astery not far from the Castle. But no sign of it is now left.
As in the case of Bacon, so in the case of Chaucer, everything is left in uncertainty and in doubt. Both the Universities claim him. Cambridge, on the strength of his familiarity with that town, as shown in one of the "Tales"; Oxford, on account of the knowledge of Oxford which he exhibits in another "Tale." In each instance this acquaintance may have been the result of some undergraduate experience, or it may have been merely the result of close observation during some unrecorded Pilgrimage to either place. At all events, it has been pretty clearly established that the Philosophical Strode, one of the most illustrious ornaments of Merton, was a friend, and perhaps at Merton the host, of Chaucer; and Merton, therefore, may set down Chaucer as one of its Literary Landmarks with a shadow more of reason than have any other of the sister institutions in the sister University.
Wood says that "Wycliffe was educated from his first coming to Oxford, at this College [Merton]; but that he left the College because it was weary of him, being a man of turbulent spirit." He was, according to other and varied authorities, first a Commoner of Queen's, then a Fellow of Merton, and then a member, or perhaps a Fellow, of Balliol.
