80 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 8 , 1860. 
ber (over 600) of staunch new members during the year; 
such practical and persevering men as Mr. Eyles, to be 
head curator, both there and at Chiswick, and Mr. Hogg 
and Mr. Moore to be Secretaries for the Fruit and Floral 
Committees. 
“ Plans ” of offices for the exhibitions of these Com¬ 
mittees, “ to form the principal entrance to the Garden, 
prepared by Capt. Fowke, E.E., have been accepted, and 
the building is now rising rapidly.” And unless bad luck 
should fall on the shoulders to the wheel which moves 
the Council, they “ believe the Garden will be for the 
most part completed by Midsummer in next year.” Chis¬ 
wick Garden is already fit to be seen, and well worth 
seeing, under Mr. Eyles’s eye. His other eye being on 
at Kensington. Lots and lots of flowers have been sent 
by friends to Chiswick, for the Floral Committee to 
decide on; annuals, perennials and shrubs, hardy and 
tender; and the notion that the Floral Committee take 
heed of florists’ flowers only, as then- first rules clearly 
and distinctly implied, has no foundation, and never had, 
in fact. The best private collection of bedding plants 
came up from Slirubland Park to the Chiswick Experi¬ 
mental grounds, just as was the case at Surbiton when I 
despaired of the Society and took to experimenting just 
to keep the thing alive ; and now, at the end of twenty- 
two years, after taking the first leaf out of my book, 
anent fine-leaved plants, curious-looking plants, varie¬ 
gated plants, and Ferns for exhibitions, the Society have 
done me the honour to accept my scheme for “ keeping 
the thing alive,” by instituting experiments on their own 
account for the use of us all, and on a metropolitan in 
lieu of a suburban scale. To show that 1 had felt this 
an honour instead of an opposition, I have just consented 
to be put in nomination for election on that very Floral 
Committee; and unless I am black-balled at the voting, I 
mean to attend the meetings and consultations just as 
often and as diligently as if it were for the first experi¬ 
mental garden in England, as it ultimafely will be, no 
doubt; but for the first few years I am quite sure they 
will not exceed us of Surbiton in any one thing, except 
in their greater extent of ground. But I shall allow a 
sub-committee of theirs, or our own number, to be the 
judges. I shall invite them down when we have the best 
foot foremost, about the time of the white-bait dinner. 
We were told in the report that Mr. Hogg has the very 
same confidence in the Fruit Committee, and, notwith¬ 
standing the Pomological expei-iments, that he has made 
a present of his own private experimental collection of 
pyramid Pear trees to the Chiswick Garden. We of The 
Cottage Gahdenek having always pointed out the l'ight 
way for the sluggards of Chiswick to go in, we are now 
quite free and willing to go along with them for the 
public good, since they have taken the right direction. 
As for me, I shall be only a man under authority if I am 
elected, and shall have to defend but one captain—“ our 
own ” Secretary, Mr. Moox-e; and if I see or hear a 
puff against his authority, I shall fire right and left and 
round the corner. But I believe there is a treaty, and 
that there is little chance of any more foreign inter¬ 
ference. 
The ballot for the distribution of plants is to go on 
this summer; and as soon as they can meet with a 
thorough good collector, who can pack well, and write 
intelligent journals of all his sights and travels, they mean 
to send him abroad. But one clause in their “points” 
of a good collector is that he be acquainted with the 
Spanish or Portuguese language; and that must, most 
certainly, have originated with some one of the old mis- 
managers of Chiswick. The thing sounds well, but I 
know how it will end -.—They, the' new Society, will be 
“ done ” as brown o.s a beri’y, and as sure as my name is 
Donald, if they will insist upon that qualification. I 
have conducted plant-collectors myself in South America, 
where those languages are most wanted, from under the 
line to the confines of Texas, and from the burning beach 
to the snow-clad caps of the Cordillera, and I never heard 
a word about the use or abuse of Spanish or Portuguese ; 
but I have known the possessors of five continental 
j languages, engaged on the same ei’rands, do that which 
they ought not to have done, and make English gold and 
English influence pay for it, and that should not be; No 
man, or setof men, who transacted business in this selection 
for the old Horticultural Society for the last thirty years 
should be now trusted with a voice in this matter ; Mr. 
Fortune being the only fortunate collector for them the 
whole of that time, and that just because he had a way 
of his own for doing business quite contrary to the 
“ rules, laws, and regulations ” of the old Chiswicks. 
When the pressing strain on the Council is got under, 
they intend something “ very different ” from the present 
“Proceedings,” in the way of periodical instructions in 
the new order of things. A chapter now and then from 
the pen of a ready-writer collector abroad would be 
just the very thing to keep us all alive, and to shun the 
hoi’rid old stories translated from continental books, 
unless they happen to be something different from what 
we ourselves have been discussing hei’e for the last twenty 
years. 
Three of the Council retired then in their rotation, and 
. three others were balloted into their places without a 
single vote being against them. We were then directed 
to look at a model of the Garden, and many plans and 
sections of it, and its appurtenances, in an adjoining room; 
also, at models of the arcade which is to form the boundary 
of the Garden, and the site of the Garden itself. The 
model of the Garden was not yet completed, nor the 
models of two samples of the arches which are to form 
the grand arcade; but I believe the plan of the Garden 
is fixed, arranged, and passed, and any suggestion for the 
farther improvement upon the “ highly decorated Italian 
arcade is yet open for consideration.” That is just how 
the highest authorities in such matters act for themselves. 
They first of all elaborate all their skill on their own 
designs, then model them roughly for their own eye, and 
keep them on view for weeks before they pass their own 
final opinion on them. Some show them to their critical 
friends, and some are very jealous of doing so, some few 
improve on their own plans as they see the work carried 
on ; but that is one of the greatest follies in the world, 
as it fairly opens the door to the contractors for no end 
of “ after claps,” or extra bills for no end of things, 
after you once swerve one inch from the design adopted. 
If Sir Konald MacDonald were my contractor, and he 
suggested to me the value of a door nail in alteration of 
my design after the work was begun, I would just look 
that his left band was not in my right-side pocket,— 
neither kith nor clan could save him in the plot. But 
there is a trick in trade that all young people newly 
married ought to be up to, before they begin building 
and gardening. My lord may have heard of the dodge 
from his “ governoi-,” and woxild leave everything to his 
agent after the plans were passed; but my lady, innocent 
as Eve, will assuredly be taken in the same trap, if she 
goes near the works by herself. She will be compli¬ 
mented on her superior taste and acquirements, and her 
opinion will be eagerly sought for on a hundred points 
connected with the work in progress, and, without giving 
it a thought, she assents to any propositions for improve¬ 
ment. The thing is done, and at the end of the story my 
lord must pay another thousand or so, for the improved 
taste of her ladyship. It will then turn out to her credit 
that she suggested such and such and every such im- 
rovement, and he must pay for them, and, of course, 
e will; but Lady Mary will never be complimented 
that way again, for she will refer all such things to some¬ 
body else, as she is “ too busy just then,” going to speak 
to the gardener. You may depend upon it there will be 
nothing of that kind at Kensington Gore, for no young- 
married couples are concerned there; all are old hands 
j and good judges, and where they run short, they know 
