ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 231 



This, however, has long been obsolete, and the number of 

 species on the rockery alone would approach 1,000. 



The oldest trees in the garden are the Elms, the largest of 

 which, now a mere stump, measures 15 ft. round the trunk; 

 another near the Common Room has a girth of 12 ft. 10 in. 

 and is about 20 ft. in height, having -been polled in 1909. 

 And it is appropriate that there should be Elms at St. John's, 

 for the College was founded near a triple Elm. Salmon, in 1 748, 

 noted that the walks were planted with Dutch Elms (stunted 

 pollards), and that the walls were covered with evergreens. 



The timber of next largest growth is that of the Horse- 

 chestnuts, several of about the same age, measuring from 

 10 ft. to 9 ft. 4 in. in circumference. The best Lime has a 

 fine trunk of 9 ft. 8 in. ; the two Evergreen Oaks, 6 ft. 7 in. 

 and 5 ft. 10 in. ; Yew, 5 ft. 7 in. ; Cedar, 7 ft. 9 in. ; Scotch 

 Fir, 3 ft. 9 in. ; Laburnum, 4 ft. ; and a remarkably tall 

 Thorn has a trunk of 24 ft. in height and 4 ft. 3 in. in girth. 

 Close to it under the south wall are a Dimorphanthus 

 mandshuricus, a species of Aralia, stem girth i ft. 7 in., and 

 some large Juniper bushes, 7 ft. to 8 ft. high. Another Juniper 

 nearer the rockery forms a fine bush 12 ft. across, its stem- 

 girth being i ft. 4 in. Near it is a clumpy Thuja pygmaea^ 

 a bush 5 ft. through. 



Growing against the College are the curious climbing Poly- 

 gonum baldschuanum^ and a Wistaria, trunk i ft. 7^ in. ; and 

 against the wall facing south, a Fig, one stem of which girths 

 i ft. 4^ in. 



In the " Dolphin " Garden are old Pear-trees, 5 ft. 2 in., and 

 3 ft. ii in., a Mulberry of 6 ft. 7 in., and a Fig of i ft. 10 in. 



T. F. Dibdin, circ. 1795, records that with Johnson and 

 Boswell he " used to sit hour after hour, and day after day, in 

 our groves or gardens a very paradise of their kind," a 

 paradise depicted upon Professor Oman's fan, a photograph of 

 which was published as frontispiece to the " Studies in Oxford 

 History," vol. xli. of the Oxford Historical Society. 



