1877. ] 
THE NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY 
179 
are fastened along the front of a coping-board, the latter secured on brackets 
under the coping of the wall, and projecting about a foot. The rods are of half-inch 
diameter iron, 10 ft. long, with a hole at each end and one in the middle, and 
are fastened on to hooks screwed at the requisite distances into the coping-board; 
at every 10 ft. an upright length of wood, 1 in. thick by 4 in. wide, is fastened 
edgewise from the coping-board to a post driven into the ground at 18 in. from 
the base of the wall, and to these uprights the outside edges of all the curtains 
must be tacked. I usually stretch a piece of list or broad tape down the outside 
and tack through it to prevent tearing. The curtain-rings should be large, so as 
to run freely, and where the curtains meet in the middle when drawn at night, 
they should be tied together by long pieces of broad and very strong tape, which 
also serves, when the curtains are drawn back, to fasten them to the upright boards 
to prevent them from being blown about by the winds ; large and strong hooks- 
and-eyes are also frequently used for fastening the curtains together when drawn 
at night. With care such coverings will last many years, and I have proved 
them to be very effective in securing a crop under adverse circumstances. At the 
same time, they will not be found equal to glass, of which more anon.—^J ohn 
C ox, Redleaf. 
THE NATIONAL ROSE SOCIETY. 
^'^-^EVER before probably has there been a finer gathering of Roses than that 
which was to be seen at St. James’s Hall on the 4th of July, under the 
auspices of this Society. The date had been successfully fitted to the 
backward season, and the rose-growers generally seemed anxious to give 
their enthusiastic support to the new or newly-organised Society, so that all who 
could show did show. The weather also just set in propitious ; rain and sunshine 
brought forth flowers, and such flowers as in many cases had rarely been seen 
before. So much for the Roses. The Hall was all but universally condemned 
as an exhibition-room, the space being too limited and the lights extremely bad; 
but the best was made of it, thanks to the good management of Mr. Newman, to 
whom the details of arrangement were entrusted, and the show passed off without 
a hitch, except that it left a deficit in the exchequer. A better place must be 
found another year, one in which a show worthy of being called “ national ” in 
the public sympathy it would command, could be carried out to a successful issue. 
This, indeed, w^as an impossibility, in a confined space like St. James’s Hall on a 
hot July day, and so the splendid show of roses was left pretty much to be 
admired by those who staged them. There could, indeed, have scarcely 
been a better show, though something is still Avanting to improve the 
arrangement. The stands must retain their formality, and in the interests of 
correct adjudication scarcely admit of much variation of position. Perhaps 
some improvement would result from adopting—if the space permitted—a circular 
centrepiece, the outer tables being placed to form a square with sufficient open¬ 
ings for exit, instead of being ranged in long parallel lines, the centre being also 
