garden it stands unrivalled, whether quantity or quality be the basis
of comparison. It is not only that before the east front, seen in
Plate XXI, stretches the largest garden in Oxford; thanks to the
skill and the care of the present garden-master, the Rev. H. J.
Bidder, this shows from month to month, as the pageant of summer goes
on, what wealth of colour and variety of bloom the English climate
can produce. It may be said to be laid out on Bacon's rule: "There
ought to be gardens for all months in the year, in which severally
things of beauty may be then in season"; only for "year" we naturally
must read "academic year." If Bacon is right, that a garden is the
"purest of human pleasures," then, indeed, St. John's should be the
Oxford paradise.




WADHAM COLLEGE (1) THE BUILDINGS

"Here did Wren make himself a student home,
Or e'er he made a name that England loves;
I wonder if this straying shadow moves,
Adown the wall, as then he saw it roam."
A. UPSON.


[Plate XXII. Wadham College : The Chapel from the Garden]

The buildings of Wadham College have been pronounced by some good
judges to be the most beautiful in Oxford. This is not, however, the
usual opinion, nor is it my own, though, perhaps, it might be