The gardens here are amongst the few College Gardens which at Cambridge are open to the public. During certain hours visitors are admitted, and no small privilege it is; for there are few lovelier spots than this verdurous lawn, shut in on one side by the grey "Garden Front" of the College,[108] with its balustraded cornice and transomed windows, and everywhere else "bosomed high in tufted trees";[109]--an ideal place for Milton's own "retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."[110] [Footnote 108: This front belongs to an isolated block known as the "Fellows' Buildings," erected shortly after Milton's time.] [Footnote 109: "L'Allegro."] [Footnote 110: "Il Penseroso."] Hidden in a thicket at the north-eastern corner is a sequestered swimming-bath, fed by a stream drawn off from Hobson's conduit. To climb the statue beside this and dive off the head is a current feat amongst Christ's men. Something of a feat it is; requiring considerable sureness of foot and skill in balancing oneself. To reach the Gardens we must cross the first court, a singularly pleasant example of a College Court, rendered the more picturesque by the central grass-plot being circular instead of the usual rectangle, and pass on through the "Screens" at its north-eastern corner. Here we are in another Court, only in part surrounded by buildings; the "Fellows' Buildings" being immediately in front of us. As Christ's, unlike most Colleges, has but one entrance,[111] we shall have to retrace our steps. In passing the Hall we should, if possible, look in to note the portraits of the College worthies. Amongst these are to be found not only Lady Margaret, Bishop Fisher, and Milton, but Quarles (the author of the "Emblems"), Paley, the Evidencer of Christianity,[112] who was a Fellow here in the eighteenth century, and the epoch-making name of Charles Darwin, the Apostle of Evolution. [Footnote 111: A small back door, however, leads from the kitchen into "Christ's Lane" (on the south). On one famous occasion, when, at a time of popular excitement, the students were confined to the College, sympathisers from without burst this in (using the bar which closes the lane to vehicles as a battering-ram) and set them free.] [Footnote 112: Paley's _Evidences_ is still one of the set subjects in the "Littlego" (or "Previous Examination") which every student must pass before being allowed to proceed further.]