Note 6 — Front matter

This was the third botanic garden, established about the year 1673, in England. In a very old manuscript the spot is thus quaintly described:—“Chelsea physic garden has great variety of plants, both in and out of green-houses; their perennial green hedges, and rows of different coloured herbs, are very pretty, and so are the banks set with shades of herbs in the Irish style.” The drawing Mr. Fairholt was so good as to make for this little book, gives a faithful representation of the statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Rysbach, the two famous cedars, and the water-gate; and as this time-honoured garden is about to be converted into “a square of houses,” I am glad of the opportunity to preserve a memorial of it. It is not only sacred to science, but full of pleasant memories: Evelyn has sate beneath those cedars; Sir Joseph Banks used to delight in measuring them, and proving to his friends that the girth of the larger “exceeded twelve feet eleven inches;” and it is said that, when Dean Swift lodged at Chelsea, he was often to be found in this “physic garden.” When we call to mind the number of persons of note who selected the “sweet village of Chelsea” as a residence, there can he no lack of associations for this spot. Between the garden and the college is the place (according to Maitland) where Cæsar crossed the Thames.