io. s. v. F. IT, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
123
with his friend Benjamin Bailey, afterwards
Archdeacon of Colombo, then an under-
graduate of Magdalen Hall. During his
visit to "the finest city in the world" the
poet reads Wordsworth while exploring the
river in his boat, makes an excursion with
Bailey to Stratford-on-Avon, continues his
study of Milton, and writes the third book of
his 4 Endymion.' The year before an Act of
Parliament was obtained by which the site
and buildings of the defunct Hertford College,
formerly Hart Hall, were acquired for Mag-
dalen Hall.
Early on Sunday morning, 9 Jan., 1820, during" the vacation, the guard of a mail- coach, passing through the street saw, and gave the alarm, that Magdalen Hall was on fire. The flames had broken out in the rooms of an undergraduate with a passion for the stage, who the evening 'before had given a dramatic entertainment, followed by a supper, and had forgotten to extinguish all the lights before going to bed. About half of the build- ings of the Hall were burnt down ; and in 1822 the members of the Hall took possession of their new abode (since 1874 Hertford College once more), Magdalen College taking over the old site of the Hall and the remains of its buildings. The old Grammar School building, save 'the bell turret, was removed in 1828, owing to the fact that the fabric was unsafe. The School, which under Henry Jenkins (1810 - 28) and Richard Walker (1828-44) was practically limited to the choristers, was for the time carried on in some of the remaining buildings of the former Hall ; and afterwards upon ^ their removal in 1845 transferred to rooms in the Chaplain's Quadran-gle. The remains of the north end of the old schoolroom were adapted by J. C. Buckler to form the soutl front of the block adjoining them, now known as the Grammar Hall (Wilson, 238, 239 Hamilton's ' Hertford College,' 130). In 1829 William Mills was appointed the first Whyte Professor of Moral Philosophy : he had been educated at Magdalen School and College George Grantham, Fellow of the College, was usher from 1801 until his death in 1840. He fell out of his window at bedtime into thf deer park, and was found there next morn ing by his scout, dead with a broken neck the deer crowding round him in an alarmeo circle. *' There was a fire in the antechape at that time, and the surpliced boys used a they passed it to deposit chestnuts anc potatoes, which they recovered matura e cocta, when they came out" (vide Rev. W Tuckwell's 'Reminiscences of Oxford,' p. 73) With the remains of Magdalen Hall wer
Iso removed in 1845 the houses facing the
'Gravel Walk " between those buildings and
he corner of Long Wall. These changes-
vere intended to clear the ground for the-
>chool, which at this time consisted of about
wenty - six members, all told : sixteen-
horisters and nine or ten day-boys. Bub
>efore the work of building was actually
egun a question was raised as to the obliga-
ion of the College to maintain the School
is a place where all comers should be taught
gratuitously, and an application was made
o the Court of Chancery to enforce the-
alleged obligation. The Court, however, re-
used to interfere, holding that the School
was a part of the College, and that its ad-
ninistration was subject to the control of
- he Visitor ; and the Bishop of Winchester
at last decided, in 1849, against the claim to -eceive gratuitous instruction in the par-
- icular case in question. Thereupon the
College at once acquired a house in High Street as a residence for the master, in which- might receive the choristers and other Boarders ; and on May Day, 1851, the present spacious schoolroom which occupies the site of the old '* Greyhound" Inn, was opened T. C. Buckler being the architect. At the- ceremony "an amateur choir, conducted by Blyth, performed without instruments, a series of pieces which would have done credit to the Berlin Choir. Oxford had become musical" (Rev. W. Tuckwell's 'Reminis- cences of Oxford,' 76). In 1845 Benjamin Blyth had succeeded Walter Vicary as Choristarum Informator atque Organista, having been a chorister ten years before. In 1854 he composed the music of the school song "Sicut Lilium, ad Choristes Coll. S.M. Magd. Oxon. Carmen hortativum," the words being written by the Rev. George Booth, B.IX (1791-1859), vicar of Findon, Sussex, and sometime Fellow of the College. John Rouse Bloxam, "Newman's curate at Littlemore, was the first man to appear in Oxford wear- ing the long collarless coat, white stock, and high waistcoat, which form nowadays the in- artistic clerical uniform." He not only com- piled the Register of the members of his College from its foundation, but also
"established the delightful Christmas Eve enter- tainment in the College Hall which has been annual now for fifty years. Held first in his own rooms as a treat to the choristers, it came about 1849 to fill the Hall with a hundred guests or more. Hymns, carols, parts of the ' Messiah,' were sung through the evening : the boys were feasted at the high table, the visitors waiting upon them, and eating Christmas frumenty. Then, when midnight drew near, a hush fell on the assembly, the choir gathered round the piano; twelve o'clock pealed
