THE OXFORD HEATING APPARATUS 



THE GLASS-HOUSES 



Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too. 



Unconscious of a less propitious clime, 



There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug, 



While the winds whistle, and the snows descend. COWPER. 



Historical The first conservatory or shelter for "tender greens" 

 was, as shown in Loggan's plan of the Garden (p. 7), a long, low stone 

 Orangery along the London Road, of sufficient solidity to admit of trans- 

 formation early in the eighteenth century into the herbarium, library, and 

 professorial residence (p. 15). By 1710, two small glass-houses had been 

 added to it, one at each end. In 1776 it was pulled down to make room 

 for a more commodious house of two or three stones, which was in 

 turn demolished that the approach to the new bridge might be widened. 



In those early days, before the extensive use of glass, and before the 

 introduction of any efficient heating apparatus, the massive walls of stone 

 conservatories open to the south, would have not only afforded efficient 

 shelter to the plants, but by getting warmed by the sun during the day 

 would have slowly radiated heat by night, and thus have checked the 

 chilling of the plants. A massive building might thus have had advantages 

 over a light modern structure of glass and wood. In very severe weather 

 a four-wheeled wagon * was rilled with burning charcoal, and was drawn 

 backwards and forwards along the path by the gardener. 



At an early date the first conservatory was replaced by the Eastern 

 Architectural Conservatory, still partly standing to the east of the Danby 

 Gate, and which is said to have been erected by James Sherard, brother 

 of the Consul (Dillenius' "Letters"). A "new herb house" is men- 

 tioned in Wood's Diary under date May 21, 1695. It had soon, in 1715, 

 to be enlarged to receive a collection of curious exotics presented by 



* We owe our illustration to the courtesy of the Editor of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, the journal in which it appeared as Fig. 163 on p. 732, in 1885.. 



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