GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



contributors might come forward to build a wall round the garden 

 on condition that the court of assistants of the Society of Apothe- 

 caries, who undertook the management of the scheme, should 

 agree to pay 2/- annually for ever, towards the cost of the 

 " herborizings." The proposal was accepted, and the members of 

 the laboratory staff contributed 50 towards building the wall, 

 in return for which they were to be allowed a piece of ground in 

 the garden for herbs. This stipulation shows that, in its first 

 inception at any rate, the Chelsea plot was not primarily intended 

 for the cultivation of medicinal plants. 



The services of Piggott, the first gardener, were discontinued 

 in December, 1677, and a certain Richard Pratt was appointed 

 at a salary liberal for those days of 30 per annum. Directions 

 were given that the following year the garden should be planted 

 with the best fruit trees, and the promise to the laboratory staff, 

 carried out by a good crop of medicinal herbs. In 1680 we find 

 one Mr. Watts, who had been a contributor to the erection of the 

 wall, appointed head-gardener, his remuneration being 50 per 

 annum. There was also an allowance for two labourers. 



Shortly after this, at the lower end of the ground near the river, 

 a greenhouse was constructed, costing 138. Watts then pro- 

 ceeded to Holland to arrange an exchange of plants with the pro- 

 fessor of botany at the University of Leyden, who had previously 

 visited the Chelsea garden a garden that had thus in a single 

 decade assumed importance in the world of botanical science. 



It was about this time that the four famous cedars which appear 

 so picturesquely in the old prints of the garden, were planted, 

 being at the time only three feet high. Unfortunately they no 

 longer exist ; the two northern ones, having decayed, were cut 

 down about 1770, together with some limes and elms, and various 

 other trees considered to be injurious to the growth of the plants 

 for which the garden was designed. Henry Field, writing in 

 1878, mentions that the last survivor of the famous group was 

 then moribund. The timber from the two felled trees was sold 

 for 23 9s. 8d. 



In 1685 Mr. Evelyn writes in his diary : 



4 1 went to see Mr. Watts, keeper of the apothecaries' garden 

 of simples at Chelsea, where there is a collection of innumerable 

 varieties of that sort particularly, besides many rare annuals, the 



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