AUGUST. 
229 
The Rose Show, then, which was held in the new gardens of the 
Royal Horticultural Society on Wednesday, July 10, and with which 
was incorporated the Grand National Rose Show, was, in simpler phrase, 
a great refreshment to us poor frozen-out amateurs, whose tWmo- 
meters, on the morning of Christmas last, showed 42° of frost, and 
whose Rose trees, nine-tenths of them, were burnt, or in the budding 
ground. Pleasant it was to forget awhile the vacancies and gaps 
at home; the waste places to which one had wandered in happy 
forgetfulness to see some fairest of the fair, and found her place was 
empty; and here to rejoice once more in the presence and the perfume 
of all the Boses! Yes, here in their glowing beauty were the flowers 
of which I had so often dreamed, amid the pale sweet Pea blossoms, 
the flaunting Poppies, the Nasturtiums, the Balsams, the Larkspurs, 
and “ bedding-out stuff,” which reign for the present in my rosarium, 
like a mob in a plundered palace.* It was all I could do not to take off 
my hat to the lovely Countess de Chabrillant; all I could do not to 
call to Madame Vidot— 
“ Madame, I bow, as is my duty, 
Down to the shadow of your shoe tie; ” 
and I was only prevented by the Bishop of Nimes for his eye was 
upon me ”) from kissing Madame Knorr upon the spot. 
I am not going through the list of established beauties, as long as 
Don Giovanni’s, who turned into glorious summer the winter of my 
discontent, for the Florist must have a supplement if I did, and most 
of its readers are already well acquainted with the charming personages 
referred to; but I pass on now to gaze upon newer faces, and to speak 
of individuals recently appointed to be lords and ladies in waiting upon 
Queen Rosa, and less known to the public at large. 
To my fancy, the three best new Roses in the Show were Senateur 
Vaisse, Louis the Fourteenth, and Reynolds Hole. With regard to 
Senateur Vaisse, I have a strong conviction that the magnificent bloom 
of it in Messrs. Fraser’s collection was, for shape, size, and colour, 
conjointly, the best Rose of the day. I kept my eye upon him during 
the afternoon, and he stood the heat as unconcernedly as though he 
had been the Fire King at Cremorne; and the Speaker himself might 
envy the imperturbability of such a Senator as Mr. Senator Vaisse. 
Louis the Fourteenth was shown by many exhibitors, and was invari¬ 
ably brilliant, effective, and distinct. A bloom of him in one of 
Mr. Turner’s stands was the most beautiful Rose for colour in the 
exhibition, as absolute a monarch as Louis XIV. himself, and san¬ 
guinary in complexion as his martial synonyme in war. I went to 
beg him, just before pack-up time, but only arrived to see him 
bestowed on an earlier and happier applicant. I hope he was destined 
for somebody very nice, for a lovelier Rose I never saw. As poor old 
Clark, the cricketer, used to say of Guy, that he “ was all helegance, 
fit to play before Her Majesty in a drawing-room,” so I should affirm 
of that particular flower, that it was worthy to be placed upon the 
heart of a Queen, yea, of the Queen of Queens, Victoria. Reynolds 
* I cannot endure my expatriation fi*om metaphor, so give myself ^ Ticket’ 
of-leave. 
