Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/109

OXFORD 97 hall was merged in the new college which owes its existence to the munificence of Mr T. C. Baring. The Welsh College, Jesus, dates from 1571, having been founded by Dr Hugh Price. Sir Leoline Jenkins, principal at the Kestoration, was a conspicuous benefactor. The present buildings are of various dates. The direct connexion with the Principality extends to a moiety of the fellows and a majority of the scholars. Keble College is a testimony to the wide-felt reverence for the character and principles of the Rev. John Keble, who died in 1866. In his memory the college was founded with a special view to economical life and Christian training, based on the principles of the Church of England. Since its opening in 1870 its growth has been continuous. The buildings are the design of Keble s friend Butterfield ; the richly ornamented chapel, the gift of Mr William Gibbs, was completed in 1876, and the library and hall in 1878. The style is Italian Gothic, the material to a large extent red brick relieved by white stone, and in the chapel by marble and mosaics. Bishop Richard Flemmyng founded Lincoln College in 1427, with the object, it is believed, of opposing the doctrines of Wickliffe. Like Exeter and Jesus it boasts a second founder in Thomas de Rotherham, also bishop of Lincoln, in 1478. The library is of consider able value, both for MSS. and books. The painted windows in the chapel were procured from Italy in the 15th century. Magdalen College is the most beautiful and the most complete in plan of all the colleges. The extensive water-walks in the Cherwell meadows, the deer park, the cloisters with their ivy-grown walls and quaint emblematic sculptures, the rich new buildings of pure Gothic, and, above all, the tower, combine in this conspicuous result. William Patten, better known as William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, established the college in 1456 for a president, forty fellows, and thirty scholars with chaplains and a full choir. The cloister quadrangle was first built in 1473, and the chapel in 1474-80; the latter has a decorated interior, an altarpiece of Christ bearing the Cross similar to that in Bolton Abbey, and painted windows. The tower, of exquisite proportions and harmony of detail, was commenced in 1492, and reached its full height of 145 feet in 1505 ; it stood for a few years isolated as a campanile. The custom of singing a hymn on the top at 5 A.M. on May-day has been kept up by the choir since the time of Henry VII. The meadow buildings date from 1733. The muniments and library are valuable, the former containing some 14,000 deeds, chiefly of religious houses suppressed at the Reformation. The high-handed attempt of James II. to force a president on the college in 1688 is matter of history. Merton College is in a very definite sense the oldest ; the earliest extant statutes were given in 1264 by Walter de Merton, and before 1274 it was settled in Oxford. The statutes were a model for all the more ancient colleges both in Oxford and Cambridge. The founder s special intention was to benefit the order of secular priests, and the first century of his society was more prolific of great names than any similar period in any college. The fine chapel, which is also the parish church of St John the Baptist, rose gradually between 1330 and 1450, the tower belonging to the later part. The hall, of the 14th century, was thoroughly restored in 1872. The library, built about 1349, is the oldest existing library in England. To the east lie the quiet well-wooded gardens, still bounded on two sides by the city wall. New College, or more pro perly the college of St Mary Winton, is the magnificent foundation of William of Wykeham, who closely connected it with his other great work Winchester School. Its name is still significant, for the first statutes marked a new departure, in the adaptation of monastic buildings and rules to the requirements of a less fettered body of students ; and they, like those of Merton, were imitated by succeeding societies. The foundation-stone was laid in 1380, and the hall, chapel, and front quadrangle are of that period, except that the third story of the latter was added in 1674. The chapel is noteworthy for the west window, designed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the Flemish windows on the south side ; the roof was renewed in 1880. The tower is built on one of the bastions of the city wall, and faces the new buildings in Holywell Street, erected in 1872-75. The gardens and cloisters are among the most picturesque sights of Oxford, the former encom passed on the north and east by the city wall, still almost perfect. Oriel College was founded by Adam de Brome Oriel, in 1324, and reconstituted by Edward II. in 1326. The present buildings chiefly date from the first half of the 17th century. The Tractarian movement is closely connected with the college of Newman and Keble. Pembroke College (1624) derives its name from the Pem- chancellor of the university at the time when it was broke, established by Richard Wightwick, partly by means of a legacy from Thomas Tesdale. The library contains many memorials of Dr Johnson, who was a member of the college. Queen s College, so called from its first patroness, Queen s. Queen Philippa, was founded in 1340 by Robert de Eglesfield, whose name is commemorated yearly in the custom of presenting a needle and thread ("aiguille et fil," a rebus) to each fellow on New-Year s Day. The present buildings are not older than the Restoration, while the front dates from the middle of the last century, and the west part of the front quadrangle was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1778. The interior of the chapel, which is classical in style, with an apse, exhibits some fine wood- carving and windows. Queen s possesses the largest and most valuable collegiate library of printed books, chiefly owing to the munificence of Bishop Barlow in 1691 and of Dr Robert Mason in 1841. On Christinas Day a boar s head is brought into the hall to the accompaniment of an ancient carol. St John the Baptist s College was the St John s. work of Sir Thomas White, a London merchant, in June 1555. Archbishop Laud was closely connected with it, and built, almost entirely at his own expense, the second quadrangle, including the library ; his body rests within the college. The chapel and other parts of the buildings belonged to the earlier foundation of St Bernard s College. The large gardens are skilfully laid out in alternate lawns and groves. Trinity College, founded in February 1555 Trinity. by Sir Thomas Pope, was the first post-Reformation college and the first established by a layman. The library is the original one of Durham College, in which Richard de Bury s books were deposited in the 14th century. The gardens are extensive, including a fine lime-tree avenue. University College, the proper title of which is the Great Uni- Hall of the University (Collegium Magnse, Aulx Universi- versit y- tatis}, is generally accounted the oldest college, although its connexion with Alfred is wholly legendary. It received the first endowment given to students at Oxford in 1249 from William of Durham, but its first statutes date from 1280, and its tenure of the present site from about 1340. None of the present buildings are older than the 17th century. The detached library was built in 1860. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Watlham. Wadham, in pursuance of the designs of her husband Nicholas, who died in 1609. The college buildings, made of exceptionally firm stone, have been less altered than those of any other college. The chapel exhibits a surpris ingly pure Gothic style considering its known date, the early part of the 17th century. The meetings held in this college after the Restoration by Dr Wilkins, Bishop Sprat, Sir Christopher Wren, and others directly led to the institu- XVIII. 13