OF PHYSIC GARDENS 15 



tation, so that now it has come to pass that the 

 tables are turned, and the English fashion in gar- 

 dening leads the way. 



It was in the fifteenth century that public 

 " physic gardens," as they used to be called, were 

 first founded in Europe, the earliest being estab- 

 lished at Padua in 1545, followed by Pisa, and 

 with little delay by the University of Leiden, and 

 others in France and Germany. It was to these 

 famous centres of learning that our English physi- 

 cians travelled in those days for the completion of 

 their medical course, and for the study of simples. 

 So slow were we, as a nation, to follow their 

 lead, that nearly a century passed before our own 

 University of Oxford was endowed, and that 

 through private munificence, with a physic gar- 

 den of her own. Cambridge fell far behind Ox- 

 ford in this matter, for while a feeble effort was 

 made in 1696 to establish a botanic garden in con- 

 nection with that university, nothing was accom- 

 plished until 1760, when the site of a former 

 monastery of Austin Friars was acquired for the 

 purpose. Within that very period when so much 

 activity was astir throughout Europe, it was pos- 

 sible for an Englishman, one Dr William Turner, 

 to bring this accusation against his Alma Mater; 

 " Being yet a student of Pembroke Hall, whereas 

 I could learn never one Greke, neither Latin, nor 

 English name, even amongst the physicians, of 

 any herbe or tree, such was the ignorance of that 

 time, and as yet there was no English " Herball," 

 but one full of cacographies and falsely naming of 

 herbes." Upon this plea he rests his apology 



