University of Oxford Botanic Garden
From Srafopedia
In His Dark Materials
Lyra used to visit the Botanic Garden in her world when she wanted to be alone. She would sit on a particular bench, toward the back of the garden, over a bridge and under a low spreading tree. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, Lyra takes Will to the same bench in his own world. They swear that they will each sit on opposite sides of the bench, in their separate worlds, at midday on Midsummer Day, for one hour each year for the rest of their lives. The last scene in The Amber Spyglass takes place on the bench in the Botanic Garden in Lyra's World.
In Reality
University of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain, and the third oldest scientific garden in the world, was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 8,000 different plant species on 4 1/2 acres (18,000 m²). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.
In 1621, Sir Henry Danvers, the First Earl of Danby, contributed £5,000 (equivalent to £683,000 in 2002)[1] to set up a physic garden for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning." He chose a site on the banks of the River Cherwell at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, belonging to Magdalen College. Part of the land had been the Jewish burial ground until the Jews were expelled from Oxford (and the rest of England) in 1290.
The Garden was the site of frequent visits in the 1860s by Oxford mathematics professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pen name Lewis Carroll) and the Liddell children, Alice and her sisters. Like many of the places and people of Oxford, it was a source of inspiration for Carroll's stories in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Garden's waterlily house can be seen in the background of Sir John Tenniel's illustration of "The Queen's Croquet-Ground".
Another Oxford professor and author, J. R. R. Tolkien, often spent his time at the Garden reposing under his favourite tree, Pinus nigra. The enormous Austrian pine is much like the Ents of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, the walking, talking tree-people of Middle-earth.
The Garden is comprised of three sections: 1) the Walled Garden, surrounded by the original seventeenth century stonework and home to the Garden's oldest tree, an English yew, Taxus baccata; 2) the Glasshouses, which allow the cultivation of plants needing protection from the extremes of British weather; and 3) the area outside the walled area between the Walled Garden and the River Cherwell. A satellite garden, Harcourt Arboretum, is located six miles south of Oxford.
From Wikipedia
