HISTORICAL GARDENS 317 



amused the company at intervals, all through the years 

 in which Ranelagh was prosperous. 



" There thousands of gay lamps aspir'd 

 To the tops of the trees and beyond ; 

 And, what was most hugely admired, 

 They looked upside-down in a pond. 

 The blaze scarce an eagle could bear 

 And an owl had most surely been slain ; 

 We returned to the circle, and then — 

 And then we went round it again." 



One of the last entertainments at Ranelagh was the 

 Installation Ball of the Knights of the Bath in 1 803 ; 

 and a few years afterwards all trace of Ranelagh House, 

 the Rotunda, and even the Garden was gone. The 

 ground reverted to Chelsea Hospital, and not a vestige 

 of the former glories is left. The pleasant shady walks 

 and undulating lawns on the site, bear no resemblance 

 to the lines of the former gardens, and only some of the 

 older trees can have been there when Lord Chesterfield 

 and Walpole were paying it daily visits. 



The most important of Chelsea gardens, and one of 

 the most interesting in England, is the Physic Garden, 

 which lies between the Embankment and Queen's Road, 

 now called Royal Hospital Road. The Garden, both 

 horticulturally, botanically, and historically, has claims 

 on every Londoner. England was much behind the 

 rest of Europe in starting botanic gardens. That of 

 Padua, begun in 1545, was the first on the Continent, 

 and it was nearly a hundred years later before any 

 were attempted in this country. Oxford led the way 

 in 1632, and the Chelsea one followed in 1673, Its 

 formation was due to the Apothecaries' Company, and 

 its first object the study of medicinal herbs. In those 



