Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/584

 484 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. VL DEC. 22,1900. This is apparent from the following considera- tions :— 1. Horace Walpole writes, "I have not ventured to see Mrs. Jordan, nor to skate in Hyde Park." Mrs. Jordan first appeared in London on 18 Oct., 1785. Walpole could not, therefore, speak of going to see her act in the . previous January. Walpole's mention of skating in Hyde Park points to severe weather. The un- usual severity of the beginning of the year 1786 is mentioned in the 'Annual Register' for that year. The 'Chronicle' (p. 193) be- gins as follows: " 1 Jan. Accounts re- ceived from all quarters, of the effects of the weather, at the beginning of the new year, are dreadful; thunder, lightning, in- tense frost, and deep snow, characterize the commencement of the present year." On the other hand, January, 1785, was unusually mild, as appears from the following entry in Gilbert White's ' Summary of the Weather,' printed at the end of the 'Natural History of Selborne': " 1785. A thaw began on the 2d January, and rainy weather, with wind, continued to January 28." 2. Walpole mentions a cardinal as being " abandoned by bishops and clergy, and left to the civil power." The reference is to the Cardinal de Rohan, who was arrested in August, 1785, for complicity in the affair of the diamond necklace. As this fraud was committed in February, 1785, and was not exposed till six months later, Walpole could not have referred to it in the previous January. 3. " General Burgoyne's ' Heiress,' I hear, succeeded extremely well." This comedy was first performed on 14 Jan., 1786, two days before the actual date of this letter. 4. Finally, Horace Walpole mentions the deaths of Lady Brudenell and Lord Dacre. Anne Legge, wife of James, first Baron Brudenell of Deene (afterwards fifth Earl of Cardigan), died on 12 Jan.,1786. Thomas Barrett Lennard, seventeenth Baron Dacre, died on 13 Jan., 1786. These facts prove that this letter was written in 1786, not in 1785. It is un- necessary to assume that the present date (16 Jan., 1785) was a mistake of the printers. The new year had so recently begun that Horace Walpole (as in other cases) no doubt wrote the date of the previous year in- advertently. This letter should therefore be placed between Nos. 2,381 and 2,382 in vol. ix. of Cunningham's edition. HELEN TOYNBEE. (To be continued.) ANTIQUITY OF COLLEGE GARDENS AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. A COLLEGE garden in either university is generally far older even than the foundation to whicn it at present belongs. At Oxford, for instance, the beautiful walks and meadows of Christ Church anciently formed the de- mesne of St. Frideswide's Priory—occupied successively by nuns, secular canons, and regular canons of the Order of St. Austin— the church of which has been both a college chapel since 1524 and cathedral of the diocese since 1546. Already in 1497 Bishop Alcock of Ely, in which diocese Cam- bridge lies, had converted the church of St Rhadegund's Nunnery into a chapel for the use of his new foundation, Jesus College, at the younger university. Again at Oxford, the Austin Friars dwelt upon the present site of Wadham, where the college garden, the more extensive grounds of the Warden, and, possibly, the peculiar character of the tracery in the seventeenth- century chapel windows—reminiscent of a style in vogue at least a hundred years earlier—are all memorials of a former regime; while at Cambridge their place of residence is now represented by the buildings and grounds of the new university museums, which have in their turn usurped the place of the old botanical gardens. At the latter university also the Carmelites or White Friars occupied a site between Queens' and King's colleges: the Dominicans or Black Friars dwelt where now stands Emmanuel; the Franciscans or Grey Friars where we see Sidney Sussex at the present day ; the Friars of the Penitence of Jesus Christ, commonly called Friars of the Sack, lived probably on the piece of ground now partly covered by the Fitzwilliam Museum ; the White Canons are supposed to have owneaahouse where now stand Addenbrooko's Hospital and grounds : ind the Lady Margaret's great college of St. John the Evangelist superseded the hospital of St. John for Austin Friars, pre- cisely in the same manner as Magdalen Col- lege, Oxford, took the place of the ancient hospital of St. John the Baptist. At Oxford the magnificent buildings and gardens of the White, Black, and Grey Friars have entirely perished. Edward II. gave the royal manor of Beaumont to the Oxford Car- melites in gratitude to Our Lady for his escape from the Scots in 1314 ; yet nothing now remains but a somewhat dreary street to remind one of the religious house, anciently a palace, wherein was born Richard Cceur-de- Lion, king and troubadour. The Dominicans dwelt without, and the Franciscans itnme-