1S73. 
GARDENING AND THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
243 
come within the legitimate sphere of the Royal Horticultural Society. Some of its 
Fellows of the last generation, notably Mr. Thos. Andrew Knight, did much in 
this direction, and it does not seem to me unreasonable to look for new Fellows 
to take up and push on the work from the present improved vantage-ground. 
Now of the Royal Horticultural Society, past, present, and future. 
I think no one will deny that it has done great and important work in the 
past. It has spread a knowledge of and taste for gardening, not only throughout 
the British dominions, but all over the known world. Principally through its 
influence, gardening has developed in two distinct lines—the useful and orna¬ 
mental—and has taken a deep and an unextinguishable hold on the affections of 
the English people. If the man who succeeds in making two blades of grass 
grow where but one grew before, deserves well of his countrymen, surely the 
horticulturists of the past may liberally claim their gratitude ; and the agricul¬ 
turist, with his improved grasses and root-crops—due principally to the labours 
of the horticulturist—should be the first to recognise it. This one fact alone 
would stamp the labours of the past as of a national character. 
But in the present the Society is also doing good work. The exhibitions and 
various committees at South Kensington and the experimental gardening at 
Chiswick are watched and followed not only from all parts of Great Britain, but 
throughout the civilised world. It is a pity there should be sounds which jar, 
and it is unfortunate that the Society should be in debt. The worst feature in 
the recent controversies has been the very common one in all such controversies, 
neither party giving the other credit for disinterestedness and honesty of intention. 
But is it not possible for individuals of different opinions to be equally honest 
and disinterested in their aims ? I believe so, and certainly the way to come to 
an understanding is not by clamour, but by patient investigation and calm thought. 
Debt always has an ugly sound. But really the debt here is nothing, in com¬ 
parison with the wealth of the neighbourhood, and the country, and the important 
interests which the Society represents. I hold the opinion, and holding it, I 
would not conceal it, that the debt contracted in the formation of the garden at 
South Kensington would have been no incubus, had the Prince Consort lived, to 
direct and support a movement in which he took so deep an interest. I think 
sufficient allowance has not been made for this in the controversies which have 
recently taken place, and in confirmation of this view, I would appeal to the chief 
workers in any or all of the institutions over which he presided. It is now 
many years since the good and wise King Leopold I. took an active interest in 
the promotion of gardening in Belgium, and to this fact was largely due the 
rapid development of the art and science of gardening in that country. And if 
to make a people orderly, industrious, and contented, be an aim worthy of 
the rulers of mankind, surely he did well in using this as one means to that end. 
But of the future. We should first get out of debt, or so dispose of our 
liabilities that they may not be a serious drag on any necessary or important 
work. The gardens at South Kensington, or so much of them as is necessary, 
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