WADHAM
Wadham is young enough to dwell, in part, in buildings erected by its founder, Nicholas Wadham, and by Dorothy Wadham, the wife and widow and executrix of Nicholas, in the second decade of the Seventeenth Century. The Front Quadrangle stands as they left it; the Hall bears the date 1613, over its entrance, but the Chapel was restored in 1834.
One of the most far-reaching of the Literary Landmarks of Wadham is the fact that it was the cradle of the Royal Society.
Mr. J. Wells, a Fellow of Wadham, quotes Bishop Sprat as telling how "the first meetings were made in 1649 in Dr. Wilkins's lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then the place of resort for virtuous and learned men; "and Mr. Wells places these meetings" by tradition in the great room over the Gateway, although this," he considers, "more than doubtful." Evelyn jots down in his "Diary" (July 13, 1654), that "We all dined at the most obliging and universally-curious (with a hyphen) Dr. Wilkins's at Wadham College." Whether the hyphenated words "universally-curious" as applied to Dr. John Wilkins,
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