The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-21 00:00:00

HALE FLORAL AND HORTICULTURAL
SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of this society, for the exhibition
of fruits, flowers, vegetables, &c., was held on Thursday
last, and it was much to be regretted that the very unfa-
vourable state of the weather prevented the promised at-
tendance of numerous visitors from the surrounding dis-
tricts. Notwithstanding, however, the violence of the
storm of wind and rain, a tolerably large and select num-
ber of admirers and amateurs were present on the occasion,
including several of the neighbouring gentry, and a consi-
derable number of farmers and their families.

The show was held in three large marquees, erected on
the ground in front of the school. These were very com-
modious, occupying an area of about 600 yards. During
the raging of the storm the roof of the centre tent, intended
for the exhibition of farm produce, was violently blown off.
The collection of flowers, vegetables, &c., was of the
first order, and far surpassed in quality those of any for-
mer exhibition ; but the elements were so unpropitious
that they could not be shown to the advantage they de-
served. The specimens shown were most abundant, and
the judges declared the whole exhibition to be the most
splendid they had ever seen.
The flowers were rich and beautiful, particularly the
dahlias. The best pan of eighteen, it was adjudged, were
from Mr. Heyes, of Ditton ; the second best from Mr.
Musgrove, of Green-lane Nursery, near this town. The
devices of cut flowers were tasteful and superb. Compa-
ratively few stove and green-house plants were shown, the
weather being against their removal ; but those .brought
were many of them fine. Too much cannot be said in
favour of the fruits, especially the pears, apples, and
plums. The vegetables were excellent, including noble
specimens of celery, cabbages, parsnips, and turnips—
actual curiosities. The farm produce was also fine, in-
cluding wheat, oats, barley, beans, Swedish turnips, and
beet. In this department there were about 100 competi-
tors. The following were amongst the principal prizes :
For the cleanest and neatest cottage, and best cultivated
garden-Ist Prize, Martha Hosken, Halebank ; 2nd, Betty
Hale ; 3rd, W. Barron, Ditton.
For the same, by a labourer in constant employment
under one master--Ist, Thomas Ireland, Speke ; 2nd,
Thomas Taylor ; 3rd, T. Hutchinson.
Best roots, &c., grown as a substitute for potatoes-
-Ist Prize, John Leadbetter ; 2nd, R. Mason.
Longest servitude with the same family—Thos. Hitch-
mough, 36 years ; Josiah Gore, 20 years.
Best model of a cottage and garden—Jas. Edgington :
" Those rustic cots, where woodbines creep
Along the white-washed walls, and peep
Across the latticed window pane,
As if attention there to gain."
Extra Prize—Ralph Dunbabin—a model of Hale Church
and church-yard—
" That consecrated ground,
Where reigns a holy calm around ;
Where stately limes their branches spread,
In gloomy shadows o'er the dead,
As if their guardianship to lend
O'er the remains of some loved friend;
Where stands the church, whose humble tower
Points to that great Almighty power
Who made this favoured spot so fair,
And guards it with paternal care."

NEW WORK BY THE REV. DAVID T HOM.—We now
and then had to banish an idea which obtruded itself as
we listened to Mr. Thom. " What a barrister this gen-
tleman had made, far away from theology, of which the
principles and laws lie in such short compass, and are so
strict, definite, and commanding. Has he not lost the
woolsack, and gained what many think no more a pulpit
than was the tub of Diogenes ? And yet we cannot but
admire his talent, and respect his earnestness." Can our
readers conceive aboutwhat this active, strenuous, wrestling
intellect is at present engaged ? It is on a long elaborate
treatise anent that grand prophetical puzzle, the " name
and number of the beast ! ' In his forthcoming volume
on that subject he has amassed a collection of the opini-
ons ever propounded, from the days of Tremens to those
of Elliott, each fairly stated and formally though briefly
confuted, along with a theory of his own, which dawned
on him, he says, in an instant, and in an instant appeared
to cast a light, not onl? on the particular passage, but on
the entire book, of whose black arch it is, according to
him, the keystone. This theory, of course, he would not
explain, nor are we so sanguine as he of its being the last
and only explication of the depth which so many pro-
phets and righteous men have desired in vain to see ; but
it may be this, ingenious it must be, and his volume will
at least fill up the desiradatum long felt by the student
of prophecy of a complete vade mecum of all the views
which learned men have, we humbly think, wasted their
time in framing, concerning what has little or no practical
value, unless it can be proved to do for the intricacies of
the Apocalypse what the simplicity of Newton's system
did for the confused vortices in which the heavens were
supposed to revolve. But against this there are various
antecedent probabilities, for, in the first place, so far as
we dare speak on such a subject, the difficulty connected.
with the namber of the beast seems rather to be one out-
standing from the scheme of the book than the key of it
all ; because the difficulty connected with the supposition
of this being the key is enhanced by its own inherent and
threefold obscurity ; and because there are many proba-
bilities against the supposition of one key turning so many
locks as the complicated structure of the Revelation in-
cludes. But we speak in the dark; we have great faith
in Mr. Thom's ingenuity, and much impatience for its
finished result, only wondering somewhat at the subject
which a reasoner so acute and with such a strong tendency
to moral themes has selected.—Reminiscences of Liver-
pool by the Rev. W. Gilfillan, in Hog 's Instructor.
CONSTRUCTION AND POSITION OF BEDSTEADS.—A
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affected by sleeping at right angles to, or parellel with,
the line of the terrestrial magnetic current. The house
in which we live has a considerable influence on our
sensations sometimes little suspected.—The Builder.

THE HARVEST-MOON AND THE HUNTER'S-MOON.—
The nearest moon to the autumnal equinox is called the
the harvest moon, and it is this year (1847) the one which
will be at the full on the 24th instint ; she rises nearer to 1
the same time each succeeding night at this time of year
than she does at any other : she has received her cogno-
men in autumn only, on account probably of her use to
the farmers pressed for time with the ingathering of the
harvest. The cause of this phenomenon is the moon's
being in the Fishes and the Ram at the time of the full,
which she is in this and the succeeding month. The
October moon is called the hunter's moon. It is well
known that the signs Fishes and Ram rise making the
smallest, and Libra and Virgo rise making the greatest
angle with the horison ; and vice versa with respect
to setting. Now the moon, whose orbit is nearly pa-
rallel to the ecliptic, is the full in the Fishes and the
Ram in September and October, consequently, rising in
those months, she makes the least angle with the horison,
and therefore rises nearer the same time every evening.
A POET'S MOODS—HOW CIIRISTADEL WAS NEVER
FINISHED.—But immediately on my arrival in this coun-
try I undertook to finish a poeni which I had begun, en-
titled " Christabel," for a second volume of the " Lyrical
Ballads." I tried to perform my promise, but the deep
unutterable disgust which I had suffered in the translation
of the accursed " Wallenstein" seemed to have stricken
me with barrenness ; for I tried and tried, and tried, and
nothing would come of it. I desisted with a deeper de-
jection than lam willing to remember. The wind from
the Skiddaw and Borrowdale was often as loud as wind
need be, and many a walk in the clouds in the mountains
did I take ; but all would not do, till one day I dined out
at the house of a neighbouring clergyman, and some how
or other drank so much wine, that I found some effort and
dexterity requisite to balance myself on the hither edge of
sobriety. The next day my verse-making faculties re-
turned to me, and I proceeded successfully, till my poem
grew so long, and in Wordsworth's opinion so impressive,
that he rejected it from his volume, as disproportionate
both in size and merit, and as discordant. in its character.
In the meantime I had gotten myself entangled in the old
sorites of the old sophist,—procrastination. I had suf-
fered my necessary business to accumulate so terribly,
that I neglected to write to any one, till the pain I suf-
fered from not writing made me waste as many hours in
dreaming about it as would have sufficed for the letter-
writing of half a life.—Retniniscences of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge and Robert Southey, by Joseph Cottle.