“An active and intelligent member of their court has furnished them with a very interesting and ample memoir on the subject, [p338] by which it appears, that this expensive design was commenced at a time when the society was without any disposable funds, when their hall was burnt down in the memorable fire, and when they were obliged to draw upon their own private pecuniary resources, to enable them to enter on an undertaking, ‘whose principal design was honourable reputation, without any prospect of worldly advantage.’ “Previously to the establishment of this garden, there had been nothing of the kind, with the exception of a few private gardens, the most conspicuous of which were those of the celebrated John Gerarde, and the elder Tradescant; the former of these not then being in existence, and the latter in a state of neglect and ruin; and the locality of their position is now only known from the records of the times. “There was, however, besides these, a small garden in Westminster, belonging to Mrs. Gape, the plants from which furnished the first specimens for the Chelsea Garden. It appears from Evelyn’s journal, that he paid old Mrs. Gape’s _medical garden_ a visit in June 1658; whether he begged, borrowed, or bought any plants, does not appear; that he had a very fine garden at Sayer’s Court, is well known; but that he lent it to that royal barbarian, Peter the Great, when he was studying ship-building at Deptford, is, perhaps, not so generally known, nor, moreover, the return this royal carpenter made to Evelyn’s politeness, or the manner in which he showed his horticultural taste, in being wheeled through his landlord’s ornamental hedges, and over his borders, in a wheel-barrow; a circumstance which is recorded in a letter to the then Secretary of the Royal Society. “In France, the apothecaries were incorporated so early as 1484; but it was not till the reign of King James the First, when the metropolis abounded in dangerous empirics, who made and compounded many ‘hurtful, false, and pernicious medicines,’ that the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries were incorporated in London. Notwithstanding a charter was given them to correct these abuses, it was found to be nugatory with respect to those who were not members of the society; and, although they made repeated applications to parliament, it is only within these very few years that their powers have been extended, and that they could legally enter the shop of any ‘person or persons using the art and mystery of an apothecary, in any part of England and Wales, for the purpose of searching, surveying, and proving whether the medicines, wares, drugs, or any thing or things whatsoever, in such shop or shops contained, and belonging to the art or mystery of an apothecary, be wholesome, meet, and fit for the cure, health, and ease of His Majesty’s subjects.’” [p339] “TOBACCO.