College Gardens at Oxford. 105 



St. John's. The garden at St John's is considered the largest 

 college garden in Oxford. 



The walks belonging to Magdalen College are conducted 

 through meadows on raised banks about 30 ft. broad, between 

 ditches containing running water, about 10 ft. broad and 4- ft. 

 deeper than the surface of the meadows. The walk along the 

 centre of the raised bank is about 10 ft. wide, leaving 10 feet on 

 each side to be varied by trees. Through the framework formed 

 by the stems of these trees and the undergrowths, the meadows 

 and country beyond are seen to great advantage ; and, in ad- 

 vancing along, so admirably do the trees come in, that there is 

 not a point, whichever way the eye turns, from which a perfect 

 landscape might not be transferred to paper. This is saying as 

 much for such a walk as can be said in a landscape point of view ; 

 the improvements which the gardener ought to make in it are, to 

 substitute American and other choice trees and shrubs for the 

 common sorts, and to introduce herbaceous plants, taking care 

 that this is done in such a manner that one genus at least may 

 prevail in one place, and not that a uniform mixture should be 

 maintained throughout. This principle, we trust, Mr. Fairbairn 

 will keep in view in his improvements in the college gardens, 

 and more especially in his introduction of laurels, box, holly, yew r , 

 ivy, &c.j as undergrowth, instead of elm suckers, and elders. 

 We recommend him to study Bear Wood. (IX. 679.) 



The walks in Christ Church meadow differ from those of Mag- 

 dalen chiefly in having a greater breadth of turf on each side, 

 and in being more thinly planted with trees; and they might be 

 improved in a similar manner. For the scattered trees in the 

 meadows of both colleges others might be substituted, and added, 

 so as to form an arboretum. Christ Church avenue is much 

 injured since we last saw it, by the decay of the top branches 

 of many of the trees. The area of the quadrangle of Christ 

 Church is a level square of turf, with a basin (possessing till lately 

 a fountain) in the centre, and surrounded by a broad terrace 

 walk about 3 ft. higher than the turf. The sunk area might 

 easily be rendered a most beautiful flower-garden, like that of the 

 Tuileries. In the private garden here are two fig trees, said to have 

 been planted by Cardinal Wolsey, and a very old mulberry tree. 

 The fig trees, which are against a wall, have been cut down so 

 often, that they show no shoots older than twenty or thirty years, 

 and, as these proceed from stools concealed by the surface soil, 

 no stranger could discover that the trees are old : in truth, they 

 may rather be considered as suckers from the old trees which 

 formerly stood on the same spot. They bear every year; and, a 

 few days ago, a plate of ripe figs from one of them was exhibited 

 at the Oxford horticultural show. The mulberry tree is a large 

 and venerable fragment, supported by numerous wooden posts, 



