APPENDIX F 

 THE PARKS, OR UNIVERSITY PARK 



To a park three things are necessary: I. A grant from the King. 

 2. Enclosure by pale, wall, or hedge. 3. Beasts of park, such as buck, 

 doe, etc. And where all the deer are destroyed it shall no more be 

 accounted a park. CRUISE, Digest in N.E.D. 



A park in N. Britain is a ground enclosed for pasture or tillage. 



A park is the space occupied by the artillery, etc. in an encampment. 



N.E.D. 



Long before the Parks became the property of the University 

 we find references to the public walks on which members of 

 the University and others used to take exercise. The venerable 

 President of Magdalen, Dr. Routh, is said to have compared 

 the air with that of the Highlands of Scotland, and to have 

 talked with a person who had seen Charles II. with his dogs 

 there (F. H. H.). About 1853, negotiations for the purchase 

 of some or of all the land were opened between the University 

 and Merton College, which resulted in the purchase of the 

 following parcels : 



In 1854 . . . 4 acres* for 3,600 



. . .12 ,, 9,000 



1856 ... 22 9,300 



,, 1859 ... 50 15,000 



1865 . . . _3 ,, (odd)t 557 



9^ , 37.457 



* For the University Museum. 



f Including Mesopotamia (2 a. I r. 20 p.). 



237 



