Behind the Throne by William Le Queux

The Thornby Flower-Show was held a week later in the rectory grounds, the work of arrangement chiefly devolving upon the bluff, good-natured rector and his nephew George.

The little rural fete, encouraged by the richer residents, was, like other village flower-shows, the annual occasion for the cottagers to exhibit their "twelve best varieties of vegetables," their "six best pot-plants," the ferns from their windows, and such-like horticultural possessions. Though quite a small show, it was typically English, well managed, and therefore always attended by people from the big houses in the neighbourhood, whose gardeners themselves competed in the open classes.