42 THE APOTHECARIES' GARDEN 



flies. A rare book, Harris' The Aurelian, 1766, 

 with its engraved and coloured plates, was one 

 of the works which led the way. A few years 

 later, William Jones, who lived not far from the 

 Physic Garden, painted accurately almost all 

 the species of butterflies at that time existing 

 in English cabinets, in six large volumes ; and 

 though he never published them, he allowed 

 others to copy the drawings often with con- 

 siderable skill. 1 But long before that time, the 

 good drawings of plants had been a delight to 

 many who knew little of scientific botany. 



In 1713 again came the Apothecaries' ever- 

 recurring difficulties of meeting the expenses 

 of the Garden with a small balance at the bank 

 a Garden, too, which was held only on a 

 lease, so that all improvements would some day 

 not a distant one become the property of 

 the landlord. 



Lord Cheyne had offered the Apothecaries 

 the freehold for 400 a sum beyond their 

 means. They had not even money for the 

 repair of the barge, so that in the Lord Mayor's 

 pageant that year the Apothecaries' Company 

 was only represented on land, not on the river. 

 The barge had to be laid up, and the barge- 

 master's salary saved. 



But the Company decided that, whatever 

 their poverty, the Garden must be carried on 

 " for the honour of the Society, and the benefit 

 of its younger members," (poverty when it 

 does not crush is ever an effective spur !), so 

 the Company passed a rule that every member 



1 Jones used opaque colours, which have not faded. His 

 half-used cakes of water colours, in the possession of the writer, 

 nave Chinese stamps, shewing their origin. 



