XXI Keble College
By Rev. Walter Lock, M.A., Sub-Warden of Keble College.
This, the most recent of the Oxford colleges, was opened in 1870, the foundation of it being due to a combination of three different but cognate causes: the first was a widespread desire to make University education more widely accessible to the nation, and especially to those who were anxious to take Holy Orders in the Church of England; the second, the desire to ensure that this education should be in the hands of Churchmen; and the third, the desire to perpetuate the memory of the Rev. John Keble, formerly Fellow and Tutor of Oriel College, Professor of Poetry in the University (1832-1841), Vicar of Hursley (1836-1866), and author of The Christian Year, Lyra Innocentium, A Treatise on Eucharistical Adoration, &c.
Of these motives the first had been stirring in Oxford for many years. In 1845 the following address was presented to the Hebdomadal Board—
“Considerable efforts have lately been made in this country for the diffusion of civil and spiritual knowledge, whether at home or abroad. Schools have been instituted for the lower and middle classes, churches built and endowed, missionary societies established, further Schools founded, as at Marlborough and Fleetwood, for the sons of poor clergy and others; and, again, associations for the provision of additional Ministers. But between these schools on the one hand, and on the other the ministry which requires to be augmented, there is a chasm which needs to be filled. Our Universities take up education where our schools leave it; yet no one can say that they have been strengthened or extended, whether for Clergy or Laity, in proportion to the growing population of the country, its increasing empire, or deepening responsibilities.
“We are anxious to suggest, that the link which we find thus missing in the chain of improvement should be supplied by rendering Academical education accessible to the sons of parents whose incomes are too narrow for the scale of expenditure at present prevailing among the junior members of the University of Oxford, and that this should be done through the addition of new departments to existing Colleges, or, if necessary, by the foundation of new Collegiate bodies. We have learned, on what we consider unquestionable information, that in such institutions, if the furniture were provided by the College, and public meals alone were permitted, to the entire exclusion of private entertainments in the rooms of the Students, the annual College payments for board, lodging, and tuition might be reduced to £60 at most; and that if frugality were enforced as the condition of membership, the Student’s entire expenditure might be brought within the compass of £80 yearly.
“If such a plan of improvement be entertained by the authorities of Oxford, the details of its execution would remain to be considered. On these we do not venture to enter; but desire to record our readiness, whenever the matter may proceed further, to aid, by personal exertions or pecuniary contributions, in the promotion of a design which the exigencies of the country so clearly seem to require.
“Sandon, Ashley, R. Grosvenor, W. Gladstone, T. D. Acland, Philip Pusey, T. Sothron, Westminster, Carnarvon, T. Acland, Bart., W. Bramston, Lincoln, Sidney Herbert, Canning, Mahon, W. B. Baring, J. Nicholl (Judge Advocate), W. T. James, S. R. Glynne, J. E. Denison, Wilson Patten, R. Vernon Smith, S. Wilberforce, R. Jelf, W. W. Hall, W. Heathcote, Edward Berens, J. Wooley, Hon. Horace Powys, W. Herbert (Dean of Manchester), G. Moberley, A. C. Tait.”359
In spite of this influential list of signatures no action was taken by the Board, but the subject gave rise to many pamphlets, one of which, by the Rev. C. Marriott, deserves a special notice. In it he propounded a definite scheme for the foundation of a college either in or out of Oxford, which should contain about one hundred students living “a somewhat domestic kind of life,” which should be shared in close intercourse by their tutors. Mr. Marriott received considerable promises of help towards the endowment of such a college, but his early death cut short the scheme.360 The University Commission of 1854 tended to stimulate the desire to make University education more national; but it was not until 1865 that any definite step was taken. On Nov. 16 of that year a meeting of graduates was held at Oriel College, “to consider the question of University Extension with a view especially to the education of persons needing assistance and desirous of admission into the Christian ministry.” The conveners of this meeting were chiefly influenced by the belief that the education of the national clergy was the unquestionable duty of the Universities, but that it was to a large extent passing out of their hands. They recognized, however, that this was far from the sole ground of University Extension, and especially urged that the system of Local Examinations required as its natural complement some further movement which should enable the successful candidates to follow out their studies at the University itself. At this meeting six sub-committees were formed to consider various methods of such extension. The history of Keble College is concerned only with the first of these, of which Dr. Shirley, the Professor of Ecclesiastical History, was Chairman, the other members being Professors Bernard, Burrows, Mansel, Pusey, and the Revs. W. Burgon, R. Greswell, W. Ince, and J. Riddell.
The instructions given to them were to consider the suggestion of extending the University “by founding a college or hall on a large scale, with a view not exclusively but especially to the education of persons needing assistance and desirous of admission into the Christian ministry.” The substance of the report was to the effect that, without interfering with either the moral and religious discipline or the social advantages of an academical life, it would be possible very considerably to reduce the average of expenditure. With this purpose they suggest the building of a new Hall, by private subscription, large enough to hold one hundred undergraduates; for the sake of economy the rooms should be smaller than in most colleges, they should be arranged along corridors instead of by staircases, and be furnished by the College; breakfast as well as dinner should be taken in common, caution-money and entrance fees abolished, and all necessary expenditure included in one terminal payment. By this means it was hoped that the University would be opened to a class of men who cannot now enter, but without placing them apart from the classes who now avail themselves of it. The Hall was not to be “such an eleemosynary establishment as would be sought only by persons of inferior social position, less cultivated manners, or of attainments and intellect below the ordinary level of the University, but rather one which is adapted to the natural tastes and habits of gentlemen wishing to live economically.”361
In the following year (on March 16, 1866) the Rev. John Keble died, and on the day of his funeral it seemed to his friends that the most fitting memorial to him would be to build such a college as had been contemplated by this committee. Mr. Keble had himself joined in the movement which led to the appointment of the committee; he had seen and approved the Report. This report was accordingly taken as the basis of action. The details were, in the main, arranged upon its lines; perhaps the chief difference was that from the first the preparation of candidates for Holy Orders was less insisted upon, and more emphasis was laid upon the duty of providing a suitable education for all Churchmen, whatever their vocation might be. To quote the words of the appeal which was issued, “The College was intended first to be a heartfelt and national tribute of affection and admiration to the memory of one of the most eminent and religious writers whom the Church of England has ever produced, one whose holy example was perhaps even a greater power for good than his Christian Year; secondly, to meet the great need now so generally felt of some form of University Extension, which may include a large portion of persons at present debarred through want of means from its full benefits; while, thirdly, it is hoped that it will prove, by God’s blessing, the loyal handmaid of our mother Church, to train up men who, not in the ministry only but in the manifold callings of the Christian life, shall be steadfast in the faith.”362 The aims of the promoters of Keble College were, in a word, exactly the same as those of the munificent founders of the earlier colleges, viz. to extend University education to those who could not otherwise enjoy it, to extend it in the form of collegiate life, and in loyalty to the English Church.
A public appeal for subscriptions was at once made, and these amounted in a very short time to more than £50,000. The building of the College was intrusted to Mr. Butterfield. On St. Mark’s Day (the anniversary of Mr. Keble’s birthday), 1868, the first stone was laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Longley); and rooms for one hundred undergraduates and six tutors were ready for occupation in 1870, and at Commemoration the first Warden, the Rev. E. S. Talbot, senior student of Christ Church, was formally installed by the Chancellor of the University. A council had already been elected by the subscribers: this constitutes the Governing Body of the College, and perpetuates itself by co-optation as vacancies arise. The Council elect the Warden, who nominates the Tutors. On June 6th a Royal Charter of Incorporation was granted. This, after reciting that the subscribers had joined together to give public and permanent expression to their feeling of deep gratitude for the long and devoted services of the Rev. John Keble to the Church of Christ, and with that intent had resolved to establish a college or institution in which young men now debarred from University education might be trained in simple and religious habits, according to the principles of the Church of England, created the Warden, Council, and scholars into a corporate body with power to hold lands not exceeding the value of five thousand pounds (A subsequent amendment of the Mortmain Act, passed by Parliament in August 1888, extended to Keble College the exemption of the Mortmain Act, by which persons are enabled to bequeath property to it.) This Royal Charter carried with it no academical privileges. It left the Council free to move the College elsewhere, or even to wind up the Corporation; at the same time it authorized them, if they saw fit, to obtain the incorporation of the College within the University of Oxford.
This was not, however, the course actually adopted; the question of formal incorporation was not free from difficulties, as in previous cases such incorporation had been generally effected either by Royal Charter or by an Act of Parliament, and so it has never been raised. What actually happened was as follows. On June 16th, 1870, a decree was passed by Convocation, authorizing the Vice-Chancellor to matriculate students from Keble College pending further legislation. On March 9th, 1871, a new statute dealing with New Foundations for Academical Study and Education was passed, and on April 8th Keble College was admitted to the privileges granted by it. By this statute all its members have in relation to the University the same privileges and obligations as if they had been admitted to one of the previously existing Colleges or Halls, and the Warden has with regard to the members of his society the same obligations, rights, and powers as are assigned to the heads of existing Colleges or Halls, though the statute does not impose upon him any other obligations or confer any other right, privilege, or distinction. Any other statutes in which Colleges are mentioned by name, such as those respecting the University sermons or the election of Proctors, would not apply to any such new foundations, unless so amended as to include them expressly. The statute affecting the Proctorial cycle was so amended in 1887, and Keble College was for that purpose placed on a level with other colleges. The further question whether the head of such a society possesses the rights possessed by the heads of the earlier colleges has never been decided.363
Meanwhile the College had been opened successfully in Michaelmas Term 1870. At that time the north, east, and west blocks were completed, with a temporary chapel and hall on the south. The rooms were arranged in corridors, but subsequent experience has since partly modified this arrangement. The quadrangle south of the gateway was commenced in 1873, and finished on the eastern side in 1875, on the western in 1882. In 1873 W. Gibbs, Esq., of Tynterfield, laid the foundation of the permanent Chapel, of which he was the sole and munificent donor. This was formally opened on St. Mark’s Day, 1876, and on the same day the foundation-stone of the Hall and Library was laid, these being the scarcely less munificent gifts of his sons, Messrs. Antony and Martin Gibbs. The architect of these buildings also was Mr. Butterfield. In the Chapel, the general aim of the decoration is to set forth the Christ as the sum and centre of all history, to whom all previous ages pointed, from whom all subsequent ages have drawn their inspiration. In the main body of the Chapel the mosaics represent typical scenes from the lives of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, while the great prophets and kings of the Old Testament are portrayed in the windows. Around the Sanctuary the ornament is richer as it attempts to do honour to the fact of the Incarnation—alabaster and marble take the place of stone. On either side in the mosaics are seen the Annunciation, the Birth, the Baptism, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection of the Lord; in the windows the leading Apostles and Doctors of the Christian Church. The Ascension is given in the east window; while in the quatre-foil mosaic, the centre of the whole decoration, appears a vision of the Lord Himself as described by St. John in the Apocalypse, seated in the midst of the candlesticks, with the stars in His hand, and the sword coming out of His mouth. Around the Living Lord are grouped saints of all the Christian centuries and of every vocation in life. The western mosaic closes the series with the Last Judgment.
In one respect the arrangement differs from that of all the other College chapels—all the seats are ranged eastwards, not north and south. This results from the change which has passed over college life in Oxford. The earlier chapels were built for colleges in which every one was in theory a life-member on the foundation, and had his permanent seat as in a cathedral body; but a modern college chapel, containing almost exclusively a large passing congregation of undergraduates, presents conditions much more like that of an ordinary church, and alike for purposes of worship and of preaching it seemed better that the whole body should face eastward in the usual manner. It should also be mentioned that the chapel has not been formally consecrated, it being a question whether such consecration might not limit the powers conferred upon the Council by the Charter.
The Hall and Library were formally opened in 1878, Mr. Gladstone being among the speakers on the occasion. Since then the Hall has been enriched with a beautiful oil painting of the Rev. J. Keble, painted by G. Richmond after Mr. Keble’s death from a crayon drawing which he had made in his lifetime; by portraits of Archbishop Longley, who laid the foundation stone of the College; of Dr. Shirley, Chairman of the Committee on whose report the College was based; of Earl Beauchamp, the senior member of the Council, from the first one of the most strenuous and munificent friends of the College; of the Rev. E. S. Talbot, the first Warden (1870-1888); of W. Gibbs, Esq., the donor of the Chapel; and of J. A. Shaw Stewart, Esq., the treasurer of the original Memorial Fund and resident Bursar of the College (1876-1880). To these is to be added soon a portrait of Dr. Liddon, member of the Council (1870-1890), and of the Rev. Aubrey L. Moore, Tutor (1881-1890). In addition to these, all of which are connected with the College history, Earl Beauchamp has presented a portrait of Archbishop Laud.
In the Library the nucleus of the collection was formed by the gift of the majority of Mr. Keble’s own books and many of his MSS., presented mainly by his brother, partly also by his nephew. Among these are the original drafts of the Lyra Innocentium and many of the Miscellaneous Poems (written on stray scraps of paper or on backs of envelopes), of the Eucharistical Adoration, the sermons on Baptism, and the translation of St. Irenæus; and, most interesting of all, a fair copy made by himself of the greater part of the Christian Year, written in an exquisitely clear and delicate hand in seven small note-books. Other relics of Mr. Keble, including his study-table and the candelabrum presented to him by his pupils on leaving Oxford, are preserved in the common room. The Library has also received large donations or legacies of books from Cardinal Newman, Archbishop Trench, Lord Richard Cavendish, Miss Yonge, &c. Quite recently there has been added to it Dr. Liddon’s library, rich especially in historical, liturgical, and theological books, and containing also an excellent collection of Dante literature. Mr. Holman Hunt’s picture, The Light of the World, presented by Mrs. Combe of the University Press, at present hangs in the Library, though it will probably be ultimately transferred to the chapel.
Of the history of the internal working of the College there is little to say. From the opening till the present its rooms have always been full; and clear proof has thus been given of the reality of the demand for University extension on such a plan. The annual charge to each undergraduate is £82 a year, which includes tuition, board, and rent of furnished rooms; groceries, wines, &c. have been supplied from the College stores; and a special common room is open to undergraduates, serving both for entertainment and as a reading-room. Two of those who have worked as tutors in the College have already been raised to the Episcopate—Dr. Mylne, the Senior Tutor in the first years of the College, now Bishop of Bombay, and Dr. Jayne, now Bishop of Chester.
In academical distinction the College has quite held its own with many of the older Colleges, and has specially gained distinction in the Honour Schools of Theology, Modern History, and Natural Science. Several private benefactions, notably those of Miss Wilbraham (1872), Mrs. William Gibbs (1875), A. J. Balfour, Esq., M.P. (1875), Lady Gomm (1878), Miss Chafyn Grove (1879), H. O. Wakeman, Esq. (1882), and a subscription raised to found a “Caroline Talbot” Scholarship in memory of the first Warden’s mother, have enabled the College to offer several scholarships for open competition to members of the Church of England, or to aid those who are already members of the College to complete their career. There are also special prizes to encourage the study of theology, such as the Wills and Phillpott’s prizes for undergraduates, the Liddon prize, and the “Edward Talbot” studentship, founded to commemorate the services of the first Warden, for graduates; but these are all the endowments that the College has, and they are not sufficient to enable it to compete on equal terms with the other colleges in the offer of scholarships.
The College has also received many advowsons, and is likely to do useful service to the Church of England as patron of livings.
Footnotes
1 From the old printed copy in Bodl. Bibl. MSS. Tanner 338, fol. 216.
2 Annals of University College, p. 339.
3 I have used Mr. William Smith’s rendering of these passages of Matthew Paris.
4 This, as Mr. William Smith says, to whose printed volume and MSS. preserved in the College archives, my obligations are so profuse that henceforth I will not mention them in detail, was the sum allowed to the Merton scholars also, and would in an ordinary year purchase twelve and a half quarters of the best wheat.
5 This writ of King Richard is only entered on the back of the ancient roll containing the French Petition, and is not upon Record. (W. Smith’s Annals, p. 311.)
6 Mr. Wm. Rogers of Gloucestershire, a member of the College. The speech spoken by Mr. Edw. Hales upon ye setting up of it was printed by Dr. Charlett. Mr. Hales was afterwards killed at ye Boyne in Ireland most couragiously fighting for his master King James. (Hearne by Doble, II. p. 143.)
7 In the earlier part of this chapter I have been under constant obligations to the old College history entitled Balliofergus, or, a Commentary upon the Foundation, Founders, and Affaires of Balliol Colledge, Gathered out of the Records thereof, and other Antiquities. With a brief Description of eminent Persons who have been formerly of the same House. By Henry Savage, Master of the said Colledge (Oxford 1668). I am also considerably indebted to Mr. Maxwell Lyte’s History of the University of Oxford (1886), and to the somewhat perfunctory and ill-informed account of the College muniments given by Mr. H. T. Riley in the appendix to the Fourth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (1874). The Statutes of the College are cited from the edition prepared for the University Commission of 1850, and published in 1853. In dealing with later times I have had the advantage of a number of references kindly furnished me by Dr. G. B. Hill of Pembroke College, Mr. C. E. Doble of Worcester College, and Mr. C. H. Firth of Balliol College. Mr. Rashdall, of Hertford College, has been so good as to look over the proof-sheets of this chapter; and, although he is not to be held chargeable with any errors that may have escaped him, I have to thank him for many corrections and suggestions.
8 The identification seems certain, though the name is suppressed in the Chronicon de Lanercost (ed. J. Stevenson, 1839), p. 69.
9 Chron. de Mailros, s. a. 1269.
10 Statutes of Balliol College, pp. v.-vii.
11 In this document we have for the first time the mention of the Master and Scholars of the House: Savage, p. 18.
12 See extracts from the deeds in Riley, p. 446.
13 13 July 1293: ibid., p. 443.
14 See Savage, pp. 29 f.; Wood, Hist. and Antiqq. of the Univ. of Oxford (ed. Gutch), Colleges and Halls, pp. 73, 86 f.
15 In this document the head of the College is styled Warden (Riley, p. 443), a title which occurs in 1303 (Wood, Colleges and Halls, p. 81), and which alternates with that of Master for some time later. President occurs in 1559; Statutes, p. 25.
16 Wood, Hist. and Antiqq. ii. 731-733.
17 Ibid., pp. 774 f.
18 Riley, pp. 442 f.; Wood, Colleges and Halls, p. 73.
19 English Historical Review, vi. (1891) 152 f.
20 Dict. of Nat. Biogr. xix. (1889) 194-198.
21 Statutes of Balliol College, pp. viii-xix.
22 It may be remarked that a grant of the year 1343 is noted by Savage, p. 52, as the first among the College muniments in which the name Balliol is spelled with a single l.
23 See the extract from a letter of the Rectors, one a Doctor of Divinity and the other a Franciscan, of 1433, given by Riley, p. 443 a.
24 In 1433: Savage, pp. 64 f.
25 In 1477: ibid., p. 66.
26 Statutes of Balliol College, pp. 1-22; cf. Lyte, pp. 415 ff.
27 The eightpence a-week assigned them by the Statutes of Dervorguilla had been raised to twelve pence so early as 1340, by Sir William Felton’s benefactions, which also provided funds for clothes and books (Savage, p. 38). It was now ordered that the sum should not exceed 1s. 8d. Besides this Masters were to receive an annual stipend of 20s. 8d.; Bachelors, of 18s. 8d. (Statutes, p. 14).
28 Compare Savage, p. 74.
29 Statutes, pp. 38 f.
30 Queen’s College Statutes, p. 14.
31 We may remember that “between the years 1485 and 1507, Oxford was visited by at least six great pestilences” (Lyte, p. 380). In 1486 we find the Fellows of Magdalen sojourning at Witney and Harwell (not far from Wantage) “tempore pestis.” Rogers, Hist. of Agric. and Prices, iii. (1882) 680.
32 See W. W. Shirley, Fasciculi Zizaniorum (1858), intr., pp. xi-xv, 513-528; P. Lorimer, notes to Lechler’s John Wiclif (ed. 1881), pp. 132-137; R. L. Poole, Wycliffe and Movements for Reform (1889), pp. 61-65.
33 Dict. of Nat. Biogr., xi. (1887) 157 f.
34 Lyte, p. 321.
35 W. D. Macray, Ann. of the Bodl. Libr. (2nd ed., 1890), pp. 6-11.
36 Comment. de Scriptt. Brit. (ed. A. Hall, Oxford 1709), p. 442.
37 Scriptt. Brit. Catal. (Basle 1557), viii. 2.
38 Leland, p. 460.
39 Wood, Hist. and Antiqq. of the Univ. of Oxf., Colleges and Halls, p. 89; who notices (vol. ii. 107) that though Balliol Library lost much in 1550, it also gained some of the spoils of Durham College at the time of its dissolution.
40 The substance of the foregoing account is borrowed from the writer’s article on Grey in the Dict. of Nat. Biogr. xxiii. (1890) 212f.
41 See, on the buildings and inscriptions, Savage, pp. 67-72, Wood, Coll. and Halls, pp. 90-98.
42 Lyte, p. 326.
43 Savage, pp. 105-108.
44 Leland, pp. 475-481; Lyte, pp. 385 f.; Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus (ed. A. Horawitz & K. Hartfelder, 1886), p. 72.
45 Lyte, p. 322.
46 Nevill supplicated for his B.A. degree in 1450: Anstey, Munim. Acad. Oxon. (1868), p. 730 f.
47 Reg. of the Univ. of Oxford, i. (ed. C. W. Boase, 1885) 1.
48 Leland, pp. 466-468, 476; Lyte, pp. 384 f.
49 Tanner, Bibl. Brit. Hib. (1748), p. 598; Le Neve’s Fast. Eccl. Angl. (ed. T. D. Hardy, Oxford 1854) i. 141.
50 Leland, p. 462 f.
51 Dict. of Nat. Biogr., xxiii. 351.
52 Already by Anthony Wood’s time “the old accompts” were lost; “So A. W. was much put to a push, to find when learned men had been of that coll.” Life (ed. Bliss, Eccl. Hist. Soc., Oxford 1848), p. 144. So too Athen. Oxon. (ed. Bliss) iii. 959.
53 Savage, pp. 74-77; Wood’s City of Oxford, ed. A. Clark, ii. 3; P. Heylin’s Cyprianus redivivus (1668), p. 208; Wood’s Hist. and Antiqq. (ed. Gutch), ii. 677.
54 Statutes, p. 30.
55 P. 33.
56 P. 35.
57 Savage, p. 56. After 1718 the payment was made out of the College revenues: Statutes, p. 36.
58 Statutes, p. 31.
59 Humphrey Prideaux, Letters to John Ellis (ed. E. M. Thompson, Camden Society, 1875), pp. 12 f., under date 23 August 1674.
60 Statutes, pp. 61-66.
61 In 1677 the library was increased by the gift of “one of the best private librarys in England” (Prideaux, p. 61), from the bequest of Sir Thomas Wendy of Haselingfield, sometime gentleman commoner of the College. In 1673 these books were valued at £600: Wood, Colleges and Halls, p. 90.
62 Statutes, pp. 25-28.
63 Ibid., pp. 45-50.
64 Savage, pp. 85-87.
65 See Wood, Colleges and Halls, pp. 616-619.
66 Statutes, pp. 40-45, 50-56. In 1676 the number was increased to two Fellows and two Scholars.
67 Ibid., pp. 57-61. The endowment provided for the erection of lodgings for the Periam Fellow and Scholars, and the foundress’s name is still remembered in connection with one of the buildings of the College.
68 The College benefactors, down to John Warner, are enumerated by Wood, Colleges and Halls, pp. 75-80.
69 Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, from the MSS. of John Ramsay of Ochtertyre (ed. A. Allardyce, 1888), ii. 307 note.
70 See above, pp. 26 f., 37.
71 Savage, p. 77; Wood, Colleges and Halls, p. 99.
72 Life, p. 143.
73 Savage, p. 68.
74 See an account of them by the Rev. C. H. Grinling in the Proceedings of the Oxf. Archit. and Hist. Society, new series, iv. 137-140. The windows in their original situation are described by Savage, pp. 77 f., and Wood, Coll. and Halls, pp. 100-102.
75 Wood’s Coll. and Halls, p. 88, and City of Oxford, ed. A. Clark, i. (1889) 634 note 8.
76 Savage, pp. 61, 79-81; cf. Wood’s City of Oxford, i. 372.
77 P. V[ernon], Oxonium Poema, 18.
78 Wood, Coll. and Halls, p. 87, with Gutch’s note.
79 See Wood, p. 99, and the plan in W. Williams’ Oxonia Depicta [1732].
80 Reg. Univ., i. (ed. Boase), pref., p. xxiii.
81 Reg. Univ., ii. (ed. Clark) pt. ii. pp. 30, 31.
82 Gutch, Collect. curiosa (Oxford, 1781), i. 200.
83 Reg. Univ., ii. pt. ii. 412.
84 Wood, Hist. and Antiqq. ii. 365.
85 In these last two totals Commoners of more than four years’ standing have been omitted. The lists in the Calendar are moreover always slightly in excess of the truth, since they take no account of occasional non-residence. An unofficial census taken by the Oxford Magazine of 4 February, 1891, gives the number of undergraduates in residence as 158.
86 Savage, pp. 119-121; Evelyn, Memoirs (ed. W. Bray, 1827), i. 13 f.
87 See above, p. 42.
88 Savage, pp. 85 f.; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1623-1625 (1859), p. 383.
89 Heylin, p. 215.
90 Memoirs, i. 12-16.
91 Gutch, Collect. cur., i. 227; Wood’s Life, p. 14 note, where the editor observes that the College retained a chalice of 1614.
92 Register of the Visitors (ed. M. Burrows, Camden Society, 1881), pp. 167, 188, and introd. pp. cxxv, cxxvi.
93 See the list, ibid., pp. 478 f., and the references there given.
94 Riley (p. 444) dismisses this book as “a vapid and superficial production”; but there is little doubt that Savage had the assistance in it of no less an antiquary than Anthony Wood. See his Life, pp. 104-108, 143 f., 157. When Wood speaks disparagingly of Savage, it must be remembered that he had himself proposed to write a work on a similar plan: Athen. Oxon. (ed. Bliss, 1817), iii. 959.
95 Reg. of Visit., p. 4.
96 Athen. Oxon., iii. 1154.
97 Letters, pp. 12 f.
98 The sign of the house is understood to have been a double-headed eagle.
99 Dr. Bathurst, President of Trinity, Vice-Chancellor, 1673-1676.
100 Letters, pp. 13 f., under date 23 August, 1674.
101 Life of Ralph Bathurst (1761), p. 203.
102 Gutch, Collect. cur., i. 195.
103 The Master at this time was Good’s successor, John Venn, who married “an ancient maid,” niece to the first Earl of Clarendon.
104 W. D. Christie, Life of Shaftesbury (1871), ii. 390-401.
105 Riley, p. 451.
106 Reliqq. Hearn, iii. 308.
107 Terrae Filius, 1733 (2nd ed.), pp. 5f.
108 J. R. M’Colloch, Life of Dr. Smith, prefixed to the Wealth of Nations (ed. Edinburgh, 1828), i. p. xvi.
109 Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, ii. 307 note.
110 J. Pointer, Oxoniensis Academia (1749), i. 11. Hearne mentions a custom which had been given up at Merton since Wood’s time, but which partially survived “at Brazenose and Balliol coll., and no where else that I know of. I take the original thereof to have been a custom they had formerly for the young men to say something of their founders and benefactors, so that the custom was originally very laudable, however afterwards turned into ridicule:” Reliqq. Hearn, iii. 76.
111 R. Blacow, Letter to William King, 1755. The whole story is told by Dr. G. B. Hill, Dr. Johnson, his Friends and his Critics (1878), pp. 68-72.
112 Life and Correspondence (ed. C. C. Southey, 1849), i. 164, 170, 177, 203, 211 f., 215, 176 note.
113 G. V. Cox, Recollections of Oxford (1868), p. 191.
114 Letter of 15 November 1807, in J. Veitch’s Memoir of Sir W. Hamilton (1869), p. 30.
115 Letter of J. Traill, quoted, ibid., p. 44.
116 Letter of G. R. Gleig, quoted, ibid., p. 53.
117 Discussions, p. 750, quoted, ibid., p. 52.
118 Memoir, p. 30.
119 Statutes, pp. 38 f.
120 Ibid., p. 39.
121 W. Ward, William George Ward and the Oxford Movement (1889), pp. 429-431; cf. p. 343, &c.
122 Quoted in Wood’s City of Oxford (ed. A. Clark), i. 632. Cf. C. Wordsworth, University Life in the Eighteenth Century (1874), p. 161.
123 The writer of this chapter is, of course, indebted to his own Memorials of Merton College, published in 1885, in the Oxford Historical Society’s series; but has revised afresh the results of his former researches, with the aid of new materials.
124 Subsequently called Cornwall Lane, from its proximity to the Western College. It is now inclosed within the site of the College.
125 From the Life of Conant, by his son.
126 The “moderator” presided over the disputation, seeing that the disputants observed the rules of reasoning, and giving his opinion on the discussion, and on the arguments which had been advanced in it, in a concluding speech.
127 John Conybeare, Fellow of Exeter, 1710; Rector, 1730; Dean of Christ Church, 1733; Bishop of Bristol, 1750.
128 The pre-eminence of Merton, its conspicuous buildings, and its wealth, seem to have distinguished it as “the College,” until it found a rival in the “New College” of William of Wykeham.
129 The seal at present in use is believed to be the original seal of the College. The upper part represents the Annunciation; below under an arcade is the kneeling figure of Adam de Brome. Round the edge is the legend “Sy. Comune Domus Scholarium Beate Marie Oxon.”
The only other memorial of its foundation which the College possesses is its founder’s cup, given to it, according to the College tradition, by King Edward the Second; though an entry in the Treasurer’s accounts recording the purchase in December 1493 for £4 18s. 1d., of a standing gilt cup marked with E and S, and a cover to the same, is in favour of its belonging to a later date.
130 The Hospital itself was also intended to be a place to which members of the Society could remove, in case of sickness or pestilence, into a purer air than that of Oxford.
131 To enable the College to take these additional endowments, a further license in mortmain to the extent of ten pounds a year was granted, 14th March, 1327.
132 See page 94.
133 Hawkesworth was one of the first Fellows of Queen’s, nominated by the original Statutes in 1341; but as the ground on which his election was annulled is expressly stated to be its informality and not any defect in the person chosen, he was probably also connected with the College either as Fellow or ex-Fellow. He appears as acting on the College behalf in 1341.
134 It has been printed in the Oxford Historical Society’s Collectanea, vol. i. p. 59.
135 In Wood’s list, both Symon and Byrche are entered as of University College; but there is little doubt that they both belonged to Oriel.
136 These two manors adjoin one another, but are entirely independent and in distinct parishes; they appear, however, as held together at the time of the Domesday Survey, and never to have parted company since that date.
137 In his account of this building Wood must for once have fallen asleep, or he would not have suggested that the letters O. C. (Oriel College) were inscribed by “the Saints, in honour of their great Commander.” But such is the vitality of error that this absurd blunder is copied without correction into every guide-book for Oxford, and actually reappears in the note prefixed to a very careful account of the Hospital, published by the Oxford Architectural Society.
138 I. e. take this, and prosper. To “grow thrifty” in the sense of to thrive seems to have been used in America as late as 1851, (Dr. Smith’s Latin Dictionary, preface, p. vii.)
139 State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth xvii. p. 57. Letter of Francis and others to Cecill, 11 May, 1561.
140 See Carleton’s Life of Gilpin.
141 On the election of Joseph Browne, who succeeded Provost Smith in 1756. See Letters of Radcliffe and James (Oxford Historical Society, ix.), p. xxiii.
142 I. e. to an ecclesiastical benefice.
143 See State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 271, 49, March, 1601.
144 P. 129.
145 Sir Richard Richards, 1776; Sir William Carpenter Rowe, 1827; William Basil Tickell Jones, 1848; Thomas William Lancaster, 1809; James Garbett, 1824; Adam Storey Farrar, 1852; Edward Feild, 1825; Samuel Thornton, 1859; Robert Gaudell, 1845. The dates are of election to Fellowship. Sir William Wightman, Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench, and Henry John Chitty Harper, Metropolitan of New Zealand, were also on this foundation, but never Fellows.
146 Those reading “Logic,” termed “sophistae.”
147 “Artista,” a student (here probably a Master) in the faculty of Arts.
[148] Students not yet advanced to the study of Logic.
149 The study of theology began two years after the attainment of the M.A. degree.
150 See Tobie Matthew’s letter to Lord Burghley in State Papers, Addenda, Elizabeth, xxxii. 89, Oct. 16, 1593, and Boast’s life in Dict. of Nat. Biog.
151 Except to the grammar-boys at Merton, and the “poor boys” at Queen’s.
152 The following details are from Anstey’s Munimenta Academica, pp. 241, seqq.
153 Anstey’s Munimenta Academica, p. 286.
154 In the fifteenth century Cicero or a classical poet might be substituted. Some other alternatives are omitted.
155 See Wood’s Annals (edit. Gutch), ii. p. 292; Ayliffe, ii. p. 316.
156 See Professor Montagu Burrows’ delightful Memoir of Grocyn in the Oxford Historical Society’s Collectanea, vol. ii.
157 A few Gentleman-commoners educated at Winchester had been admitted to the College earlier. Among these, but only for a very short time, was the Sir Henry Wotton who still lives in Izaac Walton’s Lives.
158 G. V. Cox, Recollections of Oxford (1870), p. 50.
159 These “Sunday pence” were paid in all Oxford parishes. In 1525 payment was disputed; and in the test case between Lincoln College, as rector of All Saints church, and William Potycarye alias Clerke of All Saints parish, payment was enforced under penalty of “the greater excommunication.” Several tenements in Oxford continue to this day to pay to their parish church quit-rents of 4s. 8d. representing these old “Sunday pence.” Their owners have the satisfaction of knowing that these tenements represent the most ancient holdings in Oxford.
160 On 13th Dec., 1432, in the time of the first rector, the celebrated Thomas Gascoigne gave twelve MSS. to the library.
161 Mr. Maxwell Lyte, in his History of the University of Oxford, has taken for the original the seventeenth century copy on the south side of the quadrangle, which was put there by a married Head to cloak his annexation of College rooms.
162 In memory of this occasion the vine was probably planted which in Loggan’s picture (1675) is seen spreading over the west front of the hall; the successors of which in the chapel quadrangle and the kitchen passage still in sunny years bear plentiful clusters.
163 Robert Parkinson, ut supra. Rotheram’s arms are carved on the north wall of this building. In the herald’s certificate of 1574, they are given as “vert, three stags trippant two and one or.” They are nowadays generally blazoned wrongly.
164 The final deed of incorporation is dated 20th Nov., 1478.
165 Among the rest Dagville’s Inn (now the Mitre), which was already an ancient inn when Dagville inherited it from his uncle.
166 The provocation was both wanton and fatuous. On 24th Aug., 1717, Crewe began to execute in his lifetime the provisions of his will, viz. to pay to the Rector £20 per annum, to each of the twelve Fellows and to each of the four Chaplains £10 per annum, to the bible-clerk and eight Scholars together £54 6s. 8d. per annum; and to each of twelve Exhibitioners founded by him £20 per annum. On the 27th June, 1719, the Rectorship fell vacant; the Fellows asked Crewe to state who he wished to succeed. He twice refused; but on being asked the third time said, “William Lupton,” Fellow since 1698. On 18th July, 1719, the Fellows, by nine votes to three, elected into the Rectorship not Lupton but John Morley!
167 In 1537 the full number of Rector, twelve Foundation and three Darby Fellows is found; again in 1587; and again in 1595. In 1606 the Visitor allows the number of Fellows to be twelve only, and thereafter that number is never exceeded.
168 Of the three persons nominated by Darby in 1538 as his first Fellows, two, William Villers (his kinsman) and Richard Gill, were undergraduates. One nomination of this kind was eminently unsuccessful; Walter Pitts, nominated by the Visitor in 1568 to the Darby Fellowship for Oxfordshire, was removed in 1573 because he had repeatedly failed to get his degree. The Parliamentary Visitors in 1650 put undergraduates into Fellowships in Lincoln College; one of these, John Taverner, in 1652 was fined 13s. 4d., “for swearing two oaths, as did appear upon testimony.”
169 When the number of Fellowships was reduced by treating the three Darby Fellowships not as additional to, but as taking the place of three of, the Foundation Fellowships, the Stowe Fellowship was substituted for one of the Lincoln county Fellowships, the other two for two of the Lincoln diocese Fellowships. With this modification the regulations about counties and dioceses were very faithfully observed in elections to Fellowships, until these limitations were all swept away by the Commission of 1854.
170 The Visitor (John Williams, who had built the new chapel), in 1631, discontinued this (except the procession on All Saints day). The procession on All Saints day has been discontinued under another Visitor’s Order of 6th Feb., 1867.
171 These two services were changed at the Reformation to a sermon; the appointment of a preacher for this sermon was discontinued about 1750.
172 The first of these sermons was assigned to the Rector by statute, the second by custom.
173 The earliest College duty assigned to John Wesley, after his election to a Fellowship at Lincoln, was to preach the St. Michael’s sermon on Michaelmas Day 1726.
174 B.A. Fellows might not have theological works, but only works in philosophy and logic.
175 Rectors, suffering under the despotism of too efficient Subrectors, have accused this officer of mis-spelling his alternative title and regarding himself as Co-rector.
176 The barber’s duties were at first to supply the clean shave, the tonsure, and the close crop which became “clerks.” In later ages more extravagant fashions in hair added to his labour. At the close of the eighteenth century he had to dress for dinner the heads of all the College in the pomp of powder and the vanity of queue. Beginning about noon with the junior Commoner, he concluded with the senior Fellow on the stroke of three, when the bell rang for dinner. The higher, therefore, you were in College standing, the longer was the time available for your morning walk, and the ampler the gossip of the day with which you were entertained.
177 If any one wishes a modern parallel, he may note how Oxford became filled with Jacobites ejected from their country cures within two or three years of the imposition of the Oath of Allegiance to William and Mary.
178 Their Catholic sympathies are evident from the Colleges to which they made their benefactions. Neither in Lincoln College under John Bridgwater, nor in Caius College under John Caius, was a young Romanist in any danger of being converted to Protestantism.
179 Several entries show that their position was inferior to that of a Commoner, and involved menial service in College. In 1661 we have an entry—“Whereas Henry Rose, a scholar, did lately officiate as porter, and had no allowance for his pains,” he is to be excused the College fee for taking B.A. In Feb. 1661-2 these Traps’ exhibitioners were exempted from some College charges on consideration of their waiting at the Fellows’ table.
180 As “Commissary,” i. e. Vice-chancellor, of the University from 1527 to 1532, Cottisford had been set to several painful pieces of duty, in the discovery and arrest of Lutheran members of the University. Thus in 1527 Thomas Garret was arrested by the Proctors and imprisoned in Cottisford’s rooms: but his friends stole into College when Cottisford, with the rest of the College, was in chapel at Evening Prayers, and enabled him to effect his escape. This “Lollard’s” ghost, oddly enough, was at one time supposed to haunt the gateway-tower.
181 On only two other occasions is this silence broken; the next is in 1633, when the register notes that the King was at Woodstock, and that the Rector had forbidden undergraduates to go there; the latest is a notice of the grief of the nation on the death of the Princess Charlotte, and of the services in the College chapel on the day of her funeral.
182 There is some suspicion that about this time the Government had a paid spy in College. In Sept. 1566 an Anthony Marcham, of Lincoln College, writes to Cecil asking money, otherwise he will be unable to stay on in Oxford (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series).
183 There is, of course, the usual legend that Rotheram built this addition as “conscience-money” for his defalcations as Bursar.
184 The Rotherams of Luton in Bedfordshire were descended from the Archbishop’s brother, to whom he had bequeathed that estate.
185 Baker’s History of St. John’s, Cambridge (edit. Mayor), p. 208.
186 The intrusive dog occurs several times in College orders. The most noteworthy entry is perhaps that of 30th June, 1726:—“No gentleman-commoner, or commoner, whether graduate or undergraduate, shall keep a dog within the College. The Bursar is required to see that all dogs be kept out of the Hall at meal-times.”
187 Previously, the College meetings had been held in the Rector’s lodgings.
188 The rooms which Wesley occupied in College are said, by tradition, to be those over the passage from the first quadrangle into the chapel quadrangle.
189 This sermon, esquire-bedell G. V. Cox notes, was “two and a half hours long,” and the sitting it out made a vacancy in the headship of a College.
190 Tatham’s broad Yorkshire dialect gave a tone of vigorous rusticity to his speech.
191 I understand that it was not destroyed, but passed into private possession. The recovery, after so many years, of the Brasenose “brasen nose” forbids Lincoln to despair of yet getting back its overseer.
192 Throughout this chapter I must acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Burrows’ invaluable Worthies of All Souls. I must also mention that both the Warden of All Souls and Professor Burrows have been good enough to look through these pages, and have kept me from many pitfalls. The Warden furnished me with much information in the later pages of this chapter which would have been quite inaccessible without his help.
193 Worthies, p. 32.
194 Capi-tolium. A horrible derivation!
195 See page 226.
196 The effigy on Richard Patten’s monument has been described as showing the dress of a merchant; but there does not seem to be anything in the costume which would indicate unmistakably the status of the wearer. The monument, formerly in the old Church of All Saints at Wainfleet, was removed to Oxford by the Society of Magdalen College to preserve it from destruction on the demolition of the church, in 1820. It is now placed in the little oratory on the north side of the choir of the College chapel.
197 This Hall is of course to be distinguished from the later society of the same name, which was at first a dependency of Magdalen College, and afterwards became a separate foundation.
198 Another duty incumbent upon the members of the Hospital was the preaching of a sermon ad populum on St. John Baptist’s Day. This, with certain other duties, was transferred to the College. The sermon was at one time preached as a rule from the stone pulpit in the corner of what is now called St. John’s Quadrangle; but the stone pulpit was not always employed even in early times. Thus in 1495 there is a record of a payment of 4d. to “four poor scholars” for bringing a pulpit from New College for St. John Baptist’s Day, and taking it back again. In the early part of the eighteenth century the sermon was preached in the chapel if the day chanced to be wet; and what was then the exception has become the rule.
199 This name was given to the scholars who received half the allowance given to Fellows. It appears to have been in current use at the time when the founder’s statutes were drawn up.
200 This priory, originally a dependency of St. Florence at Saumur, was made “denizen” in 1396, before the alien priories were suppressed.
201 An Augustinian Priory, founded by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, in 1233. It was suppressed by Waynflete, after several attempts had been made to reform it.
202 Neither the benefaction of Henry VII. nor his annual commemoration has any connection with the custom of singing a Latin hymn on the Tower at sunrise on May-day. Two accounts of the origin of this custom, which allege such a connection, have often been repeated and sometimes confused: (1) That Mass was formerly said at an early hour on May 1st upon the top of the Tower for Henry VII., and that the hymn is a survival from this service. (2) That the sum paid by the Rectory of Slymbridge to the College was intended for the maintenance of the custom of singing on the Tower. Of the first of these accounts it may be said that there is no evidence of any celebration of Mass on the Tower (a thing à priori highly improbable) at any time; and that the hymn, which now forms part of the College “Grace,” is probably a composition of the seventeenth century, and is certainly not part of the Requiem Mass according to the rite of Sarum, or any other rite. Of the second account it may be said that the deeds relating to Slymbridge show clearly that the payment was not intended for this purpose, to which it was never applied. The present custom of singing the hymn from the “Grace” originated, it is believed, in the last century on an occasion when the former custom of performing secular music on the Tower was interrupted by bad weather. The hymn was probably chosen as a substitute because the choir were perfectly familiar with its words and music. The details of the ceremony as it is at present performed were arranged about fifty years from the present time.
203 The Tower was begun in 1492, and finished in 1507. The theory which ascribes to Wolsey the credit of being its designer rests on no secure foundation. At the time when it was begun he was not more than twenty-one years of age. The legend that he left Oxford in consequence of some misapplication of the College funds in connection with this work, is perhaps still less trustworthy. He was twice bursar during the progress of the building, being third bursar in 1498 and senior bursar in 1499-1500. In the former year he also held the post of Master of the College School, and was for some time absent from Oxford, acting as tutor to the sons of the Marquis of Dorset. The accounts for this year are preserved, and show no sign of any transaction of the kind alleged. The accounts of 1499-1500 are now lost; but it may be remarked that in 1500 Wolsey was appointed to the office of Dean of Divinity, which would hardly have been the case if the College had had reason to complain of his conduct as bursar.
204 Some members of the College, including apparently several of those who had withdrawn at the accession of Mary, were ejected by Bp. Gardiner at a Visitation in 1553.
205 There is an interesting brass in the College chapel bearing the effigy of President Cole, now concealed by the steps at the lectern.
206 The elms now in the grove were planted soon after the Restoration, in 1661 or 1662. The walks round the meadow were laid out in their present shape rather later.
207 Frewen was one of the few bishops who outlived the Commonwealth period. He was afterwards Archbishop of York. Warner, Bishop of Rochester, another of the bishops who returned from exile, was also a member of Magdalen College, and a considerable benefactor to its library.
208 This organ is now, or was till quite lately, in the Abbey Church at Tewkesbury. Cromwell has left a curious memorial of his presence in a note written on the fly-leaf of a copy of Bp. Hall’s Treatises, still in the College Library.
209 Spectator, No. 494.
210 The names of those who returned are engraved on a cup known as the “Restoration Cup,” which is used as a “Grace-cup” in the Hall on the 29th of May. The same cup is used on the 25th of October to commemorate the Restoration of the President and Fellows, who were ejected in 1687, and restored just before the Revolution, on Oct. 25th, 1688. The same “toast” is employed on both occasions—Jus suum cuique.
211 It has been related with some picturesque detail, but with substantial accuracy, by Macaulay: and it is more completely treated in the sixth volume of the publications of the Oxford Historical Society.
212 Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collectanea, II. (1890), pp. 147-8; see the English Historical Review, Apr. 1891.
213 In like manner the position of the head of the earliest College (Merton) was rather that of a Bursar than a Master, a gardianus bonorum more than scholarium.
214 Wood’s History of the University of Oxford, ii. 755-7. The name of Brasenose occurs in the well-known forged charter which professes to be of the date 1219.
215 Wood’s History, ii. 756.
216 See Peck’s History of Stamford, which contains an engraving of the gateway and knocker. The latter is perhaps more accurately described as a door handle.
217 See the Proceedings of the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society for November 18th, 1890. The site of the Hall with the gateway and knocker was purchased by Brasenose College in 1890, and the eponymous Brazen Nose itself is now fixed in a place of honour in the College hall.
218 Until 1827 every candidate for a degree at Oxford took an oath “Tu jurabis, quod non leges nec audies [deliver or attend lectures] Stanfordiæ, tanquam in Universitate, Studio vel Collegio generali.”
219 Register of the Visitors, ed. Burrows (Camd. Soc. N.S. xxix.), 1881, p. cxxi.
220 Life of Scott, 1837, i. 374.
221 The printed editions run—
“No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung.”
222 Odds and Ends, 1872, p. 108: F. G. Lee’s Glimpses of the Supernatural, 1872, vol. ii. p. 207. The story there told of a sudden death at a club meeting, and a simultaneous appearance in Brasenose of a fiend dragging a man out of the window through the bars, is probably a mixture of two incidents, the death of a woman who had been given brandy out of a Brasenose window on Dec. 5, 1827, and the death of the President of the H. F. Club in 1834, which closed the career of that society, between which and the Phœnix there was no connection whatever. The story has now become a commonplace of fiction, to judge by the way in which it occurs dressed up in Maltese surroundings in Blackwood’s Magazine, Feb. 1891.
223 Printed incorrectly in Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. liv. (1843).
224
The Eights.
Brasenose has started head boat since 1837, when the Eights records become complete:—
*1839 (1 day)
*1840 (9)
1841 (4)
*1845 (6)
*1846 (8)
1847 (7)
*1852 (7)
*1853 (8)
*1854 (8)
1855 (7)
*1865 (2)
*1866 (7)
*1867 (8)
1868 (2)
*1876 (7)
1877 (2)
*1889 (5)
*1890 (6)
*1891 (6)
* In these years it left off Head of the River.
In all 110 days; the next highest number being 63 (University). The boat has never held a lower position than ninth. Of the earlier years between 1815 and 1836, B.N.C. left off head at least in 1815, 1822, 1826, 1827.
The Torpids.
Brasenose has started head boat since 1852, when the Torpids were first rowed in the Lent Term:—
*1852 (3 days)
1853 (5)
1854 (4)
1859 (2)
*1861 (5)
*1862 (6)
1863 (5)
*1866 (5)
1867 (2)
*1874 (2)
*1875 (6)
1876 (1)
1882 (2)
1883 (3)
*1886 (4)
*1887 (6)
*1888 (6)
*1889 (6)
*1890 (6)
*1891 (6)
* In these years it left off Head of the River.
In all 85 days; the next highest number being 59 (Exeter). The boat has never fallen lower than the eighth place. Between 1839 and 1851, when the Torpids were rowed after the Eights, B.N.C. left off head at least in 1842, 1845, 1850 and 1851.
225 In Parker’s Handbook to Oxford is noticed the singularly beautiful effect of the sun shining on summer evenings through both the west and east windows, when viewed from Radcliffe Square.
226 The reputed founder of Little University Hall: it is believed that the “King’s Hall” in the formal title of B.N.C. is a reference to Alfred; but he, Henry VIII., and Victoria may be regarded as equally claiming the Royal Arms which face the High Street.
227 A Life of Foxe, prefixed to his episcopal register at Wells, by Mr. Chisholm Batten, passed through the press simultaneously with my article. The two lives are perfectly independent of one another, and neither had been seen by the author of the other, though Mr. Batten and I had interchanged information on certain points. I am glad to say that I believe there is no material fact in Foxe’s Life in regard to which we differ.
228 See the chapter on Trinity College.
229 This word = “kissing,” alluding to the amatory propensities of some of the monks of the time. It is often wrongly printed “buzzing.”
230 Thus, in speaking of the three readers of Theology, Greek, and Latin, he says:—“Decernimus igitur intra nostrum alvearium tres herbarios peritissimos in omne aevum constituere, qui stirpes, herbas, tum fructu tum usu praestantissimas, in eo plantent et conserant, ut apes ingeniosae e toto gymnasio Oxoniensi convolantes ex eo exugere atque excerpere poterunt.”
231 And yet there are, in the College Library, two copies of Horace, and one each of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato (see above), all given by the Founder himself.
232 Ac caeteros, ut tempore, ita doctrina, longe posteriores.
233 “Ut intus operentur mellifici nec evocentur ad vilia, decernimus ut sint quidam ab opere mellifico liberi et aliis obsequiis dediti. Verumtamen, si quispiam eorum mellifico voluerit imitari, duplicem merebitur coronam”; Statut. cap. 17. In cap. 37 the lecturers are required to admit the “ministri Sacelli” and “famuli Collegii” to their lectures, without charge.
234 There can be no doubt that, at this period and subsequently, the College servants were often matriculated and proceeded to their degrees. And, as they were entered in the College books not by their names but by their offices, this is one reason why it is often so difficult to trace a student of those times to his College.
235 In the years 1649-52, there are several entries in the “Register of Punishments” to the effect that scholars or clerks are “put out of commons” for refusing to wait in hall. At that time, therefore, there must have been a feeling that the practice was irksome or degrading.
236 See the Statutes of Jesus College, Cambridge, chap. xx., where they are limited to two in a day, and, on each occasion, to a pint of beer and a piece of bread.
237 In a list of Greek Readers given by Fulman (Fulman MSS., Vol. X.), David Edwards is mentioned as preceding Wotton, but, possibly, he held the appointment only temporarily, or there may be some confusion in the matter.
238 Both these dials have now disappeared. The large and very curious dial now in Corpus quadrangle was constructed by Charles Turnbull, a native of Lincolnshire, in 1605.
239 In addition to the assistance he received from his College (as an academical clerk), from his uncle, and (in the earlier part of his career) from Bishop Jewel, who died in 1571, we find that Hooker, on no less than five occasions, was assisted out of the benefaction of Robert Nowell, who had left to trustees a sum of money to be distributed amongst poor scholars in Oxford. One of these entries is peculiarly touching:—“To Richard hooker of Corpus christie college the xiith of februarye Anno 1571 to bringe him to Oxforde iis vid.” This date is probably that of his return to Oxford after a visit to his parents at Exeter on recovering from a serious illness, the circumstances of which, including his affecting interview with Jewel at Salisbury, are so feelingly told in Walton’s Life. The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell (brother of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul’s), which contains some most curious and interesting entries, is one of the Towneley Hall MSS., and was edited, for private circulation only, by the Rev. A. B. Grosart in 1877.
240 Wood’s Annals, sub anno 1568.
241 The Visitors.
242 From a table in Burrows’ Register of the Visitors (Camden Society), pp. 494-6, it may be calculated that the proportion of those who were expelled to those who remained was probably about four to one.
243 My attention was directed to the rare book, which contains this account, by Mr. C. H. Firth of Balliol College. It is entitled The Private Memoirs of John Potenger, Esq., edited by C. W. Bingham, and was published by Hamilton, Adams & Co. in 1841.
244 And yet, at the date of his admission, he was more than 16 years old. Even in the early part of the present century, there were many admissions of scholars younger than Potenger. John Keble, when admitted, was only 14 years 7 months old; his brother, Thomas Keble, 14 years 5 months; Thomas Arnold, 15 years 8 months; and R. G. Macmullen, who was admitted in 1828, was actually under 14, his age being 13 years 11 months. During the first thirty or forty years of this century, 15 and 16 were not uncommon ages for the admission of scholars at Corpus; and, in addition to the cases cited above, there were occasional instances of admission at 14. Even then, however, the age was most frequently 17 or 18.
245 Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth, Esq., in two vols., 1820. My attention was kindly directed to this book by the Rev. R. G. Livingstone of Pembroke College.
246 That, in 1665, Monmouth resided in Corpus is distinctly stated by Wood [MS. D. 19 (3)]: “Sept. 25, 1665, the king and duke of Monmouth came from Salisbury to Oxon. … The king lodged himself in Xt Ch. … and the duke of Monmouth and his dutchess at C. C. Coll.” They probably continued in Corpus till Jan. 27 following, when “the king with his retinue went from Oxon to Hampton.” I am indebted to the Rev. A. Clark for this reference to Wood’s MS.
247 Life of Archdeacon Phelps, Hatchards, 1871.
248 The story of St. Frideswide and of the convent built in her honour is very fully and quaintly told by Anthony à Wood. See Wood’s City of Oxford (edit. Clark), vol. ii. p. 122.
249 See Boase, Oxford, p. 3.
250 See, however, the note at the end of this chapter.
[251] Boase, p. 48.
252 Sir Gilbert Scott is convinced that this is the original design, and no alteration. However, Dr. Ingram should be read (at p. 18 of his Memorials of Oxford), where he asserts a Norman superposition of the upper arches, and the Saxon construction of the lower shafts up to the half-capitals. His writings are founded on careful personal study of the structure in his time.
253 The hall staircase, with its palm-shaped column (which is, in fact, more like a banyan-tree, as it is virtually a pendant from the vaulted roof), is the principal architectural addition of the seventeenth century; and, with Wadham College, is its most beautiful work in Oxford.
254 The lower portion only; the upper part, containing the great bell (“Great Tom”), is Wren’s.
255 Late in Elizabeth’s reign; confirmed by private Act of Parliament, A.D. 1601.
256 The organ must have been placed between the nave and choir, in the old order so well remembered and regretted by old Christ Church men, who must still acknowledge the great improvement of these latter days.
257 John Cottisford, Rector of Lincoln College; not the Bishop of Lincoln ordinary of the University, and executioner of Clark.
258 John London, Warden of New College; who, however, behaved with sense and kindness during the later proceedings of Wolsey’s persecution.
259 See Wood’s City of Oxford (edit. Clark), vol. ii. p. 220. Twenty shillings was paid for its conveyance from Oseney to Christ Church in Sept. 1545, with the rest of the peal (ibid. p. 228). Their names are contained in the following hexameter; and many Latin verses of equal melody have been composed in their immediate vicinity—
“Hautclere, Douce, Clement, Austin, Marie, Gabriel et John.”
260 Now Bishop of Peterborough.
261 His mind on the matter is fully given in Stones of Venice, vol. ii. p. 158 sqq. A new volume by Mr. Cooke, New College, on Professor Ruskin’s work in Oxford, is said to contain an excellent account of his later University work. See also his many published lectures.
262 Note by Professor Westwood. “The age of a particular MS. being ascertained, we are able approximately to determine also the age of the stone or ivory carvings or metal chasings whose art is completely identical with the designs in the MS.” See Pentateuch of Ælfric, full of architectural detail; and the Benedictional of Bp. Æthelwulf, reproduced by the Society of Antiquaries, vol. xxiv. See also The Pre-Norman Date of the Design and some of the Stone-work of Oxford Cathedral, by J. Park Harrison (H. Frowde, 1891).
I have to thank my friend the Rev. T. Vere Bayne, Senior Student of Christ Church, for some valuable corrections of this paper.—R. St. J. T.
263 S. John’s College MSS.
264 The statue of S. Bernard over the great gate still remains.
265 Joseph Taylor, D.C.L., Hist. of College, dated 1666. College MSS.
266 Ibid. It is mentioned also in Terrae Filius.
267 Royal Patent of Foundation, 1 and 2 Phil. & Mar.
268 5th March, 4th and 5th Phil. and Mar.
269 Statutes as revised under Dr. Willis; Jos. Taylor’s MS. Hist.
270 The lease had been made during the last years of the founder’s life, at his request, and was especially excepted from the Acts 18 Eliz. cap. 6 and 18 Eliz. cap. 11 against long leases of corporate property.
271 This letter was soon printed, and every Fellow and scholar may still receive a copy of it.
272 “A.M. 1572. M.D. 1590. Cujus scripta extant logica, ethica, œconomica, in 8o. libb: physicorum encomium, musicae encomium, apologia Academiarum, rebellionis vindiciae, quae tamen nondum in luce prodierunt.” Coll. MSS.
273 Oxoniana, i. 133.
274 Laud’s Works, vol. v. p. 152 sqq.
275 It was called “Love’s Hospital,” and was written by George Wilde, who in 1661 became Bishop of Derry.
276 Laud’s Works, vol. v. pp. 82, 83.
277 Jos. Taylor, Coll. MS.
278 Terrae Filius, p. 181. The room was built in Charles II.’s reign, and was the first room built in an Oxford College for use by the Fellows in common.
279 J. R. Green in The Druid (College Magazine), 1862.
280 Printed in Wood’s City of Oxford (edit. Clark), i. 640.
281 See Wood’s City of Oxford, i. 586, 587.
282 In that year its members were three graduates and eighteen undergraduates, with a manciple and cook.
283 Clark’s Register of the University of Oxford, II. ii. 7.
284 Ibid. p. 36.
285 Thus, it would seem, leaving the buildings of White Hall untouched for the present.
286 On the north side of the gateway the following distich was carved—
“Breconiæ natus patriæ monumenta reliquit,
Breconiæ populo signa sequenda pio.”
287 His father was Maurice Johnson of Stamford, M.P. for Stamford in 1523; but his mother was a Welsh heiress and had property in Clun. This was perhaps the connection with Wales that made him be chosen on the Foundation. He had been of Clare Hall and Trinity College, Cambridge.
288 Principal Hoare (1768-1802) may seem to be an exception, but the College books record that he was born in Cardiff.
289 The Indenture by which Sir Leoline Jenkins assigned definite Fellowships and Scholarships to North or South Wales is dated 1685.
290 See Clark’s Register of the University of Oxford, II. i. 291-293.
291 Printed (but not published) in 1854. This contemporary Memoir has therefore been largely used in the present sketch.
292 The Life of Francis Mansell, D.D., by Sir Leoline Jenkins, p. 45. Sir George Vaughan is said to have been of Fallesley, Wilts.—not of Ffoulkston—his family was a branch of the Breconshire Vaughans.
293 Presumably Leoline Jenkins.
294 The house and business still remain, No. 66 Holywell.
295 1661, as we now reckon the year.
296 The letter of thanks to Mansell, in which Jenkins acknowledges that he owed his election entirely to Mansell’s influence, came into the hands of Anthony Wood, who had the art of “acquiring” stray papers, and the habit of preserving them; and it is now in Wood MS. F. 31. It may be noted that Jenkins’ good services to his College, and many personal kindnesses to Wood himself, compel the Oxford antiquary for once to give the lie to his reputation that he “never spake well of any man”; the terms in which he speaks of Sir Leoline are always handsome.
297 The plate “lent” by Jesus College to the King is stated by Bishop Tanner to have weighed 86 lb. 11 oz. 5 dwt.
298 Wood’s (MS.) Diary, under that date.
299 Boase’s Oxford, p. 140.
300 Principal, 1712. His portrait is in the College Hall.
301 To this list may be added:—
Francis John Jayne, Chester (1889).
See also p. 383, note.
302 Afterwards Mayor, and knighted. Sir Sampson White’s house was opposite University College.
303 Michael Roberts.
304 This chair was made the pattern of the chairs in the Bursary.
305 Alfred George Edwards, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1889. Daniel Lewis Lloyd, Bishop of Bangor, 1890.
306 There is a trivial but well-known story that the College is to present this piece of plate to whoever first fairly encircles it at its widest with his arms, but that from the shape and actual girth (5 ft. 2 in.) this feat has rarely been accomplished. A second task has, however, been kept in reserve; that the winner should drain it filled with the strong punch for which it was designed, and then be able himself to remove it; it holds ten gallons.
307 Wood quotes no authority, and his story of the founder’s intentions is inconsistent in one or two points with the curious old (though not contemporary) MS. account of the last wishes of the founder, which is among the papers of Wadham College. Dorothy Wadham, however, was certainly a Recusant not long before her death (cf. Calendar of State Papers, 1619-1623, p. 330); it may perhaps be conjectured that the atrocity of the Gunpowder Plot alienated her husband from his co-religionists, and induced him to conform to the National Church.
308 A statute of 1268 directed that every B.A. should dispute against the Austin Friars once a year in the interval between his taking that degree and proceeding M.A. Although these disputations were removed to St. Mary’s Church, and afterwards to the Natural Philosophy School, they retained the name “Austin Disputations.” See Wood’s City of Oxford (edit. Clark), ii. p. 465. From Oxoniana we learn that the name and some shadow of the disputations remained as late as 1812 among the exercises for M.A.
309 Of this man an excellent account is given in the Portfolio for 1888. But there is some difficulty in attributing the buildings to Holt, for in the very full MSS. accounts for the buildings possessed by the College, his name only occurs as that of a working carpenter, receiving ordinary wages. Perhaps the founder’s servant Arnold may have been the real architect.
310 Vol. 1611-1618, p. 217.
311 A full account of this controversy may be read on pp. 6-8 of the Rev. R. B. Gardiner’s Registers of Wadham College, Oxford, to which most valuable and interesting book I wish to acknowledge my constant obligations throughout this chapter. At present only the first volume is out (down to 1719); it is the earnest desire of all interested in the history of the College that Mr. Gardiner may soon be able to complete his work.
312 P. 53.
313 I. 291.
314 II. 106.
315 I. 318.
316 “A philosophical inquiry concerning Universal Grammar.” Johnson disputes his title to be an “eminent Grecian.”
317 Fuller gives us a proverb current in Oxfordshire, “Send farthingales to Broadgates Hall in Oxford,” adding that the gowns not only of the gadding Dinahs but of most sober Sarahs of a former age were so penthoused out far beyond their bodies with bucklers of pasteboard, that their wearers could not enter at any ordinary door, except sidelong.
318 Leonard Hutten’s Antiquities of Oxford (1625), Oxf. Hist. Society’s reprint, p. 88.
319 Wood’s City of Oxford (edit. Clark), ii. 35.
320 Queen Elizabeth in Oxford, 1566—
“Candida, Lata, Nova, studiis civilibus apta,
Porta patet Musis, Justiniane, tuis.”
321 Nicolai Fierberti Oxoniensis Academiae Descriptio, Romae, 1602:—“Divitum nobiliumque plerumque filiis, qui propriis vivunt sumptibus, assignata Broadgates.” (Oxford Hist. Society’s reprint, 1887, p. 16.)
322 The patronage of this rectory, usually held by a Fellow, was alienated rather more than thirty years ago.
323 The slaughter-houses were replaced by a brew-house, to the use of which the old well beneath the wall was in 1672 diverted. Lumbard was a Jew who lived here. It is odd that the only shop in this lane still exhibits the arms of Lombardy, and perhaps carries on the business of this mediæval Jew: the Jewry was elsewhere.
324 From a family named Penyverthing. A physician named Ireland who lived here in this century, and whose patients made believe to think his fee was 1¼d., got the name changed to Pembroke Street.
325 Between 1675 and 1700 a new style of gardening seems to have come into vogue. Compare Loggan and Burghersh.
326 Mrs. Evans, wife of the Rev. Dr. Evans, Master of the College.
327 This is the meaning of the entry “pro ostreis” in the Bursar’s accounts.
328 The late Bishop Jeune told Mr. Burgon that aged persons in his time remembered this.
329 “Johnson could not bear to be painted with his defects … ‘He [Reynolds] may paint himself as deaf as he pleases, but I will not be Blinking Sam’” (Piozzi).
330 It is curious that the College arms have almost from the first been blazoned wrongly, the argent and or fields of the chief having changed places. The argent should be on the dexter side.
331 As it seems with a key; possibly a relic of the “wakening-mallet” of religious houses.
332 Contrast Gibbon’s spiteful words: “To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligations; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother.”
333 This Mr. Tristram is abused by Hearne. He had caricatured some of Hearne’s plates.
[334] Dugdale MSS.
335 Wood.
336 Whear, in his funeral oration over Camden, bears testimony to the lifelong intimacy of the two.—Camden’s Insignia.
337 It had fared roughly in the Civil Wars “in gladiorum Bombardarumque fabricas mutata, quasi Vulcano magis quam Palladi imposterum sacranda prorsus desolata jacuit.”—Patent of 1698.
338 Though Hearne calls him “a man of whimsical and shallow understanding”—“of a strange, unsettled, whimsical temper, which brought him into debt.”
339 V. also “the case of Gloucester Hall, rectifying the false stating thereof by Dr. Woodroffe,” p. 40. “The poor Greek boys, whom he used in such a manner that they all or most of them ran away from him.”
340 “The Doctor’s precipitation was so violent that he forgot all the Corporation which should have been incorporated but himself—as if he intended by the power of this charter to turn his Body Natural into a Body Politick.”—Case of Gloucester Hall, p. 24.
341 Vide Case for the Attorney-General (College MS.).
342 Hearne ed. Bliss, anno 1723.
343 Willis and Clark’s Cambridge, iii. 279.
344 “Anecdotes of his Own Times,” p. 174.
345 Matthew Griffith of Gloucester Hall, absent from St. Mary’s when his grace was asked, was excused because “ob distantiam loci et contrarios ventos campanae sonitum audire non potuit!”—Reg. Univ. Oxon. (edit. Clark), II. i. 33.
346 College Register.
347 I have to acknowledge the great kindness of our present Principal and Vice-Chancellor, the Rev. Henry Boyd, D.D., in placing at my disposal the materials collected by him for a History of the College which, I hope, may yet see the light.
348 Gilbert Kymer, M.D., afterwards well known as Chancellor of the University, became Principal in 1412.
349 A quit-rent continued to be paid by Exeter to S. Frideswyde’s and afterwards to Christ Church as long as Hart Hall existed.
350 Unless the name Hart Hall covered some adjoining tenement.
351 Nicholls, Literary Anecdotes, v. 708.
352 Newcome became Tutor about 1750.
353 G. V. Cox’s Recollections of Oxford, p. 190.
354 Except the picturesque building now remaining.
355 Laud’s History of his Chancellorship, ed. Wharton, 1700, p. 70.
356 Ibid., p. 209.
357 With the exception of the five original Fellowships created by the Act.
358 The Founder of one of these, Dr. William Lucy (1744), provides that his scholars “whilst Under-Graduates shall wear open-sleeved Purple Gowns, with Square Capps, black Silk and white Silver Tuffs equally mixt, as a Mark of Distinction, to dispose others to the like or greater Charity.” The Court of Chancery ordered that every Scholar should express in writing his willingness to wear the prescribed garb if it were permitted by the University Statutes. Of the remaining Scholarships four were founded by the Rev. John Meeke in 1665, three by Mr. Henry Lusby (who divided his estate between this Hall and Emmanuel College, Cambridge) about 1832, and one in memory of Dr. Macbride, Principal 1813-1868. There are also benefactions, now paid to three Bible-clerks, by Dr. Thomas Whyte (founder of the Moral Philosophy Professorship) in 1621, and Dr. Brunsel.
359 Oxford University Herald, Nov. 8, 1845. Reprinted in an anonymous pamphlet entitled “Six Letters addressed to the Editor of the Oxford Herald on the subject of an address presented to the Heads of Colleges, &c. Oxford, 1846.”
360 University Extension and the Poor Scholar Question. A Letter to the Rev. E. C. Woollcombe by C. Marriott. Oxford, 1848. Esp. pp. 10-14. Compare also University Extension, by C. P. Eden, M.A., Oxford, 1846; and University Extension and the Poor Scholar Question, a letter by E. C. Woollcombe, M.A. Oxford, 1848.
361 Oxford University Extension. Reports, pp. 1-20. London, 1866.
362 Proceedings at the laying of the First Stone of Keble College, pp. 2, 3. London, 1868.
363 Vide Oxford University Gazette, Nov. 29th, 1870.