I send you an extract from the Evening Gazette,

Aberdeen, Scotland, my native city, about the opening of a public park presented to that city by Miss Duthie, which it would be needless to say anything more in conveying some idea of so grand a gift for the benefit of that city, than to state it cost fifty thousand pounds sterling. Never could any people have shown more gratitude to her than on the day the key was handed to them of a place of amusement and recreation complete with its lawns, walks, trees, shrubs and flowers. Well might she think it was happier to give than to receive, as cheer after cheer went up from that immense throng as she presented herself in the park to deliver the key to them. There was a cessation from all labor. The rich and the poor mingled in praise of so noble a lady.

The streets seemed to excel each other with the grandeur of their decorations.

The opening ceremony was performed by the Princess Beatrice with the following words:

" It is with great pleasure I come here in the name of the Queen, my Mother, to declare this beautiful park open, the key of which I now hand to the Lord Provost. I am convinced that Miss Duthie's very generous gift will greatly conduce to the health of her fellow citizens."

To detail the park would no doubt be very interesting, but I send a plan which has been kindly sent me. The cost of the gift will give some idea of its grandeur. What I want more especially to show is the part which was taken in it by the practical gardeners who gathered to the number of two hundred and fifty. Their part will be more interesting to readers of your Monthly, and is worthy of detail.

The procession to the opening of the park was headed by a magnificent floral design made and fitted on to a lorry (low wagon) drawn by six powerful horses. The frame was twelve feet high. When the decorations were complete it stood fifteen. The frame was designed with arches and festoons ending at the apex in a coronet. On each side of the frame at the base was the word "welcome," worked in floral letters. The arches of the frame were of iron rods which at each end form two diamonds. The whole of the arch was of flowers composed of Dahlias, Calceolarias, Hollyhocks, and other hardy flowers, many thousands in number, and weighing many hundredweights, filled in with evergreens. Round the bottom of the frame were placed a number of decorative plants in pots. The coronet was formed of Dahlias and bright colored flowers. Within the frame work was a miniature tree, covered with rosy cheeked apples, representing Adam and Eve in their primitive dress of leaves in the act of pulling the forbidden fruit. There were two serpents entwined around the stem of the tree, which gave it a very realistic appearance.

The whole formed an ideal "grotto" alike perfect in its execution and design.

The Duthie Park, Aberdeen, Scotland.

It was gotten up under the auspicies of the gardeners of the city, the work being superintended by a committee chosen from their numbers. The work was much forwarded by the assistance of the nobles and gentlemen of the county who, in addition to sending quantities of flowers, also sent them their gardeners and assistants to help with their construction. Numerous emblems of the craft were also carried in the procession.

Miss Duthie, not satisfied that she had done enough, made a further offer of certain lands in the vicinity of the park, from which rents were derived by her. These rents to be appropriated for the maintenance of the park and that only. But the council of the city seemed to think that after such a munificent donation it would be wrong to entertain such an offer, as the citizens would be dissatisfied with any further encroachment on her generosity, and they insisted on maintaining it themselves.

On the 19th September the town council unanimously placed on record in their minutes an expression of their thanks to Miss Duthie, and of the feelings of the general community in this respect. An excerpt of this minute, written in a magnificently illuminated album, enclosed in a splendidly carved casket, was presented to her at her residence by a deputation of the council headed by the Lord Provost. The citizens may well say with a motto carried in the procession : " As long as the water runs in the Dee, Miss Duthie will be remembered." (Dee, a river passing in front of the park.)

[The formation of public gardens and parks near the large cities of the United States, is just now attracting considerable attention, and it seemed to us it might serve an useful purpose in this connection to give with this a sketch of the beautiful park Mr. Robertson refers to. - Ed.G. M.]