GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



females, but to merely encourage them in the acquisition of 

 botanical knowledge." 



This makes curious reading at the present day. By what leaps 

 and bounds have we advanced since that resolution was so grudg- 

 ingly passed ! We are not informed whether or not women were 

 admitted to the lectures and to the demonstrations in the garden ; 

 they might have been with perfect propriety, for it was one of 

 the duties of the Demonstrator to preserve due " decorum " 

 among the students. Anyway, it is clear that without such 

 admission the Apothecaries were simply offering a gift with one 

 hand, and withholding it with the other. 



Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the neighbourhood 

 of London was so rich in indigenous vegetation that the botanical 

 parties on the occasion of the herborizing excursions, had not to 

 go far afield ; but sometimes they did so go, for a certain Mr. 

 Johnson (whose identity I have not been able to establish, but 

 who may possibly have been that Thomas Johnson, botanist, 

 who edited Gerarde's " Herbalia " in 1633) describes his adventures 

 on two such occasions. Travelling in those days was slow and 

 risky ; the botanists went to Reading, Bath, Bristol, and the Isle 

 of Wight, and home by Portsmouth and Guildford. The Latin 

 and English names of the plants they collected are given, and the 

 natural features of the landscape described. Johnson records 

 with much gratitude the hospitality offered to the party. 



On a similar occasion, later on, the apothecaries explored Wales ; 

 their course being by way of Chester, Flint, Carnarvon and Anglesey. 

 Some of the plants were gathered on the heights of Snowdon at 

 much personal risk to the collectors. At Chester a learned doctor 

 of divinity joined them ; he had been badly entertained at^ a 

 certain inn at Stockport, and on leaving he expressed his resent- 

 ment by writing some Latin verses on the walls of his bedroom, 

 of which Field and Simple give the English translation : 



" If, Traveller ! you seek for quiet, 

 An easy couch, a wholesome diet, 

 A landlord with a smiling mien, 

 A chambermaid whose face is clean, 

 At Stockport you will never stay, 

 But turn your steps another way. 

 But if in filth your soul delights, 

 At Stockport you may pass some pleasant nights." 

 130 



