THE PHYSIC OR BOTANICAL GARDEN is situated on the south of Magdalen College. This was the donation of Henry D'Anvers, Earl of Danby, who purchased a lease of the ground (containing five acres) of Magdalen College, surrounded it with a lofty wall, and erected, next to the street, a parapet with iron palisades.

The Gateway is justly esteemed an elegant piece of architecture. The design is ascribed to Inigo Jones; nor is it unworthy of that architect. It was executed by Nicholas Stone, senior. In the centre over the arch is a bust of the Founder, Lord Danby. On the left hand of the entrance is a statue of Charles I. and on the right one of Charles II. On the face of the corona and the frize is the following inscription; viz. Gloria Dei Opt. Max. Honori Caroli I. Regis in Usum Acad. et Reipub. Henricus Comes Danby, D. D. anno 1632. This inscription is likewise on the garden front.

The Garden is divided into four quarters, with a broad walk down the middle. Near the en

trance are two elegant and useful Green-houses, built for Exotics, of which there is a considerable collection. In the quarters is the greatest variety of such plants as require no artificial heat to nourish them, all ranged in their proper classes, and numbered.

Eastward of the Garden, without the walls, is

an excellent Hot-house; 'where tender plants are raised and brought to great perfection; viz. the Anana or Pine-Apple, the Plantain, the Coffee Shrub, the Caper-tree, the Cinnamon, the Creeping Cereus, and many others. The Caper and Coffee Shrub bear well.

This useful foundation has been much improved by Dr. Sherard, who, in 1728, provided a salary for the Professor, and brought from. Smyrna a valuable collection of plants: and the late learned Professor, Dr. Sibthorpe, who also resided some years in the East, enriched the collection with many new articles. The assissant to the Professor is provided by the University; he is generally ready to attend such persons as wish to be minutely informed as to the more scarce and curious plants.

We proceed next to describe and give some account of the several Colleges; and as Magdalen College is the nearest to the place we last mentioned, and the first we meet with in the road from London, it may be most convenient to begin with that College.

MAGDALEN COLLEGE.

THE College of St. Mary Magdalen is situated near the river Cherwell, at the east end of the

city. The first thing worthy attention is the west entrance into the Chapel; over which are five small figures, of elegant sculpture. That on the right, in a kneeling posture, represents the Founder; the next, William of Wykeham, the Founder of the two St. Mary Winton Colleges; that in the middle, St. Mary Magdalen, to whom the College is dedicated; the next, in a kneeling posture, King Henry III. who refounded the Hospital which was converted into this College; and that on the left, St. John the Baptist, to whom the said Hospital was dedicated.

The building on the left hand is the President's Lodgings. Near the entrance, on the right hand, is the Chapel, which is a well-proportioned edifice, in form of a Roman T inverted. A new roof has been placed on this Chapel, after an elegant design (in 1793); and the whole is now one of the most finished Chapels in the place. In the Ante-chapel, on the left of the organ-loft, is a Monument erected to the memory of two Brothers of the name of Lyttelton, who were drowned in the river Cherwell, one by endeavouring to save the other. The Ante-chapel has been adorned with an elegant new pulpit, lecturer's seat, and new paving.

The west Window, painted in claro obscuro, was done after a design of Schwartz, as appears by a print engraved by Sadelar from the original. It represents the last Judgment. But having

been greatly damaged by the high wind which happened in 1703, it was after a long interval restored to its original excellence by Mr. Eginton, of Handsworth, near Birmingham, in 1794. Till the time of the Civil Wars, all the windows were painted in the same manner. Those now in the Chapel were removed thither from the Ante-chapel in 1741; but not being a sufficient number to glaze the whole, two new ones were afterwards added. And in the year 1797, the Society was at the expence of setting up in the Ante-chapel eight painted windows, designed and executed by the above-mentioned ingenious artist. They are adorned with the figures of the two patron saints, St. John Baptist and St. Mary Magdalen; of Kings Henry III. and VI. by the former of whom St. John Baptist's Hospital was, as we have observed, refounded, and by the latter of whom it was, together with its possessions, conveyed to the College; of William Waynflete the Founder, and William Wykeham, Founder of New College, to which Society Waynflete is conjectured to have belonged; of Bishop Fox, Founder of Corpus Christi College, and Cardinal Wolsey, the Founder of Cardinal College, afterwards refounded with the appellation of Christ Church, both of whom had been Fellows of this Society. The other compartments of the windows are enriched with designs of Christ's Baptism, and of the Adoration at the

sepulchre, with the College-arms, and those of the above-mentioned kings and prelates, and with other ornaments remarkable for the correctness of the style in which they are executed.

The Altar-piece was painted by Isaac Fuller, an English history-painter, about 150 years ago; who, having studied and admired the muscular manner of Michael Angelo, seems to have neglected the graceful elegance of Raphael: for although many of the figures may justly be deemed excellent anatomical drawings; yet, for want of that easy and natural disposition peculiar to the last-mentioned great master, and better colouring, the whole appears crude, and per haps had not the last finishing. Underneath this piece of the last Judgment, is an admirable picture of our Saviour bearing his cross, long supposed to have been painted by Guido, but now generally attributed to Moralez, a Spanish artist who flourished in the sixteenth century. It was at Vigo, and brought into England by the late Duke of Ormond; but afterwards falling into the hands of William Freman, Esq. of Hamels in Hertfordshire, he gave it to the College. To this Gentleman the College is likewise chiefly obliged for an excellent Organ, two additional Bells to the peal of eight, and other considerable benefactions.

The altar was built, in the present manner, about the year 1730. The design is elegant,