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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Meeting at Colchester, Copford, Birch, etc.
Saturday, June 23rd, 1894.
The weather was perfect, and although the party was not so large as usual,
those who attended were well repaid by a very pleasant excursion. The conductors
were : Mr. C E. Benham, Dr. H. Laver, F.L.S., Mr. J. C. Shenstone, and Mr.
W. Cole.
Birch Church and Village.
At half-past eleven the party left Colchester (Main) Station in a brake for
Mr. Benjamin Cant's Rose Gardens at Mile End. The culture of roses in this
district, both by professional growers and amateurs, has attained great perfection.
The ancient and interesting town of Colchester is as far famed for its beds of
roses as for the produce of its municipal beds of oysters in the Colne, and a visit
to these fragrant gardens in the month of June was a happy thought on the part
of the conductors. Colchester took the lead for roses even fifty years ago, when
one John Hedge, of Reed Hall, was the most successful amateur rose grower in
England ; Mr. B. R. Cant standing first among professionals. Mr. John Hedge
has long passed away, but we still have Mr. Benjamin Cant; and although the
number of English rose growers has greatly increased, he still holds his
position as probably the most successful cultivator of this charming flower in
England. Mr. Cant has won the Grand Challenge Trophy of the National Rose
Society no less than six times. He won the Jubilee Champion Cup in 1892, the
Chiswick Challenge Cup 1891 and 1892, and altogether he has taken 1,780 first