OXFORD
By Robert Peel And H. C. Minchin
With 100 Illustrations In Colour
New York
The Macmillan Company
1906
THIS volume is not intended to compete with any existing guides to Oxford: it is not a guide-book in any formal or exhaustive sense. Its purpose is to shew forth the chief beauties of the University and City, as they have appeared to several artists; with such a running commentary as may explain the pictures, and may indicate whatever is most interesting in connection with the scenes which they represent. Slight as the notes are, there has been no sacrifice, it is believed, of accuracy. The principal facts have been derived from Alexander Chalmers' History of the Colleges, Halls, and Public Buildings of the University of Oxford, from Mr. Lang's Oxford, and from the Oxford and its Colleges of Mr. J. Wells.
The illustrations, with the exception of six only, which are derived from Ackermann's Oxford, are reproduced from the paintings of living artists, mostly by Mr. W. Matthison, the others by Mrs. C. R. Walton, Walter S. S. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Bayzant, and Miss E. S. Cheesewright.
CONTENTS
OXFORD
OLDEST OXFORD
THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS BUILDINGS
ST. MARY'S CHURCH
THE CATHEDRAL
THE STREETS OF OXFORD
THE RIVER
MERTON COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
BALLIOL COLLEGE
EXETER COLLEGE
ORIEL COLLEGE
QUEEN'S COLLEGE
ST. EDMUND HALL
NEW COLLEGE
LINCOLN COLLEGE
ALL SOULS COLLEGE
MAGDALEN COLLEGE
BRASENOSE COLLEGE
CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE
CHRIST CHURCH
TRINITY COLLEGE
ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
JESUS COLLEGE
WADHAM COLLEGE
PEMBROKE COLLEGE
WORCESTER COLLEGE
HERTFORD COLLEGE
KEBLE COLLEGE
OXFORD
OLDEST OXFORD
OXFORD is so naturally associated with the idea of a University, and the Collegiate buildings which confront one at every turn have such an ancient appearance, that a stranger might be excused for thinking that the University is older than the town, and that the latter grew up as an adjunct to the former. Of course, the slightest examination of facts suffices to dissipate this notion. Oxford is a town of great antiquity, which may well have been in existence in Alfred the Great's time, though there is not a shred
There is a passage in Domesday Book which gives us a fair idea of the size of the town in the Conqueror's day. It contained over seven hundred houses, but of these, so harshly had the Normans treated the place, two-thirds were ruined and unable to pay taxes. William made Robert D'Oily, one of his followers, governor of Oxford. D'Oily's is the earliest hand (a heavy one, by the way, as the townsfolk learnt to their cost) whose impress is visible on the Oxford of to-day. We may indeed, if we please, attribute a certain piece of wall in the Cathedral to a remoter date, but the grim old tower (which appears in the first illustration) is the first building in Oxford whose author can with certainty be named. It is all that remains of the Castle which Robert D'Oily built in order to control the surrounding country; and he built his stronghold by the riverside because he thereby dominated the waterway, along which enemies were apt to come, as well as wide tracts of land in every direction. No doubt the hands of the conquered English laboured at the massive structure which was to keep them in subjection.
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A queen was once besieged in the castle, Matilda, Henry I.'s daughter. When food gave out she made her escape in a romantic manner, so the story tells. The river was frozen and the ground covered with snow. The queen was let down from the tower by night with ropes, clad in white, the better to escape observation. Three knights were with her, clad in white also, under whose guidance she reached Wallingford on foot, and so escaped King Stephen's clutches.
To the period of the Norman Conquest belongs also the tower of St. Michael's Church, in the Cornmarket. It has been usual to describe this edifice as Saxon; but antiquaries incline to think that if Robert D'Oily did not build St. Michael's tower, he at least repaired it. This tower formed a part of the city wall, and from its narrow windows arrows may have rained upon advancing foes. Adjoining it was Bocardo, the old north-gate of the city, whose upper chamber was long used as a prison. Nothing of Bocardo now remains; but Robert D'Oily's handiwork is traceable, as many think, in the crypt and chancel of St. Peter-in-the-East and in the chancel arch at Holywell.
In these buildings, then, the history of Norman Oxford is written, so far as history can be written in stone; yet here and there about the city are to be seen structures which, although two or three centuries younger, have an appearance hardly less venerable. Year after year the aged walls and portals are thronged with fresh generations of the youth of England; and it is in this combination of youth and age that no little of the charm of Oxford lies. We speak within the limitations of mortality: but, could we escape them for a moment, "immortal age beside immortal youth" might be her most appropriate description.
THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS BUILDINGS
WHEN did the University come into existence? That is a question which many people would like to have answered, but which still, like Brutus, "pauses for a reply." It is to the last degree improbable that we shall ever know. There were teachers and learners in Oxford at an early date, but so there were in many other English towns; the plant struck deeper in Oxford than elsewhere, that is all that one can say. There are various indications that in the twelfth century the town had acquired a name for learning. In 1186, Giraldus Cambrensis, who had written a book about Ireland and wanted to get it known, came and read his manuscript aloud at Oxford, where, as he tells us, "the clergy in England chiefly flourished and excelled in clerkly lore." That was fifty years after the death of King Henry the Scholar, who—was it only a coincidence?—had a residence in Oxford. It is pleasant to find Oxford students, even in those early days, with ears attuned to hearing "some new thing."
"Doctors of the different faculties," we are told, were among Giraldus' auditors: a fact which shows that learning was already getting systematised. A little later it has clothed itself in corporate form, and possesses a Chancellor. That official (when, and by whom appointed, is the mystery) is first mentioned in 1214, and we can henceforth look upon the University as a living body. He is named in connection with the first recorded "town and gown" row, when the citizens of Oxford took two clerks and hung them. The papal Legate (this was in the evil days of King John) intervened, and the citizens were very properly rebuked and fined.
A century passed before "The Gown" had a building set specially apart for the transaction of their affairs. Then, in 1322, Bishop Cobham of Worcester added a chapel to the north-east corner of St. Mary's, and gave it to the University as a House of Congregation. The office of Proctor had already been instituted, and that functionary had plenty of students to employ his time—30,000 one writer assures us, but him we cannot credit. A fourth of that number is a liberal estimate. They lived in Halls and lodgings, a hard and an undisciplined life, preyed upon by the townsfolk and biting their thumbs at them in return (whence collisions frequently ensued) until Walter de Merton devised the College system, to the no small advantage of all concerned.
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Benefactions poured in upon the several Colleges, but the greater institution was not forgotten. In the Divinity School, within whose walls Latimer and Ridley defended their opinions, and Charles II.'s Parliament debated, the University possesses, as is fit and proper, the most beautiful room in Oxford and one of the most beautiful in England. The style is Perpendicular and the ceiling is particularly admirable. Together with the fine room above it, in which Duke Humphrey's manuscripts were housed, the Divinity School was completed in 1480.
Those six hundred manuscripts of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, which he bestowed on the University, had a sad history. They were dispersed by Edward VI.'s Commissioners, who judged them to be popish in tendency, and only four of them were ever restored to their old home. Nevertheless, Duke Humphrey's gift was the origin of the Bodleian Library. One does not like to think what the Library was like in the days which followed, when its manuscripts were scattered abroad and its shelves sold; but in the last years of the sixteenth century there arose a man who took pity upon its desolation. This was Sir Thomas Bodley, Fellow of Merton, a man of travel and affairs, who devoted the last years of his life to the creation of what is now one of the most famous libraries
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The original chamber did not long suffice to contain the volumes; an east and then a west wing were added, the latter over Archbishop Laud's Convocation House (1640) which superseded Cobham's Chapel. From these the books overflowed into various rooms in the Old Schools Quadrangle, which had been rebuilt in James I.'s reign. Further space was gained in 1860, when the Radcliffe, set free by the removal of its collection of scientific works to the New Museum, was lent to the Bodleian; and again in 1882, on the opening of the New Examination Schools (sketched by Mr. Matthison), when the Old Schools were rendered available for the uses of the Library.
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The various public buildings belonging to the University erected during the nineteenth century, such as the Taylor Institution, the University Art Galleries, the New Museum, and the Indian Institute, can hardly escape attracting the attention of visitors to Oxford. It remains to say a word of two older structures, which appear side by side in Mr. Matthison's next drawing—the Clarendon Building and the Sheldonian Theatre.
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The Clarendon Building was designed by Vanbrugh, and completed in 1713. It is named after the author of the History of the Rebellion, and was partially built out of the profits of the copyright of that work, which Clarendon's son presented to the University. It was the home of the University Press until 1830, and is now occupied by the offices of various University Boards.
The Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is associated with less tranquil occupations. It is here that honorary degrees are conferred and the Encænia held; here the Terræ Filius, a licensed jester, used to hurl his witticisms at whomsoever he pleased; and here, in later times, the occupants of the Undergraduates' Gallery have endeavoured to keep up his tradition. Here, too, Convocation sometimes meets, when a burning question is to be discussed and Masters of Arts assemble in their hundreds. On such occasions the Sheldonian has been known to be as full of clamour as at the Encænia. It is perhaps pleasanter to view Wren's stately building when it is void alike of undergraduate merriment and of graduate contention.
ST. MARY'S CHURCH
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ALTHOUGH St. Mary's, being a parish Church, cannot be numbered among the buildings which are University property, it has been almost as closely connected as any of them with the life and history of the University. Cobham's Chapel, as has been already said, was the first House of Congregation; and in the room above it the University kept its manuscripts, until Duke Humphrey's Library was built. The chancel and nave, moreover, were used by the gownsmen for both religious and secular purposes; and it is strange to reflect that consecrated walls heard not only sermons and disputations, but the jests of the Terræ Filius and the uproar which they excited. It was only when the Sheldonian was built (1669) that St. Mary's ceased to be the scene of the "Act"—the modern Encænia—and was restored to its original intention.
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The porch, with its spiral columns and statue of the Virgin and Child, is much later than the rest of the building, being the work of Dr. Owen, Archbishop Laud's chaplain. Architecturally it is not in keeping with the nave and spire, but in itself, especially when the creeper which en-wreathes it takes on its autumnal colour, it is very beautiful. It was found necessary, in 1895, to restore the spire, which with the pinnacles at its base is the special glory of St. Mary's.
The Church is intimately connected with the religious history of the nation. Here Keble preached the famous Assize Sermon, which is regarded as the beginning of the Oxford Movement; here, too, Newman, before he withdrew to his retirement at Littlemore, preached those many sermons to whose spiritual force men of all schools of thought have borne witness. A later vicar was Dean Burgon, to whose memory the west window was put up in 1891.
But Cranmer's connection with St. Mary's transcends all its other associations. On September 12, 1555, he was here put on trial for his religious opinions, which he defended with as much ability as courage. He was then recommitted to his prison, and in December Rome pronounced him guilty. The hardships of his imprisonment told upon his resolution, and he was induced to write several letters of submission, in which his so-called errors were recanted. On March 21, 1556, he was once more brought to St. Mary's. His life was to be taken, but he was to crown his humiliation by a public confession. Placed upon a wooden stage over against the pulpit, he had to hear a sermon, at the close of which he was to speak. His fortitude returned, and to the amazement of all he recanted his recantation. "As for the Pope"—these were his memorable words—"I utterly refuse him, as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine; and as for the Sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the Bishop of Winchester. And for as much as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished therefore; for, may I come to the fire, it shall be first burned." He was hurried off to the stake, and there
"lifted his left hand to heaven,
And thrust his right into the bitter flame;
And crying in his deep voice, more than once,
'This hath offended—this unworthy hand!'
So held it till it was all burn'd, before
The flame had reach'd his body."
THE CATHEDRAL
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AT the east end of the choir aisle of
The Priory was surrendered to Henry VIII. in 1522, who made it over to Wolsey. That cardinal, in his zeal for the new College, which he now proceeded to found, shewed little respect for the old Church. He practically demolished its west end to make room for his building operations. The truncated Church was used as a chapel for his students, until the new and magnificent one which he had planned should be completed. That edifice was never built. Wolsey was disgraced, and the king took over St. Frideswyde's, to be the Cathedral Church of his newly created diocese of Oxford.
From this date, then, 1546, it is a Cathedral, but a College chapel also; for Henry was content that the one building should serve the two purposes. The Cathedral was restored in the seventeenth century and again in the nineteenth, with considerable alterations. It is hardly worth while here to enumerate these in their entirety; but when one sees in old engravings the beautiful east window, put up in the fourteenth century, which was removed at the time of Sir Gilbert Scott's restoration, it is impossible not to regret a change which appears to be quite unjustifiable. At the same time it may be readily admitted that the east end, designed on Norman lines, which the architect substituted, has considerable beauty, and harmonises with the general tone of the building. Regret is unavailing, and it is perhaps wiser to console oneself with the reflection that at any rate things might have been worse.
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The Cathedral is so hemmed in by the various buildings of Christ Church that it is difficult to obtain a comprehensive view from the outside. Perhaps one sees it best from Merton Fields, with the beautiful Rose Window prominently visible. Even so the Cathedral is in part hidden by the ancient Refectory of St. Frideswyde's (long since converted into rooms). This is the view, sketched from the nearer foreground of the Canon's Garden, which appears in Mr. Matthison's drawing, only that the Rose Window is hidden by trees. The spire—or spire and tower combined—no longer holds the bells which chimed originally in Osney Abbey, on the river's farther side; they were removed to the new Belfry (completed in 1879), which appears to the left of the Refectory.
We are now to speak of the interior of the building. It is sketched from various points of view in the accompanying six illustrations: but twice as many would not suffice to exhaust its interest. At no time does the nave appear more impressive than when a shaft of sunlight strikes across the massive columns; and Miss Cheesewright has sought to fix upon her canvas the charm of such a moment. The Lady Chapel was added early in the thirteenth century; here are enshrined the remains of St. Frideswyde, which were moved several times before they reached their final resting-place. The Latin Chapel dates from the fourteenth century, and is full of interest. Some of its carved woodwork is to be referred to Wolsey's time, and it contains the tombs, among others, of Lady Elizabeth Montacute, the Chapel's reputed builder, and of Sir George Nowers, a comrade-in-arms of the Black Prince. Other notable tombs in various parts of the Cathedral are those of Robert Burton, author of the Anatomy of Melancholy; Bishop Berkeley, the metaphysician and upholder of the virtues of tar-water; Bishop King, last Abbot of Osney and first Bishop of Oxford; Dean Liddell and Dr. Pusey. A window in the south transept depicts the murder of Thomas à Becket, whose head has been obliterated, by the order, it is said, of Henry VIII. Another window in the same transept commemorates Canon Liddon. The art of Burne-Jones has contributed not a little to the Cathedral's beauty. In the east window of the Latin Chapel he has set forth the romantic story of St. Frideswyde. Another of the windows which he designed is at the east end of the Lady Chapel, and serves as a memorial of Mr. Vyner, who was murdered by Greek brigands in 1870; another, at the east end of the north aisle of the choir, commemorates St. Cecilia, with which corresponds a "St. Catherine of Alexandria" in the south aisle, put up in memory of Miss Edith Liddell, daughter of Dean Liddell. Lastly, at the west end of this aisle, the artist has chosen "Faith, Hope, and Charity" as his subject.
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The Cloister and Chapter-House (thirteenth century) must not be overlooked. The entrance to the Chapter-House is by a singularly fine Norman doorway. The Cloister saw the unworthy degradation of Archbishop Cranmer, after the Pope had pronounced him guilty of heresy.
Enough has perhaps been said to shew intending visitors to Oxford that the interest of the Cathedral is both great and varied. To those who already know it, these hints will seem a poor and inadequate attempt to express its manifold charm, but the pictures may serve to emphasise their vivid recollections. Those who have yet to make acquaintance with it will perhaps exclaim, as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon's wisdom and prosperity, "Behold, the half was not told me."
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THE STREETS OF OXFORD
WHERE is the centre, the ὀμφαλὸς
Such a place there is in Oxford, Carfax,—Quatre voies,—the spot where four ways meet. This, not too arbitrarily, we will name the centre of Oxford, and thence will wend upon our pilgrimage. But let us pause a moment, before we set out, at the parting of the ways.
The old Church of St. Martin's at Carfax was pulled down in 1896, and only the tower left. St. Martin's was the church of the city fathers, as St. Mary's was (and is) the church of the University. Nowadays the civic procession winds its way to All Saints, a nearer neighbour of St. Mary's. Such propinquity would have sorted ill with the manners of mediaeval Oxford, when the enmity of town and gown, at times quiescent, was never wholly quelled. In an age when the clerks, regular and secular, fell out among themselves in the precincts of St. Mary's, even to the shedding of blood, it is idle to look for a more civil temper in the burgesses: and the bells of Carfax and St. Mary's summoned those who frequented them to battle as well as to prayer. They rang out with the former intention on the feast of St. Scholastica in 1354. It is sad to record that the quarrel arose in a tavern, where two gownsmen abused the vintner for serving them with wine of wretched quality. The conflict which ensued was of a very deadly nature. The scholars held their own until evening, when the citizens called the neighbouring villagers of Cowley and Headington to their aid, and the Gown were routed. As many as forty students were slain, and twenty-three townsmen. Then Edward III. took steps to protect the men of learning, lowering, among other measures, the tower of Carfax, because they complained that in times of combat the townsmen retired thither as to a castle, and from its summit grievously annoyed and galled them with arrows and stones. The burgesses also were forced to attend annually at St. Mary's Church, when mass was offered for the souls of the slain, bearing on their persons sundry marks of degradation; and though these were subsequently done away, it was only in 1825 that they were excused the indignity of attending the commemorative service.
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Such are some of the memories evoked by the Tower of Carfax, the best view of which is given in Mr. Matthison's first drawing. The second illustration is from a point rather farther to the eastward. Both give a glimpse of the Mitre Hotel, most picturesque of old Oxford hostelries, and the second a part of the front of All Saints. At this point we may for a moment leave the High Street (which we have begun to traverse, half insensibly, under the artist's guidance) and wander down "The Turl," as Turl Street is commonly called. "Turl" is said to be a corruption of Thorold, and Thorold to have been the name of a postern-gate in the old city walls. The quiet old street has Colleges on either hand, Lincoln, Exeter, and Jesus. Retracing our footsteps, we get the fine view of All Saints which is given in the third illustration. The history of this Church, known originally as All Hallows, goes back to the twelfth century, but the present building, designed by Dr. Aldrich, a former Dean of Christ Church, has only been in existence since 1708, the old one having been destroyed in 1699 by the fall of its spire. The present graceful tower and spire are a worthy memorial of Dean Aldrich's versatility.
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We now return to our exploration of "The High," whose magnificence of outline become more and more apparent as one walks eastwards. It was a poet bred at Cambridge, no less a poet than Wordsworth, whom the manifold charm of Oxford tempted "to slight his own beloved Cam"; and he it is who has written the most quotable description of "The High" in brief. "The streamlike windings of that glorious street," he writes: and indeed its curve suggests nothing so much as the majestic bend of some noble river. We may cite, too, Sir Walter Scott's testimony, who claimed that the High Street of Edinburgh is the most magnificent in Great Britain, except the High Street of Oxford. It is not at all difficult to assent to this opinion. As the view gradually unfolds itself, we have on our left successively the new front of Brasenose, St. Mary's, All Souls, Queen's, and Magdalen; on our right the long, dark front of University, and many old dwelling-houses, whose architecture does not shame their situation. Looking backward for a moment at Queen's College (perhaps when the west is rosy, as in Mr. Matthison's drawing), one sees substantially the same view which delighted Wordsworth in 1820; and we, if we are wise, shall take as much delight in it as he. Many thousand times since then has the sun set behind the spires of St. Mary's and All Saints, but the unaltered prospect obliterates the intervening years, and we are at one with the great poet in his admiration.
Contrast is always pleasant, and one may reach Broad Street (which certainly must not be neglected) by several thoroughfares totally unlike "The High." We may traverse Long Wall Street, with Magdalen Grove on our right, a pleasance hidden from the wayfarer by a high wall, but visible to such as lodge in upper rooms on the other side of the way; thence along Holywell Street, with its queer medley of old houses, many of them pleasing to the eye. Or, still greater contrast, we may go by Queen's and New College Lanes, with their rectangular turns and severe masonry on either side. Or, again, we may go through the Radcliffe square with its massive buildings on every hand—the Radcliffe dome in the centre, girt about with St. Mary's, Brasenose, All Souls, and the Old Schools. In any case we find ourselves, at the last, in Broad Street.
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It is a wide and
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Their Memorial is a little distance off, in the neighbouring street of St. Giles'. It is an effective and graceful structure, with characteristic statues of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, and an inscription stating the manner of their death and the reasons for their martyrdom. It was erected in 1841, by public subscription, when also the north aisle of the adjacent Church of St. Mary Magdalen was rebuilt out of the same fund. The Memorial appears twice in Mr. Matthison's drawings; once at the approach of evening, looking towards the city, and once as it is seen in full daylight, with the widening vista of St. Giles' Street in the background. St. Giles' is surely the widest street in the three kingdoms; Broad Street is narrow when compared with it. Each September it is the scene of what is said to be the largest and the oldest fair in England. But we have not chosen a fair-day for our pilgrimage.