To Be Set and Sown in the Garden

In the most central spot at Glasgow University (between the Round Reading Room, University Avenue, the University Library, and the Fraser Building) sits a slight grassy incline with 10 benches, 10 hedges, 5 small trees, and several larger trees. Devoid of any signs screaming ‘PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE SCULPTURES’ or ‘DON’T STEP ON THE GRASS’, this area and the benches are quite popular with students throughtout the day, especially so on those rare days when the sun bothers to make and appearance. It’s a common sight to see the benches occupied by students catching up with friends, reading a book, grabbing a bite to eat, or taking a quick nap.

Crazy thing is, sometimes you might be sitting on a piece of art without knowing it.

During Open Day last April the student tour guide, when passing the library, mentioned the

benches and how they resembled dissection slabs used in autopsies, complete with a porcelain headrest and a groove for the blood to flow off the table in. Knowledge of this makes the sight of someone catching a few Z’s on one of the benches with their head resting on the headrest, well, an interesting sight.

With what little I previously knew, I figured the benches were merely a rather macabre tribute to the University’s contribution to the academic fields of anatomy and medicine. Seemed likely, considering the number tributes spread around the University campus, celebrating the University’s famous sons and daughters, and their inventions and contributions to their respective fields. Considering how many of the buildings around the university are named after famous people (the Adam Smith Building, the Joseph Black Building, the (John) Boyd Orr Building, (Joseph) Lister House, the (John) Graham Kerr Building, every building and statue and so on named after Lord Kelvin, and so on), this seemed a likely scenario.

Ah, but there is more to this story than a mere nod to people hacking up corpses in the name of science. I had seen the lights before, at night, having figured them to just be (somewhat ineffective) lighting for the hedges, similar to lighting buildings at night. Sitting on one of the benches on a sunny day with a friend, it was brought to my attention that the lights weren’t just fancy lighting. There was text next to each of the 10 hedges, lit up even during the day!

As visible in the crummy mock-up above, the lit-up text is difficult to photograph during the day. Ah yes, but as they’re lit up at night, creating more than just ambient light, I went out one evening to photograph the entire story spelled out by the lit texts, running down the hill towards University Avenue. Below is a composite picture of each of the texts, and for the sake of making it easier to read, the text is also written below:

• To Be Set and Sown in the Garden                  Christine Borland, 2001
• Commissioned to mark the 550th Anniversary of The University of Glasgow
• The porcelain pillows are replicas of the wooden headrests used in anatomical dissection
• Each pillow is inscribed with a plant illustrated in Fuchs’ herbal ‘The History of Plants’ 1542
• The first suggestion of a physic garden in Scotland is a planting list by Mark Jameson
• Jameson was Rector’s Deputy in 1555, when Glasgow University was sited near the cathedral
• Jameson’s annotated copy, 1549, of Fuchs’ pocket herbal, is kept in the University Library
• Many of the plants selected were considered extremely dangerous if taken during pregnancy
• The reason for Mark Jameson’s selection of plants with gynaecological properties, is unclear

I’ll let the texts above tell the story of the garden, a line at a time:

Commissioned to mark the 550th Anniversary of The University of Glasgow

“To Be Set and Sown in the Garden“, a work by Christine Borland, was commissioned in 2001 to mark the 55oth Anniversary of the University of Glasgow (est. 1451). Although there was was much collaboration between the University Departments in the design and influence of the work, much of the inspiration for this mediaeval garden comes from a single list of plants scribbled in a book centuries ago, alluded to in a book about the history of the Botany Department in Glasgow University by a former Professor of Botany, A.D. Boney.

The commemorative work consists of 10 hardwood benches with ceramic headrests, 10 hedges, and lights and text.

The porcelain pillows are replicas of the wooden headrests used in anatomical dissection

The single most noticable aspect of the sculpture garden are the benches scattered in a semi-orderly fashion on the grass.

The dark hardwood benches, which are roughly the size of a narrow single bed, are not your average park benches to feed pidgeons from. The deep groove and the porcelain headrest at one end of each bench are a nod to the practise of anatomical dissection.

The groove represents a drain through which blood from a corpse flow, and the porcelain headrest is based on the simple blocks used in the Anatomy Department dissection theater as ‘pillows’ to support the head of the corpse. (Sidenote: There is apparently an anatomy museum in the main building of the University with dissected corpses and body parts on display, but I have not seen a single sign showing where it is. We’ll explore next month, after exams. Just another one of Glasgow University’s Secrets)

Each pillow is inscribed with a plant illustrated in Fuchs’ herbal ‘The History of Plants’ 1542

Upon closer inspection (click the photos for a larger version), the white porcelain headrests sport a small hole in the middle, from which an engraving of a plant grows out of. The headrests have been engraved with an adaptation of original illustrations of each plant from a 1549 mediaeval herbal byLeonhart Fuchs, titled Significant Notes on the History of Plants.

The importance of a copy of this illustrated pocket book on herbs from over 450 years ago is a list of 26 herbs and plants on the inside back cover, written in the hand of a Mark Jameson in the mid-1500s. Of the 26 plants named in the list, 22 of were set under the title: “To be sett & sawin in ye garding”. (Hence the name of the commemorative work.)

A clear example of how unaware many students are of the fact that they’re sitting on a commemorative piece of art is that the small hole in the porcelain headrest is typically occupied by a cigarette butt.

The first suggestion of a physic garden in Scotland is a planting list by Mark Jameson

The planting list of 26 herbs and plants on the inside back cover of this particular copy of Fuchs’ The History of Plants is the first hint at a physic

garden (“physic” in this case referring to “the science of healing”) in Scotland. No evidence remains to this day of whether or not the physic garden was actually ever planted.

If the physic garden was actually planted by Mark Jameson in the mid-1500s, it is thought that the most likely place would have been the grounds of his official residence on the north side of Glasgow Cathedral which are described as walled and sheltered. This was demolished in 1583

and the first ‘official’ Physic Garden of the University is not recorded until the early 18th Century. Interestingly, if this physic garden had been planted by in the mid-1500s, it would have been the first physic garden not only in Scotland but the first in the United Kingdom. The oldest botanical gardens in the UK are the University of Oxford Botanic Garden (1621) and the Chelsea Physic Garden (1673), and had Mark Jameson planted a physic garden in

Glasgow in the mid-1500′s, and were it to remain to this day, it would be the oldest botanical garden in the UK, and one of the oldest in the world.

So who was Mark Jameson?

Jameson was Rector’s Deputy in 1555, when Glasgow University was sited near the cathedral

Rev. Mark Jameson was a student who served as Rector’s Deputy of the University in 1555 before moving on to minister in Glasgow Cathedral, the two being closely interrelated in the 16th Century. Mark Jameson, a physician, gave the University six books on medicine and matters of medical interest in 1590, which effectively formed the beginning of the medical library at Glasgow University.

Jameson’s annotated copy, 1549, of Fuchs’ pocket herbal, is kept in the University Library

This particular copy of Fuchs’ ‘The History of Plants’, consulted by Jameson in making his planting list for his physic garden is the only record of Jameson’s garden. The pocket herbal is kept in the Department of Special Collections on the 12th floor of the Glasgow University Library.

Many of the plants selected were considered extremely dangerous if taken during pregnancy

Surprisingly, most of the 22 plants Jameson listed under the heading “to be sett & sawin in ye garding” were believed at the time to have some relation to gynecology and a large percentage of which (including: birthwort, dropwort, marigold, winter savory, wild parsnip, forking larkspur, juniper, penny-royal, hogs – fennel and asplenium) were considered to have properties which would induce spontaneous abortion.

The reason for Mark Jameson’s selection of plants

with gynaecological properties, is unclear

It is worth also noting that Medicine was not taught in Glasgow University until the 17th Century so however you look at it, in terms of medicine or botany, Jameson was way ahead of his times.

The eagle-eyed readers will notice that the list only had 9 sentences, although there are 10 hedges with these lights

next to them. Why are there only 9 texts? The 10th and last one had no text, instead being replaced with a broken piece of wood. Was that on purpose? Or is the story missing the final chapter?

There are many more interesting tidbits scattered around Glasgow University, and I have until June 2012 to find them all. For more interesting little things about The University of Glasgow, check out the new (and growing) Secrets of Glasgow University page.

-Jani

You can find more information about the sculpture installation by visiting the following sites:
http://www.studio55.org.uk/researchers/christine/garden.html
http://www.ginkgoprojects.co.uk/projects/?id=1064
http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archive/2001/december/headline_30062_en.html