PROFESSOR'S HOUSE 163 



" In 1714 Bobart had a very handsome house, lately built for 

 his Use at the expence of the University ; where he attends 

 Courses of Botany, if any Persons are so curious as to study 

 and go thro' the same." The large sums of money which 

 were spent by the University on the Garden between 1692 

 and 1696 (stated in detail in the section on Finance, pp. 175-6) 

 probably included the cost of this house. A view of the 

 top of this, the Old House as it was called, appeared in the 

 Oxford Almanack for 1766, as shown in our view facing p. 153. 

 It stood on the street, at the foot of the bridge. 



In the seventies, plans for the construction of a new house 

 were contemplated, and James Wyatt, the architect, went into 

 the matter in 1775 ; but whether or not the house, actually 

 built with the aid of the grant made by Convocation in 1776, 

 was entirely planned by him, is not certain. An advertisement 

 inviting tenders appeared in Jackson ^s Oxford Journal for 

 March 23, 1776. 



Meanwhile, the foundation-stone of the new Magdalen 

 Bridge had been laid on March 26, 1773, and when the 

 bridge was finished, the approach was found to be not wide 

 enough. Either the new Professor's House * or Magdalen 

 Tower obviously had to be moved. 



* Good views of the Professor's House have been published by Malchair 

 in " A view from St. Clements of Magdalen Bridge, before it was taken 

 down in 1772"; also in the Oxford Almanacks for 1771, reproduced as 

 plates 123 and 124 by Skelton ; also by Buckler in his " View of Magdalen 

 College from the South-east," and in the " Entrance to Oxford by the 

 London Road." It is no longer seen in a similar view of Magdalen 

 Tower and Bridge published in the Oxford Almanack for 1797. 



In 1797 the Oxford Paving Commissioners paid to Magdalen College 

 ^94 for the purchase of 12 ft. added to the street and for loss to the 

 College by the pulling down of houses which were under lease. The land 

 opposite to the College was enclosed in 1819 by an iron railing similar 

 to that in front of the Physick Garden. The last notice of the house 

 was a credit of 2 99 1 7 S - 4^* P a id by the Street Commissioners for the 

 materials of the Old House, which appeared in a Garden Improvements 

 Balance Sheet for Nov. 2, 1835. 



