230 COLLEGE GARDENS 



There is a good Ceanothus veitchianus in the Fellows' 

 Garden and a red-leaved Vine has been most appropriately and 

 invitingly trained round the entrance to the Common Room. 



ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE. A good example of what may be 

 accomplished within the limits of a College garden may be 

 seen at St. John's College. The garden was laid out by 

 "Capability" Brown* and Repton, but the present Bursar 

 has taken full advantage both of his official position and of 

 the possibilities of the soil and aspect, to cultivate many beauti- 

 ful and interesting Herbaceous plants which are an ornament 

 to the garden and a delight to visitors, and have greatly 

 enhanced the high reputation of St. John's Garden. It is 

 not every College Bursar who is so enthusiastic a horticulturist t 

 as Mr. Bidder. 



The gardens have been steadily improved " under the sober 

 direction of discriminating taste " (Ingram). 



I woll nat long hold you in fable 



Of all this garden delectable 



I mote my tongue stinten nede, 



For I ne may withoulen drede 



Naught tellen you the beautie all, 



Ne halfe the bountie therewithal. CHAUCER. 



A " Catalogue of Herbaceous Plants cultivated in the 

 Gardens of St. John's College, Oxford," has been printed. 

 It was revised in 1890 and enumerates about 350 species. 



* This remarkable personage, born 1716, after ten years in the service 

 of Lord Cobham at Stowe, settled in 1749 as consulting landscape 

 gardener. George II. appointed him Head Gardener at Hampton Court. 

 He was High Sheriff for Hunts and Cambridgeshire 1770, and died 1783. 

 His work was not " cheap," cf. Cowper, " The Task," bk. iii. 



f Nor even every Bursar of St. John's ! See a manuscript book of 

 poems in the British Museum, MS. 37684 : 



On y e Burser of St. John's Oxon cults down a fine Row of Trees. 

 Indulgent Nature to each -Kind bestows 

 A secret Instinct to discern their Foes 

 The Goose, a silly bird, avoids y c Fox 

 Lambs fly from Wolves, & Saylors steer from Rocks 

 A Thief y e Gallows as his Fate foresees, 

 And bears a like Antipathy to Trees. (?) W. TAYLOR. 



