2-913-529 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Anniversary Fete at the Arboretum, Derby - The Entrance Gateway, 1854. Crowds visit public gardens in Derbyshire. '...thousands upon thousands of the labouring classes, from the busy hives of Birmingham, Burton, Sheffield, Leicester, and Nottingham, poured into Derby, to commemorate the opening of the Arboretum, presented to the people by their constant friend and generous benefactor, the late Joseph Strutt [a cotton mill owner]'. The grounds were laid out by John Claudius Loudon, 'the distinguished landscape gardener...[Strutt had stipulated] "That the Arboretum shall be open to all classes of the public without payment"...The rain fell heavily, but it failed in drowning the ardour or quenching the enthusiasm of the people. They went for pleasure and resolved to have it.' From "Illustrated London News", 1854.