1883 .] 
EPHRAIM SYMS DODWELL. 
135 
work of the counting-house kept him employed 
twelve hours daily, and when it was over there 
was but little leisure. But he found compen¬ 
sation for his loss of country life in becoming 
a member of the City of London Literary and 
Scientific Institution, then at its zenith, and 
in its reading-room, library, discussion and 
music classes found a source of interest and 
information which has served him to good 
limited to the cultivators of a few florists’ 
flowers he recommended its expansion and 
the reconstitution of the existing Society upon 
an open basis, and was elected its Honorary 
Secretary — the late Duke of Devonshire 
kindly accepting the office of President. 
For a few years the Society struggled 
against adverse influences, but patience and 
perseverance prevailed, and before seven 
EPHRAIM SYMS DODWELL. 
purpose throughout a useful life. Before Mr. 
Dodwell was twenty-one years of age he was 
made chief clerk to the house, but having 
experienced indications that his health would 
not long sustain the strain laid upon it, in 
1844 he exchanged his position for one of 
a similar kind in the then largest manufac¬ 
turing house at Derby. There was renewed 
his work in the garden. Mr. Dodwell com¬ 
menced to form a collection of Carnations 
and Picotees ; he visited Mr. Charles Turner, 
then in business at Chalvey, to see the best 
flowers grown ; and later at the Royal Nursery, 
Slough. 
Here, in his new sphere of labour, he 
sought to stir up floricultural aptitudes, and 
finding the exhibition at Derby at that time 
years had passed the Midland Horticultural 
Society w T as known as one of the most success¬ 
ful of provincial associations—successful, 
that is, in the skill and note of its leading 
exhibitors. “ The institution of the Society,” 
writes Mr. Dodwell, “ and its work brought to 
me a host of friends, now, alas ! mostly passed 
over to the majority, whose genial recognition 
and kindly sympathy will ever remain amongst 
my most prized remembrances. Some few, 
indeed, remain, though in some cases, like 
myself, the force and vigour of life has much 
abated, and it is a most grateful satisfaction 
to me to know there is no diminution of their 
kindly sympathy or genial regard ; whilst of 
my friends and following of a younger genera¬ 
tion who have come forward and filled the 
