had been indulging in a 
night of revel, the effect of which gave us the unsteady appearance his 
•dull brain imagined, he gazed as steadfastly as his sleepy condition 
would permit at our friend of the cloth, and merely said, “ You ought 
to know different! ” and vanished, locking the door before our splitting 
sides would allow us to interfere. It was a glorious joke, not to be lost 
for anything. Evidently there was every excuse for the rest of us, but 
the parson—he ought to “ know different.” There was nothing to be 
done but to return to the station, and for three dreary hours to kick 
•our heels out. 
May I venture to suggest that in future the Wirral Society make 
some preparations for the exhibitors whom they know will turn up by 
the 3 a.m. train ? otherwise they will hardly get the competition in 
ifuture they were fortunate enough in having this year.—W. H. W. 
ROSE SPORT. 
We received on Saturday last, too late to send on to you, a curious 
sport of Madame Marie Finger Rose. The Briar from which the 
blooms were cut was budded last year. A fortnight ago the plant 
•developed its first blcon, which was quite dark in colour. The two 
•blooms we had sent us were both on the same shcot as the first bloom, 
but they varied considerably. One bloom was easy to recognise as a 
true Madame Marie Finger, with its fleshy pink colour, shaded darker in 
the centre, while the other was quite dark in comparison, ahout the 
same 6hade as Due de Rohan. They had both developed simulta¬ 
neously on the day before they reached us. On one shoot, therefore, 
we had at the same time two apparently quite distinct varieties of 
Roses.— Keynes, Williams and Co. 
ROSE HER MAJESTY. 
Whatever different opinions there may still be as to the merits of 
this Rose, it will, I think, be allowed to be the most remarkable new 
Rose of this decade. We all remember the sensation caused by the 
numbers and size of the blooms exhibited in the year when it gained the 
gold medal, its strange alleged parentage, the disappointment expe¬ 
rienced when it failed to appear in the market, and alto.ether disap¬ 
peared from view ; the rumours as to the price required being beyond 
English nurserymen, and as to buds having been stolen ; the report that 
Brother Jonathan’s dollars had at last secured it at an extraordinary 
figure—all these circumstances, we remember, caused a considerable run 
upon Her Majesty when at last it appeared in the English trade, and 
many invested largely. 
About this time, too, some expressed their doubts as to whether it 
was really a good Rose, alleging that it was coarse and wanting in 
regularity of shape. 1 was one of these, and a little chaff passed be¬ 
tween me and my friend “ F. H. G.” in the Journal on the subject. He 
seemed to think it would generally be the “ best H.P.,” and I said it 
would never get the medal, being deficient in shape. All right 1 I am 
going to apologise present^. Well, we all remember what a comical 
feeling of disappointment ensued in 1886, when it almost universally re¬ 
fused to flower, and hardly anybody had a single bloom to show. We 
were obliged to postpone our criticisms for one year more, and in 1887 
a good many blooms were shown. The general feeling with those who 
only saw the Rose as exhibited was probably that the adverse criticisms 
were upheld. At the principal exhibitions the majority of the blooms 
were like those shown for the gold medal— i.e., expanded, and deficient 
in shape. Here and there, however, one or two might be detected which 
had been cut smaller, of better colour, and of far better form. I had 
two or three blooms, and by cutting them young I showed them of 
good shape, and, but for a caterpillar hole in one petal, should myself 
have won the prize for best H.P. with one of them at a local 
Show. It may possibly be remembered that I did express a more 
favourable opinion, accordingly, of Her Majesty, in the Journal last 
autumn ; and I should now be ready to apologise to “ F. H. G.” and 
to Her Majesty herself for aught I have said against her, even if Mr. 
Lindsell had not actually won the medal for best H.P. with it at the 
N.R.S. Show at Darlington. (I have got seriously “ mixed ” with my 
pronouns, but, in proof of the sincerity of my apology, will give Her 
Majesty the benefit of her sex in future.) It seems to me that Her 
Majesty was libelled by Mr. Bennett himself when first shown. It is a 
wonderful quality in this Rose, especially considering ‘‘ her ” parentage, 
that she remains full, shows no eye, and is still presentable, even in the 
expanded state ; but she is then quite past her best, for in a younger 
state she may be shown of beautiful form and colour, and will, I have 
no doubt, gain many more me lals. 
But, though the young bloom is sometimes of the sensational cha¬ 
racter which has attended Her Majesty throughout her existence, I am 
afraid that very little praise can be given to her as a plant. I forget 
how high one of the plants shown by Mr. Bennett in a pot was— 
certainly well over my head—the robustness of the growth and the size 
of the thorns seemed as sensational as the blooms : but I do remember 
how mean was the appearance and growth of some rows of maidens at 
Mr. B. Cant’s a few days ago. Fully half of my own plants have not 
grown more than 3 or 4 inches, and I have had a proportion of about one 
bloom to seven plants. It seems that Her Majesty is not graciously 
pleased to approve of the weather which we have had to call summer 
this year ; and, however much we may be disappointed, we must allow 
that it shows her sense. However, although the plant cannot be called 
a free grower or a free flowerer, I have no doubt that the blooms will be 
indispensable to exhibitors for many years to come.—W. R. Raillem. 
A WEEK’S WANDERINGS. 
BLACK PIGS AND WHITE ELEPHANTS. 
It so happened when I was at Swanmore that Mr. Molyneux, who 
is the Honorary Secretary of the Bishops Waltham Horticultural Society, 
had arranged to go on a tour of judging a number of cottagers’ gardens. 
As I learned a carriage was engaged for a long drive, and there was 
room in it for a small man, I stole a day for what I thought would be 
an easy method of exploring the wilds of Hampshire. I had heard of 
“ Hampshire hogs,” and suggesting that we might see some, was met 
with the reply of “ Yes, but they will be all black ’uns,” and 1 was 
further enjoined to observe that wherever we fouud a particularly well 
cropped garden and vegetables of unusual excellence to look for the 
pigs, as there would sure to be some on the premises and they would as 
surely be black. And so it was. In nine cases out ten the owners of 
the most productive gardens were also owners of two or three black 
pigs. One assisted the other clearly, and both contributed to support 
the families of the sons of toil in the district. We saw many good pigs 
and good gardens that day, and thought the peasantry of the villages 
were not uneared for, and we could not fail to contrast the advantages 
they enjoyed in comparison with their fellows in the pent up and 
