The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-29 00:00:00

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

The Anniversary Breakfast of this Society was
given on Saturday ; and although it forms one of
the principal attractions of the fashionable season, and
is looked forwar,l to with more anxiety than any
other fete, either public or pirate, we are sorry to
ray that on this, as on many former occasions, the
Directors have been exceedingly unfortunate in their
selection of the day. We are well aware of the I
necessity of appointing a time when there is the'
greatest probability of procuring a good show of •
those fruits upon the culture and improvement of
which the Society most prides itself, and for which
it was indeed originally constituted ; and we tlere-
fore admit that it is necessary to fix die time fi►r the
annual fete, or we ought rather to say " the spew,"
when those fruits are in the greatest perfection; but
we still are inclined to think, in common with many
of the sinferers of Saturday, that the Directors
should retain the power of postponing this exhibi-
tion, on those occasions, when there seems to be no
fair probability of that enjoyment which the visitors
are enttled to expect. For this reason we of
to the constant nomination of Saturday for the an-
nual banquet ; because, from the perishable nature of
the luxuties provided for the entertainment, it is im-
possible to postpone it over Sunday unt.l Monday,
although the delay of a single day :night not be
productive of the slightest inconvenience. This,
we believe, was the predominant feeling of the
greater number of the three thousand persons who
were on Saturday subjected to the inching of one of
the most pitiless storms of our English summer.
The night had been stormy, the morning was un-
propitious, and notwithstanding a slight gleam of
sunshine, about one o'clock there was every appear-
ance of what our neighbours beyond the Tweed call
a " drawky day"—most truly did it prove so ; but
as there appeared no announcement on the part of
the Directors to put off the day of expected plea-
sure, a vast number of respectable equipages began
about two o'clock' to crowd the road towards Chis-
wick. At three o'clock, notwithstanding the very
unfavourable appearance of the atmosphere, there
were, probably, three thousand persons of the first
respectability assembled in the gardens, all enjoying
the delightful promenades which it affords, and not
a few waiting with some anxiety for the opening of
the refreshment booths, which was announced to
take place at half-past three. At that hour a num-
ber of persons assembled before the entrance, but in
consequence of some disappointment in the arrange-
ments (we believe arising from the non-arrival
of the Duke of Sussex), the breaVast was not
attainable until four o'clock; an hour at which the
greater portion of the company had been compelled
to seek shelter from the heavy rain inn the more dis-
tant tents provided for their accommodation. The
consequence was, that,the ladies, adorned in silks of
all the hues of the raintow, and treading in shoes
fitted for those quadrilles to which Weippea's band
was intended to form a stimulant, were compelled,
after hours of patient endurance, to tread their way
to the refreshment tents through oceans of mud, and
under the pelting of cue of the heaviest rains of the
season. We, however, do Messrs. Gunter the jus-
tice to say, that when the pilgrimage ended, enough
was provided for the enjoyment of the lovers of
good eating and drinking at the shrine which they
sought. Evety substantial eatable of the season,
united with many of its delicacies and varieties, were
to be furor] in profusion; and wines of all kinds,
from humble port to claret, hock, and champagne,
were distributed with a liberality to which the spirits
of some of the gentlemen, notwithstanding the un-
propitious state of the weather, bore ample testi-
mony. It etas said of Louis the Fourteenth, that he
must be counted among the gluttons of his age, be-
cause he ate two or three plates of soup, a pheasant,
a partridge, a plate of salad, a plate of mutton
dressed with gravy and garlic, two slices of ham,
and a plate of pastry, at a single sitting. If, how-
ever, those who considered the Grand Monarque a
great feeder, had witnessed the exertions of
some of those who were collected round the tables
on Saturday, they must have either restrained
their censure, or been satisfied that the vice of
gormandizing was not confined to the House of
Bourbon. Dishes of fowl and of veal pies and
salads, disappeared almost magically. One gentle-
man, who had complained much of the delay of
what he called his lunch, actually devoured, while
we stood near him, a whole pie, a dish of veal and
ham, another of lobster salad, another of jelly, arid
so many strawberries, that we dare not pretend to
calculate the quantity. Of the wine he drank we
take no count, because it was gently blended with
the eatables, and formed, we presume, but a prelude
to the excesses of the evening. It was well indeed
for Mr. Gunter that this gentleman cannot be pre-
sented as a specimen of the company, although we
have no doubt, from what came under our immediate
vision, that there were very many of the same
species collected to do justice to his exertions us a
caterer. We cannot say much of the exhibition of
the fruits on this occasion. We happened to be
among those unhappy persons who were prevented
from enjoying their distribution ; butt, as far as eve
could see, on the cursory examination of the morn-
ing, there was nothing among the strawberry speci-
mens to be compared with the established favourites
—Wiltnot's Superb and Knyvett's Pine. Some of
Kean"s seedlings, exhibited on this occasion, though
not remarkable for size, possessed, however, a very
exquisite flavour. In grapes, the Muscat of Alexandria
sum passed all others in size and appearance. Of
pine apples there was a respectable show, but, alto-
' pater, we. think the .4xhibition of this year (whe-
ther from the lsackwaTilness of the season, or from
other causes, we know not) much inferior to the
last. The gardens were fitted up with tents and
marquees, with the usual elegant and picturesque
arrangement, precisely, indeed, as they appeared
last year; and the Messrs. Gunter did every thing
in their power, by the aid of boards and baskets, to
obviate those' complaints'against the impassibility of
the walks which we heard last year. It was out of
their power, however, to contend against the satu-
rating rain which fell in the course of the day, and
the walks became, therefore, not so much from their
original softness as from the constant induration of
clogs and shoes, a terror to tell passengers. The
Tyrolese Minstrels and Les Trois Troubadours were
engaged to perform in the course of the evening, on
a stage prepared for their reception, but the unfa-
vourable state of the weather prevented these, like
all other amusements, from being presented to the
company. We recognised many persons of distinc-
tion among the throng; and we believe we give ut-
terance to the general feeling, when we say that no-
thing but the unpropitious state of the weather de-
prived them of the utmost enjoyment which they an-
ticipated.