session 1904-1905. 
Ixxi 
Garden, but though in each there was a grand show of bloom, some 
of the earlier varieties of both rhododendron and azalea were past 
their prime. In the Greenhouse many beautiful plants were noticed 
in flower, particularly the hybrid Cineraria cruenta , and fine 
varieties of Schizanthus , Hippeastrum, etc., and in the Orchid 
Houses many fine orchids. In passing a glance was given to the 
Succulent House, though here there was nothing special in flower, 
but the quaint forms of the plants themselves are quite a study. 
In the Alpine House, which was last visited, there were many 
beautiful rock-plants in flower. This house is an unheated structure 
erected principally to flower under shelter the more delicate Alpines, 
as the Kew authorities find the smoke and fog of London very 
detrimental to these charming mountain plants. 
Field Meeting, 1st July, 1905, 
ALDENHAM ABBEY AND OTTEBSPOOL, WATFORD. 
The field meetings of this season, which were much more 
numerous than usual, and were nearly all well attended, were 
brought to a close this day with the most-numerously attended of 
any not held in conjunction with any other Society, the members 
and their friends numbering nearly sixty. Mr. Alfred Sutton, one 
of the Secretaries of the Society, acted as Director. 
Aldenham Abbey was first visited by the kind invitation of 
Mr. J. Pierpoint Morgan, jun., who, however, was unable to be 
present to receive the Society, and deputed his steward, Mr. John 
Anderson, to represent him in his unavoidable absence. 
About half the party, consisting of members from Watford, 
Bushey, St. Albans, Harpenden, Hertford, and Hitchin, went by 
train to Bricket Wood Station and walked to Aldenham Abbey 
under the guidance of Mr. Sutton; the rest, mostly from Watford, 
walked, drove, or cycled direct there. After being conducted 
through the beautiful gardens and grounds by Mr. Anderson, 
the members, assembling on a shady lawn, had tea, kindly provided 
by Mr. Morgan, to whom a vote of thanks was accorded on the 
proposition of the President, Dr. Morison. 
Aldenham Abbey, in its present form, dates only from the end of 
the eighteenth century, when it was built by Mr. G. Woodford 
Thellusson on the site of an old manor-house called Wall Hall. 
Although the Thellusson estates were as a rule zealously kept 
intact under the famous Thellusson trust, this portion was sold in 
1812 to Admiral Pole, and it has since passed into the hands of 
a succession of owners and lessees. It was never really an Abbey, 
though until the dissolution of the Monasteries it was held first by 
the Abbey of St. Albans, and afterwards by the Priory of 
St. Bartholomew’s. The ruins which are to be seen are therefore 
not of ecclesiastical origin, but, like the modern house, are the 
product of the genius of Mr. Thellusson. 
