THE PHYSIC GARDEN
The Physic Garden was founded by the munificence
of Henry Danvers, Earl Danby, who in 1621 bought
the lease of the occupier of meadowland just outside the
boundary of the city, where once the Jews' cemetery
had been, and obtained a new lease from Magdalen
College. The site was suitable, 'being aptly watered
with the River Charwell by it gliding', (fn. 1) but to be free
from inundation the level of the garden had to be
raised. Even so, it was flooded upon occasion, as for
instance in 1663, when the rising waters 'drowned most
part of the Phisick Garden and came up within 6 yards
of Merton College walls', and in Oct. 1882, when the
professor's house could only be reached on planks. (fn. 2) On
the acquisition, inclosure, and laying out of the five
acres Danby spent more than £5,000 and, besides, provided in his will that the impropriated rectory of Kirkdale in Yorkshire should be conveyed to the University
in order to maintain the Garden and the teaching of
botany. (fn. 3) Some time elapsed before the latter purpose
could be achieved, but by the time of the Earl's death,
in 1644, the Garden had assumed the appearance which
not only members of the University but distinguished
visitors from several countries were to admire during
the 17th century.
In shape it was almost square and surrounded by
'a most stately wall of hewen stone 14 foot high', the
building of which had spread over many years. The
contracts, requiring the wall to be as good in appearance and workmanship as the walls of All Souls or
Magdalen Tower, had been made by Nov. 1621, (fn. 4) but
it was not until 1633 that Laud, then Chancellor,
could record its completion. (fn. 5) By that time also the
three gateways, in the centres of the northern, eastern,
and western walls, had been finished. The chief
entrance was the northern gateway, embellished with
statues of Charles I and Charles II, (fn. 6) and with a bust
of Danby over the centre. Inigo Jones has been
credited with the design, (fn. 7) but there is no documentary
evidence to support the attribution and there is a
statement to the contrary in Charles Stoakes's list of
works by his uncle, or grand-uncle, Nicholas Stone:
'The Curious Phisicke Garden hee desined & made the
Entrances of Stone att Oxford now to be seene.' (fn. 8)
That Nicholas Stone was the builder of all three gateways is clear from an entry in his diary: 'In 1631
Agreed with the Right Hon. Lord Earell of Danby for
to mak 3 ston gattes in to the phiseck garden Oxford
and to desine a new Hows for him at Corenbury in
Oxfordsheer.' (fn. 9)
Within the walls, the Garden was divided into
quarters by two straight walks, which intersected at
right angles in the centre. The walks were bounded
by yew hedges on both sides, but the hedges on those
running from east to west were cut down in the later
18th century and the others in 1834. Probably the
workmen who, under the supervision of the eccentric
Jacob Bobart, arranged the Garden were foreigners:
at any rate 'outlandish workmen' were sent by Danby
in 1639, when, so far as is known, no building work
was in progress. (fn. 10) Outside the walls, as Loggan's print
of 1675 makes clear, there was a long building,
stretching along the south side of the High Street from
the end of Magdalen Bridge to the railings in front
of the northern entrance to the Garden. This building,
if not erected in 1670–1, was probably altered and
enlarged considerably at that time, to serve as a residence for the Professor and a 'winter house for plants',
the work being done by Thomas Robinson, mason,
and Dew, plasterer. (fn. 11) Some seventeen years later
Robinson was paid more than £70 for building the
wall before the Physic Garden, that is, possibly, a wall
where Loggan's print shows only a mound or balk,
joining the 'winter house' to the north-east corner of
the old wall. (fn. 12) Still later, in 1692–3 and 1693–4, he
was paid more than £157 for other work, the nature
of which is not indicated in the accounts but which
may have been a further extension of the same building.
His work was pulled down about 1780, and the site
was thrown into the road to improve the approach to
Magdalen Bridge. (fn. 13) The contents of the demolished
buildings were transferred to a green house on the East
side of the Garden, which, in 1795, was made into a
library and lecture room. In the fourth decade of the
19th century improvements were carried out in the Garden and alterations and new building undertaken on the
north side, parallel with the High Street; (fn. 14) there were
also further additions and changes in the later part of
the century and in the 20th. The modern plant houses
between the eastern wall and the Cherwell date from
1894. They were rebuilt in 1948.