Quite unlike these, yet having an attraction of their own which many
miss, are the Botanical Gardens hard by Magdalen Bridge. Their situation
on the brink of the River Cherwell, and almost under the shadow of
Magdalen Tower, is what probably appeals most strongly to the ordinary
observer, while those who merely pass the gardens by will delight in the
gateway, the work of Inigo Jones, with its statues of Charles I and II.
Formal these gardens are of necessity, but there hangs about them a
certain feeling of antiquity. They somehow seem to take their place
among their old-world surroundings; and fitly so, for they are the
oldest gardens of their kind in the country, having been originated by
the Earl of Danby as an assistance to the study of medicine, nearly
three hundred years ago.
Across the way, at Magdalen College, exists a pleasure ground which
cannot rightly be included among Oxford's gardens, though it is
certainly one of her best-known natural adornments. This is the deer
park adjoining the New Buildings. It is almost worth while in the summer
vacation to loiter near the narrow passage leading from the cloisters,
to witness the start of surprise and to hear the sight-seers' remarks,
as they suddenly come out from the dusk and impressive gloom into a
blaze of sunlight, with gay new buildings bright with window-boxes
straight before them, and a little herd of dappled deer feeding in the
sunshine and the shadow of the park. Hundreds of years seem to roll
away: the very locality appears to change: the visitor could scarcely
look more astonished if he were suddenly transported from the Coliseum
to the gardens of the Tuileries! No wonder a tourist once remarked, as
he issued from the cloisters: "I guess, sir, I've riz from the dead!"
It is tempting on this summer day to linger where grass is green and
trees throw grateful shade; and indeed it would seem that few of all the
many pens that have set down Oxford's charms have given their due to
these her natural delights. But there is much that crowds into the mind
and urgently complains lest there be not space enough to do them honour.
What of her streets? Perhaps no other city in England--some say in the
world--can boast of streets of equal beauty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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