TWO BOOKS ABOUT OXFORD.*
Tins book is only too full of matter. The story of each of the Oxford Colleges, now, by the restoration of Hertford and the foundation of Keble, numbering twenty-one, has been told * (1.) The Colleges of Orford: their History and Traditions. XXI. Chapters contributed by Members of the College. Edited by Andrew Clark, M.A. London: Methuen and Co. 189L—(2.) Early History of Balite! College. By Prances de Paravicini. London : Kagan Paul, 'Drench, and Co. 1891. by a loyal and learned alumnus. What would have filled out nearly as many volumes, has had to be compressed into one. The writers have obviously suffered from want of space ; while a reviewer who desires to give an idea of the book rather than to criticise it, is embarrassed by the riches from which he has to choose.
There can be no objection to beginning with University College, which, even after the absurd legend of King Alfred's foundation has been given up, remains the oldest foundation. William of Durham, it is true, left the money which he de- signed for academical purposes, to the University of Oxford for the support of "ten or eleven, or twelve, or more Masters." He died in 1249, and four years afterwards these Masters began to live together in a house which the University bought for them. (Mr. Conybeare, the author of the article, candidly allows that this statement is probable rather than certain, but argues, in the words of an earlier historian of the College, that a " College " is not a building, but a society of men ad- mitted into one body, and enjoying like privileges.) The sum left by William of Durham was £206 13s. 4d. The hall cost £32. Other moneys were expended on house-property in Oxford, which brought in, it is interesting to learn, 11 per cent. interest; but rather more than a half was lent by the University to the Barons who were in arms against Henry III., or borrowed by itself. Interest on this seems to have been duly paid, and the capital was restored in proper time. Statutes were made in 1280, and the allowance was fixed at 50s. yearly. About the same time, the scholars of John de Balliol were receiving about 348. Twelve years afterwards, new statutes were made, and pro- vision was made for the reception of undergraduates. The Senior Fellow received the modest fee of Os. 8d. for looking after them. The present site of the College was occupied in 1343. The Society was called Aula Universitagis, but the " College of William of Durham " seems to have been an alter- native name At this point, Mr. Conybeare turns aside to tell the curious story of the King Alfred myth. In 1360, the College bought some houses with a bad title. Made defen- dants in a suit, the College, " after forging various deeds with- out success," begged the interference of King Richard II., as "having been first founded by his noble progenitor, King Alfred," and appealed to the memory of various saints who had been scholars in former times, the Venerable Bede (!) among them. The myth always found adherents. Statues and pictures of the King have been given from time to time, and as a " crowning fiction," to use Mr. Conybeare's term, in 1872 the College celebrated its " millennium," or rather, its millenary. On this occasion the Master received a present of some burned cakes which had been dug up, said the sarcastic donor, at Athelney. In the matter of antiquity, Balliol and Merton run a close race with Univer- sity. The Warden of Merton, indeed, boldly claims precedence for his College. In every sense of the word, Merton, with its code of statutes and conventual buildings, its chartered rights of self-government and its organised life, was the first of English Colleges. It was founded in 1264 at Malden, in Surrey, with an educational branch at Oxford. Ten years later, it was established on its present site. The germs, so to speak, of its two rivals already existed, but Merton was the first fully developed College. In the first century of its existence, it numbered many distinguished alumni; while it served as a type to the founders of Colleges in Oxford and elsewhere. Exeter, Oriel, and Queen's were all founded within a century from the date of William of Durham's bequest. In 1379, the foundation-stone of a far more splendid building than Oxford yet possessed was laid,—that of New College. Eight year afterwards, the Warden, scholars, clerks, and choristers of " St. Marie Colledge of Wynchester in Oxford" marched in solemn procession into the habitation which the munificence of William of Wykeham had pro- vided for them. Everything about the new foundation, was splendid and complete. There was a chapel which still ranks among the finest ecclesiastical edifices in England, a stately hall, a bell-tower, a library, an audit-room, the bumbler adjuncts of bakehouse and brewery and garden, and, arranged in the quadrangle form which has become the academical type, the dwellings of the members of the foundation. The Warden was to have lodgings of his own. The heads of the earlier foundations had been Conient.with the privilege of a separate room. And he had the munificent stipend of £40, with provision for six horses. The allowances of the Fellows were on a more modest scale, ls. per week in times of plenty, which might be doubled when wheat was as high as 2s. per busheL (This was a famine price ; the average about this time may be put perhaps at 9d.) The statutes which the Founder gave to his beneficiaries have a fullness which is wanting in earlier documents of the same kind, and give us, in consequence, a more detailed picture of academic life. Games, which are now tacitly recognised as an integral part of a University career, were forbidden without exception. Chess, ball-games, archery,—in fact, every amusement came under the ban. Only on festivals, when there was a fire in the hall—not an every-day luxury, it should be observed—the Fellows might sing, and read poems, chronicles, and travels. Their studies were narrowly limited, not going beyond, in the earlier years, grammar and logic and a very small portion of arithmetic, and never including the belles lettres. The Divinity students had the Bible and the Sentences of Peter the Lombard set before them; the Law students, first the Civil and then the Canon Law. Still, the Founder had some conception of a University. Two Fellows were to study medicine, and two astronomy or astrology. Mr. Rashdall, who writes the article on New College, gives us a curious account of the origin of- the privilege, which it claimed up to 1834, that its members should take degrees without examination. The Founder forbade them to sue for "graces," i.e., dispensations from the ordinary conditions of residence, &c. But graces became almost universal, as the conditions were very seldom wholly fulfilled. When examinations were intro- duced, Wykehamists were, by a strange extension of custom, held to have no concern with them. Mr. Rashdall calls the privilege a damnosa hereditas. If the uncompromising enemies of examinations are right, New College ought to have been exceptionally full of sweetness and light. As a matter of fact, it was an abode of indulgence and idleness. Even after the privilege had been given up, New College names very rarely appear in the Class List. In the twenty years 1834-1853, there are to be found two First-Classes and five Seconds only. In 1857, changes which were certainly not sweeping were intro- duced. It is a curious instance of what looks like favouritism, that while half the fellowships were reserved for Wykehamists, Merchant Taylors, which had a similar privilege at St. John's, was not allowed to retain one. Lincoln, the next College on the list to New, has had the good fortune to have its story told by the able pen of the editor. Whether the Lincoln records are peculiarly rich, or Mr. Clark peculiarly learned in academical antiquities, as, indeed, he is known to be, the result is a remarkably interesting article. Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, founded the College in 1429, to be a stronghold against the opinions of Wycliffe, opinions to which he had himself leant in early days. He appropriated, with the licence of persons interested, the parish church and churchyard of St. Mildred for the site, and the revenues of All Saints' and St. Michael's for an endowment. This. after providing for the services in the church, amounted to £18 per annum, probably not available before the cession of the two incumbents. When Fleming died (January 25th, 1431), the tower which still surmounts the northern gateway had been built, and a Rector had been appointed, but no Fellows. In 1437, John Forest, Dean of Wells, built the hall, kitchen, library, chapel (not the present edifice, which was the gift of William, Bishop of Lincoln),—in fact, the north side of the outer quadrangle. In 1461, the College narrowly escaped dissolution. Nine years afterwards, the second founder, Thomas Rother- ham, intervened. The Rector or one of the Fellows preached before him on the text, "Behold, and visit this vine," and so moved him that he rose from his place, and "told the preacher that he would perform his desire." (The vine is still culti- vated ma the College walls, and its fruit duly eaten on the gaudy day, November 1st). He completed the outer quadrangle, appropriated to the College the tithes of two parishes, and founded five fellowships. Various benefactions were given from time to time, the well-known Mitre Inn being one of the earliest. This was already an ancient inn when William Dagville (died 1470) inherited it from his uncle. Doubtless it is one of the oldest houses of entertainment in the Kingdom. Mr. Clark's account of the emoluments and duties of the Lincoln Rector and Fellows is both copious and interesting. Rotherham allowed ls. 4d. per week to each Fellow for commons. Festivals were distinguished by extra payments, Christmas heading the list with 8d. Besides these sums, they had, but this not for some time, an allowance for clothing, the services of the College servants, chambers rent-free, and allowances for obits, amounting to 9s. 4.d. in the year. There were twelve such days in all; the first Founder's obit they were not paid to attend. Besides these emoluments, there was probably a share in the rents of the College property, so far as these more than met the specific charges on them. The duties imposed on the beneficiaries were not educational. Prayers for deceased benefactors, the charge of certain churches, and theological study were to be their occupations. No under- graduates were received before the latter half of the sixteenth century. The strictly theological character of the College was maintained by various statutes, among them one which pre- scribed that each Fellow of a certain standing should proceed to the degrees of B.D. and D.D. As a matter of fact, the latter was excused by a curious device. "Ad apicem doctoralem aspiret " were the words of the statute, and the condition was held to be satisfied if the Fellow whose time for the doctorate had come stood up in the chapel and said, "Ad apicem doctoralem aspiro."
Of the other chapters we cannot speak in detail. It must be enough to commend especially the accounts of All Souls' by Mr. C. W. C. Oman, and Corpus Christi by the President, Mr. Fowler (whom, however, we will venture to correct by re- marking that the Duke of Monmouth was not "the eldest natural son of Charles II.") But all the book is highly interesting, to Oxford men, of course, in the first place, but to all readers in the second.
Mrs. de Paravicini's volume deals with the early history, in- cluding in round numbers about three centuries, of Balliol College. She gives exact copies of the statutes, charters, and other documents connected with the foundation and with the benefactions which accrued during that time, the first name on the list being of course John de Balliol, who in 1260 or thereabouts gave allowances to certain scholars who were to be called by his name ; the second, Dervorguilla, his wife, who gave these scholars a local habitation ; and the last, Peter Blundell, of Tiverton, who in 1603 endowed a scholar- ship and fellowship to be held by scholars of Tiverton Gram- mar School. Nothing could exceed the loving care with which Mrs. de Paravicini has performed her task. Every deed, its writing, the seals appended to it, is minutely described ; while the local associations of the College, which spread over Oxford, much in the same way as its students have found their way into the foundations of so many Colleges, are industriously traced out. (The beautiful Divinity School was once Balliol property.) We do not know that the form of the book is exactly what we should have preferred. Possibly a narrative with notes might have been more attractive. But in any case, the author has deserved well of the College.
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