August  e,  1896, 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
125 
randum,  delivered  an  address,  in  that  pleasing  and  witty  though  some¬ 
what  quaint  style,  peculiarly  his  own,  Flavoured  throughout  with 
humour  was  the  speech,  and  with  all 
the  powers  of  an  orator  the  Dean 
took  the  undivided  attention  of  his 
audience,  first  speaking  of  the 
garden  of  childhood,  with  its  many 
happy  recollections,  and  then  going 
on  to  say  that  in  manhood  there 
are  really  few,  what  he  called 
enthusiastic  gardeners.  There  were, 
of  course,  many  who  liked  flowers 
and  gardens  in  a  general  sort  of  way, 
and  there  were  others  who  cared 
only  to  grow  rare  plants,  and  loved 
not  those  more  common,  and  yet 
withal  so  beautiful.  We  should, 
continued  the  Dean,  do  what  we  can 
to  help  the  young  gardeners,  and 
though  it  is  difficult  to  lay  down  any 
hard  and  fast  rules,  yet  some  general 
laws,  like  those  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  change  not.  The  Dean 
then  went  on  to  speak  of  the  adapta¬ 
tion  to  scene,  the  adornment  of 
dwellings  with  creepers,  and  arrange¬ 
ment,  adding  that  after  a  garden  is 
arranged  the  question  arises.  What 
shall  we  put  in  it  ?  and  to  this  he 
would  answer — Everything  there  is 
room  for.  He  would  also  advise 
young  gardeners  to  make  some 
speciality,  such  as  the  culture  of 
Irises,  Narcissi,  Carnations,  or  the 
queenly  Rose.  Some,  he  added, 
might  love  sweet-scented  flowers,  and 
one  of  the  most  charming  gardens  he 
had  been  in  was  termed  “a  garden  of  odours.”  He  was  somewhat 
surprised  to  notice  how  few  were  the  people  who  made  a  speciality 
FIG.  25. — THE  HON.  CECIL  I  T.  PAETvEE, 
of  alpines,  nor  could  he  understand  this  at  all,  as  they  were  amongst 
the  most  beautiful,  interesting,  modestly  charming  plants  in  existence. 
He  had  once  been  in  what  was  termed  a  Shakespearean  garden,  in 
which  plants  were  grown  which  are  mentioned  by  Shakespeare. 
Turning  to  bedding  plants,  the 
Dean  hardly  knew  what  to  say  ;  in 
fact,  he  had  said  a  good  deal  about 
them  in  his  time,  and  remembered 
once  asking  a  gardener,  after  they 
had  been  looking  at  a  brilliant 
display  of  bedding  plants,  to  take  him 
into  the  kitchen  garden,  where  they 
could  rest  their  eyes  by  looking  at 
the  Lettuces  (laughter).  However, 
if  grown  in  appropriate  situations, 
displays  of  bedding  plants  were  both 
charming  and  suitable.  The  Dean 
made  further  humorous  remarks 
respecting  the  use  of  statuary  in 
small  gardens,  and  brought  his 
speech  to  a  close  by  alluding  to  the 
hearty  good  fellowship  that  existed 
amongst  gardeners,  adding  that  of 
all  his  friends  and  acquaintances 
in  all  walks  of  life  he  had  found 
none  more  true,  more  thorough, 
and  genial  than  gardeners.  (Loud 
cheering.) 
Mr.  F.  W.  Burbidge’s  paper  on 
“  The  Literature  of  Horticulture  and 
Garden  Libraries”  was  listened  to 
with  much  interest,  and  proved  most 
interesting.  The  essayist  said  there 
was  every  reason  to  believe  that 
there  were  gardens  in  the  earliest 
history  of  the  country,  and  its  litera¬ 
ture  goes  back  to  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  earliest 
books,  however,  were  manuscript 
and  translations  from  the  Latin  or  French.  One,  however,  that 
was  original  is  the  manuscript  now  in  the  library  at  Trinity  College, 
FIG.  26  —ME.  J.  WYNNE-FrOULKES. 
Cambridge,  called  “Master  John  Gardener,”  and  written  during  the 
years  1440  and  1450.  Mr.  Burbidge  then  dealt  on  the  great  works 
