Rev. George Treweeke

WEST BRITON, Sept 3, 1841

ILLOGAN COTTAGE GARDEN SOCIETY

This society held its tenth anniversary on Thursday last, at Pool, when the shew of vegetables exceeded that of any former year, both in quantity and quality, although it was thought the ne plus ultra had been attained long ago.   It was said by one of the judges, a gentleman from Devonshire, two years since, that he would defy all the gentlemen in Devonshire to produce from their garden, vegetables equal to those grown by the cottagers on the waste of Lady Basset’s estate.   No doubt that was true then; and now, if the competition were thrown open for all England, there is no doubt that the Illogan Cottagers would win.   The president, the Rev. George TREWEEKE, in his address, illustrated the advantages resulting from such a society, by instancing, that the cottager who has won the greatest number of prizes both at home and abroad, was before this institution an idle and intemperate man, but is now remarkable for industry and sobriety.   He was happy to say, too, that it had a beneficial bearing on the children of the cottagers, two of whom he would mention.   The first, William CRAZE, kept his father’s garden, one of the very first class; it is well filled with every useful vegetable, excellently arranged, most luxuriant, and without a weed.   The youth is a pattern of industry and sobriety.   The other, HARRIS, is a son of a widow, whose garden is in the neatest order. He cheerfully supports his mother, and is the solace of her age. These are some of the fruits of an institution, which claims the patronage of all classes, involving, as it does, the welfare of the cottager, and the cottager’s family.   A large company sat down to dinner, in a tent erected for the occasion; Mr. Treweeks presided, and by his kind manner, diffused cheerfulness throughout.   Mr. REYNOLDS, in speaking of the advantages of the society, said, he well remembered when there were but two cottages on the common, and these without gardens; but now, more than two hundred had been viewed by the gentlemen appointed for that purpose, and the greater part of them had excellent gardens.   Four hundred acres had been redeemed by the cottagers from the waste of Lady Basset’s estate, maintaining a population of two thousand, and that without parochial relief, and giving an income of £700 per annum.

(In consequence of the neglect of the person to whom the above report was intrusted, it did not reach us in time for our last week’s paper.)