broke is ruled by a Master, Magdalen by a President, Lincoln by a Rector. And the stranger who has to address these rulers, and who wishes, naturally, to do so in the proper manner, has to grope in the dark, or to feel his way in the Oxford Directory.
It may be straining a point, perhaps, to call Christopher Wren a Literary Landmark, but he was an universal genius, and a Professor of Astronomy; and the rooms "over the Gateway," which claim to have rocked the Royal Society in its swaddling clothes, certainly did shelter the great Architect in his cap and gown.
Thomas Sprat, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, who entered Wadham as early as 1651, was an original member of the Society, and its historian. Macaulay did not admire him; but those who read him in his own day said that he had a good prose style; and the inevitable Anthony Wood pronounced him "an excellent poet."
Apropos of the Royal Society, with its farreaching results and its long and honorable career, it is curious to read of a Society which the undergraduates of Oxford attempted to organize "for Scientific and Literary Disquisition" in 1794. Their constitution was submitted respectfully to the Vice-Chancellor for his approval. It forbade the discussion of all topics bearing upon religion
