544 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  24,  1897. 
fifty-nine  years  ago  this  grand  charity  has  distributed  £71,000  to 
worn-out  gardeners,  horticulturists,  and  their  widows,  and  has  now 
on  its  funds  men  and  women  who  are  receiving  permanent 
relief  at  the  annual  cost  of  nearly  £3000.  This  is  a  great 
achievement,  though  the  claims  on  the  exchequer  are  unequal  to 
meet  the  ever-pressing  demands  of  gardeners  who  are  no  longer 
able  to  labour,  and  whose  small  savings  are  exhausted.  This  Insti¬ 
tution  is  seeking  (and  happily  with  good  promise  of  success)  to 
commemorate  her  Majesty’s  glorious  reign  by  raising  a  special 
fund,  to  be  called  the  “  Victorian  Era  Fund,”  for  the  benefit  of 
applicants  who  are  awaiting  aid  which  cannot  at  once  be  granted 
through  lack  of  means. 
We  have  also  a  younger  charity  that  links  in  a  manner  most 
gratifying  the  rejoicings  of  1887  with  those  of  1897  among  the 
gardening  community.  The  year  first  named  will  always  be 
memorable,  as  it  was  in  celebration  of  the  great  Royal  event 
which  then  occurred  that  the  Gardeners’  Royal  Orphan  Fund  was 
established,  with  the  object  of  affording  help  for  helpless  children 
born  into  the  gardening  world,  and  hope  for  the  widows  who 
were  almost  ciushed  down  with  despair.  The  need  for  such  a 
charity  was  evident  hy  the  pressing  applications  for  aid,  and 
year  by  year  candidates  had  to  grieve  under  the  bitter  disappoint¬ 
ment  of  failing  to  secure  election  to  its  benefits  ;  but — and  here 
comes  the  golden  link  in  the  chain  which  connects  the  two 
great  years  of  rejoicing  —  the  charity,  inaugurated  in  1887,  is 
in  1897  supporting  seventy  children  at  a  cost  of  nearly  £1000 
a  year,  with  a  reserve  of  £10,000.  This  is  a  splendid  result 
to  have  been  accomplished  in  the  time ;  but  it  is  not  all. 
Desiring  to  commemorate  this  greater  Jubilee  of  our  good  and 
gracious  Queen,  those  who  are  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the 
Fund  felt  that  in  no  way  could  they  carry  out  their  desire  so 
fittingly  as  by  dispensing  with  an  election  altogether,  and  placing 
the  whole  of  the  candidates  on  the  benefits  of  the  Institution. 
Those  endeavours  to  celebrate,  on  the  lines  suggested,  an  event 
which  has  no  parallel  in  the  annals  of  history  afford  conclusive 
evidence  of  the  deeply  rooted  loyalty  that  is  established  in  the 
horticultural  community,  while  the  form  of  its  manifestation  is 
such  as  must  command  the  widest  possible  approval.  There  are 
other  forms,  however,  of  celebrating  the  unequalled  reign  during 
the  present  memorable  year. 
The  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  as  befits  its  high  position, 
provides  a  new  medal  different  from  all  others  existing — the 
“Victoria  Medal  of  Honour  in  Horticulture” — as  a  distinction  to 
persons  who  have  rendered  good  service  in  some  of  the  various 
branches  of  the  art — as  scientists,  cultivators,  raisers  of  new 
products,  discoverers,  or  writers.  This  may  be  regarded  as  a 
permanent  memento  of  the  sixty  years’  reign,  and  there  can  be 
no  more  than  sixty  Victorian  medallists  at  any  one  time — a  happy 
idea,  and  the  honour  of  the  distinction  will  be  cherished  by  its 
posse^ors. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  Society,  desirous  of  assisting  in  bringing 
together  the  most  extensive  and  varied  display  of  the  products  of 
British  gardens,  where  such  display  can  be  witnessed  by  the 
greatest  number  of  persons  who  usually  assemble  on  such  occasions, 
its  patronage  is  to  be  given  to  the  greatest  provincial  horticultural 
society  in  the  kingdom.  This  is  the  Shrewsbury  Society,  and  it 
may  be  confidently  expected  that  no  such  representative  example 
of  British  horticulture,  in  its  ornamental  and  useful  aspects,  could 
be  provided  elsewhere  as  in  the  town  to  which  many  thousands 
wend  their  way  on  the  occasion  of  the  great  show  and  gala  in 
August.  This  year  the  exhibition  is  to  be  distinctly  comme¬ 
morative  of  the  Diamond  Jubilee.  Thus,  while  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  gives  all  the  encouragement  within  its 
province  to  the  charitable  institutions,  it  is  doing  its  duty  in  other 
directions  during  the  present  eventful  year  in  honour  of  the 
Queen. 
We  have  said  that  her  Majesty,  and  the  much  and  long-mourned 
Prince  Consort,  were,  iq  days  long  past,  great  patrons  of  bPFticul.- 
ture.  Some  gardeners  and  garden  lovers  still  remain  who,  with 
ourselves,  can  remember  the  famous  shows  at  Chiswick,  when  the 
gardens  were  thrice  the  extent  they  are  now,  and  the  brilliant 
assemblages  on  those  occasions.  They  will  call  to  mind  the  Queen 
and  Prince  Albert,  with  the  then  young  Royal  Family,  all  blithe 
and  happy,  examining  and  admiring  the  products,  while  the  exhi¬ 
bitors  had  the  privilege  of  standing  near  their  collections.  As  we 
are  reminded  by  a  septuagenarian  gardener,  4000  carriages  have  been 
known  to  drive  to  Chiswick  on  a  show  day.  How  many  hundreds, 
he  asks,  would  do  so  now  V  Well,  times  have  changed,  and  the 
gardens  have  changed.  Shows  of  garden  produce  were  compara-  ■ 
tively  few  and  far  between  then,  whereas  they  are  now  to  be  seen 
almost  everywhere.  They  are  no  longer  novelties,  but  would 
almost  seem  to  have  become  necessities  of  life,  and  more  will  be 
provided  this  year,  to  be  attended  by  an  infinitely  greater  number 
of  persons  in  the  aggregate  than  ever  assembled  on  such  occasions 
in  the  “palmy  ”  days  of  the  long  ago. 
But  we  are  dealing  with  the  question  of  Royal  Patronage  in 
horticulture.  We  do  not  know  for  how  many  years  the  Queen- 
Empress  has  been  patron  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  but 
we  know  that  the  Prince  Consort  was  elected  President  in  1858,- 
and  this  is  what  was  said  in  the  Journal  of  Horticulture  at  the 
time  : — “The  Society  will  congratulate  itself  on  the  appointment. 
The  Prince  is  a  popular  man,  fond  of  improvements  in  all  branches 
of  natural  science  ;  but  after  all  the  great  source  of  his  popularity 
is  his  natural  kindness  and  affability — two  of  the  strongest  qualities 
under  Heaven  for  uniting  the  most  opposite  minds  into  one  com¬ 
pact  body.”  We  also  know  that  all  the  Royal  Princes  and  Prin¬ 
cesses  were  elected  Fellows  on  January  31st,  1860  The  South 
Kensington  scheme  had  then  started,  towards  which  the  Queen 
subscribed  £1000,  and  the  Prince  Consort  £500.  The  gardens- 
once  famous,  but  long  since  blotted  out  by  the  inexorable  force  of 
events,  were  opened  by  the  gardener  Prince  in  1861,  who  closed 
his  speech  on  the  occasion  with  the  following  heartfelt  hopes 
“  May  your  efforts  meet  with  public  approbation.  May  that  appro¬ 
bation  give  you  all  the  support  required  to  carry  out  on  a  larger 
scale  than  heretofore  the  useful  objects  for  which  you  are  incor¬ 
porated.” 
The  Royal  President  perceived,  as  if  by  intuition,  that  if 
the  Society  were  to  flourish  it  must  be — like  the  Throne  itself — 
“  broad  based  upon  a  people’s  will,”  the  will  and  desire  of 
horticulturists.  From  that  will  there  was,  mainly  in  consequence 
of  the  great  lost  leader,  a  sad  departure,  but  fortunately  a  return 
to  legitimate  objects  brought  about  the  great  revival,  which  never 
since  the  historic  change  was  so  marked  as  at  the  present  time. 
This  is  the  effect  of  wise  government — a  Council  of  the  Society  as 
loyal  to  horticulture  in  its  broadest  aspects  as  to  the  person  and 
throne  of  its  Imperial  patron,  our  noble  Queen. 
Two  other  events  cannot  be  forgotten  in  which  her  Majesty 
took  a  prominent  part,  and  which  gave  considerable  impetus  to  the 
progress  of  horticulture — namely,  the  opening  of  the  Great  Exhibi¬ 
tion  in  Hyde  Park  in  1851,  and  of  the  Crystal  Palace  at  Sydenham' 
in  1854. 
Of  the  great  Hyde  Park  Exhibition  it  was  said  at  the  time  in’ 
our  columns  : — “  Mr.  Paxton’s  beautiful  structure  bids  fair  to  set 
people  thinking  about  the  best  methods  of  erecting  plant  houses- 
in  the  future.  Instead  of  leaning  them  against  walls  for  support, 
we  shall  find  it  possible  to  make  them  stand  on  their  own  legs, 
and  be  as  cheaply  heated  and  be  far  better,  not  only  for  plants, 
but  Grapes  and  Peaches  as  well  ;  and  then  we  shall  learn  more  of 
pleasure  ground  gardening  through  the  influence  of  this  exhibitiop 
during  the  next  few  years  than  we  have  learned  from  all  the 
books  and  shows  of  the  past.”  The  prophecy  of  the  glass 
structures  has  been  exactly  fulfilled,  while  few  will  deny  that  the. 
transportation  of  the  “  Palace  of  Light  ”  to  Sydenham,  with  all; 
the  resulting  accessories,  exerted  a  great  and  lasting  influence  for 
good  in  the  diffusion  of  the  taste  in  gattjenjng  throughout  the 
community. 
