AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE 9 



researches, whether on agricultural or vulcanological subjects 

 or on mineral waters, were, it was but natural that he should 

 also feel the loss of time consumed in going backwards and 

 forwards between his house at the Physic Garden, where 

 his duties chiefly lay, and his gloomy Lecture Room beneath 

 the Ashmolean Museum. He determined, therefore, to erect A new 

 a Lecture Room and Laboratory close to the Garden, and the j^j^ 6 

 work was actually commenced in 1848, the year after he had required, 

 held the office of Bursar at Magdalen College. 



No doubt his large and ever increasing collections of 

 minerals, rock specimens, books, and physical instruments, as 

 well as his enlightened ideas of the needs of the efficient 

 teaching of science at Magdalen College, of which he had had 

 sole charge as Praelector since 1820, determined the main 

 lines on which the building was planned. 



The conditions on which Dr. Daubeny was permitted by Daubeny's 

 Magdalen College to build are stated in the College Order for 2SjJte 

 November 12, 1847 : College in 



'Dr. Daubeny having requested permission to build a l8 47. 

 Lecture Room on the ground adjoining the Physic Garden, 

 the spot on which it is placed to be at any time resumable 

 by the College, it is agreed to grant him leave to build the 

 Lecture Room on the proposed spot near the principal gate 

 of the Garden at the distance of at least three feet from the 

 wall. It is further agreed to allow Dr. Daubeny, his heirs 

 or assigns, the sum of 282, being a moiety of the sum 

 proposed to be laid out by Dr. Daubeny in case the Society 

 shall at any time hereafter within the period of twenty years 

 find occasion or think it proper, after six months' notice, to 

 resume the whole of the ground into their own hands, but 

 after that time the College shall have the option of assum- 

 ing it without any payment.' 



Daubeny died December 12, 1867 just over twenty years 

 from the date of this order, but not quite twenty years from 

 the date of the erection of the building, of which he speaks in 

 his will as 'the new buildings erected by me in the year 1848, 

 opposite to Magdalen College, on ground belonging to the 

 said College.' 



