154 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 13, 1859. 
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on tlie other side of that line, it will be no more “ than 
wliat might have been expected from the first.” Chiswick 
Garden is to be kept on — the great experiment of proving 
the Grapes at last is, therefore, not yet hopeless. A good 
deal has been done, both at Chiswick and at Kensington 
Gore, in the way of preparing trees and shrubs for re¬ 
moval. Mr. Nesfield is to draw the plans for the altera¬ 
tion of the grounds at Kensington Gore ; and if he be 
not more successful in the arrangement of flower-beds 
there than he was in the terrace garden at Kew, the new 
Horticultural will be out of the style and fashion as much 
as the old lady ever was down at Chiswick—with this 
bite to the bargain, that the Doctor will not be in for it 
this time. Mr. Kyles, from the Crystal Palace, will 
follow, and make good the plans of a less able flower 
gardener at any rate. 
When the Society first came to the dogs in 1880, it was 
said and believed on all hands that, “ whatever may be 
said in palliation of Mr. Sabine’s conduct, [he was 
secretary,] nothing can be more clear than this—that he 
is the cause of the present state of things in the Society. 
He it is, and he alone, who, by a system of concealment 
and monopoly of power, has brought the Society to the 
brink of ruin.” 
The lesson to be learned from this is obvious enough. 
Let no one have a monopoly of power again, and no set of 
Councilmen a secret monopoly. But the present constitu¬ 
tion of the Society is radically wrong, and rather encou¬ 
rages a spirit of monopoly—in the Council, at least, having 
the power of electing themselves. I shall not live to see it, 
but I shall put it on record that, with this power in the 
hands of the Council, it is inevitable that the Koyal Com¬ 
missioners—the present ground-landlords of the Horti¬ 
cultural Society—will, or may, ultimately monopolise the 
powers and functions of the Horticultural itself. But 
whether that will turn out for better or for worse for the 
interests of gardening no one can tell. 
They (the Council) seem now to be going on remark¬ 
ably well. They are not so imperious as not to take a 
leaf out of abler hands than their own. I have told 
already how their fruit shows were supported by the 
pillars of the British Bornological Society. I also went 
to see myself: and running down hill before that 
spirited body at or about Hanover Square in the matter 
of out-door Grapes, and being at the rooms of the 
Horticultural the other day promiscuously, I was in¬ 
vited to sit down with the Fruit Judges in full com¬ 
mittee, and to help them in giving their awards. I was 
both amused and very much pleased to find the whole 
proceeding was the very reverse of what the old Society 
considered the best way of teaching pomology, and just 
after the very model I had seen with the British Borno¬ 
logical at the Hanover Square Booms. 
. 1 am satisfied nothing was ever done better in my 
time than the judging of the fruit is now done by 
the new Horticultural. A dozen or more sat round 
the table, with a Chairman, Bresident, clerk of the 
course, and press-reporter. All the fruit having been 
previously arranged for competition under so many 
headings and letters, the Chairman called for such and 
such kinds of fruit as they stood on the list of the clerk 
of the course, beginning with those for which prizes were 
specially offered, and ending with odds and ends, and 
duplicates. From 1830 and onwards, for some years, I 
conducted an experimental fruit garden in Hereford¬ 
shire, where some of the best judges of fruit then in the 
land used to dine and meet for the purpose of judging 
new fruits and comparing old kinds; but two only of 
their number are known in pomology—Mr. Knight, of 
Downton Castle, and Mr. Williams, of Bitmaston. No 
fruit in the garden was exempt from strict criticism ; and 
when more than one kind of fruit was tasted at one 
sitting, as Bine Apples and Grapes, or Bears and Melons, 
•• A ..nUo r.rul Nuts, or Gooseberries, it was considered 
i.l.hj io tut- isi-ue ol a juc-t verdict to swallow a giass 
of sour cider between tasting the two kinds of fruit, to 
wash off the flavour of one kind from the palate for fear 
it should prejudice that of the next on the list. 
When two particular fruits were equal in the balance, 
so that one could hardly say which was the better of the 
two, the decision was left open till next morning, till they 
were tried on an empty stomach ; and the i.e phis opinion 
of those eminent men on the judgment of fruit in summer 
was, that it should be gathered in the cool of the CA r ening, 
after the sun was off it, and before the dew came on, and 
be kept in the fruit-room that night, to be fasted the first 
thing before breakfast—the hour at which the palate, they 
said, was most sensitive and most to be relied on of the 
twenty-four. 
In practice I had also known, long since, that the 
luxuries of the table often interfere with a reliable judg¬ 
ment on the merits of dessert: I therefore excused my¬ 
self at that meeting from entering on the merits of some 
of our best dessert Apples immediately after settling 
those about the best dessert Bears of the season. And 
I would put it fairly to the judgment of the Council of 
the Horticultural Society, whether they think it just and 
reasonable, for the interest of their friends and exhibitors, 
to expect infallibility from their Fruit Committee in the 
absence of some such precaution as tlie Herefordshire 
Judges thought indispensable in tbeir private capacitj r . 
The room was well stocked with fine-looking fruit, par¬ 
ticularly Apples and Bears ; but the influence of the last 
season was vei’y apparent in the flesh and flavour of every 
description of fruit. No description of out-door fruit is 
up to the average mark after that hot, burning summer, 
except in the outward appearance ; but the samples were 
generally very fine-looking, and some of the Bears par¬ 
ticularly so. Their weight and sizes were also remark¬ 
able for such a season. The TJvedale s St. Germains were 
over 3 lbs. each, fi’omthe county of Wicklow, in Ireland; 
and 2 lbs. 6ozs. from the neighbourhood of Elgin, in 
Morayshire, beyond the Grampians. The former were 
from Sir George Hodson, Bart., Hollybrook Bray, county 
Wicklow, and the other from Sir J. Archibald Dunbar, 
Bart, Duffus House, near Elgin, or by Elgin, as they say 
in the north ; but we shall have them all in the detailed 
reports of that meeting. 
The Judges were the best in the land, consisting of 
private gentlemen, nurserymen, and private gardeners; 
the merits and histories of each kind were discussed as 
they passed under review; the peculiarities of soil, 
climate, situation, and aspect, were provided in the filled- 
up papers by the exhibitors, and elicited a sound practical 
discussion; and the final judgment was by a show of 
hands—the majority, as usual, carrying the prizes. The 
whole arrangement was so much on the new model in¬ 
troduced by the British Bornological Society, that I could 
see no reason now why they and the Horticultural should 
not put up their horses at the same inn, and go in for an 
amalgamation to the sure and certain advantage of both 
parties, and of the public at large. The battle is already 
fought and won, the victory is on the side of the public, 
and I would dine with the Doctor himself to-morrow. 
Yes, I would even now drink wine with those very foolish 
men on the Council who sold our library; and would, 
in good will and charity, absolve them from the conse¬ 
quences of that part of their self-imposed task, and 
immediately constitute another order of minds, to beg 
the world over for another such a library for the new 
blood and bone at Kensington Gore. 
Without a thorough good library there, what will all 
the thousands and the plans turn out better than royal 
tea-gardens after all ? or what instruction better, or more 
suitable, than the elementary knowledge for cutting ham- 
sandwiches ? A library we must have ; but first see how 
many and Avhat books we can collect together by the good¬ 
will and donations of the Fellows. I shall give twenty 
