226 COLLEGE GARDENS 



The site of part of the garden was covered in the fourteenth 

 century with small halls which became the property of the 

 College. A portion of the garden did not at first belong 

 to the College, but was hired from Balliol. In one of the 

 leases, for forty-one years from Lady Day, 1581, it was stated 

 that " Exeter shall not make any bowling allee or tennisse 

 court which may be noisome to students, or any hogsty or 

 dunghill or any other filthy savour " (Boase). The garden 

 had been "made square" with a wall in 1573. The winding 

 path has been said to have been planned by Hogarth to 

 illustrate his line of beauty. The Rector informs me that the 

 exact date of the terrace is unknown, but that he believes 

 it to have been thrown up early in the/ eighteenth century, 

 when the RadclifTe was erected. A quit rent is still paid to 

 All Souls College, and so it is probable that some of the 

 ground last enclosed belonged to that College. 



At the further corner, on the terrace, is Heber's Horse- 

 chestnut (n ft), so called because it shaded Reginald Heber's 

 rooms in Brasenose (circ. 1800-3). It stands high above 

 the road, and, when not cut back, reaches almost across 

 Brasenose Lane. There is a saying that when the branches 

 of the tree touch the buildings of Brasenose, Exeter will bump 

 B.N.C. on the river: and this actually occurred in 1895. 

 Near it are two old Pear-trees (5 ft. 6 in. and 4 ft. 2 in.). 

 In the border along the road are a Cut-leaved Alder 

 (6 ft. 3 in.) and a newly planted collection of shrubs, 

 none apparently of much interest, as yet. 



One of the Fig-trees against the College building is 

 associated with the name of Kennicott, Radcliffe Librarian, 

 1767-83, and a Fellow of Exeter until 1771, but none of 

 the branches trained on the wall date from his time. The 

 older branches were all killed down to the root by the severe 

 winter of 1860. There is a tradition that the first Fig here 

 was introduced by Maundrell, Fellow of the College, who 

 had been chaplain at Aleppo in 1695, and thus, like Pococke 



