Date: 20 December 1864
Place: Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM FRUIT AND CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW:
OR, THE HANDSWORTH HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
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Societies are generally organised through the exertions of some enterprising individual, and generally prosper when they have for their object the common weal of his country and fellow men, and with such philanthropic views that individual is to be much admired. I do not profess to know who are the actual managers of the Handsworth Society, but from a report which has appeared in this Journal, for its admirable arrangements much credit is due to the Honorary Secretaries, Mr. George P. Tye, and Mr. Charles James Perry, the latter maintaining throughout the play a position resembling very much that of a “Hamlet.” It is indispensable to have a good Secretary for the management of a Society, and few positions could offer better to show the philanthropy of a man than that of an honorary secretary giving his services in such a way as not to invite the remark that those services are for any selfish end. At this Show we find the Honorary Secretary, a resident near Birmingham, competing for, and carrying off the ten-guinea cup, and all the rest of the principal prizes, obtaining twelve first prizes and four second, walking easily over every one, including Mr. Pluck, a fruit merchant of Jersey, a resident among the fruits in the Channel Islands, and to whose name we only find one first and two second prizes recorded. It seems strange that Mr. Pluck should send fruit all the way from Jersey, and compete only for one or two secondary prizes. The large collection of fruit of Mr. Perry’s which did obtain the cup, contained a tolerably free sprinkling of baking and stewing Pears. Mention of this, however, did not appear in any of the reports of the meeting which I saw. ...
- WM. MILLER.
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Mr Pluck is James Pluck [PL1430] who can be found in Tree 1005