288 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 24. 
ing to the programme, was to be a grand fruit exhi¬ 
bition at the expense of plant culture ; but if we reflect 
•u two things, this was an unwise move on the part of 
the Society, which would have told very much against 
their Show, if the “multitude” could find their way 
there. The first of the two things is the fact, that for 
every one who grows his own Cabbages, and his own 
Grapes and Pine Apples, in this country, there are 
ninety-five who cannot do so—not for want of money, 
but for want of room ; but every one endeavours to 
grow his own, or her own plants; buys all the best 
books to learn from ; goes to all the Shows, to see “with 
his or her own eyes,” how things are done; and all 
the fruit in England would not compensate him or 
her for the loss of a “ new bedding-plant,” or a 
“ new ” something to him or to her in the plant 
way, although it might he an old story to all but 
“ their ownselves.” And the second thing is, that 
Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Sutherland, and his 
Grace of Norfolk, with not quite double their number 
from the hulk of the nation, will run off with the 
best fruit prizes, leaving no chance for the ups and 
downs of competition, as in other things. It is all very 
well and proper to have a grand fruit show, if the funds 
could afford it, in addition to a grand flower show, or 
such a show of plants as very liberal prizes could pro¬ 
duce. Exhibitions, now-a-days, are not so much what 
is claimed for them,—the encouragement of good garden¬ 
ing,—as to please the public who pay for the prizes, after 
all. For my part, I wish it were otherwise; that com¬ 
panies or societies could undermine bad habits, bad 
taste, and bad cultivation, everywhere; but the thing 
cannot be done without money and plenty of it. There 
are very few people in the world, however, who will give 
their money merely to encourage a change of their own 
taste. A taste for gaudy flowers and gaudy flower-beds 
is, most certainly, the taste of the present age; but your 
fruit shows, and your mixed border shows, may be a 
better taste; the difficulty is, how are you to convince 
people that it is so ? Will the people give you admission 
fees enough for you to prove their own bad taste? They 
will do no such thing; therefore, without an in¬ 
dependent fund to carry on the expenses, it is folly 
to attempt a reform in the public taste; still we should 
not go back in our cultivation taste by giving prizes to 
plants that are not worth looking at, as was done at the 
first Crystal Palace Exhibition. 
One of the best points of the Chiswick Shows is, that 
a badly grown plant is never seen there. Now and then 
you may see some trumpery new plant, hut the Judges 
take no heed of it for its novelty, and the thing dies 
away before the end of the week, and that exhibitor 
never attempts any thing of the kind there again. 
We had abundance of fine, handsome plants to 
admire this day, and a better exhibition of fruit was 
never seen there, or anywhere else, as far as I know. 
Queen Victoria was head of them all. British Queens, 
Prince of Wales, Princess Royal, and almost all the 
Princes and Princesses Royal were dished up in the shape 
of some fruit or other, and won the day triumphantly ; 
but there was a desperate struggle for the Derby—the 
Duke of Norfolk, after riding over the course at the 
Regent’s Park, came in here after Her Majesty, and 
between Her Majesty and the Duchess of Sutherland. 
You never saw a cleaner thing done before, than how 
each of them took the field, and kept it all round to the 
winning-post; at least, I never did; hut Mr. McEwen 
will find it more easy to beat his Sovereign in good 
gardening, than teach Ins Edinburgh critics the value 
of correct taste in layiug out gardens; and both the 
royal gardener, Mr. Ingram, and the loyal Mr. Fleming, 
have found a worthy rival, at last, from Arundel 
Castle. 
Mr. Ingram’s collection would have made a dessert 
thus;—a Queen Pine 4lb, for a top dish; White and 
Black Grapes, mixed, for the bottom ; these were 
beautiful Hambro’s and Royal Muscadine; then for two 
top corners he had Royal George and Bellegard Peaches; 
to match those, at the two bottom corners, he had 
Murray Nectarines and Jefferson Plums; hut two 
Nectarines would have been better, as there was a dish 
of Victoria Plums without a match, except Strawberries, j 
Elton and Black Eagle Cherries to match, one side of 
the centre, and nothing to match them on the other side 
of the centre. Thus tried, we see that “ a collection” of 
fruit does not make the simplest dessert complete. 
Mr. McEwen had a Queen Pine for top, and Muscats 
and Hambro’s mixed for bottom; Royal George and j 
Walburton Peaches for two top corners; Murray and 
Hunt’s Tawny Nectarines for the two bottom corners; 
two kinds of Figs for one side of the centre, and Elton 
Cherries, with White Gooseberries, for the other side of 
the centre; the latter pair not a good match; hut the 
dishes were more complete than those in the royal 
dessert. 
Mr. G. A. Watson, of Ealing, tried a collection, 
hut I cannot set it up on the dessert-table without ' 
showing that he had too many or too few to balance or 
match. Is it not very singular, that neither the Society, 
nor any of these good gardeners, have considered a 
“collection” of fruit ought, at least, to be such as 
would “ fit” in the dining-room ? The smallest collection 1 
for a bare dessert-table ought to have either six or ten j 
dishes, top, bottom, and four corner dishes, as the j 
simplest of all; or with a pair of match dishes for each 
side of the centre, as the next step. Now, if you under¬ 
stand me, how would you “set up” the following for a 
respectable party? Three Pines, two Melons, one 
Nectarines, one Muscat Grapes, one Cherries, and two 
Strawberries; these were Mr. Watson’s contributions 
for the dessert; all very good of their respective kinds, 
except the Circassian Cherries, which were ripe enough 
for Covent Garden, but not so for a dessert-table with 
Pines, Melons, and Grapes. You cannot show your 
respect for your company so much by a profusion of 
the good things on the table, as by the taste you show 
in disposing the dishes. I would sooner eat bread- 
and-cheese at home, than dine out where the best things 
were set down before me as if I were a Red Indian, and 
knew no better than to admire a mixed border of good 
plants, planted anyhow. Depend upon it, if we do not 
leave a better legacy for the rising generation than 
heaps and heaps of the best grown fruit, tumbled together 
in this fashion, they will not have much reason to be 
proud of their descent. 
Our Oxonian correspondent, “ J.,” page 242, asks how 
I would have the dessert in my own dining-room? j 
Certainly not on the dinner-table while the mutton was i 
discussed, except that part of it which came from ! 
the still room, “ the lest dishes," and in the height of 
summer fruit, a portion of the smaller fruit, which 
is seldom touched. My dessert-table would stand in 
one corner of the room, hut not on the same side 
of the room as the side-table. My gardener alone 
would have the management of the dessert-table, , 
and there he would “ set up ” the fruit before dinner, | 
and all my butler would need to know is, which 
was the top of the dessert; his own skill would tell { 
where every dish would fit on the large scale of tho : 
dining-table. The end of the dessert-table which is 
nearest to the dining-table ought to be the “ top,” 
invariably, to save confusion. When the dinner was 
over, the top dish of the dessert should be the first to 
move to the top of the dining-table, then the two top 
corners. Now, if the under-butler knows the routine, 
he would begin with the bottom dish and two bottom 
corners, and work up to the centre, where he would 
meet the butler, and all would be done in less time than 
