AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE 3 



lawn between the High Street and Rose Lane. Besides this 

 house, two small cottages opposite the present Magdalen 

 Lodge and two others in Rose Lane remained in existence 

 for several years after the formation of the Physic Garden 

 in 1623-33. 



The next chapter in the history of the site of our The 

 Laboratory is concerned with that of the Physic Garden, 

 which is by far the most ancient establishment connected with 

 Natural History in Oxford, for the collections of Tradescant 

 and of Ashmole did not become the property of the Uni- 

 versity until 1683, twenty-one years after the foundation of 

 the Royal Society. 



For the history of the origin of the Garden we may 

 again refer to Wood, who tells us how ' Henry, Lord 

 Danvers, Baron of Dauntsey in the county of Wilts, and 

 Earl of Danby, giving to the University the sum of 250 

 in money to purchase a piece of ground for a nursery 

 of phisicall simples for the University, bought the said 

 mede containing about 5 acres of ground of the present 

 tenant the$eof anpl presently after of the College it selfe 

 A.D. 1621, to be held of them by lease. Afterwards much 

 soil being conveyed thither for the raising of the ground, the 

 day for the laying the first stone therof was designed. Which 

 being come, viz. S. Jeamses Day [35 July] 1622, the Vice- 

 cancellor, Dr. Peirce, about 2 of the clock in the afternoone 

 togeather with the proctors and most of the doctors of the 

 University solemnized it with great ceremony. For in the 

 first place Mr. . . . Dawson, a phisitian of Broadgates, speak 

 there an elegant oration ; then Dr. Clayton, the King's Pro- 

 fessor of Phisick, another ; and last of all the Vicecancellor ; 

 with the offering severall sums of money according to the 

 antient fashion. 



* Afterwards the said earl proceeded in building of it and 

 enclosing it with a very faire wall of freestone, and in the 

 front therof next to East Bridge Street a comly gatehouse/ 

 ['The wall about it was finist, 1633, ut ' m Gest. cane. Laud, 

 p. 65.' Marginal note.] 



The wall with which the College permitted Lord Danby to 



B 2 



