57 



assistant-gardener, who conducted me through the grounds, was not 

 able to tell me the annual expenditure of the institution. The woik- 

 people receive two shillings a day. 



The Library of the University contains many rare works ; but little 

 attention seems to be paid to Natural History : and even the collec- 

 tion of Minerals is not considerable, when compared with many of 

 bur mineral cabinets in Bavaria. 



Our stay in London was extremely short; and we were anxious to 

 take advantage of one of those clear days which are so uncommon 

 in England, in order to visit Oxford, which is only nbout fifty-eight 

 miles distant from the metropolis. We performed this distance in 

 less than six hours, thou2:h at some risk of breakinsc our necks. Sir 

 J. E. Smith had been so obliging as to give us a letter to his friend 

 Dr. Williams, Professor of Botany and Librarian to the RadclifTe 

 Library at the University of Oxford; and through the politeness of 

 this highly estimable person we obtained a view of the treasures of 

 natural history in Oxford, and also of the Radcliffe Library and 

 Hospital. ' 



The Botanical Garden at this University is the oldest in England, 

 having been founded by Henry Lord d'Anvers Earl of Danby, in 

 1622, when the first stone was laid of a wall fourteen feet high which 



still exists, and which it took eleven years to build^ at an expense of 

 5000/. . The erection of the gate by IS"eklaus Stone, for which Inigo 

 Jones furnished the desio:n, cost 500/. On either side of the en- 

 trance to the garden stands a statue ; one of king Charles the First, and 

 the other of his son Charles the Second : these were purchased with 

 the amount of a fine, laid on the celebrated antiquarian Anthony h 

 Wood, as a punishment for a satire which this good old man had 

 ventured to publish in the first edition of the AthencB Oxonienses, 

 against the Earl of Clarendon. This garden had originally been the 

 burial-place of the Jews, who lived in great numbers at Oxford, till 



■ 



the noted banishment and destruction of these state creditors in the 

 reign of Edward the First 1290. It was afterwards enlarged, and 

 at present includes five acres. This addition of ground was however 



i 



but. a, trifling improvement, and the danger of inundation to which it 

 is exposed both in winter and summer still exists. The water fre- 

 quently stands knee-deep above the plants ; and as the lower parts 

 of the garden cannot be sufficiently raised without an immense ex- 



