Lovers of the Beautiful: Are Your Gardens and Windows as Beautiful as Your Neighbours.
The good people of this Ambitious city – the city of manufacturers and the citizens of the Manchester of Canada might have been surprised had they been at the Grand Trunk depot the other morning and heard it spoke of, and by a prominent American manufacturer, as the city of flower gardens. Yet, such is the case, and if any person would care to take a trip around the city and look at the residences they would form the same opinion, as the American manufacturer. Fancy flower gardening seems to be a hobby with a great many citizens, and anyone who is not more or less struck by the beauty of a well-laid out and properly attended flower garden is certainly a curiosity. At this particular time of the year, when all the conservatories have been robbed of their wealth, and the citizens to a corresponding extent relieved of their surplus cash, the city may well be said to be a large flower garden. To fully appreciate the beauty of the city, one must not take in the business portion, with its bustle and strife, whose men are too much occupied to think of flowers or anything of beauty except the beauty they see in amassing riches, but should take a quiet walk around the less busy streets, where the bustle and noise gives way as if soothed into quiet repose by the soft breeze playing among the leaves on the many rows of maples which line the streets and avenues. Take, for instance, Jackson street west, Main street, any of the avenues in the east, and many other streets. The leaves look fresh and green, and the merry clatter of the lawn mower is heard in all directions, trimming the lawns smooth and even, and making them look as if covered with a coat of velvet, while the busy sprinkler deals its showers of rain, making fresh and green and preventing the merciless sun from scorching and withering the grass and flowers. Standing at the corner of Jackson and Caroline streets, one might fancy himself in a modern garden of Eden. To the west is the residence of Bishop Fuller, surrounded by its beautifully laid out grounds, and the residence of Thomas Robertson, with its surroundings still beautiful, although undergoing extensive repairs, while at the east is the premises of W.E. Sanford with its handsome flower beds, rockeries and fountain. The lawns of Alex. McLagan and John Winer, Main street east, are also beautifully laid out and well kept. Market street, too, although leading direct into the business part of the city, has its places of beauty, the residence of J. B. Bagwell, on the corner of Park street, being surrounded and, half-hid, amid flowers and trees. Further west on Market street is a row of houses the residents of which, while decorating their own houses, do it in such a way as to make the row beautiful to behold, by the number and beauty of the flowers in its windows. The residence of Mrs. Jane Horsburg, No. 121, perhaps stands out more prominently than the rest for floral beauty. The residence of Myles Hunting has long been an attraction on account of the beauty and abundance of the flowers displayed in its windows. Concession street also has a large number of lawns and flower gardens, the residents seeming to be at variance with each other as to whose will look the best, while in every part of the city wherever there is a spare foot of ground in front of a neat house, it is sure to be adorned with its plot of flowers, which in almost every case may be taken as a type of character of the inhabitants, showing the love for home comforts and adornment, and a desire to keep up the beauty of the city, in some way making up for its want of public parks.
- Appeared in the Hamilton Spectator - June 11, 1883
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