206 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 12, 1869. 
Society, but that their means of usefulness as a scientific body 
would be greatly extended if they could obtain sufficient space 
for the prosecution and development of their objects in the 
more immediate neighbourhood of London. 
“ In seeking for such a situation, the attention of the Council 
was naturally attracted to the finely-situated estate purchased 
by the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 out of the 
surplus proceeds of that Exhibition ; and it appeared to them 
that the grant by the Commissioners of a certain portion of that 
estate to the Society would be strictly compatible with, and 
might even tend largely to promote, the means of encouraging 
Art.and Science generally, the furtherance of which was known 
to be the object for which the Commissioners were incorporated 
by Royal Charter. * 
“ The Council of the Society, therefore, some time since made 
an application to the Commissioners of 1851, in order to ascer¬ 
tain how they would be disposed to regard a request from the 
Horticultural Society for permission to establish itself upon 
their estate. 
“ The Commissioners have met this request in a liberal spirit. 
“ After letting on building-leases certain outlying portions of 
their estate, the Commissioners have reserved about fifty acres 
for the purposes of their incorporation, forming a parallelogram 
between the two new roads : Prince Albert Road (one hundred 
feet wide) to the west, and Exhibition Road (eighty feet wide) 
to the east: which two roads conneet the Kensington Road on 
the north, with the new Cromwell Road (eighty feet wide) on 
the south. Of this parallelogram, the Commissioners have 
reserved a portion of about sixteen acres at the south end for 
the purposes of the Great International Exhibition, which had 
been projected by the Society of Arts for the year 1861—the 
intention of holding which has, it is hoped, been but temporarily 
suspended by the war now unhappily raging; also, a portion at 
the north end, with a frontage to Hyde Park, well adapted for 
any public buildings which it may hereafter appear desirable to 
erect there; and further spaces of about 150 feet in depth along 
each of the parallel roads running north and south, for such 
buildings, public or private, as the Commissioners may here¬ 
after, in the prosecution of their own objects, determine to erect. 
“ It is the remainder, or centre, of this ground that the Com¬ 
missioners, under certain conditions, have offered to place at 
the disposal of the Horticultural Society. 'This space, inclusive 
of a proposed winter garden, and also of Italian arcades, with 
which the Commissioners themselves propose to surround it, 
will contain about twenty acres available for the new garden of 
the Society. 
“ The conditions on which the Commissioners have made 
their liberal offer will be communicated in the course of the 
Meeting. The main provisions are, that the Society shall 
engage to lay out and maintain the garden in a fitting style, 
and that it shall also erect a conservatory or winter garden 
—the whole at a cost estimated at £50,000; and should the 
offer be accepted, the Commissioners will be prepared to grant 
the Society a lease of the ground for thirty-one years, and 
further, as before stated, to surround, at their own expense the 
space allotted for the garden, with Italian arcades open to the 
grounds, and built at their own expense, at itn estimated cost of 
£50,000; the conditions as to the payment of interest on any 
sum so expended not exceeding £50,000, and as to the amount 
of rent to be paid by the Society, being of the most liberal 
nature. 
“ The great advantages of the site proposed are obvious. The 
garden will be in the immediate neighbourhood of Hyde Park 
and Kensington Gardens, and in the very centre of a new and 
rapidly rising town of first-class houses, which bids fair to be¬ 
come one of the most popular ahd fashionable districts in 
London. The shape and situation of the ground, which slope 
gradually from the north to the south, admit of the forma¬ 
tion of successive terraces on different levels, affording peculiar 
facilities for effective and ornamental treatment, and are well 
adapted besides for the effective display of sculpture; while a 
fine winter garden at the upper end, and a colonnade extending 
round it, will afford a promenade of three quarters of a mile in 
length, sheltered from heat and cold,- wind and wet. The 
colonnade will also offer peculiar facilities for the display of the 
flowers and fruit at the annual shows, free from all those risks 
of weather which have not unfrequently marred the Chiswick 
fetes. 
“ Bearing all these advantages in mind, the Council have no 
manner of doubt that, with the hearty support and co-operation 
of the Royal Commissioners which have been so liberally pro¬ 
mised to them, they will be enabled, while keeping Steadily in 
view the scientific objects of the Society, at Chiswick, to make 
this garden, with the periodical exhibitions which they propose 
to bold in it, one of the most attractive places of popular resort 
in the neighbourhood of London ; and they will have the satis^ 
faction of knowing that they have provided for the metropolis a 
place for healthful recreation during the more inclement season 
of the year. 
“ Plans and designs for the winter garden, and for laying 
out of the ground, as prepared and agreed upon in conjunction 
with the Royal Commissioners, arc now hung up in the great 
room of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, and a 
careful estimate of the probable cost has convinced the Council 
that, as at present prepared, these plans may be carried into 
effect for the sum named. But it should be borne in mind that 
the more liberal the support which the Society shall meet witfi, 
and the nobler the scale on which the designs for this garden 
are framed and executed, the greater will be the prospect, not 
to say the certainty, of a successful and remunerating result. 
“Should the General Meeting adopt the view's of the Council, 
the question will then arise as to the mode- of raising so large a 
sum as £50,000. 
“ The Council believe that bins may be effected by the issue 
of a certain number of life memberships; hut as the success 
of the undertaking will in some measure depend upon the 
vigour with which it is undertaken—and it is of importance that 
the works should not be any way delayed in their completion 
if once determined on—it will he requisite to obtain the money 
immediately required for the progress of the works by the issue 
of debentures, hearing interest at 5 per cent., to he redeemed as 
the receipts from life memberships become available. Dona¬ 
tions in aid of the undertaking will at the same time be thank¬ 
fully accepted by the Council; and they will be prepared to ex¬ 
tend to the donors of sums exceeding tw'enty guineas privileges 
similar to those possessed by members. Had the Council been 
inclined to make the project a mere commercial speculation, 
and to place it in the hands of a company, there is little 
doubt that thrice the sum now demanded would have been 
speedily obtained. But the Council felt that such a course 
would have been derogatory to the character and objects of 
the Society; nor would the support and co-operation of the 
Royal Commissioners of 1851 have been extended to such a 
mere money-speculation. They, therefore, prefer resting their 
hopes of success in the course proposed, and in the desire 
which will be generally felt to promote the accomplishment of 
a scheme so advantageous to the Fellows and the public, and so 
conducive to the important objects for which the Society was 
chartered; and they entertain no doubt that their confidence 
in the support of the public will he justified by the result. 
“ The Council propose to keep up the experimental part of 
Chiswick Gardens, and also so much as may he required to 
furnish decorative plants for the new garden at Kensington 
Gore." 
The noble Pkesident, in opening the proceedings, alluded to 
the decline of the Society, and the necessity that existed for its 
improvement, and in doing so entered into a brief recapitulation 
of the history of the Society from its establishment. He re¬ 
ferred to the purpose for which they were called together, and 
urged the desirability of accepting the offer of the Royal Com¬ 
missioners to grant upon such reasonable terms the plot of 
land in the vicinity of Kensington. He thought that the esta¬ 
blishment of such gardens as those proposed would tend to 
resuscitate the Society from its present depressed condition. 
There was a general endeavour on the part of the friends of 
horticulture to do so, and it was well known that Her Majesty 
the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Albert took a great 
interest in it. The matter had been well considered by the 
Council; and Dr. Lindley, the Secretary, would detail in full 
what it was proposed should be done upon the subject, with 
the concurrence of the Society. 
Dr. Lindt/ey commenced by drawing the attention of the 
Meeting to the appropriateness of the intended site, where the 
residences of the higher classes were concentred together; and 
in point of access from all parts, for such a purpose he thought 
it would he difficult to find a situation so desirable. The Council 
had been in communication with the Royal Commissioners since 
January last, who wished to know if the Society would form a new 
garden upon the ground placed at its disposal. A Meeting of 
the Council was held at Buckingham Palace, at which His 
Royal Highness the Prince Consort presided, and His Royal 
Highness thought that it was a proposition of sufficient im- 
