THE BOTANIC GARDENS, CHELSEA ::* 



subject to the same conditions as those originally imposed on the Society of 

 Apothecaries. 



The deed recites that the Society of Apothecaries had lately resolved upon 

 and sett apart an annuall summe for the maintaining of the " Garden 

 a consideration for the Grant which is not mentioned in tin- abstract ot 

 Deed published in the 'Memoirs of the Botanic Gard.-n at < h, 

 Mr. Henry Field and Dr. R. H. Semple, printed in 1878. 



The Society of Apothecaries duly presented in each year fifty distinct plant* 

 to the Royal Society up to 1762, when the number of two thousand was , 

 pleted. After that year plants were still presented up to 1774, when a total 

 of 2,550 plants was attained, and from that date the records of the Roval 

 Society appear to contain no entry concerning the Garden until the year I 

 when the Society of Apothecaries, having expressed to the President of tin- 

 Royal Society their intention of relieving themselves of the responsibility of 

 maintaining the Botanic Gardens at Chelsea, and the matter having been 

 referred to a Committee, the following Minute of Council appears in n-pl\ 

 to an inquiry from the Society of Apothecaries as to the decision of the 

 Council : 



'Oct. 24, 1861. Resolved that thanks be returned to the Master and 

 Wardens of the Society of Apothecaries for their obliging communication, and 

 that they be informed that the President and Council of the Royal Society do 

 not feel in a position to take any steps in the matter referred to, until they 

 receive notice of proceedings on the part of the Heirs of Sir Hans Sloane con- 

 sequent on the determination of the Society of Apothecaries.' 



The Garden is said to have contained three acres one rood and thirty-live 

 perches of ground, but this area appears to have been exclusive of the foreshore 

 of the River Thames. On page 88 of the ' Memoirs of the Botanic Garden at 

 Chelsea' above mentioned, it is stated that so long ago as 1707 directions were 

 given for wharfing the Garden towards the river, and that a similar order was 

 made in 1728. In 1771 an embankment was made at an expense of about <400. 

 'This embankment was designed only in order to recover ground which had 

 originally belonged to the Garden, but had in process of time been washed 

 away by the river.' 



In 1870 the Chelsea Embankment was constructed, and, as the 'Memoirs' 

 state, the Apothecaries' Society, ' as tenants of the Chelsea Garden,' lost their 

 immediate access to the river and sacrificed their portion of the foreshore, 

 while a road intervened between the garden and the river. As compensation, 

 a handsome wall, railing, and entrance gates facing the Embankment were 

 built by the Metropolitan Board of Works. 



It is further stated in the same ' Memoirs ' that a strip of reclaimed land 

 has 'been thrown in with the older portion since the construction of the 

 new river-side embankment'. In 1890 the Royal Society had some cor- 

 respondence with the Society of Apothecaries on occasion of a proposal that 



