Kenelm Digby entered Gloucester Hall as a Gentleman Commoner in 1618, and he was committed to the particular care of Allen; but in 1620 he left Oxford without a degree. He was looked upon in his time as "The Magazine of All the Arts, and the Ornament of his Nation." Aubrey tells us that he was not only master of a good graceful style, but, what was better and more uncommon, "he also wrote an admirable hand, both fast and Roman."
Richard Lovelace was matriculated at Gloucester Hall in 1634, when he was accounted the most amiable and beautiful person that eye had ever beheld; of much modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment, which made him the admiration and adoration of the female sex. He wrote many verses in his undergraduate days, and "The Scholar," a comedy of his, was acted in Gloucester Hall in 1636, and with great applause. When he had been but two years at college he was unusually distinguished by the receipt of the degree of Master of Arts, on account of his inestimable charm of person and manner; which seems, in the light of modern times, to be hardly a sufficient reason for the premature honor. No wonder, as Aubrey says, "Lovelace was not only an exceedingly handsome man but proud!"
There are men still living in Oxford to whom
