Yorkshire Almanac James Backhouse, a Quaker nurseryman from York, triumphs with exotic varieties at the Yorkshire Horticultural Society’s summer meeting in Leeds

6 July 1825: James Backhouse, a Quaker nurseryman from York, triumphs with exotic varieties at the Yorkshire Horticultural Society’s summer meeting in Leeds

York Herald. 1825/07/09. Yorkshire Horticultural Society. York. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

YORKSHIRE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
This Society held its summer meeting at Kirkstall Hotel, on Wednesday, and presented a scene truly delightful to both professors and amateurs of the art of Horticulture, the various specimens of fruit, flowers and vegetables, being of the very finest quality. Some delay in commencing the business, was occasioned by the excellence of several of the specimens of fruit submitted to the opinion of the Judges, on the merits of which they found it impossible to decide, and in one case the prize was equally divided between the two competitors. The chair was, in consequence, not taken till near two o’clock, when the Rev. J. A. Rhodes. M. A. of Horsforth Hall, addressed the meeting. Amongst the prizes adjudged were the following:-

For the best Pine — Mr. Gough, gardener to B. Gott, of Armley-House, Esq. to whom a handsome copy of the Dendrologia Britannica, with 172 coloured plates of the trees and shrubs that will flower in Great Britain, 2 vols, value £5. 15s. was adjudged. Second best ditto — Charles Harrison, gardener to J. A. S. Wortley, of Wortley-Hall, Esq. M. P.

For the most splendid Exotic Bouquet — Messrs. Backhouse, nurserymen, of York. This was a collection of very rare plants, among which were the Plumbago Capensis, Argeratum Celestinum, Potentilla Atrosanguinea, Lathyrus, Grandiflora, Crassula Versicolor, and Louezia Tricolor.

For the best Hardy Bouquet – Messrs. Backhouse.

For the rarest Exotic in Pot – Messrs. Backhouse.

For the rarest and most recently introduced Exotic in Pot, in Flower — Messrs. Backhouse – the Fuchsia Gracilis, from Chili, in South America.

For the best Strawberries — Mr. Baines, gardener to Walter Fawkes, of Farnley-Hall, Esq. The subject of this prize was two beautiful specimens of Kean’s Seedling and North’s Hautboy.

A very rare and great variety or roses from Mr. Charters, gardener to the Right Hon. Lord Grantham, were exhibited. The gardeners of the following gentlemen kindly assisted in the decoration of the room; – The Rev. J. A. Rhodes, M. A. Charles Chadwick, Esq. of St. Anne’s, T. W. Tottie, Esq. Mr. Clark, of Rodley, &c.

The meeting concluded about four o’clock, when the Chairman informed the company that the next meeting would be on the first Wednesday in Sept.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Backhouse had acquired the business ten years before:

On James Backhouse’s return to Darlington, in 1815, it was with the intention of commencing business as a Nurseryman there. He was pleased with the idea of settling in his native place, and felt somewhat disappointed when he found that the old and well-established Nursery business of John and George Telford, of York, was to be disposed of. “I felt,” he says,

the importance of a right decision, and besought the Most High that He would condescend to direct me, and He in mercy heard and answered my prayer. On going to consult a relative, my mind still bent on my former plans, a clear impression of its being best for me to go to York, broke in upon me with such a feeling of sweetness, as at once overcame my predilection for Darlington. Keeping to this impression, under the belief that it was from the Lord, my mind never became perplexed with doubts upon the subject.

Accompanied by my cousin Jonathan Backhouse, who was one of my Father’s executors, I went to York, and we soon made the needful arrangements for my taking the concern, but being convinced it was too large for myself alone, my brother Thomas consented to join me in it. This arrangement brought us into a position in which, with industry, and the income we had from other sources, we were placed in comfortable circumstances. Neither of us desired affluence, and we felt that we had cause for great thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, who had thus opened the way for our temporal provision.

The business had been in the occupation of the Telford family for one hundred and fifty years. I removed to York in the 11th month of the same year, and my Brother followed soon after we had obtained possession in the 5th month of 1816. We lived in lodgings about a year, and then took a house in Micklegate, and our beloved Mother, with the rest of the family, came to live with us.

Among the servants in the business there were some who were a great comfort to us, – men of good Christian principle; and we have been favoured to have a succession of such, so that, notwithstanding some trying exceptions, we have had much of the comfort and blessing of being compassed about by the righteous.

(Backhouse 1877)

From an almanacker's perspective, Oliver Heywood & Dr Hook are frustrating – tendency to focus on religion vs worldly business – but failure of James Backhouse, Quaker botanist & nurseryman, to diarize his botanical trips with lead miner John Binks to Upper Teesdale is tragic

— Singing Organ-Grinder (@elorganillero) April 1, 2023

Backhouse Snr. explains why this was:

In the study of botany, as well as in other things, I found it necessary to keep “to the limitations of the Spirit of Truth,” lest these things should gain an undue place in my mind, and become as idols, drawing my attention from that Love and service to God which was needful to my growth in grace, and due from me to the Author of all the mercies I enjoyed (Horsman 1998).

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Comment

Backhouse had acquired the business ten years before:

On James Backhouse’s return to Darlington, in 1815, it was with the intention of commencing business as a Nurseryman there. He was pleased with the idea of settling in his native place, and felt somewhat disappointed when he found that the old and well-established Nursery business of John and George Telford, of York, was to be disposed of. “I felt,” he says,

the importance of a right decision, and besought the Most High that He would condescend to direct me, and He in mercy heard and answered my prayer. On going to consult a relative, my mind still bent on my former plans, a clear impression of its being best for me to go to York, broke in upon me with such a feeling of sweetness, as at once overcame my predilection for Darlington. Keeping to this impression, under the belief that it was from the Lord, my mind never became perplexed with doubts upon the subject.

Accompanied by my cousin Jonathan Backhouse, who was one of my Father’s executors, I went to York, and we soon made the needful arrangements for my taking the concern, but being convinced it was too large for myself alone, my brother Thomas consented to join me in it. This arrangement brought us into a position in which, with industry, and the income we had from other sources, we were placed in comfortable circumstances. Neither of us desired affluence, and we felt that we had cause for great thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, who had thus opened the way for our temporal provision.

The business had been in the occupation of the Telford family for one hundred and fifty years. I removed to York in the 11th month of the same year, and my Brother followed soon after we had obtained possession in the 5th month of 1816. We lived in lodgings about a year, and then took a house in Micklegate, and our beloved Mother, with the rest of the family, came to live with us.

Among the servants in the business there were some who were a great comfort to us, – men of good Christian principle; and we have been favoured to have a succession of such, so that, notwithstanding some trying exceptions, we have had much of the comfort and blessing of being compassed about by the righteous.

(Backhouse 1877)

From an almanacker's perspective, Oliver Heywood & Dr Hook are frustrating – tendency to focus on religion vs worldly business – but failure of James Backhouse, Quaker botanist & nurseryman, to diarize his botanical trips with lead miner John Binks to Upper Teesdale is tragic

— Singing Organ-Grinder (@elorganillero) April 1, 2023

Backhouse Snr. explains why this was:

In the study of botany, as well as in other things, I found it necessary to keep “to the limitations of the Spirit of Truth,” lest these things should gain an undue place in my mind, and become as idols, drawing my attention from that Love and service to God which was needful to my growth in grace, and due from me to the Author of all the mercies I enjoyed (Horsman 1998).

Something to say? Get in touch

23 April 1832: “Pilgrims” arrive at Leeds on Easter Monday on their way to York to hear Richard Oastler call for a 10-hour working day for mill children

12 April 0627: In a triumph for his Kentish wife, Edwin of Northumbria is baptised on Easter Sunday by Paulinus, in the latter’s wooden oratory on the site of York Minster

6 April 1821: At the opening of the hall of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, the surgeon Charles Turner Thackrah bids the town repay its debt to knowledge

11 November 1918: George Ellison of Richmond Hill, Leeds, is the last British soldier to be killed in action in the First World War

13 June 1635: A Puritan talks to the gardener at York of the notorious miser and swindler, Sir Arthur Ingram

25 September 1880: Thomas Harper reveals to the Leeds Mercury’s young readers a mnemonic song of monarchs (except Oliver) used in the village school at Weldrake (York) in the 1770s

9 April 1938: Huge crowds witness air-raid demonstrations on Holbeck and Woodhouse Moors, Leeds

31 March 1851: The Leeds abolitionist Wilson Armistead submits his census return, including the names of two lodgers – the escaped American slaves, William and Ellen Craft

18 September 1858: The Spectator is bowled over by the new Leeds Festival chorus’s singing of the Messiah – “the music text-book of the West Riding”

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Comment

Comparison with the piece from The Spectator on the same day suggests to me that their critic is referred to above:

The Leeds Musical Festival terminated with The Messiah on the morning of Saturday last. In the performance of the solo parts there was nothing remarkable, the principal singers being the usual metropolitan celebrities, Madame Clara Novello, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Weiss; but the choruses were sung in a manner which the metropolis certainly has never been able to equal. We have already had occasion to notice the superiority of the choristers of Birmingham to those of Exeter Hall, notwithstanding their inferiority in numerical strength: at Leeds the same observation held good in a still more remarkable degree. At Exeter Hall the choral and instrumental band numbers above 700; at Birmingham it numbered about 500; at Leeds under 350: while the real power of these tuneful hosts was in the inverse ratio of their numbers. The Birmingham 500 excelled the London 700, while the Leeds 350 excelled both the one and the other. The Yorkshire choristers are the best in England, if not the best in the world; and all the Leeds choristers were Yorkshire people belonging to the working classes, drawn from the towns and villages of that musical land. Among them there was not one useless individual: they all had sound, mellow, English voices; they all thoroughly knew their parts, and consequently sang without hesitation or wavering, and their united voices formed a volume of pure musical sound which we have never heard equalled elsewhere by twice their number. Of all the districts of England the great county of York is the best able to furnish the materials for a great music-meeting; and in former times it was in the city of York that the greatest of the English Festivals was held, though it has been long since crushed by the interference of clerical bigotry. We are glad that a new Yorkshire Festival has been established. Like that of Birmingham, it is independent of the abused power of ecclesiastical dignitaries: and as the people of Leeds have emulated those of Birmingham in spirit and energy, their Festival has a fair prospect of rivalling the other in durability and magnitude. And this prospect is all the greater for the design, (which we understand, is contemplated) of rendering the Leeds Festival, like that of Birmingham, a permanent establishment, with triennial meetings for one charitable object, the benefit of the General Infirmary, a charity of great and extensive usefulness.

The financial result of this first Music Meeting at Leeds has been highly favorable. The audiences at the seven morning and evening performances amounted on an average to 2000 persons at each; the whole amount received has been about 75001, while the expenditure is estimated at 6000l: so that the charity will be benefited to the extent of about 1500l.

The appointment of Professor Sterndale Bennett (who, in addition to his high talents and reputation, is a Yorkshireman born) to the office of conductor, gave general satisfaction from the outset, and the vigour and ability with which he performed his duties, enhanced greatly the excellence of the performances and the success of the Festival.
(Spectator 1858/09/18)

George Bernard Shaw, however:

Down to 1877 the majority of the committee never got beyond the primitive notion that a great musical event was one at which Tietjens sang and Costa conducted. It was not until she died and he repudiated the committee that Leeds at last found out that familiarity with The Messiah, Elijah and the overture to William Tell, was not the climax of nineteenth-century musical culture.

Can someone point me to something about the York festival?

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