OXFOBD STUDIES
BY
JOHN RICHARD GEEEN
EDITED BY
MRS. J. R. GKEEN AND Miss K NORGATE
iLotttrott
MAGMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NKW TOBK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
3901
Ml rights reserved
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION . . ix
THE EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD 1
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY , 25
YOUNG OXFORD .... ... 245
OXFORD AS IT is ... . 255
NOTES . rf , 267
INDEX . . . 293
INTRODUCTION
THE papers in tliis volume represent an idea which
was constantly in Mr. Green's thoughts for many
years a History of Oxford. The Essays on Oxford
in the Last Century were his first work, written in
the Oxford Chronicle of 1859. Almost his first article
to the Saturday Review, in 1867, was on "Watch and
Ward in Oxford ",- and his first papers in Macmittatfs
Magazine, in 1871, were on Oxford and its Early
History; "whereof," as he says, "the thesis is two-
fold: (1) That the University killed the City; and (2)
that the Church pretty well killed the University." *
In that year he returns to the same subject : " Eoam-
ing through these little Ligurian towns makes me
utter just the old groans you used* to join in when
we roamed about France groans, I mean, over the
state of our local histories in England. There isn't
one of these wee places that glimmer in the night
like fireflies in the depth of their bays that hasn't a
full and generally admirable account of itself and its
* Letters, pp. 170, 260, 283.
X OXFORD STUDIES
doings. They are sometimes wooden enough in point
of style and the like, but they use their archives, and
don't omit, as all our local historians seem to make a
point of doing, the history of the town itself. I have
made a little beginning for that of Oxford in the first
paper I sent to George Grove ; but clearly the first
part of such work, the printing and sifting materials,
falls properly to the local antiquary." *
Born in 4 St. John's Street, Mr. Green was from
his childhood sensitive to the spirit of his native
city. Its outer beauty had lifted his imagina-
tion. "Bells had their poetry for me from the first
as they still have," he says, "and the Oxford peals
would always fill me with a strange sense of
delight . . . There was the awe of listening to one
'of the college choirs, and hearing the great organ at
New College or Magdalen ! . . . Tho College was a
poem in itself ; its dim cloisters, its noble chapel, its
smooth lawns, its park with the deer browsing
beneath venerable elms, its 'walks' with 'Addison's
walk' in the midst of them, but where we boys
thought less of Addison than of wasps' nests and craw-
fishing. Of all the Oxford colleges it was the state-
liest and the most secluded from the outer world, and
though I can laugh now at the indolence and useless-
ness of the collegiate life of my boy -days, my boyish
imagination was overpowered by the solemn services,
the white-robed choir, the long train of divines and
fellows, and the president moving like some
* Letters, pp. 295 96.
INTRODUCTION xi
mysterious dream of the past among the punier
creatures of the present. . . . May morning too was
a burst of poetry every year of my boyhood. Before
the Eeformation it had been customary to sing a
mass at the moment of sunrise on the 1st of May,
and some time in Elizabeth's reign this mass was
exchanged for a hymn to the Trinity. At first we
used to spring out of bed, and gather in the gray of
dawn on the top of the College tower, where
choristers and singing-men were already grouped in
their surplices. Beneath us, all wrapped in the dim
mists of a spring morning, lay the city, the silent
reaches of Cherwell, the great commons of Cowley
marsh and Bullingdon now covered with houses, but
then a desolate waste. There was a long hush of
waiting just before five, and then the first bright
point of sunlight gleamed out over the horizon;
below, at the base of the tower, a mist of discordant
noises from the tin horns of the town boys greeted
its appearance, and above, in the stillness, rose the
soft pathetic air of the hymn Te Deum Patrem
colimus. As it closed, the sun was fully up,
surplices were thrown off, and with a burst of gay
laughter the choristers rushed down the little
tower stair, and flung themselves on the bell ropes,
* jangling' the bells in rough mediaeval fashion till
the tower shook from side to side. And then, as
they were tired, came the ringers ; and the e jangle '
died into one of those c peals,' change after change,
which used to cast such a spell over my
Xll OXFORD STUDIES
boyhood." * I well remember the passionate
enthusiasm with which he watched from the train
for the first sight of the Oxford towers against the
sky.
As a child too he had felt the power of Oxford in
the Past. His first prize had been given him by the
old President of Magdalen who wore the last wig
ever seen in Oxford, who had himself seen Dr. John-
son. " We boys used to stand overawed as the old
man passed by, the keen eyes looking out of the
white, drawn face, and feel as if we were looking
on some one from another world." t It was
from Oxford itself that he learned to deny the
convention that would separate between Ancient and
Modern History. "Oxford seems to me the one
place where this distinction vanishes. There in its
very system of training the old and the new worlds
are brought together as they are brought nowhere
The history of the Papers on "Oxford in the
Eighteenth Century " is given in a preface to a re-
print in 1859 of two series of articles published in
the Oxford GJironide of that year. " It was intended
by the proprietors of the Oxford Chronicle that this
series should embrace the whole period from 1750
to the middle of the present century, detailing in
chronological order the more marked events of every
year, the municipal changes, the local improvements,
* Letters, pp. 4-6. f Ib. p. 6. J 76. p. 176.
INTRODUCTION xiii
the social progress of the town. For the execution,
however, of such a project it is plain that the good-
will and co-operation of the custodians of the city
archives were absolutely necessary; and this co-
operation in a matter of such great civic interest it
was never doubted they would be only too ready to
afford. With these expectations, the most respectful
application was made for access to civic documents,
but, to our great surprise (and, perhaps, to our readers
also), the request was met by a refusal At the
Spanish Queen's levee each lady used to be attended
by two gallants, who were permitted to remain
covered in the presence even of Majesty, on the sup-
position that they were too engrossed to remember
anything but their mistress. A similar excuse in
the engrossing character of the pursuits in which they
are engaged may perhaps be found for our civic
authorities. It will be hard, at least, to suggest any
other."
There were however certain good friends of know-
ledge both in the University and among the civic
officers, who gave their help to the enterprise, lending
books and documents and supplying such information
as was possible. " The information thus kindly com-
municated, as well as that which has been withheld,
has led to changes of some importance in our scheme.
It became impossible to persevere in the original
project without rendering the papers a mere dull
summary of petty and uninteresting events. It was
determined, therefore, on the change of authorship at
XIV OXFORD STUDIES
the conclusion of the First Series, to adapt them, as
far as possible, to our existing sources of information ;
and since we could not present a chronological history,
to depict in as lively a manner as possible the Life of
the Times which were so fast passing away from us.
Papers detailing the events of several periods were at
the same time interspersed amongst the others, and
it was hoped that the combination would give to our
readers no incomplete idea of the Life of Oxford
during the Last Century. The proprietors have
wished to satisfy the interest which has been felt in
this series by the present reprint of them, and they
have only to hope, in conclusion, that their attempt,
frustrated though it has been in some respects, has,
on the whole, done no unimportant service in filling
up a very conspicuous gap in our civic history and
antiquities "
Mr. Green, then in his last year of residence, was
the anonymous author of the Second Series of papers
on Oxford in the Eighteenth Century. His rooms
at Jesus are described by Sir Owen Roberts as "on
the first staircase on the right entering the second
quadrangle next the Principal's house in the corner,
and on the second floor on the left right as one
ascends the stairs." In the summer months when
these essays were written, between July and Sep-
tember, he was at 13 High Street. The idea of the
papers was perhaps suggested to the proprietors by
the piles of volumes of the Oxford Chronicle of the
eighteenth century still preserved in the Office, un-
INTRODUCTION XV
fortunately by accident of fire no longer perfect.
The volumes formed, as will be seen in the
references to these Essays, a rich source of
information for the social history of the past. Some
fragments from a diary kept by Mr. Green at
the time show his perpetual eagerness in gathering in
from every source whatever could be known about
Oxford.
Friday, 5th August 1859. "Eose at seven, arranged
notes for papers on Jacobite Oxford ; at breakfast read
Burton; ran over to Cooke with three papers on
Civic Oxford, which make up nine of the series.
That on the Toasts appears to-day in print. . . .
Afternoon read magazines in Union, especially
Sword and Gown in Fraser. After tea wrote No. I.
of the Jacobite papers, succeeding pretty well in
point of style, I think, but desperately Whig Whigs
being in Oxford the minority. Eead a little Burton,
and sallied forth with Dick round meadow. . . .
Saturday, 6th. "Rose at seven, leaving Dick asleep
in bed, and finished the paper, interrupted just before
ending by breakfast, resumed, but close very stupid
in consequence. Burton at breakfast, but interrupted
by frequent calls for my book-desk the loaf. . . .
The Union papers and reviews after dinner, ex-
tracts for my papers, etc. from Spence and other
sources. Burton at tea, and after tea Coleridge's
Northern Worthies, a book below the name, at least.
XVi OXFORD STUDIES
What of sketches of Oxford Worthies Davenant,
Chillingworth, Pococke, etc. ?
Sunday, 7th. " Uncle at dinner remembers when
Christ Church dined at three, and some at four ; none
at five. Says, Dr. Jackson, when asked to advance
from two to three, replied, * to one, if you like.' . . .
The night so close I could not sleep for thinking of my
plans for literary work, especially my ' Oxford-born
Worthies,' which I planned out elaborately in my
head.
Monday, 8th. "Drew uncle out at tea about old
Oxford. Tales were lingering about the resort of Dons
to Taverns when he came here, 1810 ; especially to that
which stood where Evans lives now. I told the story
of Warton and the Dream. Spoke of the Music Hall ;
he remembered the weekly entertainments which
were transferred to the Town Hall from insufficiency
of room. Catalani was the first to sing there. The
concerts used to be important affairs, and the trustees
important men, especially Dr. Johnson of Magdalene,
a big, pompous, good-humoured fellow. Sir Francis
Burdett lived in the two houses of Aid. Spiers and
Aid. Sadler's wife his lady's maid. Sir Edward
Hitchings succeeded him, removing from Clarke's
Row, to which he had retired on quitting business.
Aunt spoke of the greater mixture and familiarity
which used to exist between University and City
from their meeting in Taverns. At the bottom of
George Street, aunt says, 'the respectable citizens'
used to meet, etc. The Bear Inn, whence name of
INTRODUCTION XYli
lane, stood where Foster's house now stands, had a
coach entry to High Street.
Sunday, 14ft.. . . . "Finished half my twelfth
paper. Shall go on with it now. Ended it and
strolled out to Merton; find they are building up
again the Meadow Gate " (a few days before he had
noticed in his walk the demolition of the gate). "I
asked a policeman the reason of this pulling down
and building up. ' 'Cos they don't know what to do
with their money, I suppose, sir.' . . .
Friday, l$th. . . . "When uncle came home to
prayers I drew him out about old times, Apropos of a
little book of 1818 I showed him, and gleaned a few
curious items for my papers, e g. he remembers old
Dennet, the last of the Barbers, turning out at four
with his apron and scissors to trim and powder the
* Gentlemen's ' heads for Hall.
Saturday, 20tk. "Disappointed in Notes and Queries,
but hit on a mine of information in Mcholls, at ex-
tracts from which I was busied all the morning.
Returned to dinner, found a relative of uncle's who
farms a little near North Leach. We talked of
enclosures, and the great downs he remembered
sprinkled with a few half-starved sheep, now every-
where covered with crops. I wished to lead the
subject to that remarkable coincidence between the
enlargement of enclosures and the local improvement
of towns, but he refused to travel beyond his own
tether. The whole afternoon I dug in Nicholls. . . .
Tuesday, 23rd. "'Ah! woe is me/ quoth the niece,
b
XViii OXFORD STUDIES
* my uncle a poet too ! he knows everything ! nothing
comes amiss to Mm!' 'I assure thee, niece,'
answered Don Quixote, 'that were not my whole
soul engrossed by the arduous duties of chivalry, I
would engage to do anything there is not a curious
art I would not acquire, especially that of making
bird-cages and tooth-picks ! ' Is this the case with
myself? Is the Opus Magnum to dwindle down to
monographs on Sir Leoline Jenkins or Oxford
Worthies or the slop-work of magazines and
reviews ? I lay tossing and tumbling last night with
the thought of this. Sir Leoline's life would be a
sop to the Jesuits Oxford Worthies (not forgetting
Wilkins), a sop to my fellow-citizens. But the Opus
well, c God send it a good delivery, 7 as they say at
Assizes. I bundled off my Jacobite papers this
morning, and am already planning those on Educa-
tion, but intend interposing some on the County, etc.
Oh, that I knew a little about marl, loam, and clay !
Fiiday, 2th. . . . " It requires great intellectual
power to be diffuse. A loose rambling style can only
be adapted to a mind like De Quincey, full of varied
thoughts and quaint paradoxical speculations or
Southey's, with its hoards of miscellaneous learning ;
for ordinary mortals who have no such reserve of
wealth to peep out between the chinks of their style,
'tis impossible to be too terse and condensed. I have
sinned Deeply in these last papers of mine on the
Jacobites, though the patchwork I have to sew to-
gether is provocative of the sin*
INTRODUCTION six
Friday, 29/A September. "At uncle's dinner last
night, chat with Slatter. His partner, Monday, an
apprentice of old Fletcher's. The Oxford Spy pub-
lished by them. The first part came with a note
requesting publication ; they read and liked it and it
took The three other parts followed, and when
all were inserted, the real author called and they
made him a handsome remuneration with which he
was much gratified. The secret of his name is still
preserved. Its incidents were quite true, especially
that of the Proctors breaking into Locke's house,
and the room where his wife lay ill in bed, in search
of some runaway young men. They published the
eccentric Dr. Tatham's sermons and pamphlets. To
one, in which he advocated a National Bank, he
always attributed the bank's consent to help Pitt In
the French War. They published too his Bamp~
tons, including that celebrated one of an hour and
three-quarters, which drove the Bishop of Gloucester
(2) out of church from sheer fatigue. He had long
been promulgating his strictures on the ' Aristo-
telian ' mode of education with little success, so this
sermon was made the vehicle for the diffusion of his
peculiar views. * You profess to educate the youth
of the country, but the youth require a visit to
continental capitals to complete their education!'
He proposed Modern Languages and History, and
seems to have been a reformer before his age. He was
probably the last punster in an University pulpit.
' What with your Little Goes and Great Goes, I fear
XX OXFORD STUDIES
education will give you the By go/ The Lady's Visit
to Oxford was written by Mrs. Hewlitt (wife of the
author of Peter Priggens); the second part was
never published. The Oxford Volunteers, in which he
was Lieutenant, mustered 800 strong, in two divi-
sions. Dr. Tatham rode up their ranks, promising
to pension the widow of the first man who fell in
the country's cause. The Lucubratwns of Councillor
JBicfarton, which they published, was written by a
Mr. Tawney, then gentleman commoner of Exeter.
The Councillor was not offended, but came in and
seriously proposed a share in the profits in lieu of the
liberty taken with his name. He studied for the bar
and used once to go circuit in a post-chaise of his
own with one horse. He was miserably poor, and used
to cut branches from the trees in Hertford Quad for
fuel. On one occasion he quietly severed the branch
on which he sat and came to the ground. Mother
Goose (her real name he mentioned, but I forget) a
great favourite with the University men. When the
Regent passed through to Bibury Races he would
change horses at the 'Lamb and Flag/ take one of
her bouquets and fling her a guinea. The knighting
by mistake was a true story. William Elias Taunton
was Town Clerk; his son of the same name, the
Recorder, was absent when the Prince drove up, and
the father read the address, but instead of handing
it to the Mayor for presentation, handed it in himself.
The Regent took a sword from one of his attendants,
asked his name, and knighted him. He was reminded
INTRODUCTION xxi
that it was an error. Bid the Mayor stand
forward/ and he rose Sir Joseph Locke. Truly, a
Comedy of Errors. The great Oxfordshire election
he was surprised no one had touched on. It ruined
every family concerned but Turner's. It was not a
struggle against the Duke as I supposed. Parties of
twenty rode out to fetch in a single voter. The
conduit ran with wine. It was then opposite
Slatter's house. The four were returned, and a
scrutiny conducted "before the House of Commons.
The Oxford election which wrested one seat from the
Duke was different from this. His wife's father (as
I understood) one of the Corporation imprisoned in
the Tower.
" The Town Clerk as usual lectured on the Grace
Cups. The large one is a present from Charles II. ,
as the inscription testifies. The small, plain, "but
very valuable two-handed cup of solid gold, worth
about 200 or 300, was a present from Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, High Steward of the City.
(How did he become so ? Did he interfere in
elections ?) There are a series of letters from him
still preserved in the City archives, inviting the
Corporation to Clieveden, etc. : A good subject for
a novelist/ said the Town Clerk; 'these old
burgesses amongst the wit and wickedness of
Buckingham Court. 7 They are written in a school-
boy's hand. (See and copy these, and study the
subject.) George the Fourth's cup was presented
by the Old Corporation before its decease to Tommy
OXFOED STUDIES
Ensworth. They feared that in the zeal for reform
all the plate would be sold. There were in-
deed madmen, such as Bristow, who counselled
them."
It seems that by the end of September one series
of papers was completed, and Mr. Green was pro-
posing to reach out beyond the city into regions
where the proprietors of the Oxford Chronicle
hesitated to follow him, into the county history,
the history of religion and education. "I have
finished," he writes, "the first of my papers
on the County considerably debated; I reserve
erasures for my collected edition. This Aid. Spiers
seemed to be looking forward to with some interest.
Then Oxford during the Siege, and Will Davenant,
and the rest of the Oxford-born Worthies and the
Oxford Quarterly, and a thousand other unhatched
projects immensum navigavim'us cequor hey for a
literary life!"
Friday. . . . " ' You have not been an idle
fellow,' said B., 'and yet you have so little to show
for your work.' I suppose I am the only fellow
who would think so, yet I don't doubt that my
career has been a successful one,' I replied. . . .
'What have you learnt? 7 said B. 'What few here
seem to learn,' said I, 'to think.'
WPednesday evening, 2nd November. " c You have
done the College a great service/ said B. to me a
night or two ago, { in introducing to them an animal
INTRODUCTION
who read, and yet did not read for honours.'" ... I
have passed, with compliments from the examiners,
but without honours and must strike out for myself
till I have convinced mankind that I can swim after
all.
"Besides reading a review of Sede's pamphlet and
spending a couple of hours over a paper for the
Chonide I have done little to-day."
It was a bitter disappointment to him and a
great discouragement at the time, to be forced to
abandon projects he had so much at heart. A
letter written some years later recalls his regret
at this decision :
ST. PHILIP'S, STEPNEY,
April 1867.
MY DEAR H. I send the loose sheets I have no
other of what I wrote about Oxford. Of course I don't
swear by all of it now ; I see, for instance, that the social
part is over-coloured. It is the almost necessary conse-
quence of using memoirs or pamphlets, etc. as authorities
before one has learnt the use of a little wholesome
criticism. The Jacobite part is new and not bad ; and
had I been allowed to continue the series of papers by a
few on the religion and educational state of Oxford then,
I might have found something new to tell there too.
But they came out as you know in a local paper and
it would stand no more. . . . Yours very busily,
J. B. G.
. I can't find the first paper, but it was a mere
preface. I think I have generally quoted my authorities.
I have made much use of the Terrce Filius.
OXFORD STUDIES
Many of Mr. Green's letters and papers have been
lost, and many destroyed. There remain only a few
fragmentary pieces to indicate his constant interest in
the Oxford of his own day. A letter of Sept. 22,
I860, alludes to some friction which had arisen be-
tween him and the Oxford magnates on the subject
of the Eifle Corps.*
" We had Morrell's great dinner to the Eifle Corps
here last Thursday Bishop, Duke, Heads of
Houses, M.P.'s, etc., all in robes ; a pretty sight they
say (the 'they' being ladies). At the end of the
proceedings Cooke of the CJironick inserts in type my
verses against the Eifle Corps wide irae" The
lines went against what may be called the outburst
of Jingoism of that day. In 1858 the plot of Orsini
was prepared in London to blow up the Emperor ; it
was followed by the address of the French Colonels
to Louis Napoleon, demanding to be led on London.
Orsini's fellow conspirator, Bernard, was tried in
London 1859, acquitted, and carried in triumph
shoulder-high by the mob. Then came the assem-
bling of the French fleet at Cherbourg, and the forma-
tion of Eifle Corps all over England celebrated
by Tennyson in his verses "Form, Eiflemen, Form ! "
Mr. Green's lines were given in the Chronicle of
Saturday, September 22, 1860, immediately after a
long account of the "Grand Banquet to the Oxford
City Eifle Corps," which had taken place on the
previous Thursday. The lino in verse four, " Fight
* Letters, p. 46.
INTRODUCTION XXV
bravely o'er trimmings and facings," is an allusion
to a discussion which had been going on in the news-
paper for some weeks previously about a proposed
alteration in the uniform of the Corps.
PEACE OE WAR ?
" The Guarantee Fund of the Exhibition of 1852 is still
open. " Athenawn.
Build ! what, a Temple to Peace f
I laugh as I utter the word
Peace with a mailed hand
And its olive-branch hiding a sword
Peace ! but an, hour ago
Came a martial clangour this way,
And nursemaids and boys followed, gaping,
A thin file of heroes in grey.
Has life, then, heroes in grey,
Nothing deeper and truer than this
To march with a clangour of war
To watch how the rifle-shots miss ?
To drill when the drill's not too early ;
Parade when the weather seems fine ;
Fight bravely o'er trimmings and facings ;
And dare not to die but to dine 1
Better war than a hypocrite peace
Better war with its stern hard dints,
Than a Peace full of childish fears,
Of panics and rumours and hints.
OXFORD STUDIES
Better battle with blow for blow
Hard strife amid dust and gore
Than double-faced Peace like this
This puerile mimic of War.
"War ! there is war to be waged,
Real war, by the weakest hand
War with the craven fears
That deaden the heart of the land.
Arm ! but with the weapons of Peace !
Let the Rifle rust as it will,
While the shuttle from loom to loom
Flies merry and blythe through the mill
While early at dawn the ploughshare
Cleaves through the rich black mould ;
While mile upon mile in the sunshine
The heavy grain ripens to gold.
Then, oh ! for the weapons of labour
The warfare that never may cease.
While fearless, and honest, and earnest,
Man fights the glad battle of Peace.
J. R. G.
In the same number of the Chronicle a Perambula-
tion of the Bounds of the city is announced for the
following Monday, September 24 ; and a week later
a short description is given beginning thus: "The
ancient custom of perambulating the boundary of the
city was performed on Monday last, and as seven
years have elapsed since the event took place, during
the Mayoralty of Aid. Dudley, it excited a consider-
INTRODUCTION XXVli
able degree of interest." A letter of Mr. Green's*
gives an account of his share in the proceedings.
" Oh, how I wish you had been in Oxford to go
with me round the city boundaries. About once in
eight years the Mayor has to do this, winding up
with a great feed. I was invited and went. We
marched in red and fur (i.e. the Corporation), cocked
hats and mace, down the High to Magdalene Bridge.
Here we dismissed the rifle band, the aldermen doffed
their robes, the bulk of the crowd dispersed, but the
faithful followed the Mayor in punts across the
stream, along the Cherwell Meadows, across Christ-
church Mead by the side of the ditch that runs across
it, and then entering some house-boats which were
waiting for us with the ladies on board, we went as
far as the Long Bridge where the city boundary
stone is situated. Here we were joined by the king
of the Selavonians, a club of firemen who are now
dying out, arrayed in aldermanic costume, with a
royal crown of 'real gold/ as the ladies all averred,
upon his head. His Majesty was presented with a
bottle of gin, whose head he graciously condescended
to knock off, and then to swallow its contents.
Bidding adieu to the monarch we again returned,
bade farewell to the ladies, and punted under those
arches on which Randall's house stands into the
Hincksey meadows, through which, muddy as they
were, we proceeded to pound. We were cheered by
the merry beat of the city drum the city fife having
* Letters, pp. 47-48.
XXviil OXFORD STUDIES
been early 'winded 5 and dropped behind. 'You
make me quite wild, you do,' said the drum as he
dragged forward his lagging comrade 3 but the fife was
too exhausted, or screwed, to reply. At Hincksey
we found the barrel of beer which the tenant is
bound to offer the Mayor on such occasions stolen,
so onwards we trudged towards Godstow, only paus-
ing at Botley to shy bread and cheese, and pipes and
ale at the crowd; you may fancy what a glorious
scramble it was. My party now led 'across country/
but getting pounded at the second hedge, I was
picked up by the alderman who was comfortably
ensconced in a punt, and conveyed to the dinner at
Godstow. The feed at an end, off we started again,
but as the plank-bearers had got too drunk to stir,
the Mayor had to jump ditches item the mace.
The Mayor did wonders, and reflected credit on the
city. The mace made oft acquaintance with the
mud. So we emerged on Portmeadow, which is a
perfect quagmire now, only to be paddled through,
and crossing the two roads descended into the vale
of the Cherwell, where the aldermen again embarked,
while I managed to scramble over hedges and ditches
as best I might, and in a mangled and fragmentary
condition emerged near Holywell Church, rejoining
the procession at Magdalene Bridge, and marched
home to the 'sound of trumpets. 7 As a bit of pluck,
I finished the evening at the theatre ; but didn't I
pay for it the next day."
INTRODUCTION XXIX
Mr. Green was deeply interested in Oxford politics.
A friend recalls how "Green gave me the most
remarkable account of canvassing Oxford with
Thackeray, whose want of power of public speaking
seems to have been perfectly extraordinary. On the
hustings he utterly broke down, and Green heard
him say to himself, 'If I could only go into the
Mayor's parlour for five minutes I could write this
out quite well/* It was of this election that he
used to tell the tale of his experience in canvassing.
There was a certain barge-owner who had, or was
supposed to have, the command of many votes, and
it was held necessary to secure his support. Mr.
Green was sent to interview him, and laid before him
the loftiest reasons for giving a liberal vote. The
man heard him to the end, and then silently stretched
out an open palm. As Mr. Green hesitated, e How
much is it?' said he. Mr. Green expressed a just
surprise and repudiation of such a thought. '"Well,
that's all well enough/ said the man, ' but we knows
very well what to believe. We reads the papers, and
we sees what happens in Parliament. When they
have talked a while, what do they do ? Why, they
cries Divide ! DiuMe ! Now what do they diwide ?
Why, the Taxes to be sure ! ' "
In 1869 and 1870 Mr. Green wrote the two
papers in the Saturday Review on Modern Oxford
which are included in this volume. There is a sad
* Rotes from a Diary, Sir M. E. Grant- Duff, i 112.
XXX OXFORD STUDIES
laugh in one of his letters at " the talk and jest of
young Oxford " ; "I have said hard things of c young
Oxford/" he says in another letter, "and perhaps
there are hard things to say, but no one can deny
there is a great deal of real nobleness and refinement
of life about it."* "With all its faults of idleness
and littleness, there is a charm about Oxford which
tells on one, a certain freshness and independence
("it has never given itself over to the Philistines," as
Mat. Arnold says), and besides a certain geniality
of life such as one doesn't find elsewhere. Perhaps
its very blunders and one meets a blunder at every
step if one regards it as a great educational institu-
tion save it at any rate from falling into the mere
commonplace of the Daily Telegraph. The real peril
of our days is not that of being wrong, but of being
right on wrong grounds j in a liberalism which is a
mere matter of association and sentiment, and not of
any consistent view of man in his relation to society ;
the Liberalism of the daily papers, I mean, and of
nine-tenths of their readers; a Liberalism which
enables the Times to plead this morning for despotic
government in Greece, or Froude to defend the rack.
And with all its oddities [Oxford] seems to give a
wide toleration and charity to the social intercourse
of thinkers ; Comtist and Eomaniser laugh together
over High Table and are driven, by the logic of fact,
from the shallow device of avoiding one another as
'fools' or c madmen. 3 "t
* Letters, pp. 287, 256, f II. pp. 241-42.
INTRODUCTION
As Mr. Green's first work was a collection of
materials for the History of Oxford, so it was one of
his last occupations. He had filled many note-books
with details collected from all sorts of sources, and in
1873 he proposed to prepare a book of "Essays on
Oxford History 7 '; working in a paper on "Early
Oxford"; a paper on "Oxford in the Great Re-
bellion," and another on " Puritan Oxford," and close
with two long studies on "Oxford Society in the
Eighteenth Century" and "The Oxford Jacobites,"
taken from the essays written as an undergraduate.
The last of these he had begun to put into form and
correct, but the work remains unfinished. I can now,
therefore, only give these studies in their original
form,
"When failing health had put an end to all hope of
his own work on Oxford history being continued, he
took pleasure in the thought that it might still be
carried on by the society which he had first planned,
and which he lived to see inaugurated the Oxford
Historical Society.
I have to thank the editors of the Oxford Chronicle^
and of the Saturday Revieiv for permission to reprint
articles from their papers. The Provost of Queen's
and Mr. Madan kindly allowed the editors of this
volume to see some notes taken by Mr. Richard
Robinson and the Rev. John Rigaud. In a few cases
where these have been used, the initials R. R. or J. R.
have been added. The initials A. C. indicate a few
suggestions given by the Rev. Andrew Clark. There
OXFOBD STUDIES
7\
are a few instances in which it has been found
impossible to supply the necessary references. I
hope that some intelligent readers will come to our
help and fill in the blanks.
ALICE STOPFOKD GEEEN.
14 KENSINGTON SQUARE,
September 1901.
TEE EA.ELY HISTOBY OF OXFOED
To most Oxford men, indeed to the common visitor
of Oxford, the town seems a mere offshoot of the
University. Its appearance is altogether modern ;
it presents hardly any monument that can vie in
antiquity with the venerable fronts of colleges and
halls. An isolated church here and there tells a
different tale 5 hut the largest of its parish churches
is best known as the church of the University, and
the church of St. Frideswide, which might suggest
even to a careless observer some idea of the town's
greatness before University life began, is known to
most visitors simply as Chris tchurch ChapeL In all
outer seeming Oxford appears a mere assemblage of
indifferent streets that have grown out of the needs
of the University, and this impression is heightened
by its commercial unimportance. The town has no
manufacture or trade. It is not even, like Cam-
bridge, a great agricultural centre. Whatever import-
ance it derived from its position on the Thames has
been done away with by the almost total cessation of
river navigation. Its very soil is in large measure in
4 OXFORD STUDIES
academical hands As a municipality it seems to
exist only by grace or usurpation of prior University
privileges. It is not long since Oxford gained control
over its own markets or its own police. The peace
of the town is still but partially in the hands of its
magistrates, and the riotous student is amenable only
to university jurisdiction. Within the memory of
living men the chief magistrate of the city on his
entrance into office was bound to swear in a humiliat-
ing ceremony not to violate the privileges of the
great academical body which reigned supreme within
its walls.
Historically the very reverse of all this is really
the case. So far is the University from being older
than the city, that Oxford had already seen five
centuries of borough life before a student appeared
within its streets. Instead of ibs prosperity being
derived from its connection with the University,
that connection has probably been its commercial
ruin. The gradual subjection both of markets and
trade to the arbitrary control of an ecclesiastical
corporation was inevitably followed by their ex-
tinction. The University found Oxford a busy,
prosperous borough, and reduced it to a cluster of
lodging-houses. It found it among the first of
English municipalities, and it so utterly crushed its
freedom that the recovery of some of the commonest
rights of self-government has only been brought
about by recent legislation. Instead of the Mayor
being a dependant on Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor,
EARLY OXFORD 5
Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor have simply usurped
the far older authority of the Mayor.
The story of the struggle which ended in this
usurpation is one of the most interesting in our
municipal annals, and it is one which has left its
mark not on the town only but on the very constitu-
tion and character of the conquering University.
But to understand the struggle, we must first know
something of the town itself. At the earliest moment,
then, when its academic history can be said to open,
afe the arrival of the legist Vacarius in the reign of
Stephen, Oxford stood in the first rank of English
municipalities. In spite of antiquarian fancies, it is
certain that no town had arisen on its site for cen-
turies after the departure of the E/oman legions from
the isle of Britain. The little monastery of St.
Frideswide rises in the turmoil of the eighth century
only to fade out of sight again without giving us a
glimpse of the borough which gathered probably
beneath its walls. The first definite evidence for its
existence lies in a brief entry of the English Chronicle
which records its seizure by the successor of Alfred.
But though the f onn of this entry shows the town to
have been already considerable, we hear nothing more
of it till the last terrible wrestle of England with the
Dane, when its position on the borders of the Mercian
and West-Saxon realms seems for the moment to have
given it a political importance under ^Ethelred and
Cnut strikingly analogous to that which it acquired
in the Great Rebellion. Of the life of its burgesses
6 OXFORD STUDIES
in this earlier period of Oxford life we know little or
nothing. The names of its parishes, St. Aldate, St.
Ebbe, St. Mildred, and St. Edmund, show how early
church after church gathered round the earlier
church of St. Martin. The minster of St. Frideswide,
in becoming the later cathedral, has brought down to
our own times the memory of the ecclesiastical origins
to which the little borough owed its existence. But
the men themselves are dim to us. - Their town-
meeting, their Portmannimote, still lives in shadowy
fashion as the Freeman's Common Hall ; their town-
mead is still Port-meadow. But it is only by later
charters or the record of Domesday that we see them
going on pilgrimage to the shrines of Winchester, or
chaffering in their market-place, or judging and law-
making in their husting, their merchant guild regu-
lating trade, their reeve gathering his king's dues of
tax or honey or marshalling his troop of burghers for
the king's wars, their boats floating down the Thames
towards London and paying the toll of a hundred
herrings in Lent-tide to the Abbot of Abingdon by
the way.
Of the conquest of Oxford by William the Norman
we know nothing, though tho number of its houses
marked " waste " in the Survey seems to point to a
desperate resistance. But the ruin was soon repaired.
No city better illustrates the transformation of the
land in the hands of its new masters, the sudden out-
burst of industrial effort, the sudden expansion of
commerce and accumulation of wealth which followed
EARLY OXFORD 7
the Conquest. The architectural glory of the town
in fact dates from the settlement of the Norman
within its walls. To the west of the town rose one
of the stateliest of English castles, and in the meadows
beneath the hardly less stately Abbey of Osney. In
the fields to the north the last of the Norman kings
raised his palace of Beaumont. The canons of St.
Frideswide reared the church which still exists as the
diocesan cathedral : the piety of the Norman earls
rebuilt almost all the parish churches of the city and
founded within their new castle walls the church of
the canons of St. George.
But Oxford does more than illustrate this outburst
of industrial effort; it does something towards ex-
plaining its cause. The most characteristic result of
the Conquest was planted in the very heart of the
town in the settlement of the Jew. Here as else-
where the Jewry was a town within a town, with its
own language, its own religion and law, its peculiar
commerce, frs peculiar dress. The policy of our
foreign kings secured each Hebrew settlement from
the common taxation, the common justice, the common
obligations of Englishmen. No city bailiff could
penetrate into the square of little streets which lay
behind the present Town-hall ; the Church itself was
powerless against the synagogue that rose in haughty
rivalry beside the cloister of St. Fridcswide. The
picture which Scott has given us in IranJwe of
Isaac of York, timid, silent, crouching under
oppression, accurately as it represents our modern
8 OXFORD STUDIES
notions of the position of his race during the Middle
Ages, is far from being borne out by historical fact.
In England at least the attitude of the Jew is almost
to the end an attitude of proud and even insolent
defiance. His extortion was sheltered from the
common law. His bonds were kept under the royal
seal. A royal commission visited with heavy penalties
any outbreak of violence against these " chattels " of
the king. The thunders of the Church broke vainly
on the yellow gaberdine of the Jew. In a well-known
story of Eadmer's the Red King actually forbids the
conversion of a Jew to the Christian faith : it was a
poor exchange which would have robbed him of a
valuable property and given him only a subject.
At Oxford the attitude of the Jewry towards the
national religion showed a marked consciousness of
this royal protection. Prior Philip of St Frideswide
complains bitterly of a certain Hebrew with the odd
name of "Deus-cum-crescat," who stood at his door
as the procession of the saint passed by, mocking at
the miracles wrought at her shrine. Halting and
then walking firmly on his feet, showing his hands
clenched as if with palsy and then flinging open his
fingers, the mocking Jew claimed gifts and oblations
from the crowd who flocked to St. Frideswide's on
the ground that such recoveries of limb and strength
wore quite as real us any Frido.swide hail wrought.
But though sickness and death, in the prior's stay,
avenge the insult to his shrine, no earthly power,
ecclesiastical or civil, seems to have ventured to
EAKLY OXFOKl) 9
meddle with " Deus-cum-crescat." The feud between
the priory and the Jewry went on unchecked for a
century more, to culminate in a daring act of fanaticism
on the Ascension-day of 1268. As the usual pro-
cession of scholars and citizens returned from St.
Frideswide's, a Jew suddenly burst from the group of
his comrades in front of the synagogue, and snatching
the crucifix from its bearer trod it under foot. But
even in presence of such an outrage as this the terror
of the Crown shielded the Jewry from any burst of
popular indignation. The sentence of the king con-
demned the Jews of Oxford to erect a cross of marble
on the spot where the ciime was committed; but
even this was remitted in part, and a less offensive
place was allotted for the cross in an open plot by
Merton College.
With the Jewish settlement began the cultivation
of physical science in Oxford. The Hebrew instruc-
tion, the Hebrew books which he found among its
rabbis, were the means by which Eoger Bacon pene-
trated to the older world of material research. A
medical school which we find established there a-nd
in high repute during the twelfth century can hardly
have been other than Jewish : in the operation for
the stone, which one of the stories in the Miracles of
SL Frideswide preserves for us, we trace the tradi-
tional surgery which is still common in the East.
But it is perhaps in a more purely material way that
the Jewry at Oxford most directly influenced our
academical history. There as elsewhere the Jew
10 OXFORD STUDIES
brought with him something more than the art or
science which he had gathered at Cordova or Bagdad;
he brought with him the new power of wealth. The
erection of stately castles, of yet statelier abbeys,
which followed the Conquest, the rebuilding of
almost every cathedral or conventual church, marks
the advent of the Jewish capitalist. No one can
study the earlier history of our great monastic houses
without finding the secret of that sudden outburst of
industrial activity to which we owe the noblest of our
minsters in the loans of the Jew. The bonds of
many a great baron, the relics of many an abbey,
lay pledged for security in the " Star-chamber " of
the Jew.
His arrival at Oxford is marked by the military
and ecclesiastical erections of its Norman earls. But
a result of his presence, which bore more directly on
the future of the town, was seen in the remarkable
development of its domestic architecture. To the
wealth of the Jew, to his need of protection against
sudden outbursts of popular passion, very probably
to the greater refinement of his social life, England
owes the introduction of stone houses. Tradition
attributes almost every instance of tho earliest stone
buildings of a domestic character to the Jew; and
where the tradition can be tested, as at Bury St.
Edmunds or Lincoln, it has proved to be in accord-
ance with the facts. In Oxford nearly all the larger
dwelling-houses which were subsequently converted
into halls bore traces of their Jewish origin in their
EARLY OXFORD 11
namos, such as Moysey's Hall, Lombards', Jacob's
Hall. It is a striking proof of the superiority of the
Hebrew dwellings to the Christian houses around
them that each of the successive town-halls of the
borough had, before their expulsion, been houses of
Jews. Such houses were abundant in the town, not
merely in the purely Jewish quarter on Carfax but
in the lesser Jewry which was scattered over the
parish of St. Aldate ; and we can hardly doubt that
this abundance of substantial buildings in the town
was at least one of the causes which drew teachers
and students within its walls.
The same great event which flung down the Jewish
settlement in the very heart of the English town
bounded it to the west by the castle and the abbey of
the conquerors, Oxford stood first on the line of
great fortresses which, passing by Wallingford and
Windsor to the Tower of London, guarded the course
of the Thames. Its castellan, Eobert D'Oilly, had
followed William from Normandy and had fought by
his side at Senlac. Oxfordshire was committed by
the Conqueror to his charge ; and he seems to have
ruled it in rude, soldierly fashion, enforcing order,
heaping up riches, tripling the taxation of the town,
pillaging without scruple the older religious houses
of the neighbourhood. It was only by ruthless ex-
action such as this that the work which William had
set him to do could be clone. Money was needed
above all for the groat fortress which held the town.
The new castle rose on the eastern bank of the
12 OXFOKD STUDIES
Thames, broken here into a number of small stream-
lets, one of which served as the deep moat which
encircled its walls. A well marked the centre of the
wide castle-court ; to the north of it on a lofty mound
rose the great keep ; to the west the one tower which
remains, the tower of St. George, frowned over the
river and the mill. Without the walls of the fortress
lay the Bailly, a space cleared by the merciless policy
of the castellan, with the church of St. Peter le Bailly
which still marks its extent.
The hand of Robert D'Oilly fell as heavily on the
Church as on the townsmen. Outside the town lay
a meadow belonging to the Abbey of Abingdon,
which seemed suitable for the exercise of the soldiers
of his garrison. The earl was an old plunderer of
the Abbey ; he had wiled away one of its finest
manors from its Abbot Athelm; but his seizure of
the meadow beside Oxford drove the monks to
despair. Night and day they threw themselves
weeping before the altar of the two English saints
whose names were linked to the older glories of their
house. But while they invoked the vengeance of
Dunstan and .^Ethelwold on their plunderer, the
earl, fallen sick, tossed fever-smitten on his bed. At
last Robert dreamt that he stood in a vast court, one
of a crowd of nobles gathered round a throne whereon
sate a lady passing fair. Before her knelt two
brethren of the abbey, weeping for the loss of their
mead and pointing out the castellan as the robber.
The lady bade Robert bo seized, and two youths
EARLY OXFORD 13
hurried Mm away to the field itself, seated him on
the ground, piled burning hay around him, smoked
him, tossed hay bands in his face, and set fire to his
beard. The earl woke trembling at the divine
discipline ; he at once took boat for Abingdon, and
restored to the monks the meadow he had reft from
them. His terror was not satisfied by the restitu-
tion of his plunder, and he returned to set about the
restoration of the ruined churches within and with-
out the walls of Oxford. The tower of St. Michael,
the doorway of St. Ebbe, the chtincel arch of Holy-
well, the crypt and chancel of St. Peter's-in-the-East,
are fragments of the work done by Robert and his
house. But the great monument of the devotion of
the D'Oillys rose beneath tho walls of their castle.
Robert, a nephew of the first castellan, had wedded
Edith, a concubine of Henry L The rest of the story
we may tell in the English of Leland. "Edith used
to walke out of Oxford Castelle with her gentle-
women to solace, and that oftentymes where yn a
certen place in a tree, as often as she cam, a certain
pyes used to gather to it, and ther to chattre, and as
it were to spek on to her, Edyth much mervelyng at
this matter, and was sumtyme sore ferid by it as by
a wonder." Radulf, a canon of St. Frides wide's, was
consulted on the marvel, and his counsel ended in
the erection of the priory of Osney beneath the walls
of the castle. The foundation of the D'Oillys be-
came one of tne wealthiest and largest of the English
abbeys; but of its vast church and lordly abbot's
14 OXFORD STUDIES
house, the great quadrangle of its cloisters, the alms-
houses without its gate, the pleasant walks shaded
with stately elms beside the river, not a trace re-
mains. Its bells alone were saved at the Dissolution
by their transfer to Christchurch.
The military strength of the castle of the D'Oillys
was tested in the struggle between Stephen and the
Empress. Driven from London by a rising of its
burghers at the very moment when the crown seemed
within her grasp, Maud took refuge at Oxford. In
the succeeding year Stephen found himself strong
enough to attack his rival in her stronghold; his
knights swam the river, fell hotly on the garrison
which had sallied without the walls to meet them,
chased them through the gates, and rushed pell-mell
with the fugitives into the city. Houses weie burnt
and the Jewry sacked; the Jews, if tradition is to
be trusted, were forced to raise against the castle
the work that still bears the name of " Jews' Mount " ;
but the strength of its walls foiled the efforts of the
besiegers, and the attack died into a close blockade.
Maud was however in Stephen's grasp, and neither
the loss of other fortresses nor the rigour of the
winter could tear the king from his prey. Despair-
ing of relief, the Empress at last resolved to break
through the enemy's lines. Every stream was frozen
and the earth covered with snow, when clad in white
and with three knights in white garments as her
attendants Maud passed unobserved through the
outposts, crossed the Thames upon the ice, and
EARLY OXFORD 15
made her way to Abingdon and the fortress of
Wallingford.
With the surrender which followed the military
history of Oxford ceases till the Great Bebellion.
Its political history had still to attain its highest
reach in the Parliament of De Montfort. The great
assemblies held at Oxford under Cnut, Stephen, and
Henry III., are each memorable in their way. With
the first closed the struggle between Englishman and
Dane, with the second closed the conquest of the
Norman, with the third began the regular progress
of constitutional liberty. The position of the town,
on the border between the England that remained
to the West-Saxon kings and the England that had
become the " Danelagh " of their northern assailants,
had from the first pointed it out as the place where a
union between Dane and Englishman could best be
brought about. The first attempt was foiled by the
savage treachery of JSthelred the Unready. The
death of Swegen and the return of Cnut to Denmark
left an opening for a reconciliation, and Englishmen
and Danes gathered at Oxford round the king. But
all hope was foiled by the assassination of the Law-
men of tho Seven Danish Boroughs, Sigeferth and
Morcar, who fell at a banquet by the hand of the
minister Eadric, while their followers threw them-
selves into the tower of St. Frideswide and perished
in the flames that consumed it. The overthrow of
the English monarchy avenged the treason. But
Cnut was of nobler stuff than ^thelred, and his
16 OXFORD STUDIES
conquest of the realm was followed by the gathering
of a new gemot at Oxford to resume the work of re-
conciliation which Eadric had interrupted. English-
man and Dane agreed to live together as one people
under Eadgar's Law, and the wise government of
the King completed in the long years of his reign
the task of national fusion. The conquest of William
set two peoples a second time face to face upon the
same soil, and it was again at Oxford that by his
solemn acceptance and promulgation of the Charter
of Henry I. in solemn parliament Stephen closed the
period of military tyranny, and began the union of
Norman and Englishman into a single people. These
two great acts of national reconciliation were fit pre-
ludes for the work of the famous assembly which
has received from its enemies the name of " the Mad
Parliament." In the June of 1258 the barons met
at Oxford under earl Simon de Montfort to commence
the revolution to which we owe our national liberties.
Followed by long trains of men in arms arid sworn
together by pledges of mutual fidelity, they wrested
from Henry III. the great reforms which, frustrated
for the moment, have become the basis of our con-
stitutional system. On the " Provisions of Oxford "
followed the regular establishment of parliamentary
representation and power, of a popular and re-
sponsible ministry, of the principle of local self-
government.
From parliaments and sieges, from Jew and cas-
tellan, it is time to turn back to the humbler annals
EARLY OXFORD 17
of the town itself. The first event that lifts it into
historic prominence is its league with London. The
"bargemen" of the borough seem to have already
existed before the Conquest, and to have been closely
united from the first with the more powerful guild,
the " boatmen " or " merchants " of the capital In
both cases it is probable that the bodies bearing
this name represented what in later language was
known as the merchant guild of the town ; the
original association, that is, of its principal traders
for purposes of mutual protection, of commerce, and
of self-government. Royal recognition enables us to
trace the merchant guild of Oxford from the time of
Henry I. ; even then indeed lands, islands, pastures
already belonged to it, and amongst them the same
"Port- meadow" or "Town-mead" so familiar to
Oxford men pulling lazily on a summer's noon to
Godstow, and which still remains the property of the
freemen of the town. The connection between the
two cities and their guilds was primarily one of
traffic. Prior even to the Conquest, " in the time of
King Eadward and Abbot Ordric," the channel of the
river running beneath the walls of the Abbey of
Abingdon became so blocked up "that boats could
scarce pass as far as Oxford." It was at the joint
prayer of the burgesses of London and Oxford that
the abbot dug a new channel through the meadow to
the south of his church, the two cities engaging that
each barge should pay a toll of a hundred herrings
on its passage during Lent. But the union soon took
c
18 OXFORD STUDIES
a constitutional form. The earliest charter of the
capital which remains in detail is that of Henry L,
and from the charter of his grandson we find a similar
date assigned to the liberties of Oxford. The customs
and exemptions of its burghers are granted by Henry
IL, " as ever they enjoyed them in the time of King
Henry my grandfather, and in like manner as my
citizens of London hold them." This identity of
municipal privileges is of course common to many
other boroughs, for the charter of London became
the model for half the charters of the kingdom ;
what is peculiar to Oxford is the federal bond which
in Henry IL's time already linked the two cities
together. In case of any doubt or contest about
judgment in their own court the burgesses of Oxford
were empowered to refer the matter to the decision
of London, " and whatever the citizens of London
shall adjudge in such cases shall be deemed right."
The judicial usages, the municipal rights of each city
were assimilated by Henry's charter. " Of whatever
matter they shall be put in plea, they shall deraign
themselves according to the law and customs of the
city of London and not otherwise, because they and
the citizens of London are of one and the same
custom, law, and liberty."
In no two cities has municipal freedom experienced
a more different fate than in the two that were so
closely bound together. The liberties of London
waxed greater and greater till they were lost in the
general freedom of the realm : those of Oxford wore
EARLY OXFORD 19
trodden under foot till the city stood almost alone in
its bondage among the cities of England. But it
would have been hard for a burgher of the twelfth
century, flushed with the pride of his new charter, or
fresh from the scene of a coronation where he had
stood side by side with the citizens of London and
Winchester as representing one of the chief cities
of the realm, to have dreaded any danger to the
liberties of his borough from the mob of half-starved
boys who were beginning to pour year after year
into the town. The wealthy merchant who passed
the group of shivering students huddled round a
teacher as poor as themselves in porch and doorway,
or dropped his alms into the cap of the mendicant
scholar, could hardly discern that beneath rags and
poverty lay a power greater than the power of kings,
the power for which Becket had died and which
bowed Henry to penance and humiliation. On all
but its eastern side indeed the town was narrowly
hemmed in by jurisdictions independent of its own.
The precincts of the Abbey of Osney, the wide bailly
of the castle, bounded it narrowly on the west. To
the north, stretching away to the little church of St.
Giles, lay the fields of the royal manor of Beaumont.
The Abbot of Abingdon, whose woods of Cumnor
and Bagley closed the southern horizon, held his leet
court in the small hamlet of Grampound beyond the
bridge. Nor was the whole space within its walls
altogether subject to the self-government of the
citizens. The Jewry, a town within a town, lay
20 OXFORD STUDIES
isolated and exempt from the common justice or law
in the very heart of the borough. Scores of house-
holders, dotted over the various streets, were tenants
of abbey or castle, and paid neither suit nor service
to the city court. But within these narrow bounds
and amidst these various obstacles the spirit of
municipal liberty lived a life the more intense that
it was so closely cabined and confined,
It was in fact at the moment when the first Oxford
students appeared within its walls that the city
attained complete independence. The twelfth cen-
tury, the age of the Crusades, of the rise of the
scholastic philosophy, of the renewal of classical
learning, was also the age of a great communal move-
ment, that stretched from Italy along the Ehone and
the Rhine, the Seine and the Somme, to England.
The same great revival of individual, human life in
the industrial masses of the feudal world that hurried
half Christendom to the Holy Land, or gathered
hundreds of eager faces round the lecture-stall of
Abelard, beat back Barbarossa from the walls of
Alessandria and nerved the burghers of Northern
France to struggle as at Amiens for liberty. In
England the same spirit took a milder and perhaps
more practical form, from the different social and
political conditions with which it had to deal. The
quiet townships of Teutonic England had no tradi-
tions of a Roman past to lure them on, like the cities
of Italy, into dreams of sovereignty. Their ruler was
no foreign Csesar, distant enough to give a chance for
EARLY OXFORD 21
resistance, but a king near at hand and able to
enforce obedience and law. The king's peace shielded
them from that terrible oppression of the mediaeval
baronage which made liberty with the cities of
Germany a matter of life or death. The peculiarity
of municipal life in fact in England is that instead of
standing apart from and in contrast with the general
life around it the progress of the English town moved
in perfect harmony with that of the nation at large.
The earlier burgher was the freeman within the walls,
as the peasant- ceorl was the freeman without. Free-
dom went with the possession of land in town as in
country. The citizen held his burgher's rights by his
tenure of the bit of ground on which his tenement
stood. Ho was the king's free tenant, and like the
rural tenants he owed his lord dues of money or
kind. In township or manor alike the king's reeve
gathered this rental, administered justice, commanded
the little troop of soldiers that the spot was bound to
furnish in time of war. The progress of municipal
freedom, like that of national freedom, was wrought
rather by the slow growth of wealth and of popular
spirit, by the necessities of kings, by the policy of a
few great statesmen, than by the sturdy revolts that
wrested liberty from the French seigneur or the
century of warfare that broke the power of the
Caesars in the plain of the Po.
Much indeed that Italy or France had to win by
the sword was already the heritage of every English
freeman within walls or without. The common
22 OXFORD STUDIES
assembly in which their own public affairs were
discussed and decided, the borough-mote to which
every burgher was summoned by ttre town -bell
swinging out of the town-tower, had descended by
traditional usage from the customs of the first English
settlers in Britain. The close association of the
burghers in the sworn brotherhood of the guild
was a Teutonic custom of immemorial antiquity.
Gathered at the guild sapper round the common
fire, sharing the common meal, and draining the
guild cup, the burghers added to the tie of mere
neighbourhood that of loyal association, of mutual
counsel, of mutual aid. The regulation of internal
trade, all lesser forms of civil jurisdiction, fell quietly
and without a struggle into the hands of the merchant
guild. The rest of their freedom was bought with
honest cash. The sale of charters brought money to
the royal treasury, exhausted by Norman wars, by
the herd of mercenaries, by Crusades, by the struggle
with France. The towns bought first the commuta-
tion of the uncertain charges to which they were
subject at the royal will for a fixed annual rent.
Their purchase of the right of internal justice fol-
lowed. Last came the privilege of electing their own
magistrates, of enjoying complete self-government.
Oxford had already passed through the earlier steps
of this emancipation before the conquest of the
Norman. Her citizens assembled in their Port-
mannimote, their free self-ruling assembly. Their
merchant-guild leagued with that of London. Their
EARLY OXFORD 23
dues to the Crown are assessed in Domesday at a
fixed sum of honey and coin. The charter of Henry
II. marks the acquisition by Oxford, probably at a
far earlier date, of judicial and commercial freedom.
Liberty of external commerce was given by the ex-
emption of its citizens from toll on the king's lands ;
the decision of either political or judicial affairs was
left to their borough-mote. The highest point of
municipal independence was reached when the Charter
of John substituted a mayor of their own choosing
for the mere bailiff of the Crown.
It is hard in dry constitutional details such as
these to realize the quick pulse of popular life that
stirred such a community as Oxford. Only a few
names, of street and lane, a few hints gathered from
obscure records, enable one to see the town of the
twelfth or thirteenth century. The Church of St.
Martin in the very heart of it, at the " Quatrevoix "
or Carfax where its four roads meet, was the centre
of the city's life. The Town-mote was held in its
churchyard. Justice was administered by mayor and
bailiff sitting beneath the low shed, the "penniless
bench " of later times, without its eastern wall. Its
bell summoned the burghers to counsel or to arms.
Around the church lay the trade-guilds, ranged as in
some vast encampment ; Spicery and Vintnery to
the south, Fish Street falling noisily down to the
Bridge, the corn market occupying then as now
the street which led to Northgate, the stalls of the
butchers ranged in their "Butcher-row" along the
24: OXFORD STUDIES
road to the castle. Close beneath the church to the
south-east lay a nest of huddled lanes broken by a
stately synagogue and traversed from time to time by
the yellow gaberdine of the Jew, whose burying-place
lay far away to the eastward on the site of the
present Botanic Garden Soldiers from the castle
rode clashing through the narrow streets; the bells
of Osney clanged from the swampy meadows long
processions of pilgrims wound past the Jewry to the
shrine of Saint Frideswide. It was a rough time,
and frays were common enough, now the sack of a
Jew's house, now burgher drawing knife on burgher,
now an outbreak of the young student lads, who
grew every day in numbers and audacity. But as
yet the town seemed well in hand. The clang of the
city bell called every citizen to his door, the summons
of fche mayor brought trade after trade with bow in
hand and banners flying to enforce the king's peace.
Order and freedom seemed absolutely secure, and
there was no sign which threatened that century of
disorder, of academical and ecclesiastical usurpation,
which humbled the municipal freedom of Oxford to
the dust.
OXFOBD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTUBY
WE have hifcheito endeavoured to review, with as
much regard for chronological arrangement as was
possible, the more prominent features of our Oxford
history during the greater part of the eighteenth
century. But such a detail, however interesting in
itself, can necessarily give us but little insight into
the Oxford of the time, into its habits and social
life, its sympathies and prejudices, its moral in-
fluences, its educational position and utility. Nor
can we guess at these things by any comparison
with, or inference drawn from, the corresponding
facts of the present day. For between this age and
the last "a great gulf is fixed." It is almost im-
possible, without special study, to throw oneself
into communion with the age of the first two
Georges to feel as though its men and women were
of real flesh and blood, and not mere marionettes,
whom an adroit hand is putting through fictitious
bows and imaginary minuets. In the moral history
of the world the last century l is not of necessity a
28 OXFORD STUDIES
hundred years nearer us than its predecessor. Just
as infancy, spite of the lapse of years that intervenes,
is really nearer than manhood to that second child-
hood, a garrulous old age, so in the history of man-
kind, instead of a constant, uuintermitted advance,
we see the ages of the past recurring in a myste-
rious alternation, each, viewed by itself, seeming but
the gulf that parts two alike in all but time, till a
wider retrospect shows us that this age of severance
has its counterpart too and that the alternation is
not an exception but a law.
And thus it is that we instinctively feel the great,
the immeasurable distance that severs this age, so
proud of its truth, its earnestness, its energy, its
high and noble aims, from the heartlessness, the in-
difference, the frivolity in one word, the utter
worldliness of the eighteenth century. Were one of
us, falling asleep in the nineteenth, to wake an
Englishman of the sixteenth century, to don his ruff,
his short cloak, buff jerkin, and trunk hose, he would
find little novel, save his costume, or strange in those
who thronged the streets of the time of Queen Bess
save their "prythee's" and canary. The two cen-
turies have common sympathies, common ideas,
common aims. Drake is but the prototype of
Nelson or Franklin, Sydney of Havelock, Rileigh of
the emigrant or goldseeker of to-day. But fall
asleep once more and wake two centuries nearer,
as chronologists have it in the age of the Georges.
Sally forth m well-combed peruke, gold-laced coat,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 29
arid silver shoe-buckles into Pall Mall or Merton
Walks, and bow gracefully to the Delias and Phyllises
that swim past you in their hoops and huge head-
dresses, with a leer on their painted faces, and a
roguish flutter of their fans. Chat with one of those
gay beaux, all lace and perfumes, who are dangling
their amber-headed canes with the true supercilious
vacancy of men of the mode ! Why so silent? Sir
Fopling is voluble enough, can chat of to-morrow's
masquerade, the intrigues of Lady Dash, or the
latest epigram of George Selwyn ; he will rally you
on your "blues," rattle over the frolic of last night,
how they smoked a country squire, carried off an
actress, or knocked down a watchman. Or per-
chance should you be dumb he will turn with a
charming ease to themes of graver import, though
treated with as light an air; will demolish Chris-
tianity with a jest, and quote Toland for a sarcasm
on " superstition."
We are about then to endeavour, before resinning
the detail of events during the latter years of the last
century, to rebuild from the few facts which we have
been enabled to collect, this Oxford of the first
Georges; to see what men lived then, and what
manner of life theirs was; to listen to their dispu-
tations, to smoke a pipe of "Virginia with them in
the common-room, or chat over a bowl of punch in
the coffee-house; 1 in short, it is our purpose to give
as full an account as we are able of the social, the
political, the religious and the educational state of
30 OXFORD STUDIES
Oxford during the greater part of the eighteenth
century.
"I cannot but fancy," writes one of Swift's
correspondents, "if one of our heads were dis-
sected, after passing a winter's campaign in town, it
would appear just like a pamphlet shop ; you would
see a collection of treaties, a bundle of farces, a parcel
of encomiums, another of satires, speeches, novels,
sermons, loose songs, addresses, epigrams, procla-
mations, poems, divinity lectures, quack bills, histori-
cal accounts, fables, and God knows what." 1 Just such
a medley as Lord Bathurst discovered in the head of a
man of fashion, makes up the Oxford of the last cen-
tury. It is in the most primary sense an "universitas,"
its little microcosm represents faithfully, though in
miniature, every purpose, aim, or fancy of the world
without, but it is without order or arrangement;
there exists no centre round which these tendencies
may group themselves ; religion has dwindled down
to a roll-call, and education may be found anywhere
save in the lecture-room. In spite of the imposing
ceremonies that attest its greatness, in spite of past
traditions and present pretensions, it might bo said
of the University as "was indeed said of it in fulsome
eulogy "we seek in yain for Oxford in Oxford." 2
Great architectural efforts were being made, noble build-
ings were every day rising around, but to those who
looked in all their costly display for learning and piety,
the University resembled the Jewin Addison's simile
"a toad squatting among the ruins of a mighty temple."
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 31
For this " aggregation of atoms," however, one
centre still existed, one focus to which all resorted, a
little University within the University. I mean the
coffee-house. The first introduction of this bever-
age into Oxford had been made by a Jew, who, in
the year 1650, had offered it for sale at the Angel,
in St. Peter-in-the-East, where "by some that de-
lighted in Noveltie," Anthony a Wood says, "it was
drank." l But its progress had been rapid ; a brother
antiquary, Aubrey, testifies to * e the modern advantage
of coffee-houses in this great city, before which
men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their
own relations or societies." 2 Tom Warton in his
( panegyricjon Oxford ale could soon sing of
The coffee-house
OF James or Juggins, where the grateful breath
Of loathed tobacco ne'er diffused its balm :
But the lewd spendthrift falsely deemed polite,
While steams aiound the fragrant Indian bowl,
Oft damns the vulgar sons of humbler ale *
And in 1759 we find an advertisement in the Oxford
Journal for that year, which reveals the price of the
beverage and the number of its vendois. "April
13th, 1759, The Masters of Coffee-houses in Oxford
find themselves under the disagreeable necessity of
acquainting their customers that by the late addi-
tional duties on Coffee and Chocolate, together with
the advanced price of those commodities, occasioned
by their present scarcity, they shall be obliged to
advance the price of Chocolate from four-pence to
32 OXFORD STUDIES
five-pence per dish, and Coffee from four-pence to
five-pence a pot. Signed, James Horseman, Charles
King, Eliz. Coombes, Hobson, Thomas Hadley,
John King, Thomas Browne, Thomas Roberson,
William Harper, John Bullock." 1 One exception,
however, occurs to this unanimity, for Mrs. Anne
Blowfield, of the George Coffee House, announces,
in a counter advertisement, that she does not join
in the rise. 2 The same names, with but one addi-
tion, are met with in Warton's Newsman's Verses
for 1770, when entreating entertainment ho apos-
trophizes
Ye too, whose houses are so handy
For coffee, tea, rum, wine, and brandy :
Pride of fair Oxford's gaudy streets,
You, too, our strain submissive greets t
Hear, Horseman, Spmdlow, King, and Harpci
The weather, sure, was never sharper !
Here it is that all meet, the pedant, the wit, the
rake, and the gamester. At the door lounges "a
man of Fire" as he terms himself, "a Slicer,"
"Towrow," "Blood," "Buck," as he is called by the
rest of the world, with a loud triumphant "she
blues " for the passing seamstress that blushes at his
coarse buffoonery, a scurvy jest for the threadbare
servitor, who scared from entrance by the terrible
score in the bar hangs about the door, ready to
barter a catch or song for a pint of ale, and a low
bow for the "smart fellow" who saunters in with
red stockings and elaborate peruke conning over a
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 33
sonnet for tlie reigning toast, whose health has been
sung from Headington to Hincksey. A deeper
obeisance still he reserves for the fellow-commoner
who struts by, freed from the drudgery of lectures
or chapel by the golden tuft in the velvet cap, at
once badge of honour and apology for ignorance
the magnet that draws in its train that crowd of the
shabbily-genteel toadeaters, ready at his call to
"breakfast, dine, or sup with him, as he pleases; to
drink with him, rake with him, borrow his money,
or let him pay tho reckoning."' 1 Dick Loungeit poor
devil rather envies these fortunate toadies ; falling
into a reverie, whence he is awakened by that boon
companion Toni Buck, who, having brought the
repute of knowing every London vice from West-
minster, is determined to leave behind him at Oxford
the additional fame of seeing every comrade under
the table. He has already tossed off his morning
tankard at the Magpie, and is come now to the
Coffee-house, partly for the Tory news, for Tory
Tom is to the backbone ever since he learnt, on His
arrival, that Tories drank deepest and swore loudest,
partly to plan over his claret a debauch for to-
morrow or a trip to the Paradise of town. The
noise of these two topers wonderfully disturbs Dr.
Dry in his perusal of the Monitor, spite of his eager-
ness to return to pipe and common-room with the
news of the Grand Monarque or the Great Mogul.
There arc others waiting for the Monitor one in
particular, to whom we owe so much for the dry
34 OXFORD STUDIES
notes in which he has handed down that age to us
Esquire Beadell, Mr. Hearne, 1 is there, big mouthed,
with set obstinate face and inquisitive eye, hair
scornful of wig flowing to his shoulders, and ink-
stained hands spreading over his unbuttoned slovenly
waistcoat, chatting with Browne Willis over Grieves's
great work on the k Roman Denarius," or the com-
parative antiquity of Oxford and Cambridge 2
There is a stir however in the coffee-room now.
Topers, doctors, and antiquaries are making their
way collegewards, for it is close upon twelve o'clock,
and twelve during the earlier part of the eighteenth
century was the dinner hour. "Time," says De
Quincey, in a most ingenious essay on this subject,
" has very little connexion with the idea of dinner.
It has travelled through every hour, like the hand
of a clock, from ten in the morning till ten at night."
He might have pushed the hour hand still further
back. "Bise at five, dine at nine," says the old
French proverb, and one traditional cause of Louis
the Twelfth's death was his change of dinner hour
from eight to twelve, in compliment to his young
English bride. But the century which we are at
present engaged with was the epoch of Dinners
greatest advance. The He volution of 1688 brought
with its other "glorious" consequences a march of
the dinner hour to two the Eebellion of 1745 marks
its progress to four. But, at the beginning of this
century, Oxford was on this point in the rear of the
metropolis. Even in 1732, when Queen Caroline
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 35
sends a "buck to Magdalen, the dinner at which it
appears is at 10 A.M. 1 Each advance was made
amidst grumblings from the older and more conser-
vative members. *" University disputations," growls
Hearne in his diary, 3 "began on Ash "Wednesday
at two and after, instead of at one; occasioned by
several colleges altering the hour of dinner from eleven
to twelve, from people's lying in bed longer than they
used to do." " It hath been an old custom," he writes
in 1723, "for the scholars of all houses on Shrove
Tuesday to go to dinner at ten o'clock, at which time
the little bell, called pancake-bell, rings, or at least
should ring, at St. Maries, and at 4 in the afternoon ;
and it was always followed in Edmund Hall as long
as I have been in Oxford till yesterday, when they
went to dinner at twelve and to supper at six.
Nor were there any fritters at dinner as there used
always to be. When laudable old customs alter 'tis
a sign learning dwindles 1 " 3 How horrorstruck would
he have been had he seen the great move in 1804, 4
1805, when those colleges that had dined at three
advanced to four, those that had dined at four to five !
II
" OXFORD," sings Spenser,
That fair city wherein make abode
So many learned imps that shoot abroad
And with their branches spread all Britamy
No less than do her elder sister's brood
Joy to you both, ye double nursery
Of arts, but Oxford, thee doth Thame most glorify.
We have seen these "learned imps" assembled at
their common rendezvous, the coifee-house, but to
form any notion of the social aspect of the Oxford
of the day it will be necessary for us if our readers
be not already weary of the subject to follow them
to their college homes, to dwell a little on their
manners and discipline, their fashions and habits,
their amusements and extravagances, while in suc-
ceeding papers we may do our best to complete the
picture by some slight account of their educational
and religious position.
We have seen the servitor waiting without the
coffee-house, in fear to enter ; and were we to follow
him home to his college we should find him ready
OXFOKD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 37
to perform, as menial offices for Ms daily subsistence
as he was then for a tankard of ale. The servitor
was even now beginning to clash with the spirit of
the place; he was practically an anachronism, the
last relic of that great church system which, whether
purposely or no, seemed to love the elevation of the
very meanest to the same or a higher level than the
princes and nobles of the day by the mere ladder
of learning, the system which raised Becket to
Canterbury, and Wykeham to Winchester. He was
usually a lad of low extraction, but of promising
parts, who came fresh from the taproom or the
plough not as now, to take his station among
equals, but by menial offices to earn that instruction
which the University could afford. Sometimes the
young country squire brought him up with him
from the country, oftener he came up alone, seeking
only to be quartered upon some wealthier student.
He lived generally within call ; when Erasmus for a
time taught at Cambridge, his servitor's room,
Aubrey notes, was close above his at Queens'. 1
He was wholly at his master's command, and some-
times at his mistress's. Willis, who afterwards ac-
quired such fame and wealth through his discovery
of tho chalybeate properties of A strop Wells, "was
first servitor," says Aubrey in his memoirs of him, 2
"to Dr. lies, one of the Canons of Christ Church,
whose wife was i knowing woman in physic and
surgery, and did many cures. Tom Willis then wore
a blue livery cloak and studied at the lower end of
38 OXFORD STUDIES
the hall, by the hall dore ; was pretty handy, and
his mistresse would oftentimes have him to assist her
in making of medicines. This did him no hurt, and
allured him on." The knowledge which the half-
educated boy thus picked up gave him a superiority
over his less fortunate companions, of which he
would sometimes mischievously avail himself. "When
one of our earliest mathematicians 1 was counted an
astrologer by the populace, "his servitor, to impose
on freshmen and simple people, would tell them
that sometimes he should meet the spirits comeing
up his stakes like bees."
It need not, however, be supposed that in these
services there was anything to humiliate or degrade
them. In many the position resolved itself into a
mere change of place. "When the afterwards not-
able Sir John Birkenhead entered as a servitor at
Oriel, his brother was a common trooper. 2 Bishop
Eobinson was sent up through the kindness of his
patron from the plough. 3 Whitefield was the son
of a tavern-keeper at Gloucester, and to quote his own
words, "I put on my blue apron and my snuffers/ 1 "
washed mops, cleared rooms, and in one word be-
came professed and common drawer for nigh a year
and a half," at the expiration of which time his
mother hears that there is a possibility of admission
at Pembroke and enters him there as a servitor. 4 Of
y So the word is printed in his own account. It may be a
misprint for 'Scoggers,' as sleeves worn by cleanly men in dirty
employments are called in some parts of England. SOUTHEY.
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 39
the poverty of the class no better instance can be
found than Samuel Wesley, the father of the Wesley s
who were to change the whole state of religion in
England, and himself a very stirring person, to whom
we shall have occasion subsequently to allude. He
was the son of an ejected and starving noncon-
formist minister, and when at the age of sixteen lie
walked to Oxford and entered himself as a servitor
at Exeter his whole worldly wealth amounted to no
more than 2 : 16s. Yet, after supporting himself
during his whole university career without any aid
from his friends save a trivial five shillings, he set
off to London to make his plunge into life with a
capital increased to 10 15s. 1 Five shillings, how-
ever, sneer as we may, seem to have been no un-
common " allowance " to a servitor of the time. In
an amusing imitation of a servitor's letter, in one of
the squibs of the time, we find the writer, after thank-
ing his mother for her present of a Cheshire cheese,
and announcing "I am a rising lad, mother, and have
gott prefarment in college allready, for owr sextoun
beeing gonn intoo Heryfordshear has left inee his
depoty which is a, vary good place," concludes with
believing he shall do very well, "if you wull but
send me t'other crowne." 2
While the less promising, however, were employed
on the most menial errands, the more literate seem
often to have been introduced to notice and patron-
age by the occupation of copying. When Laud
wished to have some manuscripts transcribed, Birken-
4:0 OXFORD STUDIES
head, whom we have before mentioned, was recom-
mended to him as one that " wrote an excellent hand ,
who performed his businesse so well that the Arch-
bishop recommended him to All Souls' College to be
a fellow, and he was accordingly elected," * hereafter
to become scholar, poet, cavalier, and the witty
editor of the Mercurius Aulicus. "I would not have
your Spenserian design delayed," writes Johnson to
Warton. "Let a servitor transcribe the quotations,
and interleave them with references, to save time " ; 2
and at the beginning of this century Dr. Hyde
complains that "some in the university have been
very troublesome in pressing that their servitors
may transcribe manuscripts for them though not
capable of being sworn to the Library." 3 Many similar
employments seem to have been open to servitors,
which enabled them to subsist till their degree was
attained, and distinction lay as open to them as to
their nobler masters. How well they availed them-
selves of the opportunity many instances show, but
none perhaps more so than one whom we have before
alluded to, Bishop Robinson. Transferred from the
plough to trade, his master, "finding him more
inclined to books than business, got him to Brasenose,
where he was servitour to Sir James Astrey, who was
extremely Idnd to him " He became fellow of Oriel,
envoy to Sweden, Bishop in turn of Bristol and
London, but his greatness did not obliterate the
memory of his days of toil and poverty; he was
enabled to relieve his benefactor's son with a chap-
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 41
laincy, and the scholarships "which he founded at
Oriel attest his gratitude to the university. 1
At the beginning of the present century the
order was practically extinct, but, considering the
facilities it afforded for the entrance of a class into
the university who are now in effect shut out of it,
some may perhaps be indisposed to join in Mr. De
Quincey's rejoicings over "the wise discontinuance
of the order itself in those colleges which were left
to their own choice in this matter." 2
Although, perhaps, the story of Oliver Goldsmith
has elevated the waiting in hall into greater notoriety
than any of the other menial services which it fell to
the servitor's lot to perform, we have reserved them
for less prominent mention because in reality they
were not peculiar to this order of students. Battlers,
a rank which has also disappeared, had, in addition
to other small perquisites, the dishes from the table
of the fellow or gentleman commoner whom they
served. And it was the duty of scholars on the
foundation, says Salmon, "to wait in hall on the
fellows by turns." 3
And this brings us to the consideration of the
" poor scholar " of those days ; " poor " being then no
mere statutory epithet, but a reality for the poor
scholar somewhat of a sad one. Scholars of note could
fairly lay claim to it ; " Mr. Lydiatt of New, by many
great judges reckoned to excel Scaliger," vibrates
all his days between Oxford Bocardo and the King's
Bench, spending his last penny on books and being,
42 OXFORD STUDIES
says Hearne, "in a manner starved to death." * Mr.
Trapp found our Poetry professorship not unwelcome,
" being but in mean circumstances." 2 Ockley, the
first eastern scholar of his age, studied Arabic and
wrote his history in Oxford gaol. 3 Dr. Hyde, who
gave the first great impulse to Oriental studies,
burnt his unsaleable books to boil his kettle with. 4
Deep-read Mr. Hales (Hearne recurs to that grim
phrase) "All allow to have been in a manner
starved." 5 Nor were these poor scholars at the
University in a better position. This poor scholar of
ours (as we have him etched for us in the satires of
the day, for he was the common butt of wit and
poetaster) will muffle his face in his gown as he passes
the shops of his creditors ; will run away in dread of
battels from the manciple if he meet him ; will barri-
cade himself in his garret "vile " perhaps, but with
a window commanding the sole means of approach
for a dun. He is hunger-pinched, glad to dine upon
scraps and drink " small acid tiff," If it be cold he
must blow his chilled fingers to warm them, for there
is not a knob of coal in the cellar ; ho must sit in the
dark to mend his tattered stockings or rent galli-
gaskin for there is not a candle in his closet. None
cares for his society if he walks, his walk is a soli-
tary one if he sits in his garret he has no companion
but " the tube as black as winter chimney or well-
polished jet "; 6 he may scribble a verse now and then,
but his musings will be interrupted
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURA 43
Whether the plaintive voice
Of laundress shrill awake his startled ear,
Or barber spruce with supple look intrude,
Or tailor with obsequious bow advance,
Or groom invade him with defying front
And stern demeanour, 1
from whose persecution he has no refuge but the
wood-hole. 2 Worst of all miseries he must go supper-
less to bed, for the Bursar has " crossed " him at the
buttery, and not a pothouse will " tick " for him more.
It must not be thought that this picture because
satirical is too highly coloured. The "mending of
galligaskins " indeed seems to have borne a different
aspect to our ancestors from that which it bears to us.
Dr. Kettle, of whom Aubrey gives us so many odd
details, when choosing a son-in-law, "seldom found
Bathurst minding of his booke, but mending of his
old doublet or breeches; he was very thrifty and
penurious, and upon this reason he carried away this
curious creature." 3 But it is noted of this same eccen-
tric doctor to his honour (and it bears on the question
which we are treating) that "where he observed
diligent boys that he ghessed had but a slender ex-
hibition from their friends, he would many times
putt money in at their windowes, that his right hand
did not know what his left did." 4 Nor was this
penury of modern date.
For want of means, the University judge me
I have been fain to heel my tutor's stockings
At loast seven years,
44 OXFORD STUDIES
says Ford in his Vittoria Corombona, and though
Padua is the scene alluded to, it can hardly be
doubted that his description is drawn from the
Universities where he had himself been a student.
But the clearest and the most touching picture of
the position of the poor scholar in the eighteenth
century is that which has been given us in the few
faint traditions which Boswell was enabled to collect
respecting Johnson's life at Oxford. Some of his
contemporaries l could recollect the awkward, blear-
eyed, convulsive figure, lounging at the college gates,
the centre of a circle of gay students, entertaining
them with his wit, spurring them on to rebellion
against discipline, or detaining them from their
studies. He had no close fiiendship with any of his
fellow collegians ; men and tutors stood alike in awe
of this strange wild creature who had brought such a
store of curious and uncommon reading with him,
and who was already known as a poet of no mean
abilities; whose pride repelled e\ery overture for
the relief of his griping poverty, and whose reckless
wit drew down remonstrances from friendly tutors,
which "made me ashamed," as he afterwards con-
fessed, "though I was too proud to own it." 2 He
ruled his college chums as he ruled his associates
in affcer life "Sir," said Edwards, an old college
associate, when he casually met him years after, "I
remember you would not let us say c prodigious ' at
college." 3 But all the memories of him were not
harsh and stern like these. "I'll convince you/' he
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 45
said to this very friend, " that I recollect you. Do
you remember our drinking together at an ale-house
near Pembroke Grate? At that time you told me
of the Eton boy, who, when verses on our Saviour
turning water into wine were prescribed as an
exercise, brought up a single line, c Vidit et erubuit
lympha pudica Deum/ and I quoted another fine
line from Camden on the death of a king who was
succeeded by a prince of equal merit 'Mira cano,
sol occubuit, nox nulla secuta est. J " l But his poverty
seldom can have allowed him such relaxations. We
can see how grinding it must have been when we
find him relinquishing his visits to his friend Taylor,
becaiise his shoes were worn out, and it was noticed
by the Christ Church men when a friend in pity
places a pair of new shoes at his door, and his pride
makes him fling them away with indignation when
tho very mention of Dr. Adams's remaik "he was
caressed and loved by all about him was a gay frolic-
some fellow and passed there the happiest part of
his life " forces out from him, when years had passed
over these memories, the touching reply, "Ah, Sir, I
was mad and violent it was bitterness they mistook
for frolic. I was miserably poor and thought to fight
my way by iny literature and my wit, so I disre-
garded all power and all authority." 2
Ill
THEHB are certain types which Nature seems never
tired of repeating if they vanish for a time, it is
only to spring up into a new life under some different
name or under a fresh set of circumstances. And
among this class we may fairly reckon the Oxford
Freshman. There is no greater difference between
the young novice of 1760 and the Freshman of a
hundred years later, than between the hoop of the
one period and the crinoline of the other. Their
costume, their manners may differ; but they blush
with the same " verdancy," pass through the ordeal
of the same merciless ridicule, develop very much
into the same characters.
We are enabled, and principally by the lively
sketches of Amherst, to gain a pretty distinct con-
ception of the Freshman of the eighteenth century.
"We see the public schoolman, just freed from the
rod of Busby's successors, strutting about town for
a week or two before entrance, courting his school-
fellows' envy with his " new suit of drugget, his pair
of prim rufHes, his new bobwig, and brazen-hilted
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 47
sword," swaggering at coffee-houses, and giving him-
self a scholar's airs at the bookshops. 1 We see the
country greenhorn, "mounted on an easy pad,"
trotting with father and mother along the Oxford
road ; 2 or meet in the High the rough country farmer
with his equally unkempt hopeful, staring moodily
about in "linsey woolsey coats, greasy sun-
burnt heads of hair, clouted shoes, yarn stockings,
flapping hats with silver hatbands, and long muslin
neckcloth, run with red at the bottom." 3 They are
domineered over by the butler, overawed by the tutor,
and introduced by him to their set, "a parcel of
honest merry fellows," who complete their initiation
by carrying them drunk to bed for three or four
nights together. 4 They are awoke by the bell at six,
and bestow a pardonable malediction on the servitor
who bids them tumble into chapel with heads reeling
from the last night's debauch. 5 A few weeks and
they are swaggering in their new bobwigs and Oxford-
made shoes ; drugget supersedes linsey woolsey and
worsted stockings the yarn , and a month or two sees
them metamorphosed into complete smarts, "d g
the old country putts, their fathers, with twenty
foppish airs and gesticulations." 6 The smart of the
day rises late in an age of early risers. Nothing
indeed is more curious than the great change of
manners in this particular. Milton, we know, rose
at four in the morning, even after he had lost his
sight, for the purpose of study. Hobbes, when at
Oxford, was remarkable for the early hour at which
48 OXFORD STUDIES
he rose. Warton, who would saunter and cliat all
day, rose in the early morn to study and court the
muse in his favourite walks along the Cherwell or up
Headington Hill. And at the very close of the
century we find Shelley's biographer asserting " many
of the wholesome usages of antiquity had ceased at
Oxford, that of early rising however still lingered," l
and from his subsequent statements it seems to have
been thought even at that time a piece of gross
indolence to remain in bed after seven in the morn-
ing, at whatever hour the sleeper had retired to rest.
But the smart's breakfast is scarce over by ten ; a
few notes on the flute a glance at the last French
comedy, 2 and in academic undress he is strolling to
Lyne's coffee-house, the great rendezvous of the
loungers of the day, where at the risk of inked ruffles,
he indites a billet-doux or a stanza to the reigning
Sylvia of the town. From Lyne's he saunters for a
turn or two upon the Park or under Merton wall
" while the dull regulars," the " slow " fellows, " are
at dinner in hall according to statute." A little
dinner in his rooms at one, and an hour devoted to
dress prepare him for the great business of the after-
noon. 3 Dress is indeed with him a matter of serious
import. It was a time when hundreds were spent
on the costly embroideries of a single suit ; when a
coat was handed down like an estate from father to
son ; when a man could count it no reproach if told
that he carried all he possessed upon his back.
Those who have laughed and who has not over
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 49
the adventures of Roderick Random, will remember
the bold stroke of that hero when driven to his last
resources he expends them on the most costly finely
and puts his fortune on the hazard of a conquest.
But an equally amusing instance of the excessive
value attached to dress occurs in one of the bits of
news which the Oxford Jownal for 1755 communicates
to its readers. A young gentlewoman, it appears,
had thrown herself into the Serpentine " which being
seen by some gentlemen and ladies that were going to
Kensington, one of the gentlemen, notwithstanding
his being finely drest, had the humanity to run to her
relief and jumped in just time enough to save her." l
With no little care has our lounger studied the rustle
of the stiff silk gown, the graceful dependence of the
long flaxen tie-wig, the defiant cock of his laced hat
or huge square cap, his red or white stockings, the
red tops of his Spanish leather shoes, the silk-lined
coat, the laced ruffles at breast and wrist. With
what sublime contempt does he look down on "a ragged
servitor of Jesus, or a half-starved scholar of St.
John's," 2 on Johnson with his worn-out shoes, or
Whitefield's "unpowdered hair, woollen gloves,
patched gown and dirty shoes," 3 as he passes by with
tripping gait and jaunty dangle of his clouded
amber-headed cane. The afternoon is spent by our
exquisite in learning the news of the town or parad-
ing before the windows of a toast. He drinks a dram
of citron at Hamilton's and saunters off at last to
chapel " to shew how genteely he dresses and how
50 OXFORD STUDIES
well he can chaunt." Chapel ended, he has an
assignation to tea with some fair one, whom he
amuses with all-important discussions, whether any
wears " finer lace or better linen than Jack Flutter,
has handsomer tie-wigs, or more fashionable
cloaths, or cuts a bolder bosh than Tom Paroquet,
is a more handy man at a tea table than Eobin
Flutter, or plays ombre better than Valentine
Frippery." 1 He waits on her to the fashionable places
of resort, to Merton, Magdalen Walks, or Paradise
Garden, 2 whispers his verses in her ear as he attends
her home, sups, and then turns to the less refined
pleasures of the night. He is soon one of the group
round the table of the Mitre or the Tuns, is loud in
his song, deep in puns, put, or cards, toasts his
mistress in the spiced cup with the brown toast
bobbing in it, and staggers home to his college " a
toper all night as he trifles all day." 3
Almost a century before, the same character had
been wittily painted by Dr. Eaiie, under the name of
"a young gentleman of the University." He
" is one that comes there to wear a gown, and to say
hereafter he has been at the University. His father
sent him thither because he heard there wore the
best fencing and dancing schools ; from these he had
his education from his tutor, the oversight. . . .
His study has commonly handsome shelves, his
books neat silk strings, which he shews to his father's
man, and is loth to unty or take down for fear of
misplacing. Upon foul days for recreation he retires
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 51
thither and looks over the pretty book his tutor reads
to him, for which his tutor gives him money to spend
next day. His main loitering is at the library, where
he studies arms and books of honour, and turns
a gentleman critic in pedigrees. Of all things he
endures not to be mistaken for a scholar, and hates
a black suit, though it be made of sattin. His
company is ordinarily some stale fellow that has been
notorious for an ingle to gold hatbands. " 1
Most of these exquisites were gentleman-com-
moners, a class which is now rapidly decaying, but
which was then in its fullest vigour. They were
allowed either to dine with the Fellows or at a
separate table of their own ; their college charges
were double those of an ordinary member, and a
liberty even more than proportionate to their position
seems to have been allowed them. Every temptation
to idleness was in fact thrown in their way. They
were told plainly that it was not for men of their
fortune to mind exercises ; if studious, the gentleman
commoner was taunted with being ik morose," and
" a heavy bookish fellow " ; if his wine was good, the
Fellows would forgive every delinquency, and excuse
even absence from morning chapel. 2 " My own intro-
duction," say Gibbon, " to the University of Oxford
forms a new era in my life, and at the distance of
forty years I still remember my first emotions of
surprise and satisfaction. In my fifteenth year I felt
myself suddenly raised from a boy to a man ; the
persons whom I respected as my superiors in age and
52 OXFORD STUDIES
academical rank entertained me with every maik of
attention and civility ; and my vanity was flattered
by the velvet cap and silk gown which distinguish a
gentleman commoner from a plebeian student. A
decent allowance, more money than a schoolboy had
ever seen, was at my own disposal; and I might
command among the tradesmen of Oxford an in-
definite and dangerous latitude of credit." " The want
of experience, of advice, and of occupation soon
betrayed me into some improprieties of conduct,
ill-chosen company, late hours, and inconsiderate
expense. My growing debts might be secret, but
my frequent absence was visible and scandalous, and
a tour to Bath, a visit into Buckinghamshire, and
four excursions to London in the same winter were
costly and dangerous frolics. The irksomeness of a
cloistered life repeatedly tempted me to wander, but
my chief pleasure was that of travelling, and I was
too young and bashful to enjoy, like a manly Oxonian
in town, the pleasures of London. In all these
excursions I eloped from Oxford; I returned to
college; in a few days I eloped again as if I had
been an independent stranger in a hired lodging,
without once hearing the voice of admonition, without
once feeling the hand of control ; yet my time was
lost, my expenses were multiplied, my behaviour
abroad was unknown; folly as well as vice should
have awakened the attention of my superiors, and
my tender years would have justified a more than
ordinary degree of restraint and discipline." 1 Nor
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 53
are the reminiscences of the first Lord Malmesbury,
then Mr. Harris, less severe on the University
system. "In fact, the two years of my life I look
back to as most unprofitably spent were those I passed
at Merton," 1763-5. " The discipline of the University
happened at this particular moment to be so lax that
a gentleman commoner was under no restraint, and
never called on to attend lectures, chapel, or hall. My
tutor, an excellent and worthy man, according to the
practice of all tutors at that moment, gave himself no
concern about his pupils. I never saw him but during
a fortnight when I took into my head to be taught
trigonometry. The set of men with whom I lived
were very pleasant, but very idle fellows. Our life
was an imitation of High Life in London; luckily
drinking was not the fashion, but what we did drink
was claret, and we had our regular round of evening
card parties, to the great annoyance of our finances.
It has often been a matter of surprise to me how so
many of us made our way so well in the world, and
so creditably." 1
How far these excesses might be carried with
comparative impunity we leain from the anecdotes
which are preserved of Foote's residence in the Uni-
versity just previous to 1740. The future wit,
though entered on the foundation of Worcester as
founder's kin, seems to have plunged at once into all
the dissipation of the town. His dress was of the
utmost extravagance, and we can guess at its character
from the frock suit of green and silver lace, bagwig,
54 OXFORD STUDIES
sword, bouquet, and point ruffleb in which he was
soon afterwards to make his entrance into the Bedford,
and at once take his place among the critics and the
wits. In every sort of reckless adventure Foote soon
took the lead , he acted Punch in disguise through
the streets, and amused the crowd with his ridicule
of the pomposity of his college's head. Provost
Gower, the most lumbering of pedants, was the
object of his especial persecution. On one occasion
when summoned to receive a reprimand from the
insulted dignitary, he presented himself with the
greatest appearance of gravity and submission, but
with a dictionary under his arm. No sooner had the
pompous harangue begun than at the first long word
Foote interrupts the Doctor, begs pardon with the
greatest formality, and turns over his dictionary to
find out its meaning, and after a moment's pause
requests the Provost to proceed. Yet even this grave
insult seems to have passed without severe punish-
ment, and it was not till the audacious rake, on his
return from a trip to Bath, dashed through Oxford
in a coach and six greys, accompanied by " society
not very worshipful," tricked out in ridiculous
finery, and attended by a couple of footmen, that the
authorities took him gravely to task, and though he
quitted college in consequence, it is expressly men-
tioned that his departure was voluntary, and " with-
out any public censure." 1
IV
WE have in a previous paper sketched the rapid
metamorphosis of a bumpkin into a fop, but it must
not be supposed that the change was always so
complete or instantaneous. The freshman some-
times transferred to college the habits of school :
kept his room, buried himself in his books, and
seldom appeared but in a dirty brown wig and linen
that would have borne washing. Taunts were in-
effective, though conveyed as delicately as those
which Do Quincey has recorded. "I neglected,"
says that entertaining writer, in speaking of his
Oxford career in 1803, &c., " I neglected my dress in
one point habitually, that is, I wore my clothes till
they were threadbare, partly in the belief that my
gown would conceal their main defects, but much
more from carelessness and indisposition to bestow
upon a tailor what I had destined for a bookseller.
At length an official person sent me a message on the
subject." This was, however, disregarded, and "one
day I suddenly made the discovery that I had no
waistcoat which was not torn, or otherwise dilapi-
56 OXFORD STUDIES
dated, whereupon, buttoning up my coat to the
throat, and drawing my gown as close about me as
possible, I went into the hall. A grave man, with a
superlatively grave countenance, whom I did not
personally know, addressing his friend sitting opposite
begged to know if he had seen the last Gazette, because
he understood it contained an order in Council laying
an interdict upon the future use of waistcoats. His
friend replied with the same perfect gravity that he
trusted so sensible an order would be followed up
by an interdict on breeches they being still more
disagreeable to pay for." 1
Stubborn, however, as our student might be in
his poverty and bookishness, his friends had still one
weapon to try ere they despaired of his reforma-
tion. "Had he never seen Miss Flavia,, the top
toast of the town ? Why, she had been heard
to say in pubhck company * Mr. is a
man of fire; 'tis a thousand pities he is such a
sloven J ! " The poor fellow eats no supper, retires
to walk restlessly about his chamber, flings his
brown wig into the fire, and swears, like one dis-
tracted, that he will see her to-morrow. An inter-
view with his mercer, a few hints of future expecta-
tions, a, bill begun, and our heio is in an hour a
smart. The assemblies are soon buzzing with the
news that Dick dresses at Miss Flavia ; the girl in
her turn is enraptured at her conquest ; Dick flings
aside his band and ruffles, wearies his brain with no
heavier task than the penning a sonnet, a billet, or an
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 57
epigram, and dwindles into the hanger-on of a
toast. 1
Whatever reason be assigned, it is certain that
the toast of a hundred years since occupied a far
more conspicuous place in Oxford society than her
nameless successors in the present day, Tatlers
and Spectators did not deem her beneath their
notice ; she was the theme of a hundred songs, jests,
satires. Her father so runs the sarcastic description
of her which Amherst has given a good honest trades-
man, dreams of raising his family by her marriage
with a parson or a schoolmaster; the little Miss,
not yet in her " teens," is forbidden to play with the
muckworms of the neighbourhood ; she graduates at
a dancing school, and sallies forth to victory with no
arms save "an hoop, a gay suit of clothes, and
two or three new Holland smocks." She is assidu-
ous at balls and assemblies ; you may meet her in
every public walk, coyly listening to the compliments
of the chance gownsman who has had the happy
audacity to address her, who waits on her home, calls
the next day, and dangles ever after. 2
The time has gone by since grave dons com-
plained that, with a court and ladies of honour
invading the cloistered shades, all learning was at an
end ; since, in her rooms at Mertoii, Barbara Villiers,
Lady Castlemaine, gave birth to a son, whom the
Merry Monarch did not blush to claim for his own ;
since Lady Isabella Thynne 3 "the possessor of all
the virtues save one," as Aubrey tells us used to
58 OXFORD STUDIES
come with a friend of hers to morning prayers at
Trinity College Chapel " half-drest, like angels," or
make her entrance upon the college walks with a
lute playing before her just as "\Yaller sang of her :
The trembling strings about her fingers crowd,
And tell their joy for every kiss aloud.
But the toast still carries on the war of her sex
against academic studies. The smart, with his hair
just * e wired " by the friseur, and his cap trimmed to
the smallest size, parades daily beneath her window
for the chance of a look or an ogle ; grave Dons lay
down their pipes for her society; l should Patty go on
Sunday to church, " the students stand in rows at
her pew door " ; she is toasted at the clubs, and the
High Borlace, 2 at its annual meeting at the King's
Head, chooses her their patroness for the year :
while in the Trinity Gentleman Commoners' and
Bachelors' Common-room the chosen Laureate is
reciting, crowned with a wreath of laurel, a copy of
verses in her honour. Toasts, indeed, seem to have
been the Oxford Muses of the last century, and to
have inspired every poetaster with a passion for
song. Miss Brickenden cannot go down to Nuneham
without the trees being invited to "rush into the
flood " to meet her, while the laggards the " gouty
oaks," we suppose, of Tennyson's Amphion are ex-
horted to
Peep o'er their fellows 5 heads to view the fair,
Whose name upon their wounded bark they bear. 3
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 59
Miss Polly Foote's brief visit becomes the basis of a
little epic, where Cupid sends this lovely emissary to
make war upon the favourite seat of Pallas, stations
her battery at a Venetian window, and joys to see
What troops of gazing students fell,
Stretch' d o'er the smooth parade.
Folios are relegated to their former dust ; logic is
abandoned, pipes neglected, and churches deserted
for Polly, till at the prayer of the assaulted Deity
Jove decrees, as the sole means of saving Learning's
seat from destruction, that " Iris should next week
convey fair Polly back to London." 1 Here and there,
it must be owned, this great engine of compliment
was turned into an instrument of satire. Lucetta
was taunted as one who
Bears Jove's lightnings in her eyes,
But in her voice his thunder j s
or Belinda reminded in mellifluous verse of her
rouge and cosmetic, or scandal just hinted at the
" three-pair window " whence the Troughs looked
down on their admirers below.
The favourite resort of the toasts was Merton
Walks, which during the early part of the century,
constituted the fashionable Oxford promenade.
Every Sunday night saw them "thronged with
young gentlemen and gentlewomen," as Hearne
soberly puts it, " like a fair." 3 We can very dimly
discern through the chance notices of the time
which have reached us, the more prominent features
CO OXFORD STUDIES
of the scene the brilliant medley of smirking
beaux and smiling belles, the laughter and jest and
repartee, the soft compliment and whispered as-
signation, the couples retreating to talk sentiment
in the more retired corners, the elders talking
fashion and scandal in the broad promenade, the tap
of the snuff-bos, the rattle of the fan. We can see
the Brooks towering high above her rivals, " the tall
cedar " that " o'erlooks the wood," or meet the sisterly
Troughs, about whom there are such whispers
and suspicions. Margaret with her proud cold
bearing, contrasting so strongly with the alternating
smile and frown of the coquette Maria. Not that all
is joy and happiness here, " radiant Astre " has a
cloud upon her brow " has generous love no
charms or riches more 1 " she has, in plain English,
been jilted in favour of a wealthier widow ; while
Hay ward, " every fair in one," is scornfully telling the
simpering Strephons of the impudent fellow whose
billet desired her visit to his chamber alone.
The source from which much of this sketch is
derived is a small poem called "Merton Walks, or
the Oxford Beauties." The Queen of Beauty turns
Jacobite, and flies from a court where " German
eyes" bear rule, till passing over "Rhedecyna's
towers," she sees a thousand beauteous nymphs
A thousand sportive youths contiived for joy,
As her Adonis fair, but not so coy.
She determines to fix her empire there, and the
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 61
poet summons this brilliant troop ol her subjects to a
closer review. From this point all is indiscriminate
flattery. "We can almost picture to ourselves the
author, sallying forth in the conscious perfection of
fashion, and whispering in every ear that strain of
elaborate compliment, the art of -which Louis
Quatorze had bequeathed his only benefaction to
his admiring century. He learns from Brunetta's
eyes that " beauty to no colour is confined the
fair, the brown, all equally destroy " j he mourns
over the loss of Eleanora, and beflatters Celia with a
curious cento of mythological allusion. Merton
Gardens are transformed for the nonce into "Ida's
hill," and our poetic Paris only gets rid of the diffi-
culty of selection by suddenly apostrophising a passing
" Miss Harris," as it seems, a visitor "from Winton's
towers the lovely robber came." But, little disturbed
by the incident, our author is already reminding
Miss Law of her trip to the Woodstock races,
how at her appearance "the winged coursers
passed unheeded by " ; he is thrown into an affected
ecstacy as he greets another beauty, "where Ham-
mond is, with every beauty crowned, a thousand
Cupids scatter deaths around " ; he is whispeiing
with " charming White," and ransacked at last of all
his store of compliments, he is forced to adore
" lovely Wright," by attributing to her all the united
perfections of her rivals. By this time we have
nearly forgotten the epic and its machinery, but
they are suddenly recalled at the close ; the Goddess
THE literary and social life of the last century
seemed to centre in its Clubs. Dryden's arm-chair
recalls to us Will's ; Addison held " his little senate "
at Button's; Johnson gave his name to one which
continues famous to this day. The conclusion of
our last paper would show that Oxford faithfully
copied the fashion of the Metropolis. But the
Amorous Club whether the mere creation of the
graceful essayist, or (as is more probable) founded
on real Oxford reminiscences was not the only
instance which can be given. The Terras Eilius 1
gives us an account full of absurd exaggeration,
but evidently founded on a substratum of fact, of a
Poetical Club, presided over by Tom Warton, the
father of the more celebrated poet of the 1 ' same
name. The Three Tuns is the place chosen for its
deliberations, with this proviso "That Mr. Brad-
gate would keep good wine, and a pretty wench at
the bar, both of which are, by all critics, allowed to
be of indispensable use in poetical operations." No
member is admitted without certificate of distinction
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 65
in " tale, catch, sonnet, epigram, madrigal, anagram,
acrostic, tragedy, comedy, or epic." A reverend
Doctor alone is allowed to smoke in a corner ; to the
rest tobacco is forbidden, "the fumigation thereof
being supposed to cloud the poetical faculty and to
clog the subtle wheels of the imagination." The
members " clear their throats with a glass of port and
a loud Hem!" The utmost license is allowed to
innuendo or double -entendre, but on one point,
orthodoxy, the utmost rigid severity prevails. When
a daring versifier argues that "since some one God
believe, some thirty, and some three," since men differ
universally on this point, while on the worship of
woman all agree
Since in this faith no heresies we find,
To love let .our religion be resigned,
And Cselia reign, the goddess of mankind,
the jest is voted heretical, burnt by the hands of the
small-beer-drawer, and its author expelled the club.
More license was probably allowed in the crowd of
clubs which a letter in the Spectator mentions as
having sprung up about the beginning of the last
century, the Punning Club the Witty Club and
the Handsome Club. The last found a formidable
rival in a burlesque of itself, which Steele has im-
mortalised under the name of the Ugly Club. Their
rules were embodied in an "Act of Deformity";
"a visible quearity in aspect"; a "peculiar cast of
countenance " ; "gibbosity," or "obliquity," were the
66 OXFORD STUDIES
necessary qualifications for admission. The figures
of Esop, Thersites, Scarron, and Hudibras adorned
their club -room. Over their pipes and ale they
recited their congratulations to Mrs. Touchwood "upon
the loss of her two fore-teeth " ; or to Mrs. Andiron on
the deformity of her " left shoulder " ; or toasted Mrs.
Yizard with acclamation on the ground of her ad-
vance in ugliness since the small-pox. 1
But of the majority of the Clubs of the time we
know only the names. We meet with them in quaint
advertisements, as in the following from the Oxfwd
Journal for 1775: "The brethren of the Arcadian
Society are requested to meet at the Angel Inn, in
Oxford, to ballot for some fresh candidates. (Signed)
Alphesibceus, Crook-holder." 2 Here and there we get
a casual glimpse of their doings within, as in Hearne's
mention of the meeting of the " High Borlace at the
King's Head, when Miss Molly Wickham of Garsington
was chosen lady patroness in room of Miss Stonhouse
that was lady patroness last year." s But for the most
part we are left to glean what we can from the mere
names, and these are generally characteristic. Our
notion of the "Nonsense Club "is verified when we learn
that George Colman, Bonwell Thornton, and Lloyd
were among its first founders ; nor can any mistake
the meaning of the "Jelly-bag Club," who remember
that famous little epigram from which it derives its
title. 4 We can only fancy to ourselves the nightly
gathering, the chat, laughter, and wit, the poem read
and criticised, the toast drunk in repeated potations,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 67
the candles burning dim and blue in the smoky
atmosphere. ^ For if our own can yield to no other
age in the universal diffusion of the habit of smoking,
the last century seems to have been especially the
sera of old smokers. "We meet with no mention of
the Common-room of those days without some refer-
ence to pipes. Scholars and divines derived inspiration
from it in their studies. The Civil Wars furnished
the great means for the diffusion of this taste ; soldiers
brought it from Germany, and marches and counter
marches spread it over England. How firm a root
it took in Oxford we see from Dr. Plot's mention of
the bed of white clay at Shotover, "which during
the late wars, in the siege, was wholly used for
making tobacco pipes." 1 By this time it had conquered
every prejudice against its use. When Ealeigh,
" standing in a stand at Sir Eobert Poyntz's parke
at Acton tooke a pipe of tobacco, it made the ladies
quitt it till he had donne." And, writing in 1680,
Aubrey adds, "within these thirty-five years 'twas
scandalous for a divine to take tobacco." 2 Now
Aldrich could print in company with his " Hark, the
bonny Christ Church bells," a "Smoking Catch to
be sung by four men smoking their pipes, not more
difficult to sing than diverting to hear." The 'Sam'
of the "I prythee, Sam, fill," was Aldrich's friend,
Sampson Eastwich, of Christ Church, and of the
three other singers one was the Dean himself. So
notorious was his love of smoking that a young
gentleman so runs the story betted with a friend
68 OXFORD STUDIES
that the Dean was smoking at the moment of their
talk, which happened to be ten in the morning.
The Dean received his visitors, laughed good-
humouredly at their tale, and replied " you see you
have lost your wager, for I am not smoking but
filling my pipe." l But perhaps tobacco never took
so public a position as in the exhibition which we
find mentioned in Hearne's Diary for the year 1723.
"At two o'clock in the afternoon was a smoking
match over against the Theatre, a scaffold being
built up for it just at Finmore's, an ale-house. 'Twas
thought a journeyman tailor of St. Peter's in the
East would have been victor, he smoking faster than,
and being many pipes before, the rest, but at last he
was so sick that 'twas thought he would have died,
and an old man that had been a soldier and smoked
gently came off conqueror, smoking the three ounces
quite out, and four or five pipes the same evening." 2
There is another habit peculiar in the excess to
which it then was carried, to the age of which we
are treating, which however disagreeable to dwell
upon it would be altogether absurd to omit in a
notice of this century. It was a> century of hard
drinkers. The vice was not confined to grade or
age, the Don was carried to bed as often as the
servitor. Dr. G-rabe, the great theologian's " way of
writing was to have a bottle of ale, brandy, or wine
stand by him and every three or four lines of his writ-
ing he would drink thereof." 8 Hearne does not scruple
to call the fellows of University " debauchees " j 4 their
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 69
senior fellow passed by the significant name of " Jolly
Ward," 1 The scurrilous Terras Filius of 1733, in his
" speech as it was to have been spoken at the public
Act," could taunt the fellows of All Souls : "I would
willingly next pay a visit to their college, if I could
find it out ; it used to stand on the right hand above
Queen's, but if we may judge from the resort of its
members we should judge it to be translated over the
way, and that the Three Tuns Tavern was All Souls'
College, did not the effigies of the good Archbishop
over the door convince us to the contrary." 2 The
fellows of St. John's " valued themselves for having
the best single and double coll 8 in the University,"
and doubtless could appreciate the fine old drinking
song
In potu primo purgatur guttur a limo ;
Gaudia sunt nobis solenma quum bibo bis ;
Nil valeant vma nisi sit potatio trina ;
Cumqne quater poto tune Isetor pectore toto ;
Ad quintum potum mens labitur in paradisum ;
Sestus vult potus ut nemo sit mihi notus ;
Potu septeno frons efficitur sine freno ;
Octavo potu sum debilis et sine motu ;
Nono tractatur ut corpus sepeliatur.
Lord Eldon has recorded in his anecdote book
how he saw a Doctor of Divinity striving to make
his way to Brasenose through Eadcliffe Square ; "he
had reached the Library, a rotunda then without
railings, and, unable to support himself except by
keeping one hand upon the building, he continued
walking round and round" till rescued by a friend. 4
70 OXFORD STUDIES
It was no new feature in the character of an Oxford
Doctor. "When the Spanish ambassador visited the
University in the time of James I., "I shall not tell
you," says a letter-writer of the time, "how our
Doctors pledged healths to the Infanta and Arch-
Duchess, and, if any left too big a snuff, Colombo
would cry ' supernagulum ' (invert the cup on the
nail, so that if a drop remains it would be detected)." I
But the dons of the eighteenth century far exceeded
their predecessors in the regularity as well as depth
of their potations. The immense punch-bowl which
Sir Watkin Wynn bequeathed to Jesus College 2 was
the most fitting gift for the time. " I did not leave
off drinking wine because I could not bear it," said
Dr. Johnson. "I have drunk off three bottles of
port without being the worse of it. University
College has witnessed this." 3 " Were the Colleges
ever to be reformed," wrote Southey, soon after his
entrance, "and reformation will not come before it is
wanted, I would have a little more of the disci-
pline kept up. Temperance is much wanted; the
waters of Helicon are far too much polluted by the
wine of Bacchus ever to produce any effect." 4
" Oxford," wrote Crosse 5 to his mother at the very
beginning of the present century, " is a perfect hell
upon earth. What chance is there for an unfortunate
lad just come from school, with no one to watch and
care for him no guide ? I often saw my tutor carried
off, perfectly intoxicated "
The undergraduates, says Lord Eldon, were
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 71
no better. At Corpus Christ! were drinking cups
and glasses, which, from their shape, were called ox-
eyes. "Pol, me ox-eye-distis, amici," punned a
young tippler as he was being helped to bed. Kegs
of brandy and other cordials crowded Christ Church
meadow when the ice was frozen for skating. John
Scott as he was then termed broke through into
the ditch, and, on scrambling out, a brandy-vendor
recommended him "something warm." "None of
your brandy for that wet young man," cried Lord
Grantley's son as he swept past, "he never drinks
but when he is dry." l Even those who detested ex-
cesses succumbed to the tone of the place. Abbot,
indeed, the future Lord Tenterden, could summon
up enough courage to decline wine parties, but few
were so resolute. " I always hated wine," confessed
Crosse, "but I had not the moral courage to resist
joining in the parties which were made up by my
companions." 2 But the drinking of the time of
which Crosse spoke was trivial when compared with
the drinking that was passing slowly away. Of
Lord Lovelace, the Principal of his Hall could report
that " he never knew him sober but twelve hours,
and that he used every morning to drink a quart of
brandy, or something equivalent to it, to his own
share." 3
The results of this debauchery it was easy to
foresee. Lord Cornbury, fresh from Christ Church,
dies of "hard drinking, particularly taking hot
spirits in a morning "j 4 Dr. Inett's son "being drink-
72 OXFORD STUDIES
ing with three others, after they had drunk ale for
some time, 'twas concluded to drink brandy upon it,
which they did in such a quantity that they all fell
asleep," and awaking, "found Inett quite dead." 1
Nor were these deaths confined to the junior
members of the University. Hearne records the
death of \Vhiteside, the keeper of the Ashmolean,
from drinking "a pretty deal of bad small beer at
Christ Church," 2 and the account of the end of the
Savilian Professor of Astronomy must be left to tell
its own tale " that which immediately contributed
to his death (as it is said) was drinking late on
Saturday night, at his own house, where he enter-
tained, with wine and punch, the Vice-Chancellor, Sir
Tom Gifford, and some others." 3
We pass easily from this subject to a few notices
of the Taverns and Ale-houses of the time. 4 It is
curious to remark the difference between the manners
of the last and present centuries in this particular.
The tavern was the favourite resort of the senior as
well as the junior members of the University. St.
John's sent its Fellows forth at eve as we learn
from their enemy, Amherst to drink their bottle at
the neighbouring ale-house; we have seen the All
Souls' men .(congregating at the Three Tuns ; Warton
" was fond of drinking his ale and smoking his pipe
with persons of mean rank and education." 6 By the
younger scholars it was even more frequented. The
poor battler, who dared not enter the more refined
and dearer coffee-house, left his masters to their
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 73
punch, and turned away to his pipe and ale at
"Juniper's Magpie or Town Hall." 1 Dr. Newton
laments the growing inclination to "go every evening
to a public house, become mighty to mingle strong
drink, and suffer the love of it to steal upon them." 2
But the rebuke is one-sided ; strong drink could be
mingled in common rooms as well as taverns, but the
ale-house gave the poor scholar, in addition to its
liquors, the precious joys of light, fire, and society;
and, recalling the lines of Warton, in his Panegyric,
we may, perhaps, see beneath their irony some
traces of the " home-like " feeling with which the ale-
house was regarded by the half-starved student or
the weary servitor :
To pot-house I repair, the sacred haunt
Where, Ale, thy votaries, in full resort,
Hold rites nocturnal. In capacious chair.
Of monumental oak and antique mould,
* * I place
My gladsome limbs, while, in repeated round,
Keturns replenished the successive cup,
And the brisk fire conspires to general joy ;
While, haply, to relieve the lingering hours
In innocent delight, amusive Putt,
On smooth joint-stool, in emblematic play,
The vaiu vicissitudes of fortune shows ;
3Tor reckoning, name tremendous, me disturbs,
2Tor called for chills my breast with sudden fear,
While on the wonted door, expressive mark,
The frequent penny stands described to view
In snowy characters and graceful row.
VI
were the amusements of Oxford men during
the last century? That these constituted no unim-
portant part of their social life, the founder of New
College had long since shown. "Since," he says
in his statutes, "since in the winter time a fire
in Hall is afforded for the Fellows, then let the
Scholars and Fellows be allowed after dinner or
supper time to enjoy a becoming leisure for recrea-
tion's sake in Hall in ballad-singing (cantilenis) or
other seemly amusement, and somewhat more gravely
to peruse poems, histories, and the wonders of the
world, with all other things that befit their clerical
position." And how long these amusements in Hall
survived we can see from the account which Wood
gives us of some in which he himself bore a part
at Merton. "Christmas appearing there were fires
of charcoal made in the common Hall on All Saints'
Eve, All Saints' Day and night, on the holydayes,
and their nights and eves between that time and
Christmas Day. Then on Christmas Eve, Christmas
Day and holydayes and their nights, and on Candlemas
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 75
Eve, Candlemas Day and night At all these fires every
night, which began to be made a little after five of
the clock, the senior undergraduats would bring into
the Hall the juniors or freshmen between that time
and six of the clock, and there make them sit downe
on a forme in the middle of the Hall, joyning to
tho declaiming desk, which done, every one in order
was to speake some pretty apothegme, or make a
jest or bull, or speake some eloquent nonsense to
make the company laugh. But if any of the fresh-
men came off dull or not cleverly, some of the
forward or pragmatical seniors would tnck' them,
that is, set the nail of their thumb to their chin
just under the lipp, and by the help of their other
fingers under the chin they would give him a mark
which somtimes would produce blood. On Candle-
mas Day or before (according as Shrove Tuesday
fell out) every freshman had warning given him to
provide his speech to be spoken in the publick Hall
before the undergraduats and servants on Shrove
Tuesday night that followed, being alwaies the time
for the observation of that ceremony The fire being
made in the Common Hall before five of the clock
at night, the Fellowes would go to supper before
six ; and, making an end sooner than at other times,
they left the Hall to the libertie of the under-
graduats, but with an admonition from one of
the fellowes (who was the principal of the under-
graduats and postmasters) that all things should
be carried in good order, While they were at
76 OXFORD STUDIES
supper in the Hall, the cook was making the lesser
of the brass pots ful of cawdel at the freshman's
charge, which, after the Hall was free from the
fellows, was brought up and set before the fire in
the said Hall. Afterwards every freshman accord-
ing to seniority was to pluck off his gowne and
band, and if possible to make himself look like a
scoundrell. This done, they were conducted each
after the other to the high table and there made to
stand on a forme placed thereon, from whence they
were to speak their speech with an audible voice to
the company, which if well done the person that
spoke it was to have a cup of cawclle and no salted
drinke ; if indifferently, some cawdle and some salted
drink; but if dull, nothing was given to him
but salted drinke, or salt put in college beere, with
tucks to boot. Afterwards, when they were to be
admitted into the fraternity, the senior cook was to
administer to them an oath over an old shoe, part
of which runs thus, 'Item tu jurabis quod Penni-
less Bench 1 non visitabis'; after which, spoken
with gravity, the freshman kist the shoe, put on
his gowne and band and took his place among the
seniors." Doubtless, though most of these jocular
observances were swept away during the reign of
the Puritans, yet as "Warton notes on this very pas-
sage customs bearing a very near resemblance to
this were still kept up in the eighteenth century. 2
But their chief amusement seems to have lain with-
out the college walls. The times were long past
OXFORD DUPJXG THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 77
since the scholars amused themselves in Bellomonte
(Beaumont), 1 the fields of which were portioned out
to the different degrees. We have seen them loiter-
ing their mornings at the coffee-house, or taking an
early tankard at the tavern; one of the especial
enjoyments of the afternoon seems to have been
boating. Southey's favourite diversion was a pull
with his friend "Wynn upon the Isis. " There were
but two things I learnt in Oxford/' he could say in
after life, "to row and to swim." 2 "So," sings our
own Hurdis
So on thy banks, too, Isis have I strayed
A tasselled Student, witness you who shared
My morning walk, my ramble at high noon,
My evening voyage, an unskilful sail,
To Godstow bound, or some inferior port,
For strawberries and cream. "What have we found
In life's austerer hours delectable
As the long day so loitered * 3
But it seems that that age was not exempt from the
accidents that have so often thrown a gloom over
the amusement in our own day, for we find con-
tinually announcements of a similar character with
the following, from the Oxford Journal, April 13, 1776 :
"On Monday last, as Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Bullock, and
Mr. Street, of Merton College, were sailing on the
river near Kennington, their boat was overset by a
sudden gust of wind, when the two former were
unfortunately drowned." Others of the "regulars,"
like Warton (and, as we have seen above, Hurdis) 3
78 OXFORD STUDIES
preferred the "constitutional" up Headington Hill,
or a "saunter on the banks of his favourite Cher-
well," or the enjoyment of the frequent concerts at
the new Music-room. 1 But the bulk of Oxford men
sought for amusements of a less refined character.
They had no literature to amuse them ; indeed, no
taste for it seems to have existed. " Few or none of
the Oxford undergraduates, with whom parity of
standing threw me into collision at my first outset,
knew anything at all of English literature/' says
De Quincey; "the Spectator seemed to me the only
book of a classical rank which they had read, and
even this less for its inimitable delicacy, humour,
and refined pleasantry in dealing with manners and
characters, than for its insipid and meagre essays,
ethical or critical," 2 which might serve them for trans-
lations and exercises. Eougher diversions were pro-
vided for these. The conduit now stood on the site
of the old bull-ring, but we see them with doffed
coat and bob-wig, "cocking" at the pit in Holywell,
skittle-playing at TVolvercot and Godstow, carousing
at Wallingford or Abingdon, or gambling at home.
The practice was not confined to the juniors a
Terrce Filius could shake a dice-box in the Theatre
at the President of St, John's, and salute him, as
he entered, with "Jacta est alea, doctor, seven's
the main." 3 Practical jokes and still more daring
exploits relieved the monotony of the fast man's
existence. It is amusing to find a grave Lord Chan-
cellor telling us of the riotous deeds of plain Mr,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 79
Scott. An invalid grumbled that the view from
his window down the High Street was intercepted
by a tree in All Saints' churchyard. His young asso-
ciates determined to relieve him. "One night,"
says Lord Eldon, "when the moon was under a
cloud, we set the gentleman's servant to cut down
this tree whilst we stationed ourselves at different
parts to watch. "Well, he was very long about it,
and the moon began to appear, and we were in a
great fright, so got over the wall to see what he was
about. He was a Yorkshireman, and he told us e The
seg winna wag ' ; and that, which meant the saw will
not move was all that we could get from him. So
we had to help him, down came the tree, and away
we all scampered. Next day there were handbills
and magistrates offering a reward for the conviction
of any of the offenders who had the night before
committed a dreadful crime in All Saints' Church-
yard. None of us peached, and so we all escaped,
and Nurse said it was the most glorious crime that
had ever been perpetrated in favour of a patient." 1
"Bucks and bloods" cocked their newly-laced hats
as they whirled along from Blagrave's stables to
Campsfield, nodded to laughing toasts on the race-
course at Woodstock, pic-nic'd at Enstone wells,
or dined "on mutton chops and scanty wine" at
Dorchester. 2
The smart, however, despised excursions so trivial
as these. Tired of billiards, runs with Capt. Bertie's
pack, and the bowling-green, he is fluttering day
80 OXPOED STUDIES
after day at Bath, or plunging down, " amid a crowd
of academics," at Astrop. About a hundred years
before, a young doctor, 1 just fresh from Oxford, "rid-
ing towards Brackley, to a patient, his way led him
through Astrop, where he observed the stones in
the little rill were discoloured of a kind of Crocus-
Martis colour; thought he, this may be an indica-
tion of iron; he getts galls, and putts some of the
powder into the water, and immediately it turned
blackish; there, said he, 'I'll not send my patients
now so far as Tunbridge. 3 " His observation
and acuteness made Willis's fortune, and raised
a little village for a time into a fashionable water-
ing-place. But London was the great magnet that
attracted the majority of the idlers and bucks of
the time. There is no one to be found in Tom
Lowngeit's room, the ordinary sporting-room, with
its prints of horses and dogs, its hat and whip on one
hook, and pair of boots on another, its sole library
the Sportsman's Calendar and Gibson's Treatise on
Horses. The room is empty, for Tom, with Dick
Eiot, and a few choice spirits, are on their way to
town, and a smart rider Dick makes, in his long
blue riding coat, with plate buttons, and leathern
belt girding his waist.
The Oxford man in London is the butt of all the
wits of Ms time. They are never weary of ridiculing
his awkward imitation of a man of the town. He
"transfers to playhouse, park, and tavern the loung-
ing air that passes for senteel in an Oxford Coffee-
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 81
house," but he misses the genuine careless loll and
easy saunter of the town-bred coxcomb. He is the
darling of hotel-keepers, for he never dines or sups
out of the house, and eats and drinks and pays like
a lord. "Ha, Jack, is it you," shouts one to a chum
whom he meets in Pell-Mell; "how long do you
stay'Z" "Ten guineas," is the reply, "if you come
to Venables after the play you'll find Tom Latin,
Bob Classic, and two or three more." " So 1 your
servant," rejoins his friend, "for I am off to meet
the finest girl upon town in the green boxes." They
haunt the theatre with the Templar, a kindred soul
with their own, and perhaps just transferred from
their set to his present position; the briefless bar-
rister sauntering from tavern to tavern "in silk gown
and purple slippers," or hurrying from Nandos to
Covent Garden, to criticise or catcall, and returning
to George's to show by his harangue that his depth in
the drama is equal to his shallowness in the law. But
though their stay in London is a round of diversion,
its sphere is limited to the play, the gaming-house,
or the bagnio. This is what one scores on a window
in an idle fit. "Monday Rode to town in six
hours ; saw two last acts of Hamlet \ at night with
Polly Brown. Tuesday Saw Harlequin the Sor-
cerer j at night with Polly again. Wednesday Saw
Macbeth ; at night with Sally Parker, Polly engaged.
Thursday Set out for Oxford a d d muzzy
place." " 'Tis always Polly with this set of mortals,"
comments Oolman, "till their purse is exhausted,
G
82 OXFORD STUDIES
and they are forced to exchange tavern and theatre
for small beer and halfpenny commons." 1
They returned, however, to something better than
"small beer and halfpenny commons." The com-
moner who had been roused to run "with hose
ungartered " to reach chapel ere the door was closed,
was nowise reluctant
To repair
To friendly buttery ; there on smoking crust
And foaming ale to banq.net unrestrained.
"Unlike," adds the poet, "the squeamish sons of
modern times," 2 whose practices compelled Dr. Newton
to fulminate an edict in Hart Hall against the use
of tea 3 and coffee, "a fashionable vice which leads
only to squandering of money and misspending the
morning in jentacular confabulations." 4 And for those
who loved more solid potations the Mitre stood
open, the tavern of the noted "Captain Jolly, who
pro low publico first reduced the price of porter
in Oxford from sixpence to fourpence a quart."
Draughts of his liquor gave a relish to the supper
of tripe, Mother Spreadbury's sausages, or Ben
TyrrePs "threepenny mutton pies." Ben Tyrrel had
the good fortune to attract the attention of the wits
of the time, and in their verses we can still see
the motley company that gathered round his board
on Wednesday and Saturday evenings " at seven
o'clock."
For thee the citizen and cit
Their cold boiled beef and carrots quit ;
Grave aldermen, ambitious, share
OXFORD BLUING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUBY 83
In Alma Mater's classic fore ;
The blooming toasts of Oxfoid town
Catch the contagion of the gown,
And wish the wonted evening nigh
To "have a finger in the pie." 1
A time of course came when these joys had to be
relinquished, when the "one -curled scratch" was
exchanged by the hands of " Baylis, Blenkinsop, or
lofty Wise," the noted peruke makers of the time,
for the " snowy pomp " of the grizzle wig, 2 and fop
and regular alike sobered down into Dons. But this
stage of their history we must reserve for future
notice, when in our account of Oxford's educational
position we shall be enabled to paint in detail the
life of a college Fellow. For the present, however,
our sketches of Oxford university society must cease
here, but should we be furnished with any additional
information we shall not hesitate to resume a subject
whose treatment we hope may have furnished some
little information as well as entertainment to our
readers.
yn
BEFORE commencing the series of papers in which
we shall endeavour to illustrate the political life
of Oxford in the Last Century, we may, perhaps,
venture, for the sake of variety, to interpose a passing
account of the transactions, as far as they can be
gleaned from the newspapers, of the period from
1774 to 1777. It is impossible in an undertaking of
this kind to pursue our civic history in strict
chronological order; deficiency of information will
necessarily create gaps here and there in our design.
But this apparent inconsequence may probably give
us a better notion of our subject than the most
perfect regularity. The habitual associates of a man
often know less of his character than one who meets
him at odd moments, and chats with him at irregular
intervals. And our desire of seeing this Oxford
in the Last Century not so much in its daily
events and weekly details, as in its ordinary life and
character will probably find its fullest gratification
in the somewhat irregular plan which we propose to
adopt.
OXFORD DUHIXG THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 85
Our information as we have said must be
gleaned from the newspapers of the day. The
Oxford Journal was probably a superior specimen
of the provincial press. It -was the lion's mouth, as
the Spectator would have said, into which members
of the University poured lucubrations which furnish
even to the reader of to-day no little amusement
"Warton did not disdain to turn from odes and
antiquarian research to immortalise Ben Tyrrel's
mutton pies, or to parody Gray's Elegy. "Wits
penned from the coffee-house for Jackson's insertion
sparkling little ditties on Miss Brickenden or Miss
Polly Foote. Old Lochard, the newsman, who, bell
in hand, hawked the Journal through the streets,
owed to his college patrons not only the "antiquated
cane" and "rusty grizzle wig," which they had
thrown by after ten years' service, or the tankard
at buttery hatch in return for " quick despatches " ;
but the merry rhymes that every Christmas drew a
douceur from the tradesman, a "slice of sirloin and
cup of October" from the squire, or a dram from
"Mother Baggs." 1 To them we owe the amusing
detail of tho subjects of the day,
Each vast event our varied page supplies,
The fall of princes, and the rise of pies ;
Patriots and squires learn here with little cost
Or when a kingdom or a match is lost ;
Both sexes here approved receipts peruse,
Hence belles may clean their teeth or beaux their shoes :
From us informed Britannia's farmers tell
How Loui&burgh by British thunders fell ,
86 OXFORD STUDIES
J Ti* we tliat sound to all the Trump of Fame,
And babes lisp Amherst's and Boscawen's name,
All the four quarters of the globe conspire
Our news to fill, and raise your glory higher. 1
But spite of this conspiracy of the four quarters of
tlie globe, the news is hardly what the pampered
appetites of the present day would call " full." Let
us turn to a newspaper of the period which we have
selected. The little poems and epigrams have dis-
appeared. Their young authors have graduated and
donned their grizzle-wigs, and have left no successors
behind them. The little weekly essays which we
find in the Journal for 1755 have ceased, and 'tis
only occasionally that a passing jest reminds us of
""Will Whimsey." Here, however, in the paper
which we open we are entertained with an epistle
from "Old Squaretoes." He is bitter on the
enormous head-dresses of the day; his daughter
"though in a morning but five feet one inch high,
yet, by raising herself fifteen inches at top and four
at bottom, she grows to the amazing height of six
feet eight by four in the afternoon." A series t)f
ludicrous adventures follow. A shower overtakes
the ladies in their promenade, they run for shelter
to a sentinel's box, " and forgetting the preposterous
height of their heads, struck them against the top
of the box with such violence that both fell backwards,
kicked up their heels, and threw down my wife, whose
pyramid flew off and was picked up by a taylor's ap-
prentice who ran away with it." The lesson is in vain;
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY 87
Old Squaretoes has hardly concluded his moralising
when "Mr. Toupee entered the room with three
bandboxes, each of the size of a child's coffin," and
the ladies appear "with heads four inches higher
than their last." A fire, however, destroys these new
erections, the ladies are left doctoring their scorched
faces, and with a proposal for a fire-insurance of
head-dresses, the lively little extravaganza concludes.
We turn to the news. Foreign politics are summed
up in a few paragraphs. Eumours of a "rupture
between Spain and Portugal"; "talk of a grand
alliance which will greatly alarm the public." The
American war is in progress, and engagements,
privateering and naval orders are spun out into a
couple of meagre columns. The fashionable intel-
ligence is divided between the turf and the elope-
ments and scandal of town. Justice is satisfied by
an account of the execution of a brace of culprits.
" An abstract of the new Act for the relief of in-
solvent debtors " fills up the remaining space. Only
the Oxford news is left. It is exactly four paragraphs.
We learn that " the Eev. John Williams " has received
a dispensation to hold a couple of livings at once;
the marriage of " the Eev. Thomas Eobinson, head
master of Magdalen College School, to Miss Eebecca,
daughter of Mr. James Fletcher, of this place, book-
seller," is succeeded by the death of the Eector of
Oddington ; and the news ends with an advertisement
from some itinerant vendor of "likenesses." 1
To those, however, who would gain a clearer view
88 OXFORD STUDIES
of the social and material conditions of the period, the
advertisements furnish the -widest field for observa-
tion. The time had not yet arrived when " advertise-
ments " had become a regular item in trade expenses,
and 'tis amusing to see the ingenious devices to
which advertisers resorted to justify their appear-
ance before the public. The favourite means were
a feigned dispute between two of a trade; some-
times a pretended rumour " to my prejudice " served
the turn, or the setting up of an apprentice, as a
rival, was the signal for recriminatory advertise-
ments. Notices of enclosure grow more and more
frequent, and prominent among them we see the
enclosure of Campsfield, that open ground between
Oxford and Woodstock, which we have noticed
before as a favourite drive for the Oxford bucks
and bloods. We can see the traces of that great
advance of agriculture which began with the acces-
sion of George III., and which was so soon to
change for the better the habits of our rural gentry.
"Twenty-five Inclosure Acts only had passed," says
Massey, " up to the accession of George II. ; during
his reign of 33 years, they had increased by 182.
From 1760 (the accession of the third George) to
1774 the beginning of our present period upwards
of 700 Inclosure Acts were obtained"; while the
passing of 452 Turnpike Acts enormously facilitated
the communications of the country. In the rural
districts, as swamps and wastes disappeared, the
higher classes began to imbibe that love of the
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 89
country which is, at this day, the most creditable
characteristic of an English, country gentleman. In
the towns, as we shall afterwards have occasion to
see in greater detail, the sudden accumulation of
wealth produced an increased refinement in manners,
which, in its turn, became the origin of those great
local improvements which marked the period of
which we are speaking. But, great as this progress
was, to those who view this time from our point of
view rather than from its own, it must necessarily
seem a period of social barbarism. The police of the
kingdom was, with the exception of the few Bow
Street runners, disorganised and ineffective. Riot-
ous young aristocrats sallied forth to commit the
grossest insults on either sex without fear of the
superannuated " Jarvies." Highwaymen robbed not
only on the outskirts but in the very squares of the
metropolis, in broad daylight. Runaway soldiers,
with swords they did not scruple to use, infested
the highways. " It is noticeable," says a paragraph
in one of the Oxford Journals, "that most robberies
are wrought by persons with weapons, to be
accounted for by the great number of discharged
soldiers who took to the trade." Men of the highest
rank were not exempt from these attacks. The
robbery of Lord Percival was, as we shall soon see,
one of Dumas' most notable exploits, and in the news
for March 12, 1774, we find so illustrative an account
that we insert it at length : "Lord Stanley and
his brother, coming in a postchaise- and- four from
90 OXFORD STUDIES
Chelsea to town, were stopped by four footpads, two
of whom seized the horses, and put pistols to the breasts
of the postilions ; the other two went on each side
the carriage, and, presenting their pistols, were
resisted by the Hon. Mr. Stanley, whom one of the
fellows fired at, on which Lord Stanley seized the
man on his side by the arm, and wounded him on
the back of the head with a scymetar. The two
ruffians at the head of the horses then went to the assist-
ance of their comrades, when, the postilions driving
furiously on, the nobleman and his brother escaped
unhurt, though one of the villains fired a second
pistol." The neighbourhood of Oxford was haunted
by similar marauders. Farmer Dover, of Botley, is
knocked down, on his way home from market, by a
couple of footpads, near Bulstock Bridge, and only
rescued by a chance arrival (March 17T5). 1 A couple
of highwaymen infest the country between Wood-
stock and Glympton, and count among their many
exploits "the robbery of two young gentlemen of
the University, near Campsfield, this side Wood-
stock." 2 In November 1776, three coaches are
robbed in the immediate vicinity ; one, indeed, near
the Eadcliffe Infirmary. 3 The Oxford news for
December 7, 1776, is enlivened by the following
paragraph : " On Thursday morning, between five
and six o'clock, the Bath coach, in which were three
passengers, was robbed in going up the hill on the
other side of Bottley, about a mile and a-half from
this city, by a single highwayman, well mounted,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 91
who took from Mr. Jonas, the celebrated conjuror,
his watch and about four guineas. It is more than
probable that either the suddenness of the demand,
or the bitter imprecations of the highwayman, might
so much alarm Mr. Jonas as totally to deprive him of
his wonderful art of " conveyance," or we can scarcely
suppose he would have suffered the robber to pocket
the watch or money, and carry it off."
It is not the least peculiar feature of the times
that these deeds of pillage, attended as they often
were with a combination of cowardice and cruelty
which it is impossible now to regard with aught but
disgust, seem at the time to have been looked upon
with an especial leniency and favour. Highwaymen
were the heroes of the day. There was a something,
the ladies would argue, about the dark muffled
figure, whose horse came splashing up to the toiling
night-coach, in contemptuous defiance of the shiver-
ing guard and his lumbering blunderbuss, that
severed him from the vulgar pilferer of the Old
Bailey. And the highwaymen, here and there, seem
to have appreciated and returned the sympathy of
the fairer sex. Rings and jewels were often ran-
somed by a kiss, and 'twas reported of Dumas that,
after capturing a whole coachful of ladies, he was
satisfied with dancing a coranto with each in turn
upon the green. The story of this prince of high-
waymen is connected with our especial subject by
his execution at Oxford, on Monday, March 23, 1761
By birth the son of a corkcutter, in Eastcheap, his
92 OXFORD STUDIES
spirit scorned the drudgery of common toil; he
sought and found company more to his taste, was
soon enrolled among "the Killers of Care, the
Silenians, Sons of Nimrod, A.B.C.darians, Snitchers,
Choice Spirits, Ubiquarians," and every other low
club of the town, and told his story, sang his song,
and drank his bottle with the best of them. But
debauchery and extravagance told fast upon his
purse, and, to support his mistresses, young Isaac
DarMns was driven to "the road." His assumed
name of Dumas soon became the terror of travellers.
He was sung in Seven Dials, and famed even in
aristocratic boudoirs. But fame could not protect
him from mishap. At Chelmsford, in 1758, we find
him sentenced to death for the robbery of Capt.
Cockburn, but his youth gained him a reprieve, and
his sentence was finally commuted to transportation
for fourteen years. By revealing a plan of escape
formed by his fellow transports, in short, by peach-
ing, our hero obtained a pardon on condition of
serving as a soldier in the Island of Antigua, and, in
spite of several frustrated attempts at escape, he
was put on board ship, and conveyed thither. But
Dumas' destiny was not thus to be evaded. He
availed himself of the first opportunity of desertion
to lie in hiding on board a merchant vessel, and,
eluding the strict search which was made, in the
disguise of a sailor, soon found himself once more in
England. His exploits in mid and west England, by
their daring and ingenuity, attracted on him such
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 93
inconvenient attention from the officers of justice,
that he was forced to seek for safety by entering as
a midshipman on board the Royal George. While
in harbour, however, a leave of absence enabled him
again to gratify his tastes, and a series of successful
encounters was crowned by his robbery of Lord
Percival. For this he was soon brought to trial, but
an ingenious defence, and the defective proof of
identity, procured him an acquittal, and he was
again free " to set out for London in a postchaise."
While in gaol, his cell had been visited by every
lady of fashion, and his adventures furnished the
tea-table chat of the town. They were charmed
with the elegance of his person, the neatness of his
dress, and the gaiety with which he enlivened his
prison, But the sympathy of the sex was soon to
prove fatal to him. He had directed letters to some
of his female friends from an inn whose owner was
postmaster of the district, and his abode thus dis-
covered, a robbery near Nettlebed lodged him in
Oxford gaol. He maintained his nonchalance to the
end, played " Macheath " in the prison, and threw
himself off at the gallows without troubling the
executioner. His age was but twenty -one at his
death, and his booty already amounted to 600. A
striking mark of popular sympathy followed his end.
He had declared that be feared not death but the
thought of being anatomized, and, at his execution,
a large body of bargemen surrounded the scaffold,
and carried off his body in triumph to the next
94 OXFORD STUDIES
parish church, " where," says the account in the Gentle-
man's Magazine, from which this is condensed, " while
some rang the bells, others opened the belly, filled
it with unslack'd lime, and then buried the body." *
As interesting a culprit to the higher classes in
Oxford was Le Maitre, a French master of tambour
and similar accomplishments, who, in 1776, gained
considerable notoriety by pillaging the Ashmolean
Museum of a great number of antiquities, medals,
etc., to the amount of ,100. Being arrested at
Dublin, he was sentenced, at the Oxford assizes, to
five years' hard labour, and is next heard of as the
originator of a nearly-successful attempt at escape,
which throws light on the condition of the Oxford
prisons at the time. "With the aid of four, who were
confined in the same cell, the wall was undermined
by a few faggot-sticks and an holdfast taken from
the pump, the hole was covered with a few mats,
and confederates waited without to file their fetters. 2
The plan was discovered on the very eve of its com-
pletion, but justice was not always so fortunate. In
the autumn of the previous year two women had
succeeded in cutting through the bars of their window,
and escaped into the road which ran beside ; 3 and in
1775 a prisoner, himself under sentence for assisting
a culprit to break prison, was killed by a fall in his
attempt to escape. 4
Such attempts, indeed, were common in every
prison in the kingdom. The dilapidated condition
of the buildings offered every temptation. And
OXFORD DURING T1IE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 95
within was every means of plotting and facilitating
an escape. The interior of a prison of that time,
whether we trust the statements of the novelist or
the philanthropist, was nothing short of a hell upon
earth. The vilest and most profligate were left free
to reduce the less experienced criminals to their own
degradation. Criminals herded together in noisome
cells, where the most foul crimes were connived
at by the gaolers, who were themselves scarce
"better than the felons they guarded. These, treated
like beasts, turned like beasts upon their keepers.
Prisons were sometimes broken open by a revolt
from within. The terrible Newgate riot of 1775
needed the presence of troops to quell it. The
same policy exhibited itself in those fearful penal
laws which were in their full vigour at this period.
Every assize saw the punishment of death recorded
for crimes the most unequal in their nature, for the
villain who had taken his benefactor's life, and the
bankrupt who had fraudulently concealed his goods.
The same want of equity distinguished the punish-
ments of the pillory. " All secondary offences, from
crimes too abominable to name down to libels and
breaches of the peace, were punished by the pillory,"
says Mr. Massey. But the occasions of its use in
Oxford during the latter part of this century seem
to have been rare; indeed, only one is recorded in
the public prints, the punishment of Edward Clark,
for keeping a house of ill -fame, November 1774. 1
Men still living can remember the last instance of
96 OXFORD STUDIES
its exercise in, we believe, 1810, when one Tubb
stood in the pillory for perjury. The pillory 1 seems
to have been placed near the Cross Inn, in North
Grate or Cornmarket Street. Another, 2 which at a
very distant period stood in company with a cross,
gallows, and stocks 3 at the corner of Magdalen Grove,
looking up Holywell, recalls to us the time when
the north side of that street stood alone, when the
south side and Long "Wall were as yet but the city
ditch, and the manor, with its judicial rights, beyond
the wall was the property of Bogo de Clare. 4 But,
if the gallows and pillory were more plentiful in the
Middle Ages, the culprit then possessed a privilege
which civilization has long robbed him of the right
of sanctuary. Behind All Saints' churchyard stood
Broadgate Hall, 5 where, in 1463, Mr. Hill, one of the
proctors, coming to seize " one J. Harry, a tailor, of
Oxon, who had stabbed a man," "upon information
given to him that it was a place privileged of old time
by the Pope, and claim laid to the said privilege by
the Master and Convent of St. John's Hospital, the
man at length, upon some small security given, found
the benefit of the place, and was dismissed." 6 The
privilege in this case seems to have fallen into desue-
tude about 1530. In Wood's time, the vestiges of a
sanctuary, near St. Edward's Church, " did not long
ago remain in a townsman's ground abutting down
from the High Street to Tresham's Lane.'? 7 A sanctu-
ary of greater interest will, in our next number,
introduce us to the more especial consideration of
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEEN!!! CENTURY 97
the civic affairs of Oxford in the period which we
are treating.
Minor offences were visited with punishments
which men still living can remember the stocks on
the Butter-bench, 1 or a whipping at the cart's tail.
The last was a practice as useless as it was disgusting,
for, as we have learned from one who had himself
seen this punishment inflicted, " though dragged the
whole length of the Cornmarket and back again, the
culprit scarce ever received more than one effective
stroke, in consequence of the throng and pressure of
the crowd around." But one consequence of the
severity of the penal code was the jurisdiction which
the populace themselves exercised. Pickpockets,
taken in the fact, seldom made their appearance at
Sessions , they were usually dragged to the nearest
pond or pump, and ducked while any sign of life
remained. The same rude justice, as many must
remember, was extended to those whose religious
tenets offended the sovereign mob. Young thieves
and minor offenders were usually let off with a
thrashing. But enough withal remained to make
the office of Eecorder no sinecure In noticing the
resignation of this office in the year 1776, 2 by
" Thomas Francis Wenman, Esq.," and the unanimous
election of " John Skinner, Esq., of Little Milton,
one of the Justices of the Principality of "Wales,"
we must conclude this, we confess, somewhat mis-
cellaneous paper.
VIII
THE Sanctuary to which we referred afc tlie con-
clusion of our last number was the Sanctuary at East
Grate. The friars of the order of the Holy Trinity
for the Redemption of Captives, who had been
settled in the little chapel by its side, by the patron-
age of Edmund, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
were cut off to a man in the pestilence of 1351, and
the chapel eventually lapsed to the city. Here the
new Mayor who, by the charter of Henry III,,
claimed, with the chief magistrate of London, the
honour of a formal presentation to the Barons of the
Exchequer for confirmation in his new office, was
accustomed on his return over the long and rude
" Petty Pont," 1 which has given place to the present
Magdalen bridge, to stop and return thanks to God
for his safe return, leaving, at the same time, an
alms on the altar upon which a little taper or lamp
burnt night and day. On quitting the chapel the
Mayor was received by the townsmen, assembled in
their trades, and "conducted into the city with great
huzzaing and rejoicings." 2
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 99
In the elections for 1774, Mr. Samuel Culley was
chosen Mayor ; Mr. Thomas Jones and Mr. Richard
Hayes, Chamberlains of the city. 1 The next year
presents us with the name still honoured in its con-
nection with civic offices, in the unanimous election
of "Mr. William Thorpe, the junior assistant of this
city," to the Mayoralty, while Mr. William Fidler
and Mr. Richard Western were appointed bailiffs. 2
The mention of a family which still remains to us
cannot fail to recall some of those which hare long
perished and decayed. The Chillingworths have
gone, yet the most acute of all our philosophers was
the son of a Mayor of Oxford. Sir William
D'Avenant reminds us that it was during the
mayoralty of his father, that Shakespear used to
stop at the Crown, on his way to Stratford, 3 but the
very name has died out of Oxford now. Here and
there indeed local denominations recall the memory
of old civic families passed away. Yet of the thou-
sands who speak of Peckwater Quad, how many
remember that it is so called from occupying the
site of the old house of Radulph Peckwether, one of
an illustrious line, who was Provost or chief magis-
trate of Oxford in the reign of Henry III. And the
gradual change of names is already obliterating even
these slight vestiges. Pembroke Street has even
recently superseded the old " Pennyfarthing " Street,
the street that commemorated the name of the great
burgher-family, the Penyverthings, of whom one was
Provost in Henry the Third's time. The name of a
100 OXFORD STUDIES
tavern has driven from Ship Street the title of
Burewald's Lane, which it owed to the wealthy
family which ended in Dionysia Burewald, 1 the
foundress of a chauntry in St. Michael's Church, for
the souls of those of her name, "especially of
Gilbert and Eadulph, men of great possessions in
Oxford." These, however, had themselves super-
seded the designation which it had before derived
from the Dewys, a family of early note in Oxford
history, and whose name seems to have lingered on
to our own times. The same transmutations were
the fate of other streets ; the lane from " Bocardo
to New Inn Hall " was Bedford Lane, from burgesses
of that name in the first Edward's time and then
Adynton's Lane, from that Stephen Adynton, who
was seven times Mayor at a much later period. But
not seldom lane and name have perished together.
Improvements have banished Kepeharme's Lane, 2
which ran from Fish Street (St. Aldate's) into the
Butcher-row, and with it all memory of the great
family that, like the Segrims, whose tenements were
blotted out by Wolsey's Hospital, held civic offices
in Oxford before the Conquest, and the wife of one
of whose descendants, Alice, had to offer to King
John one hundred marcs and two palfreys for
liberty to re-marry. 3
Mr. Edward Lock was the Mayor for 1776; the
Chamberlains being Mr. William Hyde and Mr.
William Jones. 4 The elections of the old Corpora-
tions were scenes of bribery and riot. The poor
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 101
freeman thought himself entitled to his half-guinea
and bottle of gin. In A. Wood's time, we find him
recording, "Anthony Hall, vintner, chosen Mayor,
at which some young scholars and servitors being
present, heard his speech of thanks out of the
balcony, viz. that he thanked them for their choice
of him that he could not speak French nor
Spanish, but if they would walk to the Bear they
should find that he could speak English, meaning
give them English ale and beer." l At this date, how-
ever (1679), the powers of the office were wielded
with a severity which would astonish the burgess
of the present day. In recording the Mayoralty of
Robert Pauling, draper, Wood observes, " Whereas
all Mayors in memory of man used to be mealy-
mouthed and fearful of executing their office for fear
of losing trade, this person is not, but walks in the
night to take townsmen in tippling houses, prohibits
coffee to be sold on Sundays, which Dr. Nicholas,
Vice-Chancellor, prohibited till after evening prayer,
viz. till five o'clock." 2 But spite of these extensive
powers and vexatious interferences, the Mayor seems
to have had little control over the riotous inclina-
tions of his townsmen. Indeed, election-time was
particularly selected for the noisiest demonstrations.
The election of Anthony Hall, which we have
noticed above, was the signal for a prolonged "Town
and Gown," between the servitors and the populace,
which continued amid breakages of arms and heads
for the space of a week, till appeased by the Vice-
102 OXFORD STUDIES
Chancellor and Proctors. 1 Here and there, too, the
latent opposition, which always existed towards the
High Church Tory Corporation, manifested itself in
acts of violence. Xot ten years after the Revolution
of 1GS8, we find the Puritan, or Whig party, carry-
ing the Townclerkship against the united powers of
the Earl of Abingdon and the Corporation, and cele-
brating their victory with bonfires and " ringing of
bells at night." And at the elections of the same
year the mob wandered about the city, breaking the
windows of the officers of the corporation. " These,"
says Wood, "are the fanatical or factious sort, and
shew what they will do when they are in authority." 2
We may be pardoned for wearying our readers
with details so distant and seemingly unimportant
as these, when it is considered that these revolts of
the populace were in fact protests, very noisy protests,
Against the system of corporate government, or mis-
government, which was then gradually approaching
that uncontested supremacy which it enjoyed in the
eighteenth century. Without dwelling on the minute
features of the system which the Municipal Reform
Act swept once and for ever away on the narrow
suffrages, the disgraceful bribery, the close family
patronage, which were necessary for its support, it
may be well for those who, perhaps not unnaturally
irritated by the disagreeables of the system which
that reform established, and influenced, in addition,
by that very pardonable prejudice which throws an
air of sanctity over all that is past, are now and
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 103
then driven to a cry of regret for " the old corpora-
tion," to consider the pitiful position in which that
regime placed the city with respect to the great
noblemen whose possessions surrounded it.
Of these families the first which we find in intimate
connection with the corporate affairs of the city was
that of the Berties. In 1682 "Wood records the joy
of the Tory party at the elevation of their head.
" Bonfires made in several parishes in Oxford by the
Tory party after supper for joy that the Lord N orris
was made Earl of Abingdon, with the ringing of
bells. Several colleges had bonfires, All Souls'
especially. About 11 at night they brought out a
barrel of beer out of the cellar, and drank it in
healths on their knees to the Duke of York and
Earl of Abingdon out of the buckets that hung up
in the hall. They got about twenty of the trained
bands of Oxford, who discharged at the drinking of
every health. They had wine in great plenty from the
tavern over the way, guarded by a file of musqueteers ;
they had a drummer that beat round the college quad-
rangle and at the gate." 1 The Earl's Toryism had
given him the lord lieutenancy of the county, and in
Monmouth's rebellion, two years later, we find him
at the head of the troop of 60 horse which was
raised by the University, 2 committing suspected
Puritans amongst others our severe friend Robert
Pauling to the Castle, 3 and training the volunteers
in Broken Heyes 4 or Christ Church Meadow. 5 But
loyalty so vehement as this was soon destined to be
104 OXFORD STUDIES
shaken. The Earl was one of the first to welcome
William of Orange, and his gratuJations were seconded
by the University. The Tory meddling, however,
continued still The contest for Town Clerk in 1694
was decided in favour of Thurston against Slatford,
"by the endeavour of James Earl of Abingdon, who
got several country gentlemen that were of the house
to give votes for the said Thurston. The Commons,
enraged at it, spoke vilely of the Earl of Abingdon
and his son, called them Jacobites. He laid in
town that night, went next day to the Bishop's
lodgings, at Magdalen College, in the company of
one or two constables to prevent abuses." 1 The
wrath of the "Commons" the Earl could afford to
despise, but the internal opposition which the family
influence experienced from the corporation must
have been more trying to his patience. In 1732,
Hearne tells us of my Lord's driving in a coach
from Kycot to put up Air. Lawrance, the chandler,
against Mr. Nibb, upholsterer, for the office
of Mayor's assistant; but the drive was in
vain, and the Earl had to entertain his supporters
at dinner afterwards with what good humour he
might 2
By the middle of this century, however, the liycot
was fast being superseded by the Blenheim influence.
The great Duke, the rise of whose stately palace had
been viewed with such malignant eyes by his Tory
neighbours (Hearne lias handed down to us the
exultation of the common-room at the news that the
OXFORD DUttlNU THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 105
fine stones of the new buildings were already crack-
ing with the frost; 1 was too busy in his intrigues,
too miserly in his expenditure, to meddle in the
civic elections. Violent Duchess Sarah seems to
have confined herself to occasional presents of a buck
to the TThig heads. But the eighteenth century was
the great sera of what Disraeli has called " Venetian "
government The great oligarchic families were
straining every nerve to secure a "following" in the
corrupt House of Commons. Nobles forced their
way into the cabinet by a simple enumeration of
the votes at their disposal. Immense sums were
lavished on contested elections. Yorkshire grew
famous as the insatiable quagmire that engulfed
the mortgaged acres of its battling landholders ; but
simple boroughs proved often as ravenous. The
Spencers, who squandered nearly 100,000 on the
Northampton election, were only one out of three
great families that retired crippled from the con-
test. Corruption was practised without disguise;
indeed one member openly proposed in the House to
repeal the Bribery Act. " Arnold Nesbitt, Esq.," says
a paragraph in one of these Osfojd Jownals, M.P.
for Cricklade, "made a present of ten guineas each to
the voters in his interest at the late general election,
and likewise entertained them with a genteel dinner." 2
At the Hindon contest, a man, supposed to be a clergy-
man, in a fantastic female habit, called c the dancing
Punch,' presents each voter with five guineas, and
distributes larger sums to all that call at his iun.^
106 OXFORD STUDIES
TTorcester saw its members elected, unseated, re-elected
and unseated again for the most flagrant bribery, yet a
third election secured them in their seats.
The llarlboroughs, like their fellows, aspired to be
boroughmongers. They had already gamed a footing
in the county, they nominated the two members for
their borough of \Voodstock, and an opportunity at
length arrived for securing one of the seats for
Oxford, The borough representation had, at this
time, fallen practically into the hands of the corpora-
tions. The vilest means, bribery, drink, abused
influence, were employed to secure the comparatively
small body of freemen, who alone possessed the
right of suffrage. Should these fail, the corporation
could increase its power by a new charter, such as,
in 1774, was granted to Abingdon. It was welcomed
with a Mayor's feast, drink was distributed to the
populace, bonfires kindled in the Market-place, and
the bells set ringing. 1 But the grant was a mere
election dodge. The roll of electors was in the
hands of overseers, who were chosen by two justices,
and the appointment of the latter was, by this
charter, vested in the corporation. In other words,
the list of electors was at its mercy. A creation of
u beggar " voters soon followed. "Mr. Bayley and
the dissenters " (we suppose political dissenters) were
routed in the choice of Mayor, and the next election
saw a nominee of the corporation sent, as their repre-
sentative, 10 Parliament. 2
The corporation of Oxford were encumbered with
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 107
debts, and saw in the approaching election of 1768
a means of freeing them from their embarrassments.
But the offer which they made to their members to
return them for the sum of 7500, ended in a repri-
mand from the Speaker and a committal to Newgate.
During the five days of their confinement, however,
it was rumoured that the bargain which had failed
with Lee and Stapylton had been successfully con-
cluded with the Duke of Marlborough and Lord
Abingdon. 1 The year following saw the city debt
of about 6000 liquidated by the Duke, 2 and (1771)
the elevation of Sergeant Nares to the Bench, gave
a seat to his brother. Lord Robert Spencer. For the
subsequent half -century the city became the mere
nomination borough of the Duke and corporation.
The honour, however, if honour it were, was not
purchased cheaply. Eighty taverns were opened at
the Duke's expense, and a collation provided for the
corporation, when the debt was satisfied by the sale
of the representation. 3 Into these "collations" had
the old city feast dwindled, just as the city itself
seems to have shrunk into the corporation. A. Wood
recalls to us some of these old entertainments, which
would seem to have promoted a feeling of fellowship
among their partakers. The citizens met in the
Town Hall, "marched thence very orderly, in
number about 440 " (the time was 1669) "down the
High-street, with a minister before them, had a
sermon in the church of St. Peter-in-the-East, preached
by Bob. Field, M. A., born in Grope-lane, 4 in St Mary's
108 OXFORD STUDIES
parish, and, retiring to the Hall again, had a noble
entertainment : which done 3 there was a collection
made to bind out two or more boys apprentices." 1
This seems to have been the first feast of the kind,
though many afterwards are recorded in his pages.
Open entertainments, indeed, were everywhere given
to the freemen on the eve of elections. At Wootten
Bassett, the Mayor presided while two fat oxen, the
gift of the members, were distributed among the
electors, and a third was roasted whole for their
diversion. 2 Every civic necessity occasioned an appeal
to the purses of its representatives. The members
for Windsor, in 1774, are "honourably mentioned"
for their present of 500 to the corporation, towards
defraying the expenses of the new pavement of the
town. 3 The Maryborough interest in the county was
maintained after the same fashion by a sumptuous
ball at Blenheim, "Lord Robert Spencer and Miss
Yernon began the minuets"; whence the ladies,
returning at four in the morning, "in passing through
the park, expressed uncommon transport on be-
holding the glorious appearance of a rising sun " ; - 4
or by grosser entertainments to 225 tenants and
other fanners, in the greenhouse, at Blenheim, where
they were treated with " 128 dishes, exclusive of vege-
tables, etc, ; 300 bottles of port wine, 52 bottles of rum
made into punch, besides an indefinite quantity of ale
and strong beer," 5 which tells well for the heads of the
freeholders. Nor were the more indirect means
neglected. The members and their patrons were
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 109
expected to subscribe munificently to local charities
and subscriptions, and, amongst other contributors, we
find Peshall mentioning Lord Abingdon, u who then
lived in Mr. Hacker's house,' 1 as a principal bene-
factor to the new gallery at St. Peter's-in-the-East. 1
But the heaviest demands on their charity were
occasioned by the extreme destitution which was
caused by the severity of the winters of this period
and the high war-prices of provisions, wheat being
at forty shillings per quarter. The distress was not
confined to Oxford. At Westbury the members
contributed in large donations, and the corporation of
Abingdon granted 50 for the relief of the necessi-
tous poor. 2 Fifty guineas were given by the Duke
of Marlborough, in 1776, to be distributed in bread
to the poor in general ; and twice that amount was
subscribed by the members for the city, Lord Robert
Spencer and Mr. Bertie, for the relief of the free-
men. 3 Similar contributions seem to have been
made at every inclement season, accompanied with
gratuitous distributions of coal and fuel. The most
stringent regulations were at the same time made to
enforce the ridiculous statutes against " Forestalling
and regrating," and, by an official assize of bread in
the winter of 1775, the penny loaf (wheaten) was
fixed at 9 oz. 4 dr., while the price of the wheaten
quartern loaf was settled at 6Jd. 4
IX
THE prerogative of the corporation was not solely
employed in fixing the assize of bread. We find a
curious instance of its exercise in the case of inocu-
lation. The small -pox has, by the discovery of
Jenner, been rendered so comparatively innocuous,
that we can scarcely realise to ourselves the intense
consternation which the mere mention of the scourge
produced. The slightest rumour of its presence in
any locality was deemed a pernicious libel, and
judged worthy of the most authoritative contradic-
tion. The surgeons of Wallingford advertise their
protest against the rumour that it has broken out
there. 1 June 24, 1775, "The minister, church-
warden, overseer, and principal inhabitants of
Chipping Norton do hereby certify that the small-
pox is not in the said town, and that those belong-
ing to it who have had this disorder were, before
they became infectious, removed to the pest-house,
and are now quite recovered. 1 ' The vicar and
inhabitants of "Watlington certify to the freedom
of their parish from the infection. 2 At the same
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 111
time, the new remedy of inoculation, which Lady
Mary Montague had introduced from the East,
was viewed in many quarters with disgust and in-
credulity. Hosts of doctors, some of whom seem to
have been little removed from quacks, opened houses
for the reception of patients. Mr Sampson, of
Begbroke, "who has inoculated near two thousand
without the loss of a single patient, inoculated his
third company for this season"; Mr. Bristow, of
Begbroke, "receives a succession of patients for in-
oculation at his house at Jericho, near this city, where
they are carried through that disease with the
utmost safety by his approved and most successful
method '' ; l but those in authority, at least, remained
unconverted. The prohibition which was fulminated
in the year 1774 is too great a curiosity not to be
preserved entire: "Whereas attempts have been
made to inoculate persons for the small-pox within
the University and City of Oxford, to the great
terror of the inhabitants, we, the Vice-Chancellor
and Mayor of the said University and City, do
hereby will and command that, for the future, no
attempt of this kind be made, nor inoculation prac-
tised within the said University and City. And
likewise we hereby do give notice that if any person
or persons shall henceforth inoculate in private
houses, or shall take into their respective houses
patients under inoculation, or shall let or make use
of any houses within the said University and City to
inoculate patients therein, such person or persons
112 OXFORD STUDIES
offending in any or either of those cases wi]l be
prosecuted as the law directs. Given under our
hands, Tho. Futliergill, Vice - Chancellor ; Sam.
Culley, Mayor/'' 1 These thunderers, however, seem
to have roused a spirit of opposition. "Mr. Sutton,
just returned from France," advertises that he
"intends to inoculate in Oxford and its neighbour-
hood this vrinter, notwithstanding any attempts to
impede his practice." 2
Interferences such as these, absurd as they seem
to us, were too much in harmony with the countless
other restrictions of the time to seem out of place
in the eighteenth century. Sumptuary laws still
forbade the use of metal buttons, and ladies were
dragged, by common informers, before the Lord
Mayor, and fined, for appearing in chintz dresses.
The law meddled equally with workman and em-
ployer. The one was liable to imprisonment for a
" strike ; " the other to a heavy penalty for exceed-
ing the wages prescribed by statute. The old and
cumbrous machinery of trade -companies, obsolete
as it had grown, still retained a lingering vitality.
"K Elliot, Master of the Guild or Fraternity of
Cordwainers," advertises a reward of five guineas to
any one who will discover any of the journeymen on
strike in May 1776. 3 A general combination for
increase of wages seems to have been formed at
this time, for immediately above this advertisement
appears another, which gives us the names of the
master tailors of the time in Oxford. " Twenty or
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 113
thirty journeymen taylors " are advertised for by
"Thomas Joy, P. Rice, Richard West, Fred. Rogers,
Win. Fidler, Thomas Benwell, Wm. Davenport,
John Giles, Joseph Harpur, Edward Hitehins." 1
The last of these, a name of future eminence in the
city, had but recently (as appears from his first
advertisement, October 20, 1775) succeeded to the
business of Mr. Herne, and his commencement was
almost contemporaneous with that of Mr. Deodatus
Eaton, another well-known name, who, in the suc-
ceeding week, advertises that "in partnership with
his brother-in-law, W. Thompson," he has suc-
ceeded to his mother's business as a wood and
coal merchant. 2
The Company of Taylors, to which these trades-
men belonged, took the lead among the Oxford guilds.
"No less than eight kings, eleven dukes, forty-one
earls, with many hundreds of gentlemen of family
and fortune/* had, it boasted, been admitted as
honorary members of the fraternity. In March
1776, we find thus admitted the Hon. Peregrine
Bertie, Sir Narborough D'Aeth, and Francis Brown-
sword Bullock, Esq. ; while John Walley, Esq., pre-
sented the society with a handsome piece of plate. 3
But, great as the guild was, it yielded in antiquity
to the shoemakers, though both claimed priority
over the glovers and mercers. So, at least, did the
Common Council determine, when consulting on
the order of the procession which was to welcome
King James the Second. "These companies
i
114 OXFORD STUDIES
glovers, cordwainers, taylors, and mercers," says
Anthony a TVood, "went on foot. At the end of
each company was the master thereof, with his
gowne on. Each company went apart by themselves,
and had a flagge or ensigne, containing the arms
of the company or corporation painted on them.
The Taylors, who were most numerous, had two
flaggs, one containing their arms, another" here
the account ends in asterisks. 1 One company seems
even at this early date to have slipped into non-
entity the Company of Barbers. These, Peshall
tells us, " at their first incorporation, at the order of
Dr. North wade, then Vice-Chancellor of the University,
agreed that they would yearly keep and maintain a
light before our Lady in our Lady's chapel in St.
Frideswide's church ; for the sure continuance of
which every man or woman of the same profession,
that kept a shop, should pay two pence every quarter,
two journeymen a penny, and to keep it always burn-
ing, under the pain of 6s. 8d." 2 This, which continued
till the Reformation, was only one of the many lights
which testified at once to the opulence and piety of
the crafts. In the orders of the glovers (1461)
they are bound to find a light in All Hallows'
church, in the Trinity chapel, "namely, 8 tapers and
6 torches, to be honestly kept to the praise of the
Holy Trinity." All Hallows, or All Saints' church,
was the religious centre of the Company of Glovers.
In this chapel of the Trinity, on its south side,
which had been founded by J. Stodely, a glover, and
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 115
several times Mayor of this City, in the 14th century,
the guild was accustomed to celebrate mass on
Trinity Sunday for the good estate of the glovers.
The mass was silenced at the Reformation, but, in
another little chapel, on the same side of the church,
which John Berry, Mayor of the City, and warden of
the company, had erected in the reign of Henry the
Eighth, for a mass priest to pray for their welfare,
the change of religion, which so soon followed, did
not abolish the whole commemoration, but com-
muted the mass into prayers on the Trinity Monday,
immediately before the guild proceeded to the election
of its officers, and to this the benefaction of Alder-
man Southam added a sermon, which, says Peshall,
writing in 1773, "they have now besides praying as
formerly." 1 Most, indeed, of the older churches,
within the walls, preserved, even to late times, the
memories of the trade fraternities. On the south
side of All Hallows 7 church stood the chapel of Our
Lady, built by the Cordwainers ; 2 and, in the upper
window of the south aisle of old St. Martin's, the
painting of a pair of tailor's shears remained, in
memory of the foundation of a chauntry in that
church by the craft of tailors, for "a priest, that
should pray for their welfare, at a yearly stipend of
3: 16s." 3
Another company which the lapse of time had
long since extinguished was the craft of weavers;
and it affords a curious instance ol the mutations
(the whole story of which is itself so curious and
116 OXFORD STUDIES
entertaining) of locality and trade in Oxford to know
that in old times barges came heavily laden up the
Cherweli to Parry's Mead, 1 ground now enclosed in
the limits of Magdalen College Meadow, where
seventy fullers and weavers abode, and twenty-three
looms were busily at work. This peculiar segrega-
tion if we may use the term of a trade was char-
acteristic of the crafts of the middle ages. Not to
look abroad to the great towns of mediseval Italy,
where this system had its fullest development, we
find the relics of this severance of trade from trade
long lingering at least in the names of our own
streets and localities. " Sched-yard " Street, 2 the
present Oriel Lane, preserved in its very title the
memory of a time when, as appears from records
still preserved, it was solely inhabited by "Parch-
menors, exemplars, luminars, and bocbynders,"
the several divisions of what we should now perhaps
roughly call the craft of booksellers and stationers.
The same craft seem to have inhabited the street
which has passed through the titles of St. Mildred's,
Cheney, Jesus, and Market Street. Drapers' Hall,
which stood in the Bailey, near St. Martin's, long
commemorated the "Drapery," within whose bounds
it was built Fishmongers' Hall received its name
from the company, whose arms were still remaining
in its windows in A- Wood's time, and the residence
of whose craftsmen had given to the street in which
it stood the present St. Aldate's the name of
Fish Street A little bridge on the way to Osney
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 117
recalled by its appellation of "Bocbynders' Bridge"
some settlement of a craft which probably flourished
in the vicinity of the great Abbey. The tailors had
their shops in the Xorth-east Ward, in St. Michael's
parish, whence, on St. John Baptist's eve, they
sallied in procession to the sound of musical instru-
ments, trolling out ancient songs in honour of their
craft and its patron, and returning after a circuit
of the streets to the jovial mirth of their revel. 1
Other companies seem to have had similar revels
and processions, which, picturesque as they appear
at the distance of centuries, seem in reality to have
afforded scenes of riot and murder so outrageous as
to necessitate their suppression by a Eoyal missive to
the Chancellor.
But we have wandered so far into antiquity that
we may gladly allow the mention of these revels to
lead us back to the more modern times of which we
are treating, and to the fairs and wakes which had
superseded them. The fair of St. Frideswide, whose
memory is still annually kept up by the cakestall which
adorns St. Aldate's, the great fair during the seven
days of whose continuance the custody of the city
was given up into the hands of the monastery, the
town courts were closed in favour of the Steward's
Piepowder Court, and the keys of the gates ren-
dered by the Mayor to the Prior had, even in A.
Wood's time, fallen "almost to nothing." 2 The
Austin fair, which the Augustin friars had held on
the site of the present Wadham College, had been
116 OXFORD STUDIES
long forgotten. Fairs, therefore, in the sense of
resorts for traffic, there was none. Two wakes how-
ever remained ; the one Gloucester Green, 1 the other
St. Giles's. Of the latter we find no mention a
chance war of advertisements gives us a passing
peep into the first. AVe see "the usual and accus-
tomed pastime of backsword playing," the disorderly
mob, the "informer" singled out and chased across
the Green. 2 In presence of such scenes we fail to
perceive the justice of Salmon's eulogium "The
people of the place are more civilised than the
inhabitants of any other town in Great Britain." 3
They were probably neither better nor worse than
the citizens of "the other towns." It was, despite
its material progress, a rough and rude state of
society, governed by feelings and sympathies differ-
ing widely from our own. We need not shrug our
shoulders too complacently when our eye is met by
constant advertisements of cock-fighting; when the
"Pit" in Holywell is seen to be as established an
amusement as the Bull-ring in Spain ; when the news-
paper chronicles, as an edifying feat, the "drinking
three quarts of ale in three minutes " by a labourer
at the Observatory; 4 or the constant "deaths from
drink" that testify to the prevalence of the vice.
Ladies have their vices now, though we should stare
to hear as Hearne tells us then of the death of a
canon's wife at Christ Church from overlove of the
brandy bottle, 5 or of attempts at suicide by ladies of
rank from inability to pay their gambling debts.
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CCNTUHY 110
If again and again we are horrified in perusing the
tedious records of the time to find the constant out-
rages which were perpetrated against old women
on the ground of "witchcraft"; the stripping and
weighing against the church Bible; the tying of
hands to feet and hurling into the neighbouring
pond ; we must remember that a century has
elapsed, that we boast of our educational advance,
and yet that the belief in witchcraft lingers still
in our rural districts. A recollection of the fearful
immorality which still prevails in the mining counties
may perhaps soften our abhorrence of the brutal
jocular carelessness with which the papers of the
time treat that most brutal of all outrages on
decency, the sale of a wife. Such sales were then
frequent enough. TVe have before us one at Leeds,
where the ceremony was attended by one thousand
spectators, and the bargain concluded for twenty-one
guineas, a sum usual in these cases, and which proves
that the parties concerned could not at any rate
plead ignorance or poverty in excuse. In justice to
ourselves, indeed, we must own that we have at any
rate shamed vice out of its outrageous publicity. A
mistress is not now regarded as the ordinary ap-
pendage of a gentleman's household , wives are not
lent " by an eminent tradesman " to his comrade for
a night , women do not (as we find one in the year
1775) marry in but an undergarment with the notion
of thus getting rid of their debts ; 1 nor do husbands
advertising for a wife who has eloped promise the
120 OXFORD STUDIES
person who is " so obliging as to bring her back to
her husband the first night's lodging with her in his
house." l IS the times have not grown more virtuous,
they have at least grown more shamefaced.
In concluding this account of the three years, we
have only to notice the few physical phenomena
which they presented. The shock of an earthquake,
which was distinctly felt in September 1775, WHS
soon followed by a storm of such violence as to be
without parallel in the memory of those then living.
Roofs were torn off, chimneys shattered, and holes
perforated in the ground by the lightning. 2 The
more prominent event during the period, however,
was the great flood of 1774. Four days and nights
of incessant rain rendered the temporary footbridge
which supplied the place of Magdalen Bridge, then
in process of re -erection, impassable; the roads
were covered, and communications carried on in
boats; St. Thomas's church was filled with water
for a week, and service interrupted ; while a land-
slip of an acre of ground, on the south side of Shot-
over, shifted one hundred yards into the valley
beneath. 3
IN the Papers which have already appeared we have
endeavoured to present to our readers the Oxford of
the Last Century in its social aspects. "We have
painted the university of the time, its servitors and
poor scholars, its rakes and debauchees we have
whispered the toasts in Merton gardens, and sipped
punch in the coffee-house and, passing on to de-
scriptions more purely civic, we have gleaned from
paragraphs, but too brief and few, some notion of the
tradesman of the day, of the drunken voter, the
useless watch, the pillory, and the gaol. In future
papers we shall, it is hoped, be enabled to fill up
these sketches in still greater detail ; the series which
will follow on the educational position of Oxford will
open up an interesting side of her social life in the
sketch of "the Don" of that day, "steeped in
prejudice and port"; while Papers similar to those
which have just come to a close will little by little
enable us to realise more completely the every-day
life of the shop and the counter.
But this though the more interesting aspect to
122 OXFORD STUDIES
us was not, it must be remembered, the aspect in
which Oxford appeared to the England of the time.
Xor was it Oxford's educational position which gave
her the impoitance which she retained through the
first half of this century. TValpole, who hated books
and tossed history aside with a contemptuous
4i That I know mud be fake," was not likely to care
much for schoolmaster-functions which the university
so imperfectly discharged. jSTor did the country
squire, whose library consisted of the tattered
Bolter's Chronicles and a few books on simples
and farriery, in the hall-window, care one straw for
the learning of Dr. Hyde, or the resources of the
Bodleian, Yet Oxford was the one point of interest
for both squire and minister. It was the Jacobite
capital of England. The traders of London might
think of Addison's "sponge" and shout themselves
hoarse for Public Credit and the Protestant Succes-
sion; Oxford brooded over memories of parliament-
ary visitors and " purified " colleges, and toasted the
"King over the water." It was the place of all
others where tradition exercised most influence, and
the traditions of 1640 hung round Oxford like a
baneful spell. Christ Church still boasted of her
loyally-defiant Dr. Fell; even Jesus could lay her
poverty at the door of the fraudulent Principal whom
the Visitors had set over her. The ring of arms had
hardly yet died out of the memories of men. There,
in Bodle} T 's Library, the curious visitor was shown
the map in which " H. Shirburne, Esq., a native of
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CEXTUUY 123
Oxon, and Comptroller of the Ordnance,' 1 had
graven Oxford " whilst it was a garrison, with all its
fortifications, bastions, trenches," and on which
Charles himself, " much approving, wrote the names
of the bastions with his own hand." 1 Very old men
could remember the scenes which A. Wood's rough
memoranda have handed down to us; the students
but too willingly drawn from their books to the
muster; the troop of university horse which has
bequeathed its name to the "Oxford blues"; the
city girded by floods on every side save the north,
and the Abingdon road, cleaving the inundations,
covered with long trains of provisions, or echoing the
tramp of Eupert and his straggling troopers, fagged
and weary from skirmishes as successful and as
fatal to the noble and good as that of Chalgrove.
Such a one was the " old "Will Bremicham," with whom
Hearne often, as he tells us, conversed, who used to
supply his father's place, as a sentinel on the ramparts,
" where Buddard's garden, as they call it, by Wadham
is now." The old man could remember Charles, "a
thin man, of a little picked beard and little whiskers,"
and the hanging of the notable traitor on the oak
towards Abingdon, to which the execution gave the
name of "Blake's Oak." 2 The Eestoration of the
Royal Family was no mere matter of political feeling
in Oxford ; it meant there the restoration of hundreds
of fellows and scholars who had been ejected for
their cause. Men so expelled, so restored, were not
likely easily to forget to whom they owed the one
124 OXFORD STUDIES
benefit or the other. And so it was that when the
fever-fit of loyalty, which had succeeded the Restora-
tion, had abated elsewhere, it was still maintained
at its height in Oxford. Thither Charles II. pro-
rogued his Parliament when London and Shaftesbury
seemed likely to foil the projects of the "merry
monarch"; and its streets had been filled with the
armed retinues of the great opposition lords, who
distrusted the pledges of a Stuart. It rewarded
Charles's confidence with the most abject devotion.
No job was too dirty, no humiliation too base, for its
loyalty. Again and again Whigs smiled and the
printers rejoiced to see its Heads looking on while
beadles stirred the fire that consumed some anathe-
matized volume or pamphlet, A word from Court,
and Locke was expelled from Christ Church; and
foreign men of learning smiled when the exiled
philosopher told them his great work was contraband
in the university on account of its " Whig principles."
But Oxford was ready to stoop to compliances baser
even than this. When Charles was baulked in his
desire to sacrifice Cofledge, "the Protestant Joiner,"
by the " Ignoramus " of a London grand jury, the
victim was despatched to Oxford, and the judicial
murder was easily consummated. 1
With facts like these staring us in the face, we
may perchance have little sympathy to spare for
the university when the characteristic ingratitude of
the Stuarts turned upon itself the tyranny it had so
warmly applauded when exercised on others. For
OXFORD DUKING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 125
the moment "non-resistance" was forgotten. The
King was defied, and the Prince of Orange welcomed.
But the welcome of the Prince augured no welcome
for King William. The oath of allegiance forced the
waverers to a quick decision. Some, the worthiest,
resigned all rather than take it ; the majority swore,
and counted the imposition of the oath a new griev-
ance against "the intruder." As day by day the
memory of the wrong James had done them grew
weaker, the memory of the wrong they had done James
waxed the stronger and stronger. Oxford began to
reassume its position during the Great Rebellion.
Then, as now, the Stuarts had been driven from the
throne then, as now, a " test " had emptied fellow-
ships and preferments and the acutest politicians
of the time could not predict but that a restoration
now, as then, was an event within the bounds of
probability. Communications were soon opened with
the Pretender. Non-jurors retired to Oxford to
find cognate sympathies and society, and formed a
little junto for the reception and discussion of
despatches from St. Germain's. Mr. Giffard, the
ejected rector of Eussell in "Wilts, was there for the
sake of " honest company," 1 and by this time " honest "
was the cant term for " Jacobite." Holdsworth, an
ejected fellow of Magdalen, and well known for his
amusing "Muscipula," had brought thither from
Borne the pictures of the Pretender and his consort ; 2
Leak brings news to be told when none but honest
folk are present of the birth of that son of the
12G OXFORD STUDIES
Chevalier de St. George who, under the name of
Prince Charles Edward, was to culminate at Derby
and set at Culloden. 1 In St. Giles's lived Dr. Wynne,
a man learned and benevolent, who had put a stop
to the profligate sale of fellowships at All Souls only
to be deprived of his own "about midnight" by the
Whig head, Dr. Gardiner. 2 This junto it was that
leavened the whole mass, but the mass needed little
leavening. Freshmen were drawn from the very
quarters where Jacobitism still reigned triumphant,
from the country nooks where the squire caught up
the Scotch songs that were creeping about, and
trolled out "Here's a health to him that's far
awa ? "; or the vicar weekly thundered against "the
pretended right to resistance/' "I am a Tory," says
one of them, "and all my family have been Tories ;
my grandfather lost his estate against Oliver Crom-
well ; my father was a great sufferer for King James
IL ; and I myself had my head broke in defence of
Dr. Sacheverell before I was eight years old.' ; 3 One
so trained was ready to sit down at his first introduc-
tion to his tutor, and toast Ormond and Mar six
bumpers deep.
Besides the historical causes if we may so term
them there were other circumstances peculiar to
the time which aided Oxford in becoming the great
capital of Jacobite England. London indeed was
then, even in a greater degree than now, not only
the emporium of commerce, but of learning, of
manners, one may almost say, of civilisation. It
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 127
was to England what Paris is now to France. Other
cities Lore no comparison with the capital; manu-
factures had not begotten Manchester, nor had
commerce reared Liverpool. London was the great
magnet to which whatever genius cropped up was
irresistibly attracted, that drew Chatterton from
Bristol, Goldsmith from Dublin, Johnson and Gar-
rick from Lichfield. But there were material obstacles
which circumscribed the range of the influence which
it radiated back in return. Prominent among these
were the badness and insecurity of the roads. And
every mile from London the roads grew less travers-
able and less secure. We have already dwelt enough
on the highwaymen and their exploits, but we can
hardly now realise the dread and terror of travel
which those exploits created. Still less can we
realise the condition of the roads, the long lanes of
mud and ruts through which the lumbering "dili-
gence" ploughed its way to London. Here is a
Prince on his travels, no further back than 1734.
" As the Prince of Orange was going from Newbury
to Abingdon in order to see Oxford, and the road
lying through a lane almost impassable for a coach
and very dangerous, a wealthy farmer, whose estate
lay contiguous, threw down the hedges and opened
a way for his highness to pass through his
grounds." 1
One consequence was that the provincial dis-
tricts fell far behind in the progress of intelligence.
Addison has humorously sketched a Templar riding
128 OXFORD STUDIES
forth on a briefless circuit and busy in marking
how, by imperceptible degrees, costume grew more
antiquated every stage of his journey, till on his
arrival in Cornwall he found the high sheriff priding
himself on the fashion of a coat which had been fifty
years out of date in town. And it was with manners
as with costume. The farther from the metropolis,
the farther one went from refinement or education.
Wales was for all practical purposes at a greater
distance from London than it is now from Vienna.
Without adopting Squire Western as the common
type of the country gentleman of the day, one can
understand the contempt which the novelist's portrait
undoubtedly displays. The riches of the country
aristocracy might indeed find their way to the
amusement, the society, the dissipation of town, but
the bulk of the country squires vegetated on their
estates, cut off from communication with the world
without (save by the monthly "Dyer's Letter,"
humble precursor of our newspapers and reviews) an
occupation but that of hunting, or an ambition but
that of being the deepest sot among the topers of the
quorum. The squire's dame (as Humphrey Clinker
reveals her to us), spite of " her rose-coloured negligee,
her yellow damask, and blue quilted petticoat,"
which, with French commode and Mechlin headdress,
were disentombed from the walnut-press at the
advent of a new visitor, was but a farmer's wife.
She had to care for her cheese, her savings of butter-
milk, her turkeys, chickens, and goslings ; it was her
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 129
business to see when old Moll had another litter of
pigs, what the Alderney calf might fetch, or -whether
the goose was sitting ; it was her eye that kept the
maids busy at their spinning-wheels, and watched
over ungrateful " Mary Jones that loved to be romping
with the men."
The chief result of all this was the greater com-
parative importance of the provincial towns. The
one great centre being practically beyond access,
each started into the little centres of its own district.
We pass through these country towns, and wonder
at the great brick houses, the haunt now of a score
of lodgers, but whence of old the county magnates
sallied forth to hunt, ball, or assembly. Macadam
and Stephenson have been the vandals of these little
rural capitals. But at this time they were in the
heyday of prosperity, and this prosperity was shared
by Oxford ; itself a provincial centre, with which no
rival could compete. Here the youth, just fresh
from the dulness and ignorance of the country,
could find all the excess, the life, the refinement of
town. It was a sudden plunge at an age when the
mind is most susceptible of impressions that plunge
into the Tory atmosphere of Oxford. And the
prejudices which the neophyte encountered were
but the counterparts of his own. All that chivalry
and noble feeling had suggested in favour of the
exiled race was now confirmed by the sanction of
those whom, at first, he must have looked up to as
men of learning and religion. He could give the lie
E:
130 OXFORD STUDIES
to the Whig attorney of his native town, who con-
trasted the ignorance of the Jacobites with the men
of letters who rallied round the constitution. The
men of letters, whom he met in the High, or the
Broad, were Jacobites to a man. It was no wonder
that Oxford, thus reinforced, became the focus of
disloyalty to the House of Hanover; that after
abdicating her functions of the guardian of religion,
as the nurse of learning, she came forward as the
defiant champion of a retrograde and senseless
Toryism. But when the patient firmness of the
national will had foiled again and again her efforts at
what would have been self-destruction; when the
Jacobite blindness had passed from her eyes, and
she saw herself landed in safety on the securer
ground of <k Church and King" it may be that a
few humorists, such as Dr. King, smiled at the
story of the poor Irish bricklayer, who had betted
against the possibility of his comrades carrying him
up a ladder in his hod, and when safely disembarked
on the roof could find no better reflection on his
foolhardiness than "Faix, but I had hopes at the
third story,"
XI
IN our last Paper we attempted to sketch, in detail,
the causes which led to the political position which
the university assumed in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, a position so opposite to her own
Interests and to the sentiments of the wiser and
more statesmanlike among the nation at large the
greater importance of provincial towns, the metro-
politan position which Oxford occupied towards the
young students who flocked to her, the character of
those classes from whom she drew her chief rein-
forcements, the country squires and the country
parsons. But, above all, we directed attention to
the traditions in which Oxford was bound and en-
tangled, the noble memories of sufferings, manfully
borne, for the cause of the Stuarts, the bitter remem-
brance of injuries, never to be forgotten, inflicted by
the usurpers. A mere glance round the landscape
would, in Tory hearts, revive the bitterest reminis-
cences. The great forest of Bagley, that stretched
to the very skirts of Oxford, and enveloped Abingdon
132 OXFORD STUDIES
in old time, bad, indeed, long been curtailed. But,
up to the Great Rebellion, the neighbourhood of
Oxford was well-brooded; spite of Fuller's com-
plaints : " Indeed, the woods therein are put to too
hard a task in then: daily duty, viz. to find fuel
and timber for all the houses in, and many out of, the
shire, and they cannot possibly hold out, if not season-
ably relieved by pit- coal, found here, or sea- coal
brought hither." The forests had been dear to the
city. " When Shotover woods," we quote the same
amusing author, " being bestowed by King Charles the
First on a person of honour, were likely to be cut down,
the university, by letters, laboured their preserva-
tion, wherein this, among many other pathetical
expressions, 'that Oxford was one of the eyes of the
land, and Shotover woods the hair of the eyelids, the
loss whereof must needs prejudice the sight with too
much moisture flowing therein. 7 This retrenched that
design for the present, but in what case the woods
stand at this day is to me unknown." I Dr. Plot,
however, can. tell " The hills, 'tis true, before the late
unhappy wars, were well enough as Camden says
beset with woods, where now 'tis so scarce that 'tis a
common thing to sell it by weight." 2 The ravages
during the Great Rebellion had left traces that no
loyalist heart could well forget.
Eut to this natural sympathy, and to the pride
which might arise from a consciousness of the political
importance which Oxford now assumed, we must
add that perverseness with which the university has
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 133
so often shown itself the antagonist of national feel-
ing. " Chronica si penses," says the old proverb,
Cum pttgnant Oxonienses
Tune post sex menses volat ira per Angligenses.
But the wrath of the people was as likely to be in
opposition as in accordance with the result of the
university's contests. "\Vhen crown and nation alike
took alarm at what were then considered the socialist
doctrines of Wycliffe, the reformer could find his
stanchest adherents and disciples in the lecture-
rooms of Oxford. So violent was the tendency that
Richard Fleming, at first a strong partisan, but after
his elevation to the see of Lincoln, as strong an
opponent of the new doctrines, thought it wise to
establish the college which bears the name of his
see, for the purpose of perpetually opposing the
tenets of "that pestiferous sect," as the statutes
termed the Lollards. But the first dawn of the
Reformation had been watched by the great prektes
who founded Corpus Christi and Brasenose, as bul-
warks against the spread of heresy in the University.
And so, though literature and scholars such as
Erasmus and Ludovicus Vives spread "the new
learning " in Oxford, and the teachers whom Wolsey
had gathered from Cambridge and elsewhere secretly
countenanced the rising heresy, the university, as a
body, stood aloof from the movement; it required
menaces to gain her assent to that divorce which was
the turning-point in the contest, and Oxford is only
134 OXFOltD STUDIES
associated with the Reformation by that burning
of tlie three bishops that "lighted such a fire in
England as shall not easily be put out." In the great
national strife against Charles the First, Maynwaryng
vent forth from Oxford to preach "No resistance,"
and Laud to counsel " Thorough."
There were some who believed that by violent
measures the universities could be brought into
unison with the national feeling, and amongst the
earliest of these was Locke. " Sir, you have made a
most glorious and happy Eevolution, but the good
effects of it will soon be lost if no care be taken to
regulate our universities," 1 was the appeal of one who,
perhaps, still smarted with the disgrace of an exclusion,
on mere political grounds, from Christ Church. But
the Government wisely held aloof how wisely the
result of SacheverelTs " persecution " was destined to
prove. During William's reign and the first years of
his successor the university merely talked. Non-jurors
were content to ignore the "usurpers," and in the
midst of the rejoicings for Marlborough's -victories, to
exult over the exploits of the young Pretender,
though fighting against those whom he claimed as
his subjects and countrymen. " Amongst others that
signalized themselves" in the battle near Mons,
says Hearne, "must not be forgotten the young King
of England, who fought under the character of the
Chevalier St. George, and 'tis by that title he passes.
He showed abundance of undaunted courage and re-
solution, led up his troops with unspeakable bravery,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 13 J
appeared in the utmost dangers, and at last was
wounded," l Jacobites, to whom London was danger-
ous, sought shelter in Oxford. Leslie, author of the
seditious pamphlet, "The Memorial of the Church of
England," in his flight from outlawry, could visit the
Bodleian under a flimsy incognito, without fear of
discovery. 2 A visitor of greater interest to us was the
father of the Wesleys. In a previous Paper we saw
him starting, without a penny, to Oxford, and eking
out his subsistence as a servitor, by teaching and
composing exercises for the idlers of his college. He
was ordained, became, in turn, a navy chaplain and
a London curate, and, in his latter capacity, distin-
guished himself by refusing to read James's obnoxious
" Declaration," and taking for his text the reply of
Daniel, "Be it known unto thee, O King, that we
will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image
that thou hast set up " The Eevolution came, and
Wesley was amongst the foremost to write in its de-
fence ; and the dedication of his work to Queen Mary
was rewarded with the living of Epworth, in Lincoln-
shire. 3 Like his sons, he was a poet, and a poem on
the battle of Blenheim procured him a chaplain's
place in one of the new regiments, and a promise
of greater favour. But Wesley was among those
whose conscience or obstinacy are for ever marring
their fortune. He had engaged in an acrimonious
controversy with the Dissenters, and the request of
the " person " on whom all his hopes of preferment
rested that he would drop the dispute, "had a con-
136 OXFORD STUDIES
trary effect to what was expected. I left my fortunes
in God's hands, and resolved to act according to my
conscience," he says in his letter. Accordingly, no
sooner had he gone down into the country than he
threw himself into election struggles, wrote letters,
which his enemies charged with treason, was ousted
from his chaplaincy, and thrown into prison for debt
to one of the friends of the candidate he had
opposed. The same zeal that had involved him in
these misfortunes had gained him bitter foes among
his Lincolnshire parishioners ; but we must leave his
own begging letter to tell the story of a poor parson's
life and misfortunes in the last century. "I had
been thrown behind by a series of misfortunes. My
parsonage barn was blown down ere I had recovered
the taking my living; my house, great part of it,
burnt down about two years since; my flax, great
part of my income, now in my own hands (hemp
was the principal crop of the neighbourhood), I doubt
wilfully fired and burnt in the nighty whilst I was last
in London ; my income sunk about one half by the
low price of grain; and my credit lost by the
taking away my regiment. I was brought to Lincoln
Castle June the 23rd last past. About three weeks
since, my very unkind people, thinking they had not
yet done enough, have, in the night, stabbed my three
cows, which were a great part of my poor numerous
family's subsistence. For which God forgive them." l
The letter was responded to by considerable sub-
scriptions on the part of all the colleges, and a vote
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 137
of 20 from the justices in session ; but the sympathy
was not so much for his distress as for his opposition
to the Whigs. " There is a gathering making in the
University for relief of Mr. Wesley," says Hearne,
" to the great mortification of the fanatics." l To the
same charitable end tended the ceaseless calumnies
which Oxford common-rooms poured forth against
the character of the Prince whose first arrival they
had so vehemently welcomed. To us it would seem
simply ridiculous were a grave Don to assert that
" King William gave 1000 to those infamous villains
Blackett and Fuller, that were embarked in a design
to take away the lives of Archbishop Sancroft and
Bishop Spratt " ; 2 but the lie thus circulated became a
source of exultation to the Tories and of indignation
to the Whigs. On the other hand no eulogy could
be too great for the sufferers for "loyalty's"
sake. Lord Griffin dies in the tower, "confined,"
comments Hearne, "for treason, as they now call
sticking close to the oath of allegiance, and adhering
firmly to the undoubted Sovereign. 7 ' 3 The most
odious epithets were lavished on their political foes,
" Vile, stinking Whig " 4 almost recalls to our memory
O'ConnelPs " base, bloody, and brutal." A chorus
of indignant invective saluted any public demonstra-
tion of Whig piinciples. Long after this several of
the nobility had to vindicate their characters as
though the aspersions were a grave one from having
met together purposely to carouse on the 30th of
January, the " Martyr's day." And the Tory annalist
138 OXFORD STUDIES
commemorates "an abominable iiot committed in All
Souls 7 College. Mr, Dalton, A.B., and Mr. Talbot,
A.M., son to the Bishop of Oxon, both fellows, had a
dinner drest at 12 Clock, part of which was woodcocks,
whose heads they cut off in contempt of the memory of
the blessed martyr. At this dinner were present
two of the pro-proctors, of Oriel ColL, Mr. Ibbetson
and Mr. Rogers, to their shame be it spoken, both low
church men. Tis to be noted that this Dalton, an
empty fellow, is one of those whom the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Dr. Tennison, put into the Society
upon the devolution to him of that power when Dr.
Finch the late Warden died. He was for having
calves' heads, but the cook refused to dress them." l
Greater persons than cooks, however, were now
coming forward to vindicate the Toryism of the
University. Sacheverell, like his personal friend but
political opponent, Addison, was a fellow of Magdalen,
It is hard to guess the causes of the friendship between
two so opposed in character as well as opinion, for,
from the testimony of his very supporters, Sache-
verell was a man of infinite bluster but of scanty
parts or knowledge. It fell, however, to his lot to
preach at St. Paul's before the Lord Mayor and Cor-
poration, and he selected for the occasion a sermon
which he had just preached at St. Mary's. But
language that fell unheeded in Oxford sounded like
treason at St. Paul's. He upbraided "the fanatics"
for condemning the king of high treason against "his
supreme subjects." He taunted the Whig ministers,
OXFORD DURING- THK EIGHTEENTH CEN'ITRY 130
and singled out Godolphin by the nickname of
Volpone. Then, turning on the Whig London clergy,
who sat in great numbers in the choir " The "Whigs,"
he thundered out, "are conformists in faction, half
conformists in practice, and nonconformist in judg-
ment." The glove thus boldly thrown down "was at
once taken up by the opposite party. The Govern-
ment talked of prosecution. The Lord Mayor and
Corporation refused to order the sermon to be printed.
But the university was not backward in supporting
her daring son. Drs. Moss and Smalridge refused
to preach before the Lord Mayor " on account of the
ill-treatment Dr. Sacbeverell had received." 1 The
populace, wearied with the long war whose objects they
could not understand, and roused by the cry of "the
church in danger," flocked to hear the preacher at
Lothbury, and pulled down Meeting-houses to show
their zeal for the Establishment. Mobs surrounded
the Queen's coach with shouts of " The Church and
Dr. Sacheverell." The impeachment went on, and
Atterbury and the Oxford wits penned an ingenious
and impressive defence. The return from the trial
was a triumphal progress. Addresses were presented
to the doctor; purses were thrown into his coach.
Everywhere he stopped on his journey to his parson-
age in Wales mobs turned out to huzzah him, Oxford
received him in solemn procession, and the bells rang
as for a victory. 2
It was indeed a victory for the Tories. The
Queen was weary of imperious Duchess Sarah of
140 OXFOHD STUDIES
Marlborough, and the nation was weary of the war.
The Saeheverell mania gave a last blow to the totter-
ing ministry, and, aided by Mrs. Masham, Harley and
Bolingbroke came into power. Peace was made, and
the people were contented. "Whispers spread abroad
of ministerial intrigues for the restoration of the
Pretender on the Queen's death, and the Jacobites
waited in silence. " Mr. Giffard told us last night,"
says Hearne, " when several of us were in company, all
honest men, that the young king was in England
when the present Queen, as she is styled, his sister, was
crowned, and he further says that the Queen kissed
him at that time, he being present at the coronation.
This is a great secret/ 7 1 It was on " secrets " like these
that the Tories relied, as they saw the Queen's health
gradually declining. Smalridge and Atterbury were
rapidly promoted; Oxford again basked in court
favour, and its tranquillity gave no sign of the stormy
outbreak which was so soon to follow the downfall
of its hopes. This, however, we reserve for our
next Paper.
XII
THE accession of Harley to power, the Jacobite sym-
pathies of the Queen, the hopes that rested on her
failing health and on the success of the intrigues of
Bolingbroke and Ormond, had given a seeming peace
to the university. Both parties shook hands on the
brink of a deadly struggle. They accosted each
other in the streets ; politics "were carefully excluded
from conversation ; party words those badges of
faction laid for a while aside. The "Whig was
silent about the " Pretender " ; the Tory, in return,
said little about the "Elector of Brunswick" The
one party looked hopefully to Hanover its rival, to
the Ministry and St. Germains.
At length the crisis came. The Ministry, dis-
united and shaken by Bolingbroke's manoeuvres,
hung back irresolutely. The Jacobite members of
the Cabinet exhorted them in vain to a bolder course
of action. Atterbury, bishop though he was, swore
with an oath that, give him but a regiment of the
Guards, and he would proclaim the Pretender in the
heart of the city. But, while their enemies were
142 OXFOKD STUDIES
discussing, the great Whig lords had forced their way
into the Council Chamber. The Queen died, and
Bolingbroke was flying for his life across the Channel,
Harley waiting for impeachment at home. The
Elector was on the throne, and the Whigs sang a
triumphant welcome to the first of the Georges.
Bitter as the disappointment must have been, the
new king was at all events received without open
opposition in the greater part of his dominions. In
Scotland, indeed, there were signs of the rebellion
which Mar was so soon to put himself at the head
of, but in England the discontent only expressed
itself in that "grumbling" which an Englishman
reckons among his constitutional privileges. Here
and there one might find a parish clerk that had
"ransacked Hopkins and Sternhold for staves in
favour of the race of Jacob; after the example of
their politic predecessors in Oliver's days, who on
every Sabbath were for binding kings in chains and
nobles with links of iron." The Jacobite beauty
might parade her white rose, to spite the rival fair
one, who, "to show her zeal for revolution principles,
had adorned her bosom with a Sweet William." Elec-
tions for " Toasts " might be decided in clubs rather
on political than on personal grounds, and a trifling
deformity be pardoned on account of "honest prin-
ciples." In the theatres the ladies patched on
different sides as they differed in opinion ; and the
audience ranged into parties, selected their respective
favourites, and hooted , or applauded every chance
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CEOTUKY 143
phrase that they could wrest to the contests of the
day. In the country the strife took other, but not
more demonstrative forms. The elder Wesley's house
according to his own account was haunted by a
goblin that proved its Jacobitism by rarely suffering
him to pray for the King or the Prince of Wales
without disturbing the family devotions. " As to the
devil's being an enemy to King George," replied his
son Samuel, to whom he communicated his troubles,
"were I the King myself, I should rather old Nick
should be my enemy than my friend. 3 ' 1 Even up to
the beginning of George IIL's reign there were
persons in Bristol whose political principles would
not allow them to receive King William's halfpence,
and such was the inconvenience to trade which
attended their refusal that the interference of the
magistrates was thought necessary.
But a more envenomed opposition awaited the
triumph of the Whig cause at Oxford. There the
correspondents of Atterbury, the confidants of Dr.
King, waited, hour by hour, for some interference
that never came, some rising that never occurred.
They exulted at the small number of people who
attended to hear the Hanoverian proclaimed at
Abingdon. "A person in an open-sleeved gown, and
in a cinnamon- coloured coat," left at the Mayor's
house a letter, which, in its medley of cowardly
threats, craven petitions, and vague intimations,
gives us a very lively picture of the state of the
Jacobite minds of the time.
144 OXFORD STUDIES
"Mr. Mayor, If you are so honest a man as to
prefer your duty and allegiance to your lawful
sovereign before the fear of danger, you -will not
need this caution, which comes from your friends to
warn you if you should receive an order to proclaim
Hanover not to comply with it. For the hand of
God is now at work to set things upon a right foot,
and in a few days you will find wonderful changes,
which if you are wise enough to foresee you will
obtain grace and favour from the hands of his sacred
Majesty King James by proclaiming him voluntarily,
which otherwise you will be forced to do with dis-
grace. If you have not the courage to do this, at
least for your own safety delay proclaiming Hanover
as long as you can under pretence of sickness or
some other reason. For you cannot do it without
certain hazard of your life, be you ever so well
guarded. I, who am but secretary to the rest,
having a particular friendship for you and an
opinion of your honesty and good inclinations to his
Majesty's service, have prevailed with them to let me
give you this warning. If you would know who
the rest are, our name is Legion and we are many."
The only notice taken of this ludicrous epistle was
a proclamation by the Heads of Houses, and an offer
of 100 for the discovery of the deliverer in the
cinnamon -coloured coat. 1 Broad water, the Mayor,
"honest" though his subsequent conduct shews him
to have been, was prudent enough to proclaim the
accession on Carfax with all the usual ceremonies,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 145
while the Heads met at the Convocation House and
proceeded to St. Mary's for the same purpose. The
Tories, however, exulted with Hearne " on the small
appearance of Doctors and Masters " in the procession,
and in the feeble rejoicings and scanty illuminations
with which Oxford celebrated the occasion. 1 But
day after day passed without notes of disturbance,
the country was quiet, and men began to hope that
the same peaceful sentiments would prevail at the
university. There, however, the waiting against hope
begat a bitterness which could not long contain itself
in even an appearance of content. The rage of the
vanquished broke out in all the malice of a baffled
and disappointed faction. Libels covered the tables
of the coffee-houses ; grave dons toasted " The King
over the water " ; rioters sang treasonable lampoons
beneath the windows of the hated Hanoverians.
They were marked out for persecution and scorn.
Common-rooms had no mercy on them ; Golgotha
the place of skulls, as the Hebdomadal room 2 was
then called denied them justice or redress. Nor
was it better without college than within. If they
ventured forth they were sure of insult from the
crowd ; gownsmen shouted at them as they passed,
and the rabble at their bidding hustled and mobbed
them. 3
But the Whigs, few as they were in Oxford, were
too fresh from the triumph of their cause to yield
without a struggle. Their lack of numbers called for
union, and it is characteristic of their age that they
L
14C OXFOKD STUDIES
found this union in a club. To this the Constitu-
tion Club all were to be admitted who were well-
affected to the Government, and (as we presume few
Whigs could be found among undergraduates) not
below the Bachelor's degree. Originated by some
members of New College, and patronised by Dr.
Gardiner, the Head of All Souls, it soon became the
centre round which the poor persecuted Whigs
grouped. The Tories fumed at "the insolent
loyalty" of the united Hanoverians. 1 But, as yet,
though individual members might be persecuted, no
opportunity could be found for attack on the club.
On the 28th of May 1715, however, came the first
anniversary of the birthday of the new Sovereign.
The bells "were jambled by the "Whiggish fanatical
crew," as Hearne growls, but " honest folk " mocked,
and drank deep for King James. 2 Mobs paraded the
streets, shouting for the Pretender, and putting a
stop to every kind of rejoicing. The Constitution
Club had gathered to commemorate the day at the
King's Head. The windows were illuminated, and
preparations made for a bonfire. Tossing up their
caps, and scattering money among the rabble that
flocked to the front of the hotel, the Jacobite gowns-
men egged them on with shouts of " No George " ;
"James for ever"; "Ormond"; or " Bolingbroke."
The fagots were torn to pieces, showers of brickbats
were thrown into the clubroom. It was feared lives
would have been lost had not the Constitutioners
escaped by the back door, and slunk away to their
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 147
colleges. Thus baffled, the mob rolled on to attack
all illuminated houses. Every Whig window was
smashed. The meeting-house was entered and
gutted. 1 This was the usual mode of showing con-
cern for the Church by men who, like Addison's Tory
landlord, "had not time to go to church himself, but
as my friend told me in my ear had headed the
mob at the pulling down of two or three meeting-
houses." There was some reason for the essayist's
caustic comment "Their concern for the Church
always rises highest when they arc acting in direct
opposition to its doctrines. Our streets are filled
at the same time with zeal and drunkenness, riots
and religion. We must confess that if noise and
clamour, slander and calumny, treason and perjury,
were articles of their communion there would be
none living more punctual in the performance of
their duties."
At last the mob dispersed for the night, publicly
giving out that "the glorious work" was left un-
finished till the morrow. The Twenty-ninth of May
was associated with too significant reminiscences to
be allowed to pass in quiet. Sunday though it was,
the streets were filled with people running up and
down with oak boughs in their hats, and shouts of
" King James, the true king "No Usurper. The Grood
Duke of Ormond!" The streets were brilliantly
illuminated ; indeed, wherever disregard was shown
to the mob's fiat, the windows were broken. 2 It is a
sign of the deep disloyalty of the place that even
U8 OXFORD STUDIES
those who had not shared in the riot of the past
night, boasted of their part in it. The real rioters
displayed their hoarseness in proof of the vigour of
their uproar, and recruited their voices with treason-
able healths in every tavern. Oxford had seen no
such public rejoicing since the Restoration. The
crowds grew thicker and noisier towards even. A
rumour had gone abroad that Oriel had given shelter
to some of the Constitutionalists. The mob rushed
to the attack, and threatened to break open the
closely-barred gates. At this moment a shot from a
window wounded one of the ringleaders, a gownsman
of Brasenose, and the crowd fled in confusion to break
fresh windows, gut the houses of dissenters, and pull
down the chapels of the Anabaptists and Quakers. 1
Such is the Whig account of the great Jacobite
riots in Oxford in the year of the accession of King
George. The account of the Tories was very different.
" Golgotha " met to deliberate on the causes of the
riot. It was at once laid at the door of the
club. They had met there, it was urged, to carry
out "extravagant designs," been prevented by an
"honest party" in an adjoining room, and forced to
steal away. 2 The guilt, too, of the bloodshed was
laid at their door. 7 Twas in vain that others, not
belonging to the club, who had been in the street at
the time of the attack, alleged that its members had
given no provocation, had left the tavern before
nine, and had been forced to use weapons in self-
defence. It was replied by the Heads of Houses,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 149
and to such a reply It is difficult to see what answer
could be made, that had the Constitutional Club not
been assembled in the tavern on the 28th, the riot
could not have occurred, and that on this ground
the club must be adjudged the originators of the
disturbances. Nor were the Heads alone in this
conclusion. The grand jury of the county made a
similar presentment at the assizes, branding the
Constitutionalists as "a set of factious men, who,
shrouding themselves under the specious name of
the Constitution Club, were enemies to monarchy
and all good government, and had been the authors
of all the tumults and disorders that had happened in
the city or county of Oxford." 1 The county juries,
however, had long since earned a reputation for un-
flinching Jacobitism by the trial of Du Cain, an
Irish gentleman, who was indicted for declaring his
belief that the soul of King William was in hell
The charge could not be denied, but the jury, never-
theless, returned a verdict of acquittal, stating then-
belief that by the word which he had used the prisoner
did not intend to convey the meaning of a place of
torment, but merely that Intermediate place of rest
where the dead repose till the last judgment day ! 2
After sophistry such as this we may, perhaps, attach
less importance to the logic by which the grand
jury condemned the members of the Constitutional
Club.
XIII
THE Heads seem to have entertained a reasonable
doubt whether the account of these riots, which
proved satisfactory to themselves, would prove
equally satisfactory to the Court. " Battling letters,"
as Hearne phrases it, had come down to the Pro- Vice-
Chancellor, Dr. Charlett, and to the Mayor. "The
riots," these missives urged, "had been begun by
scholars, and scholars promoted them. . . . The Pro-
Vice-chancellor did not endeavour to suppress them,
and the other magistrates were no less remiss." Old
Sherwin, the beadle, was indeed sent up to .London
to represent what the Tories styled "the truth of
the matter " ; * but the Heads felt that the patience
of the Government had reached its utmost limits.
When June 10th brought the Pretender's birthday,
the zeal of his supporters was rudely suppressed.
Charlett and the Proctors were industrious in hinder-
ing any sign of rejoicing. Illuminations indeed were
commenced at Wadham, but they were promptly
extinguished by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Atterbury's
friend, Smalridge, now, in addition to his Bishopric
OXFORD DURING- THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 151
of Bristol, Dean of Christ Church, invited all the
noblemen and gentlemen commoners of his house
to supper, and kept them in his lodgings, and was
christened "a sneaker "for his pains. "All honest
men were obliged to drink King James's health
either privately or out of town." Hearne, with a
party of Balliol non-jurors, made merry at Foxcombe. 1
The Jacobites had no reason to reproach Golgotha
with " sneaking." At their instigation the university,
on the impeachment and withdrawal of their Chan-
cellor, Ormond, had unanimously elected as his suc-
cessor his equally Jacobite brother, the Earl of
Arran. 2 On the very day of the coronation of
King George the Convocation met to confer on Sir
Constantine Phipps, one of the most active of the Tory
partisans, the honorary degree of D.C.L., with
particular marks of honour and esteem. 3 Of their
representatives in Parliament, Bromley disputed the
Tory leadership with Wyndham, and Whitloek had to
apologise to the House for the intemperate language
which, in his opposition to the dissolution, he applied
to the Throne. 4 On the birthday of the Prince of
Wales 5 no signs of rejoicing were shown, and the
bells were silent. A recruiting party 6 was in Oxford
at the time, and its Major, indignant at the affront
to the house of Hanover, bustled off to the Mayor.
The Mayor shuffled ; he did not know, he urged, that
it was the Prince Begent's birthday. The Major
swore he would draw out his regiment, and celebrate
the day with suitable rejoicings. The soldiers were
154 OXFORD STUDIES
from the riot being attributable to the officers, it
was only by their exertions that a greater disturb-
ance was prevented. The Earl of Abingdon, finding
the debate going against him, offered a petition
from the Mayor and Magistrates, but it was very
properly rejected, as the House was in committee,
and the Lords agreed to the following resolutions :
" That the Heads of Houses and the Mayor of the
City neglected to make proper rejoicings on the
Prince's birthday; that the officers having met to
celebrate the day, the house in which they assembled
was assaulted and windows broke by the rabble;
that this assault was the beginning and occasion of
the riots which ensued; that the conduct of the
Major was justified by the affidavits ; that the print-
ing and publishing the depositions while that matter
was under the examination of the Lords of Council,
and before any resolution was come to, was irregular,
disrespectful to the Prince, and tending to sedition/' 1
In the interval, however, between the riots and
these proceedings, which, for the sake of convenience,
we have linked together, the Court had taken an
opportunity of shewing its resentment by a most
contemptuous reception of the address with which
the university met the announcement from the
Throne of the rebellion in Scotland. 2 It is difficult,
indeed, to imagine how the actors in this farce could
have kept their countenances. It is probable that
among the whole deputation there was scarce one
who did not in his heart wish for Mar's success.
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 155
The Government, well informed of the Jacobite
plans, of the preparations for insurrection in the
western counties, of the arms and artillery gathering
at Bath, of the design to surprise Bristol, could
hardly place much confidence in the loyal professions
of a place which they were on the point of coercing
by military force. Still, so great had been the for-
bearance of the Administration, that it was with no
little surprise that Oxford saw Major-General Pepper's
entrance at daybreak at the head of his dragoons. 1
Martial law was at once proclaimed, and the General
declared that any student who presumed to appear
beyond the limits of their respective colleges should
be marched off to military execution. After the
seizure of ten or a dozen persons, "among whom
was one Lloyd, a coffee-man," 2 and of some horses
and furniture belonging to the notorious traitor,
Colonel Owen, and other Jacobites, the soldiers with-
drew to Abingdon, and Handyside's 3 regiment of foot
was afterwards 4 quartered in Oxford "to overawe
the university." 5 The measure, harsh as it was, can
hardly be considered an unnecessary one. Der-
wentwater's rebellion was on the point of breaking
out, Oxford men were among his associates, and in
the number of those who were taken at Preston, we
find Hearne mourning over one "Lionel Walden,
a very worthy young gentleman," just fresh from
Christ Church, who, after a temporary imprisonment,
seems to have taken refuge on the continent, and
there to have fallen in a miserable squabble with one
156 OXFORD STUDIED
Forbes, a fellow refugee. 1 To such ends could a
worthless cause lead the noblest and bravest of the
youth of England !
The wits of Oxford met this affront with an epi-
gram worthy of a. better origin
King George, observing with judicious eyes
The .state of both his universities,
To Oxford sent a troop of horse ; and why *
That learned body wanted loyalty.
To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.
The authorship of this is, we believe, unknown. 2 The
reply which was made with almost equal severity on
behalf of Cambridge was attributed to Sir William
Browne, the founder of the prize for odes and epi-
grams in that university, and himself a wit of no
mean order
The King to Oxford sent a troop of hoise,
For Tories own no argument but force.
"With equal skill to Cambridge "books lie sent,
For Whigs admit no force but aigument.
The books here alluded to were the 30,000 volumes
of Bishop Moore's magnificent library which the
Crown had purchased at Lord Townshend's sugges-
tion. Cambridge, though cool in comparison wfth
Oxford, was yet Tory in sentiment, and opposed to
the domination of the Whigs. She returned in the
election of 1715 representatives as anti-Hanoverian
as Bromley and Whitlock Eiots took place at
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 157
Cambridge as at Oxford on the birthdays of the King
and the Pretender, windows were broken, and young
gownsmen shouted "No Hanover." But Golgotha
was not so blind as at the sister university. Instead
of the ingenious logic by which the Oxford Heads
thrust the blame on to Whig shoulders, the Yice-
Chancellor treated the conduct of the young men as
a breach of discipline, and the senate in a formal act
sanctioned an address to the Throne, acknowledging
King George for their rightful sovereign, and promis-
ing so to train up the youth under their charge " that
they might shew in their conduct an example of those
principles of loyalty and obedience which this uni-
versity, pursuing the doctrines of our Church, has ever
steadily maintained." The doctrine of Non-resistance
was an odd one to use in addressing a King who owed
his throne to a revolution, but the testimonial was well
timed, and the loyalty of Cambridge was rewarded
with the present of Bishop Moore's Library. 1
But the insult to Oxford was resented by measures
more weighty, if less provoking, than epigrams. On
the suppression of the rebellion, and the conclusion of
a triple treaty with France and Holland, addresses
poured in from every quarter of the kingdom. " Ox-
ford," smiles the Tory Smollett, " was not so lavish
of her compliments." At a meeting of the Vice-
Chancellor and Heads of Houses an address was
moved to the King. Its grounds are curiously
stated. The suppression of the late rebellion, and
the King's safe return from his Hanoverian dominions,
158 OXFOKD STUDIES
were coupled as a concession to Tory prejudice
with u the favour lately shown the university in
omittiiig, at their request, the ceremony of burning
in efEgy the Devil, the Pope, the Pretender,
the Duke of Ortnond, and Earl of Mar, on the
anniversary of Iris Majesty's accession," In spite,
however, of such a favour as this, the proposal
met with a vehement opposition. The rebellion,
Smalridge argued, had been long suppressed; ad-
dresses would have no end were one presented on
each return of the King from his German dominions ;
the favour so much dwelt upon was more than
counterbalanced by the regiment that was quartered
on them ; while the remonstrances of the university
against the riotous conduct of the troops had been
met with contemptuous disregard. 1
If we are amused at this childish display of an
impotent resentment, we cannot, on the other hand,
fail to be struck with the great forbearance exhibited
by the Government in their dealings with Oxford.
Enough has been said of the secret intrigues carried
on even by Ministers of the Crown with the Court of
St Germains, but historians have failed to notice
that the lenity which this conduct forced them to
exhibit towards those who were more luckless in their
intrigues, or more open in their dealings with the
exiles, was one of the main causes of the comparative
bloodlessncss of the many contests which disturbed
the throne of the first two Georges. Certain it is,
that of this lenity Oxford had more than its share.
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 159
So long as sedition only trumpeted from its pulpits ; so
long as their exertions for the Jacobite cause were
confined to treasonable toasts and witty epigrams,
the Government stood by inactive. Bellarmine so
merciless to heretics "allowed," says Southey, "free
right of pasture on his corporal domains to fleas. He
thought they were created to aftbrd exercise for our
patience, and, moreover, that it was unjust to inter-
rupt them in their enjoyment here when they have
no other paradise to expect." Oxford divines had no
court promotion, no deaneries or sees to look to, and,
perhaps, Townshend or Sunderland allowed them in
very pity to have their fling. It may be that, like
the monks who, every day during the warm season,
shake the vermin from their habits into a dungeon
beneath, the Hanoverian statesmen were glad to
brush off the prejudices and bigotries which, if
accumulated elsewhere, might have given them so
much trouble, into this antiquated ' receptacle, and
to leave it untouched, as the monks left theirs un-
touched " La Pulciara " the Fleaery of England.
XIY
THOSE who have amused themselves with the riots
and disturbances of our former Papers must smile
to think how, proudly as our university looks down
on its continental rivals, its attitude in the last
century recalls the Jena and Heidelburg of 1848.
There are the same boisterous disloyalty the same
secret clubs the same military coercion. Traitors
to give them a harsh name they immured in
their hidden recesses; the beautiful turret, which
alone remains to us of old Magdalen Hall, served to
conceal Colonel Owen, the seizure of whose horses
we have already recorded. The same high and noble
sympathies were enlisted in the cause of King James
as in the cause of republican liberty, but it must be
owned that the German universities whether from
fear or some higher feeling have shown a disposition
towards their political opponents very different from
that which the Oxford Tories displayed towards the
Oxford Whigs.
During the reign of the first two Georges, Oxford
was to a Whig an earthly purgatory. Open resist-
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 161
ance to the new family ceased after the first wild
outbuist of disappointment; and the baffled dons
turned with an old-womanish instinct to worry the
luckless partisans whom fortune had placed in their
hands. The severer weapons of offence were indeed
no longer in their power. The days were past when
A. "Wood could record (Sept. 6, 1683) "Bannimus
stuck up to expeU Mr. Parkinson from the university
for Whiggism, formerly expelled from C.C.C.," and
a late expulsion of one of the fellows by a Cambridge
college for justifying the execution of King Charles
had been annulled by the restoration of their victim.
But means of annoyance still remained, as well for
the Whig as for the Tory. Degrees were refused to
even the most senior applicants. Dr. Wills com-
plained of the strenuous opposition that was offered
to the conferring of his degree, "which he obtained
at last with much difficulty by a majority of only
three or four/' and of the refusal of accumulating,
which was granted on the same day to an applicant
of the other party. "What reasons," blustered a
Tory zealot, 1 "have I against him? Did he not
decypher the Bishop of Rochester's letters?" The
bishop was Atterbury, just exiled on a charge of
treason, and whom his sufferings rendered justly dear
to his Jacobite friends at the university. The story
of Amherst to whose sketches we owe so much of
our knowledge of the time may prove that this
persecution ranged from doctors down to under-
graduates. Though there seems little doubt that his
M
162 OXFORD STUDIES
conduct was by no means so Irreproachable as he
represents it, and that he suffered as much for his
own misconduct as for his Whig sympathies, yet the
side of his Oxford life which he has written ior us is
too strongly corroborated by every other memorial
of the time to be dismissed as a fiction. He sketches
vividly enough t^e hot, ardent boy disputing " with
his disaffected schoolfellows upon Liberty and Property
and the Protestant Succession," poring over the
Flying Pout, and devouring the crowds of controversial
pamphlets, " by which means I became so consider-
able a disputant that I thought myself a match for
any Jacobite in the kingdom," He is elected, in the
very crisis of Mar's rebellion, to St. John's, "a
college the most remarkable in Oxford for as violent
a zeal on the contrary side," * and he had not been
there an hour before the company were toasting
"Kiug James, Ormond, and JIar," and "Confusion
to the Usurper." The young Whig declined drink-
ing to the Pretender, whom he was on the morrow
to abjure, and proposed the health of King George.
He was charged with "an affront to the company,"
and set down in the eyes of all honest men as
"a turbulent, contumacious, ungovernable wretch, an
nndutiful son of the university." The young " fresh-
man" seems to have had an Irishman's love of a
row; if there was one thing in Oxford worse than
the being a Whig it was the being a Low Churchman,
and Amherst took part with Hoadley in the famous
Bangorian controversy only to add to his other titles
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 163
that of " Arian, infidel, and atheist." It was in vain
that head and tutors remonstrated ; he enrolled him-
self in the Constitution Club, and was whispered to
be the author of the bitterest of the Whig pamphlets
and epigrams. His probation came at last to a
close ; ten out of fourteen fellows voted against him
for his fellowship, and his four supporters in turn
came in for the penalties of insubordination. One
lost his living, two were long denied testimonials for
orders, and it was rumoured that another, before
he could obtain his degree, had to declare that he
abhorred Amherst's person and principles. 1
But the most systematic and persevering instance
of Tory persecution was directed against the Con-
stitution Club. We have already described the riots
of 28-29 May 1715. On the evening of 29 May 1715
the Club, with several officers of Handyside's regiment,
were drinking loyal healths at the King's Head, re-
gardless of the squibs or hooting of the crowd without.
About eleven the Pro-proctor, Mr. Holt, of Magdalen,
entered to demand the reason of their presence at a
tavern at so late an hour. Meadowcourt, 2 of Merton,
who was in the chair, replied that they were met to
commemorate the restoration of King Charles and
the accession of King George, and invited the Proctor
to join him in drinking the health of the latter. It
was impossible, with any appearance of loyalty, to
refuse ; but the jest was an imprudent one. The
offender was summoned next day to the Proctor.
He was treated to a tirade against the Constitution
164 OXFORD STUDIES
Club "the most profligate fellows in Oxford, who
deserved to be expelled for pretending to have more
loyalty than the rest of the university. Who were
this handful of men/' thundered the indignant official,
kt that they should venture to set themselves up in a
place where there were notoriously ten Tories to one
Whig?'' Meadowcourt was fined, and his name,
with that of his companions, 1 put down 2 in the
Proctorial Black Book, in spite of the intercession of
influential friends. They were charged in that
formidable record with "profaning with mad intem-
perance " the sacred anniversary of the Eestoration ;
with associating " with those who insolently boast of
their loyalty to King George "; with abetting "certain
officers who ran up and down the High Street with
their swords drawn " ; and " with breaking out to
that degree of impudence " at the Proctor's admoni-
tion to withdraw, "as to command all the company
to drink King George's health." For these and other
charges they were suspended from their degrees for
different periods, and at whose expiration an abject
apology was required. This was refused, and the
culprits took advantage 3 of the King's Act of Grac*>,
which wiped off all offences, to stand for their
degrees. Mr. Meadowcourt was thrice denied his
M.A.; and on the third trial it was granted only
because the refuser would then have had to allege
his reasons for such a proceeding. 4 In spite of these
penalties the Constitution Club advanced in numbers
and influence. While the Vice - Chancellors were
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 165
sneering at it iu the Theatre, and a Proctor was
describing its members to Convocation as "villains
hateful to heaven and to men," they boasted of the
presidency of Dr. Gardiner, the head of All Souls,
and of the adhesion of the more aristocratic members
of the university. It was impossible to arrest the
steady growth of more loyal principles, and the
disgust which was felt at the mad threat of one of
the Proctors, "that no Constitutioner should take
his degree " during his year of office, 1 was a sign that
in this burst of vapouring Toryism open persecution
had at last reached its close.
The petty but perhaps more annoying vexations
which "Whigs were exposed to in their social inter-
course with their opponents lasted probably much
longer. Hearne glories in the exclusion of Mr.
Moseley from the club of "the High Borlace," on
the mere pretext that he was a Merton man. 2
"Oxford," exclaimed a Tory professor who had
wandered to London, "is a learned and blameless
society.' 7 "What," said a friend, "are there no
abuses, debauchery, disloyalty, or perjury there?"
"None at all," replied the doctor. "No !" rejoined
his questioner, "not in Merton College, sir?"
"Hum," quoth his professorship, "yes, really, I
have heard of strange doings there ! " 3 Merton, in
fact, was regarded by both parties as the centre and
rallying-point of the Whigs. Three of its fellows
were among "the associates of the red coats," who,
with Meadowcourt, experienced the discipline of the
166 OXFORD STUDIES
Black Book. 1 A Merton Proctor, Mr. Streat, who
with his Pro. was commemorating the coronation
of the King in a tavern, on the evening of that
anniversary, which chanced to "be Sunday, was
pounced upon by the Vice-Chancellor, " who walked
that evening," and "dismissed forthwith to the
great reluctance to be sure of Streat and his
friends," chuckles Hearne. 2 Wadham, Exeter, and
Christ Church were tainted with the same political
spirit in a less degree. The Deans who succeeded
Atterbury and Smalridge were carefully selected by
the Court from among its staunchest adherents.
On the King's birthday, in 1727, "Mr. Jonathan
Colley, being chaunter of Christ Church, set a peni-
tential anthem, which enraged the Dean, Dr. Brad-
shaw, to that degree that after service he sent for and
reprimanded him." 3 Gibson, the head of Queen's,
was a Whig as well by conviction as by his marriage
with a grand-daughter of the Protector Cromwell. 4
There were indeed many exceptions ; Johnson, years
after, praised Panting, the Master of Pembroke, as
a " fine Jacobite fellow " ; 5 but the Toryism of the
Heads was lukewarm when compared with the
Toryism of the Undergraduates.
The " Freshman," who arrived at Oxford with a
head full of loyal traditions, a hatred of Oliver, Jack
Presbyter, and the Whigs, had little to encourage
him to a change of sentiments. He saw the few
Whigs outlawed, discountenanced, and jeered at,
scouted by the society of their college, disqualified
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 167
for preferment, visited with the utmost severity oa
the most trifling breach of discipline. He evades
the oath of allegiance as he thinks by kissing his
thumb instead of the book, or perhaps, by favour of
an " honest " beadle, has not the book given him at
all. 1 He drinks to " Betty of Hearts " with his tutor,
and passes his wine duly over the water-bottle. He
has a knack of rhyming, and his satirical verses on
the Whig head, whose zeal had so carefully erased
the treasonable initials (as they seemed) "J. K.,"
from the velvet cushion only to discover that he
had destroyed the initials of the donor (Jemmet
Eaymond) 2 are laughed at in the coffee-houses, and
applauded by the wits. Or, perhaps of a rougher
turn of mind, he sits over a pipe and a bottle with
some "jovial blades" of All Souls, when, espying
some foreigners in the quad, the company jump out
of window, pelt them out of college, and stand hoot-
ing before their lodgings for a couple of hours,
"d n all strangers, particularly Frenchmen and
Hanoverians," and swearing " they would have their
blood before they went away/ 73
Indeed "a foreigner" was as fearful a bogie to
these educated gentlemen as to the veriest bumpkin
in Stubbleshire. If he entered a Oxford coffee-house,
the doctor whom he accosted had no reply for him
but a cool "Yes, sir," or "No, sir"; and the company
round stared at him, and swore that by his assurance
he must be a Hanoverian. If he walked through
the streets, rumours instantly flew about, a mob
IG8 OXFORD STUDIES
gathered at his heels, and lie was fortunate if he
escaped without a broken head. If he complained
to the authorities, he was probably told that the
gentlemen were in liquor, and obliged to content
himself without even an apology. 1
In one respect, doubtless, the Tory " freshman "
was more commendable than his successor of the
present day. He was regular in his attendance ac
the university sermons. But the motives which
drew him to St. Peter's or St. Mary's were not so
much those of religion as of amusement and fear.
If he absented himself, he was liable to a lecture
from his tutor ; and the Proctor, if he caught him
strolling in the High during sermon time, was prompt
with an imposition. If he attended, the dry topics
of theology were sure to be enlivened with a spice
of treason or a gird at the Whigs, Sometimes an
entertaining scene would divert the audience. When
Wyatt, the Principal of St. Mary Hall, thundered
against the perfidy and Whiggery of the Scots,
Archibald Campbell, the son of Argyle, who happened
to be one of the audience, "did accost Mr. Wyatt
when he came out of the pulpit, and did in a most
egregious manner abuse him in the face of the people,
and called him e red -faced sot.'" 2 Among the
preachers whose sermons "smacked of treason" we
find no less a name than John Wesley. "My
brother," says Charles, in 1734, "has been much
mauled and threatened more for his Jacobite sermon
on the llth of June* But he was wise enough to
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 169
get the Vice-Chancellor to read and approve it before
he preached it, and may therefore bid "Wadhani,
Merton, Exeter, and Christ Church do their worst." l
Some were not so fortunate. Mr. Coningsby was
summoned before the Vice-Chancellor for a sermon
whose sedition seems to have consisted in innuendoes,
and suspended for two years, but Hearne's comment
is remarkable "I am told it was a good honest
discourse, and that all were very attentive, without
the least smile, as often happens when any stinging
passage conies from a sermon." 2
XV
MORE remarkable in its tone, however, than any
of the sermons which we have noticed, was one
delivered by the then Professor of Poetry, the elder
"VYarton, on May 29, 1719. The obvious parallel
between the First Charles and his deposed son was
dexterously used to point the covert allusions of the
preacher, and the fidelity of Oxford dwelt upon as
an example in times of similar difficulty. " Justice,"
ended the Professor, with a slight perversion of
the words of St. Paul, " Justice beareth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things, restoreth all
things," and the emphasis on the word "restoreth"
left no doubt of the meaning of this clerical pun.
Men praised it as the boldest, and as the most
guarded sermon that had ever been heard at Oxford ;
the Masters waved their caps to the preacher as he
passed through them out of church, and his health
was drunk in every common-room. The challenge,
however, was too bold a one not to be taken up by
the Whigs. Meadowcourt charged the sermon with
sedition, and demanded that Warton's notes might
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 171
be examined, but the Vice-Chancellor refused. The
charge was laid before Craggs, at that time Secretary
of State, and the Lords Justices, in the King's
absence, commanded the Vice-Chancellor to proceed
against the preacher. He was summoned, but as
notice had been privately given him, the notes were
prudently lost. The only result of the Government
interference was that in his Commemoration speech,
the Vice -Chancellor branded Meadowcourt as a
"delator turbulentus," " a troublesome informer,"
and alluded to the Council as "a foreign juris-
diction." 1
That the Government should interfere, and that
in a harsher and more summary manner, had been
akeady suggested by many wise and judicious men.
We have already noticed the advice which Locke
gave to King William, and in 1719 Archbishop
Wake was earnest for the introduction of a bill for
the assertion of the royal supremacy and the better
regulation of the clergy of the two Universities,
Lord Macclesfield went further than a mere sugges-
tion or desire. In a formal memorial he embodied
his plan for the reformation of the Universities, and
it is, in some points, so characteristic of the age,
that we may be pardoned for entering a little into
detail. The election of Heads was henceforward to
be vested in the great Officers of State, with the
concurrence of the Visitor and the Bishop. The
Fellowships were to be limited in duration to twenty
years, to prevent that long continuance in college
172 OXFORD STUDIES
which leads only "to their being overrun with spleen,
or taking to sottishness." Conciliation was to be
attempted by the founding of Professorships, and
the gift of pensions of "20 or 30 per annum," to
about twenty fellows of colleges "to encourage them
to serve the government with their pupils and
others." The system of bribery, which "Walpole
found so effective in St. Stephen's, was to be tried
in Oxford. The benefices of the Crown and the
nobility were to be bestowed only " on well-affected
persons." The Government was advised to " extend
its care and kindness in an especial manner to those
colleges in which honest" ('tis amusing to see this
last word the shuttlecock of both parties) " in which
honest and loyal men have any interest," both by
bestowing livings and the like, and by the removal
of the discontented "till the true interest in them
was become superior to all opposition." l
Wise, however, as some of these suggestions might
be, the government preferred and wisely preferred
inaction. It was not till within ten years of the
accession of George the Third, when the House of
Brunswick, after the suppression of the " Forty-five,"
felt itself at length secure upon the throne, that
measures of severity were resorted to. Eut the
opportunity which was chosen, was by no means a
happy one. Two or three riotous young students
dropped some treasonable expressions over their cups,
and boasted of their attachment to the House of
Stuart No sooner had the report of this spread
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 173
abroad, than the Tice-Chancellor and Proctors ap-
prehensive of the result published a declaration of
their abhorrence of seditious practices, their resolu-
tion to punish such offences with the utmost rigour,
and containing peremptory orders for the regulation
of the university. The Government, however, was
not to be diverted from its purpose. A messenger
of state was despatched to arrest "the three boys,"
two of whom were, after trial in tho Court of King's
Bench, found guilty, and sentenced to walk through
the Courts of Westminster with an account of their
crime fixed on their foreheads, to pay a fine of five
nobles each, be imprisoned for two years, and find
security for seven years more. This ridiculously
disproportionate sentence was followed up by other
acts of rigour. The King's Bench granted an in-
formation against the Yicc-Chaucellor, Dr. Pornell,
for his behaviour in the matter 3 but the rule was
eventually countermanded. 1 It was attempted to
subject the whole of the statutes to the revision of
the Privy Council, but, after an argument in the
Court of King's Bench, this attempt, in deference to
the judge's opinion, was also countermanded. The
cry of Jacobitism was, however, still clamoured
against the university, and its address, on the re-
establishment of peace, was rejected with disdain.
Meanwhile Cambridge was displaying a fulsome
spirit of flattery rather than loyalty. Its Chancellor-
ship fell vacant, and, though generally expected to
have been reserved for the Prince of Wales, who
174 OXFORD STUDIES
was then in opposition, was bestowed on that most
ignorant and ridiculous of mortals, the Premier, the
Duke of Newcastle. The prosecutions of 1748
afforded another opportunity of "supporting the
throne,"' and Mason, then a promising young poet,
bid high for perferment by the publication of his
Ids. In an invidious comparison, he contrasted
the loyalty of Cambridge with the disaffection of its
sister University. At Oxford he bids us
See Hydra Faction spread its impious reign,
Poison each breast and madden every "brain ;
Hence frontless crowds, that not content to fright
The blushing Cynthia from her throne of night,
Blast the fair face of day ; and madly hold
To freedom's foes infernal orgies hold ;
To freedom's foes, ah, see the goblet crowned '
Hear plausi, c shouts to freedom's foes resound.
But he does not omit a tribute to the few Whig
Abdiels, " faithful only found,"
Learning, that once to all diffused her beam,
Now sheds by stealth a partial private gleam
In some low cloister's melancholy shade
Where a firm few support her sickly head,
Despised, insulted by the barbarous train
"Who scour like Thracia's moon-struck rout the plain,
Sworn foes like them to all the muse approves,
All Phoebus favours, or Minerva loves !
To us the satire seems of the dullest and most
vapid kind, but its author, as we learn from an
amusing anecdote, thought very differently. Years
after the elegy had been published, and (we should
OXFORD DTJKING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 175
think) forgotten, Mason was entering Oxford on
horseback, and, as he passed Magdalen-bridge, he
turned to his companion to express his satisfaction
that the darkness of the evening would allow them
to enter the town unnoticed. His friend was puzzled
to conjecture what the advantage of this could be.
" What," rejoined the poet, " do you not remember
my Isis?"*
Whatever was the extent of Mason's vanity or
timidity, it is seldom that the victor bears a grudge
against the vanquished, and victorious Oxford had
come off on this occasion, thanks to the genius of a
young scholar of Trinity, the son of that Tom
Warton whom we mentioned at the commencement
of this Paper. This younger Tom Warton was
doubtless then, what he remained to the end of his
life, a singular combination of the scholar and the
buffoon, the hard-reader and deep- drinker. He
lounged and sauntered all day, and spent the early
hours, when his comrades slept, for classical and
antiquarian study. He was a poet in the morning,
strolling, full of fancies, along the Cherwell, or up
Headington-hill, or standing, lost to all but his
thoughts, before the ancient gateway of Magdalen
College. At night he was the first of boon com-
panions, punning and jesting in common-room, or
drinking his ale and smoking his pipe in the lowest
pot-house, " with persons," as his biographer primly
puts it, " of mean rank and education." 2 There was
little poetical in the appearance of this " little, thick,
176 OXFORD STUDIES
squat, red-faced man," as a satirist describes him,
with a stutter that prevented all but his friends
from understanding him, and "a gobble," as Johnson
said, " like a turkey cock." l But poet, notwithstand-
ing, he was, and, in picturesqueness of description,
inferior to few among his rivals. The lines in which
he invokes the time-honoured temples and shiines
of Oxford to inspire their defender against this un-
provoked assailant have never been excelled by a
poet of twenty-two, and such was the age of their
author. Nor was he wanting in a vigorous vein of
sarcasm
Let Granta boast the patrons of her name
Each splendid fool of fortune or of fame :
Still of preferment let her shine the Queen,
Prolific parent of each bowing Dean ;
Be hers each prelate of the pampeied cheek,
Each courtly chaplain, sanctified and sleek,
Still let the drones of her exhaustless hive
On rich pluralities supinely thrive.
There was a ring in lines like these that made his
poem in very deed " The Triumph of Isis." He was no
less successful in his compliment to the Jacobite Dr.
King, whose oration at the opening of the Eadcliffe
had roused a thousand charges of disloyalty
See, on yon sage, how all attentive stand,
To catch his darting eye and waving hand ;
Hush, he begins with all a Tully's art
To pour the dictates of a Gate's heart ;
Skilled to pronounce vhat noblest thoughts inspire.
OXFOED DTJRIXG THE EIGHTEENTH CEXTTTRY 177
He "blends the speakei's Tvitli tlie patuot's fire ;
Bold to conceive, nor timorous to conceal,
"What Britons dare to think he dares to tell.
The sage of these lines was too notable a Jacobite
fco be passed over in these Papers -without notice.
^Principal of St. Mary's Hall, and, by turns, secretary
to Ormond and Arran, a keen satirist and a most
amusing wit, he contrived to trifle his great gifts
away (like the predecessor in his name who waged
war against Bentley, and, though conquered, made
the world laugh at his conqueror) in the mean con-
tests of party, or rather of faction. "Imprudens
et improvidus," it was thus he wrote of himself,
" comis et benevolus, ssepe sequo iracundior, haud un-
quam ut essezn implacabilis ipse et cibi abstinentior
et vini abstinentissimus, cum magnis vixi, cum plebeiis,
cum omnibus, ut homines noscerem ut meipsum
imprimis neque eheu novi 1 " l "A pleasant, kind-
hearted fellow, often angry beyond measure, but
never too stubborn to be appeased, a temperate diner,
still more temperate in his cups I have lived with
the lofty, with the lowly, with every one in short,
that I might gain a knowledge of men and of myself,
and yet this last knowledge I have never gained."
Contented with the laugh with which men welcomed
every scrap from his humorous pen, he gave up
literature for politics, but he retained a kindly feel-
ing towards the young aspirants who enlisted under
the standard he had deserted. We can yet see the
" tall, lean, well-looking man " reading, in the shop
178 OXFORD STUDIES
of Prince, the bookseller, with a smile of pleasure
this eulogium from an unknown hand, and then no
idle thought in an age of Johnsons and Savages
inquiring whether five guineas would be of any
service to the author, and leaving the donation with
the publisher. 1 He was at this time in communi-
cation with the Pretender, the head, it might almost
be said, of the English Jacobites, yet truer than
ever were his words he knew not himself. When
the third of the Georges mounted the throne, and
Dr. King accompanied the address, the party he had
led turned upon him as the Protectionists turned
upon Sir Robert Peel. The end of his life was
embittered with charges of " apostacy " from his old
supporters. " He knew not himself," but he might
have urged with equal truth that the University to
which he belonged was just as ignorant. Its eyes
were soon to open. Tory principles mounted the
throne with George the Third, and the current of
royal favour was at once diverted to the Tory
University; Jacobitism disappeared like a dream.
The Cardinal of York was sneered at as a pretender.
The zeal that had backed the most odious of causes
was needed now to back the new king in the most
odious of wars the war with America. Deaneries
and Bishoprics fell in a shower among the Heads,
and a stream of addresses against Wilkes, against
Catholic Emancipation, against anything in short
that the King hated, evinced the gratitude of the
University. As Dryden sang years before
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 179
The court of Constantine was full of glory,
And every trimmer turned addressing Tory.
We pause, however, at this beginning of a new reign,
this striking revolution in the position of Oxford
towards the Crown, because the chain of events
which we have been tracking ends abruptly here.
In future Papers we may perhaps resume the tale
of Tory Oxford under the two last of the Georges,
but of Jacobite Oxford under the two first the tale
is ended. If the story has nothing but what is
mean, and petty, and trivial, if Jacobitism in Oxford
had no Prestons or Cullodens to prove the sincerity
of its loyalty ; if its " honesty " began and ended in
grumbling, while the heads of braver and truer men
were mouldering on Temple Bar, there is something
even in this childish obstinacy, this ineffective re-
sentment, above the level, uninterrupted sycophancy
which was to follow it. The tale, at any rate, is
new and curious (it has never, so far as we know,
been attempted before) ; and if this brief sketch has
served in any way to illustrate it, we shall have
gained some fresh knowledge of an hitherto untold
side of the History of Oxford during the Last
Century.
XVI
THOSE who are at all conversant with authorship
know that sketches of a period, such as those which
we have endeavoured to produce, must often be
constructed from the most heterogeneous materials.
The pamphlet, the libel, the broadsheet, must in
turn be ransacked by one who would picture the
social life of the time. The writer must resemble
the alchemist, and extract gold from the very vilest
materials. And this for the very obvious reason
that his search is for those very details which such
chance productions alone preserve to us. That
common, daily life, which he is endeavouring to
disentomb, seems to those who partake of it so
mean and worthless in its lesser circumstances that
they would think it ridiculous to chronicle it in
their graver and more serious histories. And so
the generations who succeed, if they would learn not
merely how their forefathers fought and died, but
how they walked, were dressed, eat, drank, spoke,
laughed, or swore, must turn into the "bye- ways r
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 181
of literature, and melt down in their crucible the
libels of the wit, or the play-book of the child.
The little volume which we intend to submit to
this process for the edification of our readers in the
present paper is of the latter character. Tlie
Young Travellers, or a Visit to Oxford, by a Lady, 1
is just the sort of book which sage parents put into
the hands of those who have attained the enviable
title of "good boys." The parents are all bene-
volent, affable, and prosy: the children what
children never were or will be. They listen with
the utmost interest to the dullest lectures on moral
questions, and, full of their own unquestioning obedi-
ence, doubt not that every little boy who utters
those tabooed syllables, "I won't," is destined to be
drowned, buried alive, or devoured by tigers. They
have a horror of marbles and mud-pies, and a great
love for the society of sententious old gentlemen,
who might be their grandfathers. In short, the book
is of the usual stamp of the child-books of our own
youth, and is inspired with just that amount of
untrue as well as ridiculous morality which is usually
thought wholesome for developing philosophers,
still unbreeched. It is full, however, of interesting
details of a time which we may call the borderland,
between this century and the last, and its notices,
combined with the information we have been enabled
to draw from other quarters, may enable us to realize
in some measure that phase of Oxford life, on which,
as yet, we have not ventured, the Life of the Streets.
182 OXFORD STUDIES
We pass into Oxford by the great London road,
with a glance at the row of old tumble-down houses,
a disgrace to the cit} T , which ran along from the
gate of the Botanic Gardens, and turned down what
is now the open side of Rose Lane. Before one of
these, on its high pole, hangs out the sign of the
Xoah's Ark, and the host (one Hodges) is busy
clearing his doorway of one of the noisiest scamps in
the town, that prince among poachers, Dan Stewart.
Fish and game were Dan's legitimate property;
there was not a cover or a preserve in the county
whose merits he was not well acquainted with j and
so high was his reputation for a knowledge of
"sport," that he was generally selected by freshmen
as their guide on piscatory excursions. The joke
ran that he was as invariably successful in directing
them to spots perfectly free from fish of any size,
as he was in securing a bagful when he sallied out
alone. Dan, however, is at present haranguing, as
is his wont, blind-drunk in the street, and a crowd
gathers round to laugh at the blasphemies which
proceed so fluently from his lips. Dan is but one
amid a host of ruffians who infested the streets
ruffians, such as the blustering drunkard whom the
children call "Captain Ward," who comes raving
up street at the moment, with eyes bearing traces
of many encounters, abusing every one he meets,
and offering them satisfaction in a fight for a pot of
beer.
The children, however, leave these two worthies
OXFORD DURING TEE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 183
to run over to the old cakeman beneath the elms
of Magdalen Horse-walk, where two or three Mag-
dalen schoolboys are already lounging, hesitating
between his "rosy apples and sugared cakes." Dicky
Dunker, however, finds a formidable rival in old
Mother Smith, who passes by with her basket full
of buns, and her shrill cry of "any cakes and rolls,
muffins and crumpets"; and in Tippety Ward's
cakes, "all sugar and brandy," as the vendor de-
scribes them. Tippety, we may remark in passing,
was a very notable Oxford character, whose father
had lived in the great farmhouse with the trees in
its front below the Infirmary, which was subse-
quently burnt down, and whose site is now occupied
by Pearse's-row. Street-cries, which we so seldom
hear now, were in these days no insignificant fea-
ture of Oxford streets, and Monday morning in par-
ticular seldom failed to bring round the old woman
with her bag across her shoulder, and her cry of
"old boots and old shoes," with whom extravagant
servant-galism (so said the mistresses) was glad to
effect exchange of less useful finery. Another
member of the mercantile fraternity of the streets
was "poor Jack the matchman," in his long coat
and slouched hat, who still figures in "West's picture
of "The Death of General Wolfe," as the soldier
who, leaning on his musket, is casting a last look
of affection on his dying leader. Fame, however,
had not saved Jack from penury, and his present
resource was that of vending those old-fashioned
184 OXFORD STUDIES
matches which lucifers have driven out of use. A
more poetical traffic was that of the far-famed
Mother Goose, who, sitting at the Star gate, in her
heavy cloak, ruffled cap, and trim little hat, was ready
to curtsey a welcome to the coaches as they rolled up
one after another, and to present her basket of
flowers to " pretty ladies " within. She was a great
favourite with university men, who christened her
"Flora"; but she did business now and then with
nobler customers than these. When the Eegent
passed through on his way to Bibury Eaces, it was
his custom to change horses at the Lamb and Flag,
so as to avoid the crowd and confusion which his
changing them at the Star would have created, and
as Mother Goose never failed to appear with her
usual offering, the kind-hearted voluptuary would
take one of her bouquets and fling her a guinea*
We may be sure no one in Oxford cried " God save
the Eegent " with more loyalty than Mother Goose.
If we turn from the streets to the Broad Walk
we may encounter a greater character even than
Mother Goose, in the person of " Counsellor Bicker-
ton," 1 attired in his shabby gown, and dilapidated
cap, with enormous curled wig and band, haranguing
up and down, without consciousness of observers.
He had been a member of Hertford College, where,
spite of all efforts to get rid of him, he still claimed
rooms, and was so miserably poor that he was said
to cut branches from the trees in the quad for fuel.
On one occasion, said the wits, he quietly severed
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CEXTCRY 185
the branch on which he sat, and came to the ground.
He was the usual butt of these wits, and one (a
Mr. Tawney, we believe of Exeter) published The
Lucubrations of Counsellor Bickerton. The Coun-
sellor was not offended, but entered the publisher's
shop, and seriously proposed a share in the division
of the profits in recompense for the liberty taken
with his name ! His habits were as singular as his
ideas. Fancying himself the Principal of Hertford,
he thought it inconsistent with his dignity to rise
before noon, or retire to rest before daybreak. His
favourite mania, however, was the Law. Dubbing
himself a barrister, he carried everywhere in his
pocket a portentous wig, which was drawn forth
and donned whenever he supposed himself called
on to speak At a meeting of the Bible Society
when the business was over, and the audience on
the point of dispersing, the poor enthusiast clapped
on his wig, mounted one of the benches, and
astonished his hearers with an oration, which, for
once, displayed a trifle of sense and lucidity. His
exhibitions, however, were sometimes more ludi-
crous. A barrister, he very justly argued, should
"go circuit." Accordingly, a battered post-chaise
was purchased; its shafts altered to suit a single
horse; and in this vehicle the Counsellor followed
the Judges, and offered his services to any client
that required them. As none, however, came for-
ward, it was Bis custom to rise and censure in a
lengthy speech, the conduct of the judge, jury,
186 OXFORD STUDIES
prosecutor, and defendant alike, till expelled from
the court.
"Great wit from madness what thin bounds
divide," says Dryden, and the occasional eccentrici-
ties of the strong - headed Dr. Tatham 1 not un-
frequently rivalled the exploits of poor Bickerton.
It was his own soher opinion that to him, and him
alone, was owing the overthrow of Buonaparte, and
the consequent glory of Great Britain. The Bank,
he said, refused Pitt advances, and the war must
have dropped, had not a pamphlet of his own, advo-
cating the establishment of a rival bank, frightened
the old lady of Threadneedle-street into a loan
the war was continued, and the usurper overthrown.
More notable, however, was his celebrated sermon
on Oxford education, a discourse of an hour and
three-quarters, whose excessive length drove even a
prelate, who was among his auditors, out of church
from sheer fatigue. It was a vehement attack on
what he termed the Aristotelian mode of education
at Oxford, and, in many respects, a just one. "You
profess to educate the youth of the country," he
argued, " but your students require a visit to conti-
nental capitals to complete their education." He
proposed the introduction of modern languages and
history, and seems, in some of his suggestions, to
have been a reformer before his age. He was prob-
ably the last punster in an university pulpit.
"What with your little-goes and your great-goes,
I fear education will give you the by-go," said the
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 187
indignant doctor. But if he was an ardent reformer
he was none the less an ardent Tory, and when the
Oxford volunteers, who mustered at the time 800
strong, were drawn up on review, in two divisions,
Dr. Tatham rode along their ranks, promising to
pension the widow of the first man who fell in his
country's cause. As volunteering is revived, we
record this promise of the doctor's as a hint to its
encouragers.
We have not space enough to dwell in very great
detail on the little fragments of our local lustory
which we have gleaned. We can only notice " the
Linen Draper" of Oxford, a person named Smith,
whose shop was on Carfax, and who seems to have
had so complete a monopoly of his trade, that when
he went out he could afford to lock up his shop ; if
a customer came in during his dinner-hour, he was
requested to call again, and during his annual journey
to London to make purchases, the shop was closed
for a week until his return as an evidence of the
great revolution which has been created by com-
petition in trades. Or we can glance at Atkins,
the City Marshal, strutting about in his laced hat
and coat, and carrying his long staff, with the city
arms painted on its top, with all the self-importance
of beadledom. Or passing, as the quarter-boys
strike eight in the morning, at Carfax^ we may see
"Little Dickey James" passing in to read early
prayers, whose diminutive stature had made him
the subject of a few practical jokes. The fall of one
188 OXFORD STUDIES
of tlie quarter-boys soon produced an advertisement,
in which u tke Little Doctor" (as, though but M.A.,
he was generally called) was made to announce his
intention of offering himself as a candidate for the
post. Or we may meet "Johnny," the Oriel
messenger, scudding along on his crutches faster
than ordinary legs could carry him; or Barber
Dennet, with aprou and tongs, proceeding to deco-
rate the gentlemen's heads before their dinner-
hour. But these and other topics we may touch
on a future occasion.
XVII
IN our sketches of the Smart of the Last Century we
had occasion to introduce Amherst's picture of the
farmer of the time, in his "linsey woolsey coat,
greasy sunburnt head of hair, clouted shoes, yarn
stockings, napping hats with silver hat-bands, and
long muslin neckcloths run with red at the bottom."
Figures like these were the jest of every wit who
paraded the High ; fops lisped out their sneers at the
" Aborigines," and their very sons, " metamorphosed
into complete Smarts, d d the old country putts,
their fathers, with twenty foppish airs and gesticula-
tions." The severance between town and country
was indeed a marked feature of the earlier part of
the century which we are treating. To the writers
of the Spectator school a farmer was but a synonym
for a mixture of ignorance and excess; novelists,
like Fielding in his Sguwe Western, depicted him
as a compound of passion and brutality, whose
oaths alternated with his potations. Even Swift,
writing soberly to Pope, says "In how few hours
with a swift hors.e or a strong jade may a man come
190 OXFORD STUDIES
among a people as unknown to him as the Anti-
podes." The ignorance was reciprocated by the
rustic of the country. A stranger from London was
looked upon as a Whig in disguise ; the vicar declared
him "no churchman/' and hinted his suspicions of
" no religion at all."
The causes of this great severance have been par-
tially noticed before. First among them was the
condition of the roads. About 1760 "the roads of
Oxfordshire," says an accurate observer, " were in a
condition formidable to the bones of all who travelled
on wheels. The two great turnpikes which crossed
the country by Witney and Chipping Norton, by
Henley and Wycombe, were repaired in some places
with stones as large as they could be brought from
the quarry, and, when broken, left so rough as to be
calculated for dislocation rather than exercise." l The
heavy stage waggons, whose broad wheels alone
made an impression on these formidable masses,
were stopped for days or weeks by floods and snow.
Bridges were scarce, save in the vicinity of towns,
and lighter vehicles often found themselves exposed
to serious danger in crossing the fords. Pope, who
often passed through Oxford on his way to Colonel
Dormer's, nearly lost his life through an accident of
this kind. His carriage was overturned, and the
poor poet, at the last moment, had to be dragged
through its windows. 2 The country lanes were, of
course, incomparably worse. "The cross roads,"
says our informant, " were impassable but with real
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 191
danger." The neighbouring farmers' horses had
often to be borrowed to drag the luckless voyagers
out of these Sloughs of Despond. Sometimes, as in
the case of the Prince of Orange, it became necessary
to make a flank march through the farmers' fields.
The latter part of the century saw the almost total
abolition of this great obstacle to national inter-
communication. "A noble change," writes Young,
in 1809, "has taken place, but generally by turnpikes
which cross the county in every direction, so that
when you are at one town you have a turnpike road
to every other town. This holds good with Oxford,
Woodstock, "Witney, Burfordj Chipping Xorton,
Banbury, Bicester, Thame, Abingdon, Wallingford,
Henley, Beading, etc. etc., and in every direction,
and these lines necessarily intersect the county in
every direction. The parish roads are greatly im-
proved, but are still capable of much more. The
turnpikes are very good, and, where gravel is to be
had, excellent." 1 Along these roads rolled hundreds
of coaches, whose superiority to the speed of all
previous means of locomotion was as great as is the
superiority of steam to their own. That great array
of mail coaches in front of the Post-Office on the
first of May, a spectacle on which De Quincey, in his
Autobiography, dwells with such delight, was sug-
gestive of something more than material progress.
To every thoughtful observer they must have seemed
the great weapons by which England was gathering
up her severed parts into one united whole ; which
192 OXTOBB STUDIES
were knitting town to country, and country to town ;
which were bringing rural honesty and truth and
fearlessness to bear upon the social depravity of the
metropolis, and carrying the civilization of the
metropolis to the most secluded districts of the
country.
Another great obstacle, to which this century did
not apply any efficient remedy, arose from the mul-
titudes of highwaymen who infested the roads.
We have already dwelt upon the daring exploits
which made these ruffians the heroes at once of the
ladies' closet and the thieves' gin-cellar ; and, in our
account of Dumas, have striven to realize, as much
as possible, the life and adventures of one of the
fraternity. But, besides the element of romance,
and the longing for "plunder," which made "the
road" so fashionable a profession, an additional in-
ducement to crime seems to have been afforded by
its comparative security. Here and there, indeed,
individual travellers, like Mr. Stanley, might carry
weapons and make a fight for it, and it is due to the
prudence of the Dick Turpins of this time to own
that in such cases they shewed the utmost facility
in running away, if a correspondence with their
Sultanas fell into the hands of inquisitive innkeepers,
or an encounter with a personage of high rank set
the Bow-street runners on them; but, for the most
part, the plunderers were unmolested. Hair-dressers
and tailors, for these were the trades that furnished
most recruits to the host of the highway, had nothing
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 19$
to do but to buy a pistol out of their master's till,
steal the best horse in the neighbourhood, and levy
black-mail on whom they would. If travellers ran
scarce, or the road became dangerous, it was easy to
assemble a gang of a dozen, and break into a farm-
house or a rectory. The newspapers of the time are
crowded with outrages such as these. If secured,
ladies visited the hero in prison, and petitioned for
his pardon, while the ruined walls, and confederates
within and without, offered every opportunity for
escape. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder
that people, convinced of the inemeacy of the law,
began to take the question of Police into their own
hands. "Divers felonies and depredations," says an
advertisement in the Oxford Journal for 1783,
"having been lately made and committed on the
persons and property of the Inhabitants of Oxford,
its suburbs, and neighbourhood, it has been resolved
to promote an association for the joint protection of
the subscribers, and for prosecuting all persons guilty
of Felonies committed upon any of the members of
the said association, as well as for rewarding such
persons as shall give information, apprehend, or
bring to conviction any offender or offenders.'* l The
Mayor for the time being was, by the rules, con-
stituted Treasurer, and associated in committee with
fourteen other members, Mr. Aid, Tawney, Mr. Aid.
Tongue, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Morrell, Mr. Taunton, Mr.
Shortland, Mr. Lock, Mr. Burford, Mr. James
Fletcher, jun., Mr. John Walker, Mr. Thomas Prickett,
o
194 OXFORD STUDIES
Mr. Francis Gulden, and the Bailiffs of the city.
For the detection of a burglar or incendiary, a
regard of ten guineas was offered ; half that sum was
given for the discovery of a highway or a foot robber,
or a receiver of stolen goods ; and smaller sums in
proportion for crimes of less consequence. No com-
promise with persons arrested was to be allowed, and
the prosecutor's share of all rewards, given by Act
of Parliament, was to be added to the premium
offered by the society for their apprehension. 1 A
similar association was formed, with still higher re-
wards, by "gentlemen, farmers, and others, in the
neighbourhood of Abingdon." 2 Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire seem to have combined for the
purpose, and the organization, as we find from
advertisements, spread rapidly over all the neigh-
bouring counties. How little terror these announce-
ments caused among the fraternity, we may see
from the following item of Oxford news, for February
28, 1784. "Between seven and eight o'clock last
Monday evening, one of the Bath coaches was
robbed upon the galloping ground above Bottley,
about two miles and a half from this city, by two
men on foot, who took from the passengers upwards
of 24r in money, with their watches. But at the
request of the driver, they returned all the watches
except one, and went off with their booty. There
were six passengers in the coach, and two outsides."
We need not stop to dwell on the subsidiary
causes which hindered intercourse between country
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 195
and town, but, in these days of tourist and excursion
trains, it is impossible to avoid the mention of one.
Nothing, perhaps, can be considered a stronger
characteristic of our own age than the taste for
scenery which has been diffused through every
grade of society. Prince and peasant alike hurry
from home on every chance interval of leisure, and
deem themselves abundantly repaid for trouble and
expense by the view of a mountain, or a peep at a
waterfall But this perception of the picturesque,
this intense relish for natural beauty was denied
to our forefathers. The very phrases which they
habitually employ to characterise scenes of surpass-
ing sublimity were such as " a horrid grandeur," or
a " rugged waste." Men of taste were no better than
their fellows. Goldsmith, who saw the perfection of
rural beauty in the flat meadows and sluggish canals
of Holland, could see in Scotland nothing but fright-
ful precipices and bare and savage solitudes. It may
be said that to this time was left the task of dis-
covering the sublimity of Snowdon or Ben Nevis,
or the picturesque beauty of the Lakes. A poet of
the last age might sing of nightingales and sunrise,
but his very expressions betray that he had never
heard the one or seen the other. He might play at
pastorals with Phyllis and Corydon, but his Phyllises
wore red-heeled shoes, and his Corydons wielded the
dice box. The essayists of this time found no sub-
ject more amusing than the disgust of a man about
town at the humdrum monotony of a country life.
196 OXFOUD STUDIES
Sir John with bis long stories over the bottle, Lady
Prue with her genealogies and embroidery, the
daughters with their hoydenish familiarities and
hands fresh from pudding-making, the sons with
their eternal dog and gun, were terrible bores to the
Exquisite who had supped with Selwyn or gambled
with March.
We cannot, however, turn away with these from
this simple life of the country. We shall follow
these farmers as they trot homewards, and get what
scanty glimpses we can of their life and manners,
of their system of cultivation, and the great changes
in the modes of farming which were at this time
gradually introduced. In the course of this task we
shall doubtless often have to crave the indulgence of
our readers. The details of a farmer's system require
a special knowledge which we cannot claim to pos-
sess, and the materials which are at our command are
far too scanty to enable us to give the full account
which we should desire. We can, however, but
attempt the task, praying in the merry words of old
Tusser
And grant me now,
Thou reader, thou !
Of terms to use,
Such choice to choose,
As may delight
The country wight,
And knowledge bring ;
For such do praise
The country phrase,
OXKJUD Bumsa THE EIGHTEENTH CXXTUKY 197
The country act%
The country facts,
The country toys,
Before the joys
Of any thing.
xnii
THE character of the Oxfordshire farmer experienced
a remarkable change during the progress of the last
century. The great spread of education, the varia-
tions in the mode of culture, the closer ties "by which
country hegan to be bound to town, all tended to
improve and civilize them. " Enclosing," says Arthur
Young, at the end of the century, " to a greater pro-
portional amount than in almost any other county in
the kingdom has changed the men as much as it has
improved the country ; they are now in the ebullition
of this change ; a vast amelioration has been wrought
and is working. The Goths and Vandals of open
fields touch the civilisation of enclosures." 1 The
capital of trade was beginning to be thrown into
the cultivation of the land. Mr. Taunton was paring
and burning hundreds of acres of waste land at En-
sham, and, though fanners laughed at the mistakes of
the town-bred agriculturist, he was in reality but the
sign of the revolution which was creeping over the
whole system of English farming. 3
But, "Forty years ago," the same writer confesses,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 199
" I found them a very different race from what they
are at present." Even in the midst of this great
advance, "a great deal of ignorance and barbarity
remains." "When I passed from the conversation of
the farmers I was recommended to call on to that of
men whom chance threw in my way, I seemed to have
lost a century in time, or* to have moved a thousand
miles in a day. Liberal communication, the result
of enlarged ideas, was contrasted with a dark ignor-
ance under the covert of wise suspicions ; a sullen
reserve lest landlords should be rendered too know-
ing, and false information given under the hope that
it might deceive, were in such opposition that it
was easy to see the change, however it might work,
had not done its business. The old open-field school
must die off before new ideas can become generally
rooted." 1 This retrograde class, the exceptions of
the close of the century, were fair representatives of
the bulk of the agriculturists during the greater
part of it. The tenant of his small holding, the
holding of his father and grandfather, whose acres
seemed bound up with his family history, had little
to draw him out of the vegetative life of his fellows.
The little circle round the fire at the village inn con-
stituted his world; their chat furnished him with
his news and information. The Journal indeed had
sprung up of late, but a newspaper was still a
novelty, and to the bulk who could not read, and
made their cross in the parish register, a somewhat
useless one. His only excursions were a " run " with
200 OXFORD STUDIES
the Squired pack, and the journeys to market for the
disposal of his produce. The great Bible served for
his library, and was treasured perhaps more for the
fly-leaf, with its entries of births, marriages, and
deaths, than for the rest of its contents. Schools
were "for his betters," and learning he looked down
on as something "lackadaisical" Lilly, the astrologer,
whose family were yeomen in the obscure town of
Diseworth, In Leicestershire, describes it amusingly
as "a town of great rudeness, wherein it is not re-
membered that any of the farmers thereof did ever
educate any of their sons to learning." l There were
probably no such towns as Diseworth in the England
of that day, but a village school was still a rarity.
The farmer's home was the great kitchen, with its
warm chimney corners, where the huge flitches hung
amid the smoke for winter consumption. Wife and
daughters were busy spinning flax for the countless
sheets and counterpanes that filled the walnut presses
in the bedroom, and the hum of the wheels enlivened
the dull evenings. It was not the farmer's wife only
whose wheel hummed so merrily ; the labourer's wife
had the same resource. In the middle of the last
century " every cottage at Baldon had a plot of hemp,
and all manufactured into linen for their own con-
sumption, selling what they could spare"; but its
close saw the extinction of this household manufac-
ture. "The last," adds Young, writing in 1809,
" was given up about six years ago." 2
It was a time of transition for much besides hemp
OXFOKD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CJEXTUKY 201
plots. The whole face of the country was under-
going a great change by the rapid progress of en-
closures. Before the accession of George II. scarcely
an Enclosure Act can be discovered, but at the close
of the last century " very nearly the whole range of
country, 13 miles, from Banbury to Chipping-Xorton
is enclosed by Act of Parliament, and improved in
product very greatly." l Burford, Young speaks of as
"enclosed 12 years ago." 2 Culham-heath was still
unenclosed, "the reddest sand (near Xuneham lodge)
covered with thick fern a sure proof everywhere of
what is below it." 3 Enclosure, adds Young, "has
been the capital improvement of the county, for
proportionately to the extent of it more land has
been enclosed since I first travelled in it, which is
about 40 years ago, I conceive, than in any county in
England." 4 The statistics fully justify this assertion.
During the first forty years of the reign of George IIL
sixty-seven Enclosure Acts for this county had passed
through Parliament, forty-one of which seem to have
been carried into effect, and the amount of land thus
utilised was little less than 100,000 acres, or some-
what more than one-fifth of the county. One con-
sequence was a sensible diminution in the wheat
produce. The 4882 acres of wheat grown before
these Enclosure Acts actually decreased by 112.
Tinder the head of oats, however, as well as cattle,
dairy land, sheep pasture, and turnips, we find
a considerable increase. Burford is an instance :
since its enclosure "it has not produced so much
202 OXFORD STUDIES
corn, but infinitely more mutton and beef." Eents
rose rapidly, as the produce increased. "Fringford
has been improved greatly in rent and produce since
the enclosure, at least trebled in both ; Stoke Lyne
the same. . . . Stratton Ardley was 500 a year,
now it is ,2500: one estate there was offered for
3000, it is now 800 per annum." Eents round
Bicester were trebled ; at Alvescot the vicarage farm
rose from 200 to 600 a year; Wootton, "Mr.
Sotham has not the least doubt of having yielded
full four times the produce in the 37 years since its
enclosure that it did in a like period before, and the
rent is five times as much as it was in the open
state." Xor did the rise in rent press heavily on
those who paid it; "at Barton the land was let for
scarcely anything, and the fanners generally as poor
as could be; enclosed it let at twenty shillings an
acre, and the farmers in easy circumstances and
doing well, and in all of them the farmers in general
very much benefitted." l Other districts, however,
resisted for a long time the introduction of en-
closures. Campsfield, the open common between
Oxford and "Woodstock, where we have seen the
Oxford fast men taking their morning drive, still
hung on to its old "rights," its cow common and com-
mon meadows, where wretched cross-bred sheep were
tended by " shepherds miserably poor." 2 Whichwood
still spreads over its 7000 acres, filling its vicinity
with "poachers, deer-stealers, and pilferers of every
kind. . . . Oxford gaol would be uninhabited were
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 203
it not for this fertile source of crimes." 1 Most
stubborn of all was Otmoor, where the " commoners "
were backed by the opposition of Lord Abingdon,
and enjoyed the low flat, with its periodical inunda-
tions, its " rot," and " moor-evil," undisturbed. 2 Long
after, at a time just previous to the passing of the
Reform Bill, the carrying out of the enclosure in
that distiict gave rise to the notable Otmoor riots,
which still linger in the recollection of many of our
readers.
Great changes, too, were taking place in what we
may call the interior economy of the farm. Oxford-
shire became noted for the neatness and regularity
of its rickyards. The farmers, says Young, "have
a proper pride in a clean and well ordered rickyard
and are sure to walk a stranger into them. They
form so perfect a contrast to the ragged heaps called
stacks, by the courtesy of Suffolk and Norfolk, that
I have returned to my own county and farm with
no little disgust." 3 The thrashing mill, though a
new invention at the close of the last century, was
rapidly superseding the flail Other implements
made slower progress. In 1807 only a few drills
had crept into the county, scarifiers and scuffiers
were " very rare indeed," and not a single horse-hoe
was to be seen nearer than Henley-bridge.* Horse-
hoeing Young notes as "quite unknown in Oxford-
shire." 6 The system of rotation of crops was still
regarded in some quarters as an innovation ; 6 there
were but one or two fields of cabbage ; rape was only
204 OXFORD STUDIES
to be found on tlie rich red land north of Banbury.
Swedes were in 1807 just beginning to attract atten-
tion, but at Milton where Sir 0. Willoughby, the
great patron of the plant, had covered considerable
tracts of land with it, there had been none five
years before. 1 In this branch of agriculture Oxford-
shire seems to have taken the lead among English
counties. In other respects it was not so ad-
vanced. Nature had her own water-meadows at
Watereaton, where the summer floods would some-
times sweep away five hundred pounds worth of
hay in a season, 3 but there was not a single artificial
water-meadow in the county. Where attempts were
made to introduce them they were frustrated by the
opposition of the millers. 3 Artificial manure in the
shape of peat or coal ash had begun to make
its appearance under the patronage of Mr. Pane. 4
Southdowns were being gradually introduced " to the
exclusion of the Berkshires"; 5 the Ohilterns produced,
says a competent witness, half as much again as they
did thirty years before, and the increase was attri-
butable to " the increase of live stock by more turnips
and artificial grass." 6
Of the condition of the labourer we only gain in-
cidental glimpses. His wages, too, had risen more
than a third in the last forty years of the eighteenth
century. At its close his wages amounted to about
nine or ten shillings a week, with a rise to twelve
shillings in harvest. This was at a time when, in
the Oxford Market, beef was at 7|d. per pound, and
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 205
the quartern loaf at Dd. 1 " There are gardens, and
good ones, to nine-tenths of the cottages I have seen
in Oxfordshire." And he adds a curious fact, * fc A
few years ago they had no potatoes ; now all have
them. Formerly, they did not like that root with
their bacon, only cabbage; at present, they are
generally eaten." 2 Of their occasional hardships,
and how much these have been relieved by national
progress, we gain a glimpse in the following note.
"Before the navigable canal, about 1780, the people
at Heyford were greatly distressed for firing, wood
being scarce; they were obliged to burn straw,
etc., or anything they could procure ; but now
as well supplied with coals as any village in
Oxfordshire." 3
Far greater distress, however, than that of the
agricultural labourers was the lot of the manufac-
turing hands at Witney, Thame, and Woodstock.
In the middle of the last century there were above
five hundred weavers in full employ at Witney, but
it sank gradually to below half that number, and so
great were the fluctuations of the trade, that though
revived for a time by the introduction of spinning
jennies, it sank in the five years preceding 1807
from four hundred to one hundred and fifty. At
Thame a little lace manufacture was insufficient to
save the town from "depressing poverty," which
was enhanced by the high price of coals, 2s. 2d. per
cwt. Greater still were the fluctuations in the
trade of "Woodstock. At the beginning of the
206 OXFOKD STUDIES
century, the manufacture of articles of polished steel
was introduced by a !Mr. Metcalfe, and to such a
height was it carried, that a chain of two ounces was
sold for ^ITO, 1 the box in which the freedom of the
borough was presented to Viscount Cliefden cost
30 guineas, and a garter star for the Duke of Mail-
borough 50 guineas, while a pair of scissors sold in
proportion to their workmanship, at from 5s. to 3
guineas. At the close of the century, however, the
trinkets of Birmingham and Sheffield had driven
these articles from the market, and not more than
a dozen hands were employed in their manufacture.
About 1750, however, the manufacture of leather
into breeches and gloves, had been established here,
and in 1807 no less than sixty to seventy men were
engaged as "grounders" and "cutters," at wages
of from a guinea to 30s. a week, and from 1400 to
1500 women, who earned from 8s. to 12s. So
flourishing was the trade at this time, that the manu-
facture had risen, in ten years, from thirty dozen
to four hundred dozen per week. In addition to
these manufacturing centres, we may notice that
the general employment of the female poor, at the
close of the eighteenth century, was in the south of
the county lace-maMng, while spinning prevailed
through the north and midland portions. 2 The
average of the county poor-rates was 4s. 8d. in the
pound, but these varied greatly in different parts,
from the 2s. rates of Kelmscott, to 10s, at Burford,
and 14s., in the scarcity, at Bensington. The poor-
OXFORD DURING- THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 207
rate for the city in 1803 (the date of these statistics)
seems to have been slightly below the average of the
county, amounting to 4s. 4d. in the pound. 1 We have
only to add, that at the beginning of the present
century, the population of the city was estimated at
about 13,000, that of the county at 96,000. 2
XIX
So much interest has been taken in the restoration
of the City Kaces, that we may perhaps find some
little entertainment in a glance at them a century
ago. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, in the
month of July, were the days selected for the sport ;
the piincipal prize was the gold cup of one hundred
guineas in value (in addition to 40 in specie) ; the
town purse of 50 for five-year-olds ; a stake of the
same value for four-year-olds ; and a ,50 gift from
the stewards. Lord Abingdon, Lord Robert Spencer,
Sir James Whalley Gardiner, and Captain Bertie
(then master of the hounds) and Mr. Bowler, seem
to have been the chief patrons of the sport. Dur-
ing the period of the races, Oxford was a scene of
gaiety. Public breakfasts alternated with the balls
and musical entertainments of the evening; while,
for the less refined, there were matches in the
Cockpit, in Holywell, "each morning of the races,
between the gentlemen of Oxford and the gentlemen
of Watlington for five guineas a battle, and fifty
guineas the odd battle," 1 and E.O., upon which we
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 209
find the Mayor and constables busy in effecting a
razzia. 1 Itinerant hairdressers came down from
London to prepare the elaborate head-dresses of the
ladies who flocked in from every quarter to the races,
the assemblies, and " Mr. Sadler's balloon." 2
The ascent of a balloon, so ordinary an event with
us, was in 1784 a new discovery, for the honour
and precedence in which France and England were
eager in contending. To the unscientific it seemed
little less than a miracle. " Mr. Eudge, of Queen's,"
was not the only college Fellow who launched these
wondrous machines amid the applause of the univer-
sity; nor the Marquis of Blandford the only peer
who considered it an honour to cut the string that
fastened it to the earth. 3 But this interest rose to
its greatest height when adventurers trusted them-
selves to this frail means of ascent. One of the
first of such exploits, in England, was the ascent
of Mr. Sadler from the Physic Garden, November
12, 1784 The accounts notice "a surprizing con-
course of people of all ranks ; the roads, streets, fields,
trees, buildings, and towers of the parts adjacent
being crowded beyond description." After crossing
Otmoor, Thame, etc., the balloon descended near Sir
William Lee's; and on the aeronaut's arrival in Oxford,
"the populace seized the chaise at the entrance of
the town, took off the horses, dragged the carriage
through several of the principal streets of this city,
and were not content till they had compelled the
inhabitants to illuminate their houses." 4
210 OXFOKD STUDIES
Balloons were not the only amusements which
Oxford had to offer her visitors or inhabitants. The
Music-room was at this time at the height of its
prosperity. Every Monday evening a concert of
vocal and instrumental music was held (except dur-
ing September and Passion week) ; the Messiah was
performed in. Lent, some other oratorio in Act
Term, and in Easter and Michaelmas Terms either
a piece of choral music, or a grand miscellaneous
concert. The subsciiption was a guinea for two
tickets, a sum so small that we* wonder how the
stewards could provide, as they undoubtedly did,
such singers as Mara and Catalan! The amuse-
ments of Oxford seem to have been softened and
refined by the character of the place. "While Want-
age had its back-sword feast, and Stow-on-the-Wold
offered the munificent prizes of " half-a-guinea to each
man breaking a head, and two shillings and six pence
to each man having his head broke," 1 Oxford was
unobtrusively fostering "Florist Feasts," the humble
precursors of our Horticultural Societies. " A show
of Carnations in the Town Hall, August 8, 1782," 2
seems to have been one of the first of these exhibi-
tions, which, from this time, continued to be held annu-
ally. No theatre was, as yet, established at Oxford ;
but a flourishing dramatic company could be found at
Burford, andat^Yoodstock An advertisement, warning
all trespassers off the domains of Lord Harcourt, 3 would
seem to point to the first origin of that most enjoyable
of all quiet amusements a water-party to Nuneham,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 211
It was from Nuneham that King George, with his
Queen, and the Princes Ernest, Augustus, Adolphus ;
the Princesses Royal, Augusta, and Elizabeth, visited
Oxford, September 13, 1785. This event, at any
time an interesting one for Oxford, was especially
notable as a sign and seal of that great change
in the position of antagonism which the city had
occupied up to the accession of the present king
towards the Hanoverian dynasty. From Jacobite
Oxford had become Tory, and was free once more
to bask in the sunshine of royal favour. There
were recent obligations due to her which George III.
was of all men least likely to forget. In the heat
of the great struggle in which Pitt, with the aid
of the King, eventually succeeded in breaking for
ever the oligarchic yoke of the great Whig houses,
Oxford had come to the aid of the minister in his
encounters with a hostile majority ; had expressed to
the Bang its " most cordial thanks for your Majesty's
late goodness and wisdom in removing from your coun-
cils " the heads of the coalition ministry of Fox and
North; adding, "at the same time we intreat your
Majesty to accept our hearty congratulations upon
the appointment of a Ministry who, we have reason
to believe, are equal in ability and virtue to the
important trust they have undertaken, and in every
respect deserving the confidence of the people at
large, so generally bestowed upon them." "We
shall ever be ready," said the address in conclusion,
"to support the constitutional exercise of all your
212 OXFORD STUDIES
royal prerogatives, and we will not cease to implore
the blessing of Almighty God upon a Prince whose
exemplary life and character have so justly rendered
him the object of universal veneration and esteem." 1
This address they even prevailed on their member,
Lord Kobert Spencer, though himself in opposition,
to present to the King. Reward was not long in
coming. Warton, the fellow of an Oxford college,
was now the court laureate, and, for the first time
since the accession of the Georges, Oxford shared
with Cambridge the honour of a royal visit. The
royal party, accompanied by the Earl and Countess
of Harcourt, entered the city in five carriages, and
passing through the fields behind Merton College,
attended morning prayers at the Cathedral. After
inspecting Christ Church, they were waited upon at
Corpus by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Dennis, Presi-
dent of St. John's College, preceded by the Beadles,
"with their staves inverted," who conducted them
by the Schools to the Theatre, where the Heads of
Houses and the Proctors had the honour of kissing
their Majesties' hands, while Dr. Hayes performed
several overtures on the organ. After visiting the
Bodleia^ New College, St. John's, and the Obser-
vatory, the King returned to the Council Chamber,
and conferred the honour of knighthood on the
Mayor (John Treacher, Esq.), who, with the Alder-
men, assistants, and other members of the Corpora-
tion, kissed hands. All Souls', Queen's, and Magdalen,
having been inspected, the royal party quitted
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 213
Oxford at a little past five, and returned by Lord
Harcourt's to Windsor. It may interest future in-
vestigators into royal costume to know that "his
Majesty and the young Princes were in a blue
and gold uniform, the Queen in a plain lilac silk, the
Princess Royal and Princess Elizabeth in pale blue,
and Princess Augusta in light green," The enthusiasm
of the citizens seems to have been boundless. Bells
rang incessantly from, the arrival of the royal family
till their departure, and at night the city was "grandly
illuminated." l
The mention of the Mayor, whom this accolade
converted into Sir John Treacher, reminds us that
the year immediately preceding had been distin-
guished by three Mayoralties. The Mayor for the
year beginning September 1782 was Mr. William
Fletcher, mercer ; the Bailiffs being Mr- Christopher
Yeats and Mr. John Collis. 2 His successor was Mr.
John Watson, with Mr. Stephen Haynes and Mr.
William Costar, Bailiffs. 3 On the 29th of March, in the
succeeding year (1784), Mr. Watson died, and, as an
election was close at hand, and a returning officer
necessary, Mr. Isaac Lawrance was elected in his
place for the remainder of the year of office. 4 July,
however, saw the death of Mr. Lawrance, at the age
of seventy ; 5 and the Mayoralty now fell to Alderman
Edward Tawney, 6 who was more fortunate than his
predecessors. Nicholas Halse, Esq., held the chief
magistracy during the following year, with Mr.
Pears and Mr, Bush, Bailiffs. 7 Mr. Halse had pre-
214: OXFORD STUDIES
viously been elected Assistant in the year 1 783. l The
only event connected with the Corporation recorded
during these four years, from 1782 to 1785, was the
opening of u the organ, just erected, hy Mr, Green,
of London, for the Corporation of this city," in
Carfax Church, by a voluntary played by Dr. Hayes,
which ushered in the procession of Mayor and
Aldermen. Mr. Cross was appointed organist, for
whose benefit the oratorio of Judas Maccabseus was
performed in St. Martin's. 2
The election which caused so hasty a re-election
of Mayor, was caused by that dissolution of Parlia-
ment by Pitt, which resulted in the return of a
triumphant majority in his favour, and the annihila-
tion of the old Whig faction. But, though Oxford
had been so lavish of fair words, the yoke was too
strong to be thrown off, and the old members, Lord
Robert Spencer and Captain Bertie, though open
followers of Fox, were returned without opposition. 3
The scene was hardly more creditable at Banbury,
where the territorial influence of Lord North secured
his re-election. " Some disgust having been conceived
at a former election, relative to the beer which had
been withheld from the companies of woolcombers,
weavers, etc., they peremptorily declined accepting
any favours from his Lordship, and, determining to
have an election of their own, constituted a corpora-
tion among themselves. At the time Lord North's
election was carrying on, the new-created corporation
passed his Lordship in grand procession, with music,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 215
flags, and a curious display of the coalition, which
consisted of a fox and a badger, the latter with a blue
riband" (Lord North habitually wore the badge of
the Order of the Garter), " and both suspended from
a branched pole. The companies having elected their
member, he was chaired amidst the acclamations of
more than a thousand people." l The mention of the
companies in this extract, from the papers of the time,
is illustrated by the account of the thanksgiving day at
Salisbury, in the same year, where the effigy of the
giant, St. Christopher, was escorted by a procession
of the companies of joiners, shoemakers, weavers,
tailors, and woolcombers ; the last of which made, on
this occasion, its " first appearance as a society, and
added in no small degree to the beauty of the scene ;
they were preceded by a boy and girl, elegantly
habited in the dresses of a shepherd and shepherdess,
and followed by a band of youths, uniformly dressed
in white, with sashes of various-coloured wool, and
carrying wands; next came Bishop Blaze in his
episcopal robes and mitre, holding a prayer-book and
wool-comb in his hands, mounted on a white horse,
attended by pages, and followed by his chaplain, also
mounted on a white steed. The body of combers,
drest in white uniforms, with sashes of wool, and a
banner of the same, closed a scene which gave infinite
satisfaction to the spectators." 2
218 OXFORD STUDIES
with the Imperial Ambassador and a brilliant suite. 1
A more really beneficial result of the royal visit was
a present from the King of ,300 towards the release
of the poor debtors in Oxford gaol, and a remission
to each of the better-conducted convicts of a part of
their sentence. By the means of this benefaction the
Earl of Harcourfc was enabled to effect the discharge
of twenty-five out of the twenty-seven debtors con-
fined in the Castle. 2 Benevolence was not confined
to royalty ; in the month of January of this year
"five hundred half -peck loaves, a benefaction from
Sir John Treacher, our late Mayor, were distributed
among the necessitous freemen and the widows of
freemen of this city." 3
Among the more miscellaneous events of this year
may be noticed one which recalls the more recent
sacrilege at New College ; the robbery of two pair
of massive candlesticks and a large silver offertory
plate from Magdalen Chapel, by an organised gang
of thieves, who effected an entrance through the
woodyard and kitchen into the cloisters, and made
their way into the Chapel by means of a false key.
They were convicted at the next assizes, two reprieved,
and Ward, the leader of the gang, executed in the
month of April. 4 A curious instance of the low
morality of the times may be seen in the frequency
of the "Wife Sales." In August 1786 we find that
" one Broom, of Kennington, near this city, sold his
wife to a person of the name of Pantin, of Little
London, for five shillings, to whom she was publicly
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 219
delivered soon after with a halter about her neck ;
but it seems Pantin was very soon sick of his bargain,
for in the afternoon of the same day he generously
made a present of her to Sadler, the Woodward of
Bagley." 1 And in the year 1789 we find the new
Oxford market-place selected as the scene of one of
the brutal barters by a "navvy" employed on the
canal, who " tied a penny slip round the waist of his
wife, the end of which he held fast till he had pocketed
three shillings in part payment, the purchaser not
abounding in cash; he then put the cord into the
hands of the new husband and took a French leave.
The woman immediately called for her second wed-
ding ring, which being put on she eagerly kissed the
fellow, with whom she walked off." 2
The Mayor chosen for the year beginning Septem-
ber 1786 was Mr. Bichard Weston ; Mr. William
Forty and Mr. Edward Hatchings being elected
Bailiffs. 3 In the next month the honorary freedom
of the city was presented to Sir Charles Nourse and
Mr. William Jackson, the originator and proprietor
of the Oxford Journal.* The same honour was in the
course of the next year conferred on Lord Heath-
field, better known as General Elliott, the gallant
defender of Gibraltar, on his casual passage through
the city. 5 We find the corporation during the year
1787 distinguishing itself by a crusade against "the
unlawful practice of forestalling and regrating which
has lately prevailed in the market of this city " ; 6 but
our smile at such folly will perhaps be tempered by
220 OXFORD STUDIES
the recollection that at this very time Lord Kenyon
was busy preaching much the same sort of political
economy from his seat on the King's Bench. The
Commemoration of this year was enlivened by a
public breakfast in Trinity College Gardens. 1 "The
tables were plentifully and elegantly covered under the
shade of the lime tree walk near the shrubbery/ 2 We
instinctively think of Tom Wart on, "gobbling" and
punning from one table to another, and listening by
turns to the compliments of the ladies, and what was
always such a magnet to him, the strains of "the
Oxford band," Year after year his birthday and
congratulatory odes meet us now in the columns of
the Journal. They do not cease till we meet with
the announcement of Ms burial (May 1790) in the
college chapel, the funeral being attended by all the
dignitaries of the university. Antiquarian, one
might think, even in death, there were found, in
digging for his grave, some few remains of a for-
gotten predecessor in the occupation of those last
few feet of earth, "a buckle about the bigness of
a crown piece," and " some fine silver thread which
might probably have belonged to the fringe of his
girdle." 3
At the civic election for the year 1788 we find
Mr. Francis Gulden elected Mayor; Mr. William
Hyde and Mr. James Tagg bailiffs; Mr. Thomas
Benwell and Mr. John Cox chamberlains ; while the
vacancies in the Council Chamber were filled up by
the election of Mr. William Slatter, Mr. Simon
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 221
Brown, and Mr. Hichard Cox. 1 The mayoralty was
signalised by another passage of the royal party
through the city on their way to Cheltenham. 2 In
May of this year we find " the Oxfordshire Kegiment
of Militia " quartered in the city for their annual
exercise of one month reviewed on Port Meadow
by their colonel, Lord Chas. Spencer, and dismissed
after a dinner in the Council Chamber. 3 From this
time the corps seems to have been regularly exercised
at Bullingdon and elsewhere, and to have excited an
amount of warlike enthusiasm similar to that which
is every day springing up more and more around us.
England was, in fact, unconsciously training for her
death struggle with that revolutionary power which
was rapidly rising into greatness on the other side of
the Channel. Whiggism was beginning to be con-
founded with Jacobinism, and the loyal corporations
were everywhere rallying round William Pitt. In
his struggle with Fox and the Carlton House Whigs,
on the Regency question, he received the thanks of
the City of Oxford, in common with "the 267
patriotic members of the House of Commons, who
so nobly maintained the rights and privileges
of the two Houses of Parliament" to supply
the defect of the personal exercise of the Royal
authority, in opposition to the hereditary claims
of the Prince of Wales. 4 The strife was ended
by the recovery of the King from his temporary fit
of insanity, and nowhere was that recovery hailed
with louder rejoicings than at Oxford. A public
222 OXFORD STUDIES
dinner was given by the corporation, the city flag
was displayed from the tower of St. Martin's, the
bells rang incessantly throughout the day, and
drums and fifes paraded the streets. The night was
the signal for a general illumination, in which the
colleges ("for the first time," it is noted) shared; the
walls and palisades of the churches, and the "City
Colonade" on Carfax, were decorated with lights,
and scarce a cottage in the suburbs neglected to display
its owner's loyalty. The Duke of Leinster, who,
with the rest of the Irish deputation, sent to offer
the unrestricted Regency to the Prince of Wales, had
been met in Oxford by the news of the King's
restoration to health, saw the poor watchmen each
contributing his pound of candles to ornament his
box ; and a stage-waggon, stripped of its tilt, with
the naked hoops studded over with lights, and a group
of loyal fellows seated within, trolling out loyal
songs, and passing round the health of King George
till break of day. 1 Pitt was not forgotten in the
general exultation. In October 1789 we find him
passing through the city, in the company of Lord
Auckland and Lord Henry Spencer, the bells ringing
almost without pause during the whole time of their
stay. 2 The mere threat of an attempt at a repeal
of the Test and Corporation Act revived in 1790 the
vigour of civic Toryism ; by an unanimous vote of the
council, the city members and the High Steward
were requested to oppose the project, 8 and the Duke
of Marlborough and Lord Abingdon showed ready
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 223
deference to the wishes of what was almost their
pocket-borough.
The most interesting event of the year 1789 was
the falling of the "Founder's Oak" in Magdalen
Water walks. It stood at their entrance, 1 and, by its
dimensions and antiquity, had become an object of
great curiosity. In girth it exceeded 21 feet, in
height 71 feet, and its cubic contents 754 feet For
more than nine feet from the ground it was a mere
shell, and had for a long time been kept from falling
by two or three roots "scarcely so large as a two-
inch cable." Its age was estimated at upwards of
six centuries, and in the fifteenth century it was
already so notable an object, that "William of Wayn-
flete expressly ordered his college to be built " nigh
to it." It is curious that its fall was attributed to
injuries received so far back as the reign of Charles
IL, when the present walks were laid out. 2 A portion
of its timber was applied by the College to the con-
struction of a large and highly-ornamented chair, and
numerous snuff-boxes still remain as mementoes of its
existence*
The Mayor for the year 1789 was Mr. John
Parsons, mercer, Mr. William Wright and Mr. James
Rowland being chosen bailiffs. 3 The next year saw
Mr. William Thorp, senior, elevated to the mayoralty,
while Mr. John Johnson and Mr. Thomas Hardy be-
came bailiffs, Mr, James Halse and Mr. John Swift
being elected chamberlains. 4 How carefully the city
was nursed by this corporation may be seen from
224 OXFORD STUDIES
the transactions connected with the election of Mr.
Annesley in 1790. Immediately on the arrival of
the news of Captain Bertie's death, the Mayor con-
vened the Corporation and the Council, who unani-
mously put in nomination Arthur Annesley, Esq.,
of Bletchingdon, who was at once ushered into the
town by many gentlemen of the corporation, and a
large body of the freemen, with drums, music, and
colours. A canvass was commenced ; upwards of a
hundred houses opened for the entertainment of the
freemen ; and the candidate, after dining with the
electors at the Angel, was drawn in triumph by the
crowd, which took the horses from his carriage,
through the principal streets. The freedom of the
city was presented him in a gold box, and Mr.
Annesley returned the compliment by a grand enter-
tainment to the Council and Chamber in the Town
HalL In spite, however, of this elaborate prepara-
tion an opposition candidate was at the last moment
started, a Mr. Ogilvie, who, however, succeeded in
polling only 103 votes against the 613 which were
recorded for his opponent and the Corporation. 1
Civilities were bandied briskly enough between the
civic dignitaries and the neighbouring peers, who
were desirous of a seat for younger sons. Captain
Parker is presented with the freedom of the city,
and his father, the Earl of Macclesfield, entertains at
the Star the members of the Tailors and Cordwainers
Companies ; " upon which occasion the two honorary
members," Captain Parker and Lord Parker " were
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 225
each presented with a taylor's silver thimble and a
silver-bladed shoemaker's awl in an ivory handle." l
The Town Hall was restored and made commodious
in 1790, by the orders and at the expense of the
Marquis of Blandford, while his father, the Duke of
Marlborough, presented the room with u a magni-
ficent gilt chandelier and chain." 2
XXI
THE year 1792 found Oxford, in common with the
rest of the kingdom, eagerly watching the progress
of revolution in France. Whatever sympathy the
first outhreak of liberty had excited was being fast
extinguished by the excesses into which the revolu-
tion had by this time plunged ; and that reaction
was commencing which was eventually to defer for
nearly half a century later the slightest approaches
to a just reform of the representation. The king's
head which, to use Danton's daring phrase, France
threw down as her gage of defiance to Europe, was
for England the symbol of a Tory despotism founded
on the horror which that deed of blood excited.
Addresses of confidence in existing institutions
became the order of the day. Fearful of the dark
and stormy sea into which France was so daringly
launching forth, England clung to the worst and
most effete abuses, as though a familiar evil were
hotter than so obscure and uncertain a good. To
those who are willing to cast aside every obstruction
or anomaly in their eager reaching forward to a
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 227
political Utopia, the lesson is no valueless one.
France heaved her way through abuses and anomalies
to the despotism of the second of December ; England
amid abuses and inconsistency waited patiently the
development of her freedom in the great charter
of 1832.
Addresses of confidence, as we have said, poured
rapidly in, in answer to the vigorous exertions of
the small knot of English republicans who circulated
so diligently the writings of Tom Paine. Such an
address we find presented to the Crown in June
1792 by the Corporation of Oxford. * Kingly
power," said that address, "wisely limited, is the
surest safeguard of the rights and liberties of a great
nation. We have to regret that no branch of the
British Constitution has failed to meet its full share
of reproach and calumny. The church, the nobility,
the representation of the people, have each in their
turn become the object of direct attack, malignant
invective, and insidious ridicule." 1 In the month
of December, in the same year, a "Loyal Associa-
tion " was formed in the city under the presidency
of Thomas "Walker, Esq., and with the patronage of
the authorities both of the university and city, for
the purpose of declaring the firm attachment of its
members to " the happy Constitution of this country,"
and of binding them to "oppose, detect, and suppress all
seditious, treasonable, and inflammatory publications,
whether in newspapers, printed handbills, ludicrous or
caricature prints, etc.," and to assist the magistrates
228 OXK>KD STUDIES
in the suppression of any riot or disturbance ; and to
the resolutions of this society the Taylors' Company,
the most important body in civic politics, gave in
its formal assent 1 (We may notice in passing that
the then Mayor, Edward Lock, Esq., had in August
been elected an honorary member of this company.) 2
The university was at the same time busy in the
relief of the French refugee clergy, towards whose
support the Vice-Chancellor was enabled in November
to transmit the sum of 500, as a first instalment,
and in December a further sum of more than ^600. 3
These expressions of political feeling were not confined
to the higher classes. In January 1793 we find the
rabble " parading the streets of this city with lighted
torches, and bearing about the effigy of Tom Paine,"
amid the shouts of a mob of boys, until the evening,
when it was committed to the flames on the top of
Carfax. "The figure was dressed in black, with the
Eights of Man in his left hand and a pair of stays
under his right arm." 4 The same ceremony was per-
formed in the course of the next week at Headington,
with somewhat more state and dignity. "Colonel
Langton and Richard Lloyd, Esq., were particularly
active and zealous on this occasion ; and previous to
the execution a band of music attended the procession,
and God save the King was performed, vocally and
instrumentally, for near five hours, during all which
time the utmost decorum was observed." 5 As the
contest became graver we find the first institution
of that " general fast and humiliation for imploring
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 229
success on our arms, and for restoring the blessings
of peace to this kingdom," which was afterwards
observed throughout the whole of the war, on April
19, 1793. 1 And we are reminded of that dark back-
ground of war, which we are so tempted to lose
sight of in its more dazzling details, in the long list
of subscriptions for the relief of the "widows and
children of seamen or soldiers who may die or be
killed in his Majesty's service during the present
war," which was headed by the Corporation with a
donation of fifty guineas. 2
An agreeable variation of these sadder features
of Oxford history is afforded in the account of the
Duke of Portland's inauguration after his election
to the office of Chancellor of the University, vacated
by the death of Lord North. After attending at a
grand choral service at St. Mary's, whose " galleries
were occupied by a brilliant assemblage of ladies,"
the new Chancellor dined with the governors of the
Radcliffe at a public ordinary in the Town Hall, and
heard Mrs. Billington sing at Dr. Hayes' concert in
the evening. On the next morning he proceeded
to the Theatre, and conferred degrees on the Bishop
of Dromore better known to lovers of English
literature as the collector of The Eeliques of dindent
English Poetry, the amiable and accomplished Dr.
Percy; on the Duke of Devonshire, Lords Bute,
Spencer, and George Cavendish ; on the Eight Hon.
William Wyndham, and a crowd of other noblemen
and statesmen. The same ceremonies on the two
230 OXFORD STUDIES
following days, the graver features of the scene being
relieved by the balls and promenades of the evening,
and the whole being brought to a close by a grand
performance of the Messiah in the Theatre. 1
The employment of the Oxfordshire regiment of
Militia (July 1793) in escorting a thousand French
prisoners from Southampton to Salisbury, 2 plunges
us at once into the bustle of the great Revolutionary
War which ended in 1815, and in November of the
same year the Council is voting twenty guineas
towards the use of the soldiers under the command
of the Duke of York, at that time campaigning in
Flanders; 3 and in April 1794 a sum of 300 was
voted by the Corporation in aid of the subscription
for internal defence, in addition to the individual
contributions of each of its members. The money
was applied towards the raising of two troops of
Fencible Cavalry in the county to serve during
the war, which were soon organized under Major
Parker and Captain Auriel, and marched off into
Northamptonshire. 4 In the midst of these prepara-
tions came the news of the great naval victory
of Lord Howe, which was celebrated by a grand
illumination. The front of Queen's, its parapet, and
cupola, were covered with lights, bands of music
played loyal airs, and the bells rang throughout the
day. The streets were crowded until midnight. 5
Admiral Bowyer, one of the heroes of the day, on
his return to his seat at Eadley, was escorted by
the townsmen of Abingdon in blue ribbons and
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUEY 231
cockades, and entertained by the gentry of the
neighbourhood. 1 The ebullitions of popular loyalty
were, however, sometimes more ardent than wise,
for in the course of this year we find the Dissenting
Minister of Oxford violently assaulted at Woodstock
by a party of recruits " under a mistaken opinion of
Mr. H., the minister's, political character." 2
With war came war-prices and starvation. Every
winter had been accompanied by voluntary subscrip-
tions for the relief of the indigent poor, but these
attempts produced scarcely any impression on the
general distress. Yet the committee could state
that " considerably more than four thousand persons
have been regularly supplied with bread, twice in
the week, at little more than half-price, for the space
of eleven weeks," while the Corporation ordered all
necessitous persons to be supplied with the best
coals at fourteenpence per hundred, and the de-
ficiency to be made good by the City Treasurer, on
a consumption which in less than five months
amounted to six hundred tons. 3 What a boon this
was we see from the joy with which the arrival of a
canal boat, in the opening of March, was welcomed.
The canal had been closed by a frost for more than
ten weeks ; coals had been brought by land carriage
from Birmingham, and sold at four shillings a
hundred. 4 The county magistrates decided that for
a man arid his wife, wages to the amount of at least
six shillings a week were necessary, adding one shilling
for every additional child, and that where the family
232 OXFORD STUDIES
earnings were less, the overseer should mate up the
deficiency. 1 The scarcity did not cease with the
winter, and the usual amount of folly in the shape
of proposals for its relief began to crop up. The
farmers around Burford resolved "to sell their corn
only to mealmen and bakers who shall consume the
same at or near home, and not to any jobber, for
they have found," adds the editor, "that persons of
this description buy up various sorts of grain, and
send it by different canals out of the country. The
above laudable resolution, if universally adopted,
will put an effectual stop to these proceedings." 2
Such nonsense as this was not confined to farmers.
Lord Dudley informed his tenants " that if they do
not sell their wheat at what may be deemed a fair
and reasonable price, he will, according as they sell
exorbitantly, advance their rents at Michaelmas, and
give the sum arising from such advance to the poor." 3
It is scarcely possible to conceive that the Wealth
of Nations had been many years in existence, and
that Adam Smith's pupil, William Pitt, was the first
minister of Great Britain. The Duke of Marlborough
and Lord Harcourt showed greater sense in the
example which they set of ploughing up a great part
of their parks to raise grain.* The Vice-Chancellor
and Heads of Houses unanimously agreed to " reduce
the consumption of wheat in their own families by at
least one-third of the usual quantity, and to recom-
mend the same to their respective societies." 5 In this
they did but follow the example of the Privy Council,
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 233
who had entered into a similar agreement to consume
only bread with a mixture of one-third of barley-flour.
As might be expected, these quixotic attempts pro-
duced no great impression, and, in July 1795, a
general subscription is again set on foot for the
relief of the poor, and the reduction of the price of
bread in their case to fourteenpence the half-peck,
which the corporation headed by a donation of one
hundred guineas. 1 Sufferings such as these were
hardly compensated by great victories like that at
Camperdown, for which we find Oxford busy in a
general thanksgiving in December 1797, sermons
being " preached before the University by the Eev.
Dr. Collinson, Provost of Queen's College ; and before
the Corporation by the Eev. William Green, A.M., of
Magdalen Hall." 2
We have passed over in this hasty sketch of
Oxford, at the close of the last century, some
events of miscellaneous interest, such as the great
eclipse which was very visible here in September
1793, 3 and a curious tornado, which visited the city in
the beginning of 1792.* " A meeting of the Bursars,"
held in 1793, "for the purpose of taking into con-
sideration the late advance of two shillings per
barrel laid on beer by the Oxford brewers/' in which
they invite "proposals from such brewers in the
country as may be inclined to serve the different
colleges," is worth mentioning in these days of
"strikes." 5 A trial of great importance for the trade of
Oxford was that of the Corporation against William
234 OXFORD STUDIES
Taman, who, being matriculated and privileged as a
barber, had tried a variety of other occupations, as a
tallow-chandler, earthenware man, and cutler. The
University contended that his privilege from matricu-
lation entitled him to the exercise of all or any of
these in addition to his tonsorial profession. The
City relied on charters, etc., to prove that the
privilege was limited to that particular trade of
barber, which he was entitled to exercise as a
matriculated person. The jury, with the approbation
of Heath, the presiding judge, gave their verdict,
without hesitation, in favour of the City. 1 A serious
mutiny of the Oxfordshire Militia, stationed, in 1795,
at Bletchingdon, must have excited a painful interest
in the county. It was a rough attempt to effect what
their superiors were just as clumsily attempting a
reduction in prices. They cleared the butchers' stalls
of their contents, selling them at fourpence a pound ;
insisted on a farmer's selling wheat at 12 a load,
and carried off flour to the amount of 5000, to
sell at a "fair price" at Lewes market next day.
For the night they encamped at Newhaven, where
they were surrounded and made prisoners by the
Lancashire Fencibles, who were in the neighbour-
hood, but their comrades in barracks, sallying out to
effect their rescue, boldly attacked a troop of Horse
Artillery which disputed their progress, and were
not dispersed without bloodshed. Heavy punish-
ments were inflicted, and four ringleaders shot for
this crime. 2
XXII
"IMAGINATION," said the Greeks of old, "is the
daughter of memory." To those who have accom-
panied us through the series of papers, of which
this forms the conclusion, the converse may appear
equally true. Our memory of the past must indeed
be ever tinged deeply with Imagination. We look
back on a past century as the traveller looks back
on a distant landscape, where the grey of evening
is blotting out one by one the coarser features of
the scene, the miry roads, the squalid huts, the
filthy peasantry, and leaving but the dark masses of
long colonnades of elms, or the distant spires and
pinnacles standing out sharp and black against the
amber sky. As we, too, look back on the century
which we have been sketching, we see how its
fouler and more degrading features have passed
away from men's memories ; how its finer and more
romantic points have been magnified through the
haze of our fancy, till we have summed up and
consecrated all under the name of " The G-ood Old
Times." There would be little harm in all this, if,
236 OXFORD STUDIES
in doing justice to the past, we did not often do less
than justice to the present. Comparisons are pro-
verbially odious; but the comparisons which some
of the older among us are so fond of instituting be-
tween the present and the past are the most odious,
because they are the most erroneous of all It has
been the fate of the author of these papers to have
to strip away much of the romance that enshrouded
the deformity of the Last Century ; to lay bare its
low mean aims, its grossness, its utter want of moral
tone or energy, and it was impossible to do so with-
out provoking some comparison with the present
without the expression of a firm conviction that the
advance from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century
has indeed been a passing from darkness into light
a crossing of the great gulf, which we alluded to in
our first paper, as severing the two most dissimilar
seras of our history.
It is not without reason that " we boast," as old
Homer sang long ago, " to be far better men than
our forefathers." Low as, in the opinion of some,
the standard of our politics has sunk, it would be
hard to wring a consent, even from the lowest of
Oxford pot-wallopers, to the unblushing sale of the
civic representation in Parliament. The stoutest of
reactionaries would stand aghast at a public repri-
mand delivered at the bar of the House to civic
functionaries guilty, on their own confession, of open
and flagrant corruption, at a second bargain con-
cluded even within the walls of Newgate, at the
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237
eighty open public-houses, and the cold collation to
the members of the Corporation, which celebrated
the sale of the seat to the Duke of Marlborough.
Those who still profess to regret the changes effected
by the Municipal Reform Act can scarcely regret
changes which, at any rate, abolished the bribery, the
gin-bottles, the unscrupulous employment of influence
which made a civic election a bye-word. The fellows
of St. John's no longer think it a nocturnal enjoy-
ment to sally forth for a bottle at the neighbouring
alehouses. The Three Tuns no longer affords a means
of convivial pleasure to the dignitaries of All Souls.
The present Professor of Poetry does not rival his
predecessor, Warton, in his love for a pot-house ; nor
is it a common event for noblemen to rise in the
morning after the whet of a quart of brandy. A
highwayman, mounted like Dumas, would be as much
stared at as a mermaid ; we never think of looking
carefully to our pistols as we take our railway ticket.
Our prisons are not the scene of the foulest excesses,
and the most horrible outbreaks ; the pillory is gone
with the stocks and whipping at the cart's tail. The
poor, tattered, supperless servitor has almost vanished.
If the Smart survives, his " smooth unruffled stream "
has at least to break over the rocks of Examiners and
Testamurs; even a gentleman -commoner may be
studious without fear of a taunt of being " a bookish
fellow" from his tutor. "Toasts" and beauties
abound, let us hope, still; but Merton Gardens no
longer catch the whispers of flirtation, or the click of
238 OXFORD STUDIES
Flavia's fan. Baylis and Blenkinsop have disappeared
with the wigs they so deftly manufactured ; and the
barber is no longer seen hurrying to college to pre-
pare the student's peruke for Hall. With the
barber other trades have sunk into comparative in-
significance. The Guild of Cordwainers, the Com-
pany of Tailors, only afford subjects of interest to
the civic antiquary. If we turn from city to county
we can scarce recall the farmer of a hundred years
ago, " fixed fungus-like on his peculiar spot," know-
ing nothing, caring nothing for improvement of the
outer world, amid the present bustle of Farmers'
Clubs and Agricultural Societies. The iron road
along which we whirl in a day from London to
Edinburgh has carried us almost beyond the memory
of the Turnpike of the end of the Last Century, quite
beyond that of the mud-lane of its opening.
This age, however, of the Georges was by no
means an age of inaction. Materially it was an sera
of gigantic progress. "While the mind and con-
science of Europe were waiting, as it were, for the
thunder-burst of the French revolution to wake them
from their death -sleep, mechanical ingenuity and
commercial activity were rapidly raising England
to the position which it holds at this day as the
manufacturing centre of the world. Little as yet was
generally known of the laws by which this commerce
was regulated. Lord Kenyon was charging grand
juries, and Oxford magistrates were advertising
against the practices of forestalling and regrating, the
OXFORD DUKING- THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 239
Court in its anxiety to alleviate a general famine
could think of no other device but that of ceasing
to eat puddings and pastry. But heedless of little
follies like these, the great river was cutting out its
own channels and spreading fertility in its own way
around. And it is from this rapid material progress
of the last century that there is almost as great a
contrast between itself in its beginning and in its
close, as between itself as a whole and its successor.
Nowhere is this contrast more vividly presented
to us than in the papers of this series. As they
open Oxford is hurrahing for Dr. Sacheverell, perse-
cuting Hanoverians, illuminating for the birthday
of the Pretender, and toasting King James in every
tavern and coffee-house. The "deep disloyalty" of
the place is the subject of discussion among the
Lords, and for the last time in the history of Oxford
it is occupied by a hostile garrison. A hundred
years pass, and with them pass all traces of Jacobit-
ism and "Major-General Pepper's dragoons"; a
Hanoverian monarch is still on the throne, but to
whisper a jest upon him is counted a sign of re-
publicanism. Tom Paine is being burnt in effigy, a
loyal association is the fashion of the day, and
crowds throng the streets to huzzah King George
the Third when he honours with frequent visits
his loyal city and university. When 1700 opens
England is thrilling with the glorious news of
Blenheim, of Ramillies, of Malplaquet; the House
of Bourbon is the terror of Europe, and a grand
240 OXFORD STUDIES
confederacy is clipping the ambitious wings of the
Grand Monarque; when it closes the descendant
of Louis XIV, is a refugee at Hatfield, and another
great confederacy is on foot for his restoration to
the throne of the Bourbons. Nor is the contrast
less in our own internal progress. If 1700 witnessed
the university's greatest inactivity and degradation,
1800 saw the first beginnings of that system of
examination which led the way to higher and nobler
intellectual efforts. If religion during the first years
of the eighteenth century seemed dormant within
her walls, the middle of the century sent Wesley
and Whitefield forth to sow the good seed which
may almost be said to have saved England from
the fate of her sister countries of the Continent.
The county was not behind hand. It is the great
sera of enclosures; commons are disappearing, the
great range of open country from Banbury to Chip-
ping-Norton is being parcelled out into fields and
farms; the value of land is doubling and trebling,
and yet the farmers find no reason to complain. The
old race of agriculturists is dying silently away before
the dawn of a better system of culture ; the close of
the century sees a new race springing up eager to
test and adopt the new implements that are to work
a revolution in their modes of farming, the drill and
the thrashing mill, the scarifier and the horse-hoe.
Externally, indeed, there seems little change or pro-
gress in the city. The corporation is as corrupt in
the beginning as in the close of this sera, as busy in
OXFORD DURING- THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 241
fixing the assize of bread, in prohibiting inoculation, in
putting down strikes and combinations for wages.
" Backsword-play " goes on in Gloster-green, and
cock-fighting at the pit in Holywell. St. Giles's fair
remains, even far into the next century, the type in
brutality and excess of St. Bartholomew's. The
streets ring with the oaths and curses of ruffians who
cared little for the watchman or the staff of the
city marshal. But even in amusements signs of a
gradual amelioration peep forth. Concerts grow
more and more frequent. Flower shows, shows of
carnations, trips to Nuneham, trivial as they may
seem to us, are yet the straws that shew the set of
the tide of refinement. The building of the Eadcliffe
Infirmary forms an important sera in the charities of
Oxford. Meanwhile the whole aspect of the city is
undergoing a change by the operation of the Improve-
ment Act of the latter part of the century. A
market-place is established, the lumbering array of
signs and penthouse shops are swept away, the streets
are paved and lighted, the kennel over which Johnson
stood so long astride, wrapt in meditation, disappears.
The entrances of the city are widened by the removal
of the old gates a sweeping measure which we can-
not but regret while we approve it by the construc-
tion of the present fine bridges, and by the removal
of the ruinous blocks of houses which disfigured the
approaches to them.
It is a topic on which one would be tempted to
enlarge in an age when the importance of local and
R
242 OXFORD STUDIES
sanitary improvements and the connexion of wide
open streets and free-air circulation with health is
becoming daily more recognized. But our limits
"bid us pass on to another topic which may have
struck, perhaps, the readers of this series. Interest-
ing books have been written on the boyhood of great
men ; it was one of the felicities of our subject that
it introduced us to not a few of England's greatest
intellects at a time of still greater interest than their
boyhood, the time of brief rest ere that plunge into
the life-ocean which some were to buffet so manfully,
where some were to suffer so terrible a shipwreck.
We saw the father of the Wesleys, with his allowance
of five shillings from his friends, copying, running
errands, teaching, for a livelihood; Foote acting
Punch through the streets, ridiculing the pedantry
of Provost Gower, and dashing through Oxford in a
coach and six greys. Malmesbury met us, the future
diplomatist, drinking claret and playing whist with
Eden and Charles Fox; the brilliant though dis-
cursive writer whom we have so recently lost, De
Quincey, was there, entering hall with coat buttoned
to the throat, and gown drawn close about him to
conceal the rents in his threadbare habiliments;
Collins was parading about Queen's or Magdalen in
laced hat and the finery of an exquisite ; a greater
poet, a still more unhappy man, Shelley, is staining
his carpet with vitriol or making ducks and drakes
in the pool below Shotover, or snatching up the
children whom he met for a kiss. Gibbon paces the
OXFORD DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 243
cloisters of Magdalen in his velvet cap and silk
gown, sneering at the port-bibbing dons whom he
mixes with in common-room, and sneered at by them
in turn as they see him poring over his D'Herbelot ;
making tours to Bath, to Buckinghamshire, to London;
and poring over Arabic and bills with the same cynical
indifference. Tom Warton has strolled with us up
Headington Hill or round the Cherwell meadows,
amusing us with his poetry and his puns, his gobbled
criticisms, his enthusiasm at a fife and a drum.
Greatest of all we have seen Johnson's gaunt con-
vulsed form lounging at Pembroke gate, a wit, a
rebel, a king among his fellows, at once so proud and
so poor.
They are gone these men of the last century
and their age is gone with them. We inherit the
material wealth it bequeathed to us; its manufac-
tures and its commerce, its roads, canals, and spinning-
jennies but the age has gone it has left us nothing
of itself. There is, as we said at the very outset, a
great gulf between our aims, our purposes, our
standards of what is high and excellent, and the
aims, purposes, standards of the age which we have
been investigating. The fishermen of the Northern
Seas believe that seamen sometimes land on what
seems a great island, and whilst reposing in fancied
security, the Kraksa 1 for the island is that fabled
monster sinks and is seen no more. As we turn
our eyes away from this Eighteenth Century on
which we have been landing so lately, it seems
244 OXFORD STUDIES
like the Kraksa to sink into the deep sea of
oblivion we gaze easily beyond to the firm solid
land the age of Cromwell, of Elizabeth, of the Re-
formation but the Age of the Georges is vanished
for ever.
YOUNG OXFOKD
THERE are few earthly surprises at once so old and
so pleasant as the surprise with which, after a few
years' absence from Oxford, one returns to find one-
self an anachronism. It is not merely that the
ordinary social changes of life have gone on more
rapidly there than elsewhere, that a little world
which renews itself every three or four years presents
new faces and new voices to us, that, if we seek for
some enduring element amid the chaos of novelty,
we are driven to make friends with a veteran scout, or
to gaze with a sigh of relief on an immortal bedell.
It is not the faces only, but the whole atmosphere of
Oxford that has changed. The puns, the sermons,
the Kewdigates, the heroes of the past are utterly
forgotten. It is one peculiarity of a place at first
sight so eminently traditional, that there is no tradi-
tion; the great boating deeds of Smith, the great
proctorate of Brown, the wit of Eobinson, the learning
of Jones, vanish with the generation that knew them.
We find ourselves in the midst of a world that has no
past, in which a modern life is for ever ebbing
248 OXFORD STUDIES
and flowing through time-honoured cloisters and
beneath immemorial elms, where the most
venerable of living beings is the man in his last
term.
It is difficult to express the sense of fogyism with
which one reads the innumerable Oxford jevx d'espnt
that float down to hall or parsonage as Charlie comes
home for vacation; such amusing little essays, for
instance, as these which have just been collected in
the form of the Oxford Spectator. There is all the old
fun, the old sense of social ease and brightness and
freedom, the old medley of work and indolence, of
jest and earnest, that made Oxford life so picturesque.
But every form in which this spirit embodied itself is
changed. We have to begin our Oxford again, as we
had to begin it when we faced the Vice-Chancellor at
our matriculation. All is new, all is strange to us,
and we are plunged once more into the "Freshman's
Dream " which has been so ingeniously sketched by a
writer in these essays :
I dreamed that I was wandering at midnight in the
Christ-church meadows. The sun was shining, and all
the trees bore the similitude of the colossal heads which
form the new decoration of the Theatre. I was hasten-
ing to IfSey to attend a lecture for which I was in no
measure prepared. One tree gravely requested me to
subscribe to the Botanical Gardens, while another asked
me with great affability to wine. Then the ground
beneath my feet turned suddenly to cinders, and I was
exhorted to feel my stretcher, because it was the last lap.
I rose in the air, and found myself on my feet at the
YOUNG OXPORD 249
Union, unable to speak ; I sat down, and was straightway
dining in Hall without cap or gown, where my old school-
master glared at me from a frame upon the wall Thea
came Alcestis, whose face was still that of the College
Porter. With one hand she solved a quadratic equation,
and with the other she whispered in tones of silvery
sweetness, " the Proctor's compliments, sir, and are you a
member of the University ? " 1
It is the contrast of this social novelty with the
historic and unchanging aspect of the place, of its real
life and its ideal life, which gives such a strange
charm to Oxford. The future Antony-a-Wood who
sets himself to describe the true and not the merely
official history of Alma Mater will find himself face
to face with the most picturesque, because the most
rapidly changing, panorama in the world. Without
stirring the dust of the middle ages he will recall the
martial tramp of the academical Cavalier as he
mustered in Broken Heyes or swept out with Rupert
to the fight at Chalgrove Field, the jests of the
sturdy Jacobites who ogled the Toasts in Merton
Gardens or pelted the soldiers of King George, the
earliest Methodists fasting and praying beneath the
eyes of the "pretty fellows," the tap of the martial
drum that could alone draw Professor Warton from
his alehouse, the gaunt figure of Whately stalking
round the meadow, the geological cavalcade behind
Buckland, the sudden adoption of tail-coats and the
most courteous of droops by which Oxford signalized
its worship of Newman and the origin of the new
250 OXFORD STUDIES
" Movement," the debates at the Union, the boats
on the river, the delights of the Long. What will
strike him most, perhaps, in the Oxford of to-day is
the disappearance of the Don. Oxford is Young
Oxford. The queer figures, strange compounds of
shyness and hauteur, who formed the still background
to all the movement and variety of academical life,
have faded away into quiet parsonages. With them
Oxford has lost its last relic of continuity, the last
bond that linked its generations together, the last
memorials of a tradition of discipline. It has not
lost sweetness in them or light, but it certainly has
lost individuality. They were not as other men are.
They had in fact a deep, quiet contempt for other
men. Oxford was their world, and beyond Oxford
lay only waste wide regions of shallowness and
inaccuracy. They were often men of keen humour,
of humour keen enough at any rate to see and to
mock at the mere pretences of "the world of
progress " around them. Their delight was to take a
" progressive idea" and to roast it over the common-
room fire. They had their poetry; for the place
itself, and the reverence they felt for it, filled them
with a quiet sense of the beautiful ; and this refine-
ment and this humour both saved them from bowing
before the vulgar gods of the world without. They
did not care much for money ; they saw their con-
temporaries struggling for it, and lingered on
content with their quiet rooms and four hundred a
year. They cared very little for fame, at least the
YOUNG OXFORD 251
fame that lives in the light of Mudie's countenance,
although most of them had a great dream-work on
hand, of which not a chapter was ever written. "What
they did care for was strangely blended of the
venerable and the ridiculous, for their real love of
learning was mingled with a pedantry both of mind
and of life, and a feminine rigour over the little
observances of society and discipline. Such as they
were, however, Young Oxford has no type of
existence to show so picturesque, so individual.
Its one really new product is the "D. F. Niente,
Esq.," whom the essayists of the Spectator set before
us in the various stages of his academical career.
He
wears the form of a slim and graceful youth, well dressed
and highly perfumed ; his voice is soft, and his manners
attractive, if perhaps a trifle artificial. First you ask his
name, and admire him at a distance for a week ; then
you meet him in company, and are in a moment his
willing captive. He soon allures you to his lair, a spot
strewn with every elegance of luxury and art, with albums
full of fair faces or amusing "sketches," with graceful
trifles from foreign lands, and little notes from all the
ladies in Oxford. There he feeds you with the most
delicate viands, over which you linger like them of old
who could not leave the lotus-beds ; then, before this
enjoyment begins to pall, he leads you forth, and slowly
up and down the High Street, through a long delightful
afternoon, till, before the bell of your College rings for
dinner, you are ensnared. Struggle as you will, you
cannot get free. Henceforth you will act in private
theatricals, and sleep till mid-day ; you will never row or
252 OXFORD STUDIES
run again ; you will be often photographed ; in short, as
your captor is so will you be. 1
No doubt there is a more serious side to Young
Oxford. If dons have fled before this advent of
" shooting stars," of whist, of athletics, of art, before
the endless jangle of pianos and the rattle of billiard-
balls, some of the better elements of the world with-
out have come in. Lepidus, as these essayists paint
him, may be " dainty, delicate, delightful, superficial";
we may get a little sick of his raptures over De
Musset, his egotistical philosophy, his art gossip, the
pretentious little essay which he polishes in a couple
of years till it is too sparkling to be readable, his
feminine fussiness over the last Liberal statute, his
fleers at "the barbarians," his patronage of goodness
and nobleness " from an aesthetic point of view " ;
but with all his affectation Lepidus is quietly
changing this old world into a new. If Oxford is to
educate Englishmen, and not merely to drill them, to
act as an intellectual, and not merely as a social force,
it is time that she knew something and taught some-
thing of Turner and Alfred de Musset. Ten years
ago we should have found no Oxford man daring
enough to talk through a whole paper, as one of these
gentlemen does, about the drawings in the Taylor
buildings, and to talk with a certain amount of
knowledge and good sense. Ten years ago it would
have been hazardous in a mere author of fugitive
papers to suppose such an interest in literature, in the
YOUNG OXFORD 253
humours of Charles Lamb, in the style of Addison, as
these papers in their very form take for granted.
And the result of this extension of Oxford sympathies
is apparent, we think, in a new geniality and fairness
of tone. Oxford has given much in the way of
impulse, of energy, to England, but her impulse has
been narrow, and her energy has been hard. Who
does not recall the bitter, fighting, intolerant temper
that marred much that was lofty and beautiful in the
earlier Oxford movement ; the blind party-spirit, the
cliqueishness, the self-sufficiency that has so often
disenchanted men of Oxford Liberalism? To men
living in a little world, and never looking outside it,
mole-hills become mountains, and to Oxford men
Headington Hill was an Alp. We can forgive much
art-gossip, much prattle over Sainte-Beuve, if it takes
men out into the larger world, where they may gain
a sense of proportion, and add a little sweetness to
their light. Their contact with the actual life around
them, however trivial may be the forms it takes,
their sympathy with the actual hopes and aims of men
at large, may help Oxford in the days that are to
come. For whatever may be the changes that are
impending, it is plain that changes must be, and that
they will be changes that will set our academical
education in a far closer and more practical relation
to the general instruction of the country than its
present system and tradition allows. Whether
Oxford can adapt herself to new national require-
ments will depend not so much on new "Liberal
254 OXFORD STUDIES
statutes" as on the development of a temper in
harmony with the temper of that " world without "
which she has so long despised. And it is because of
the promise of such a development, a promise none
the less significant that its form is so light and
unpretending, that we have noticed these little pages
of the Oxford Spectator.
OXFORD AS IT IS
COMMEMORATION is Oxford in masquerade, and the
mob of country visitors who celebrate its carnivals of
balls and prize essays during the present week are
simply looking on Hamlet with the part of Hamlet
left out. Oxford is in Pall Mall, or up the Rhine, or
scaling the Matterhorn, or doing the Caucasus, and
it has left only its tail behind it. Chancellors and
beadles and doctors of civil law, and a few belated
undergraduates groaning against fate and the caprice
of pretty cousins, form indeed a tail such as no other
place can boast. Some faint shadow of the real life
which has flitted away lingers in the grand incon-
gruities which remain Abyssinian heroes robed in
literary scarlet, degrees conferred by the suffrage of
virgins in pink bonnets and blue, a great academical
ceremony drowned in an atmosphere of Aristophanean
chaf The shadow of Oxford is better than the
substance of other places, no doubt; but we can
hardly wonder that the pretty cousin goes home
again as wise as she came. She has failed to see
Oxford, as Leicester failed to see the Spanish fleet,
3
258 OXFORD STUDIES
"because it was not in sight." It is the season, not
the method of her inquiry, which is at fault. The
one place to study Oxford in is Oxford herself; a
walk down the High tells more of its actual life than
all the books and treatises in the world. Nowhere
does one get less help from sentiment or speculation ;
nowhere can one trust so implicitly to the eye and
ear. The charm of the place lies in a single differ-
ence from the world without it, and that difference is
betrayed in almost ostentatious individualities of
speech, of manner, of costume. It is natural enough
for the pretty cousin, as she peeps into Oriel quad or
wanders round Magdalen cloister, to associate Oxford
with the speculations it has suggested or the traditions
to which it seems to cling. It is hard not to shrink
with a little awe before the long procession of Doctors
and Heads which floods with a gorgeous river of
colour the middle aisle of St. Mary's. But Oxford is
in truth neither historic nor theological nor aca-
demical It is simply young. The first impression
one receives is the true one ; half the faces one meets
are the faces of boys ; everywhere there is the freedom,
the geniality, the noise of a big school.
There is the indolence and the lawlessness too.
The true life of Oxford begins after luncheon. It
lounges about the quad in the sunshine of noon. It
plays bowls on the smooth sward of St. John's, or
does a little lazy archery beneath the elms of New
College. It paddles down to Sandford, or moors its
indolent punt among the water-lilies of Cherwell.
OXFORD AS IT IS 259
It seeks comfort in Symonds's stables, and discusses
with ostler-pundits the odds for the Oaks. Its cricket
drag rattles down High on its way to Bullingdon, its
fours drift down the river and receive comfort and
counsel from the bank. Night brings the magnilo-
quence of the Union, Jones's first speech, and
Eobinson's smashing reply. Choral and quartet
parties burst forth on the evening stillness of the
quads. Brown settles himself in the coziest of sofas
for an hour with his French novel ; Smith wends his
way to the little room in the corner, where the
faithful gather to celebrate the mysteries of whist.
It is a Me possibly without grandeur or high aims,
hardly perhaps the ideal life of a great university
but a life at any rate free and genial and young. It
is difficult, of course, to bring young Oxford into any
very definite relation with the traditional Oxford
which surrounds him. His one relation is that of
picturesque contrast. One turns into the gloomy
quad of S. Leoline's, and every window and drop-
stone of the blackened walls is etched out with gay
lines of flowers. It is in the same gay, flower-like
spirit that young Oxford etches out the grim, dark
outlines of the Oxford of centuries ago. There is a
certain grace even in the revolt which flung aside
academic costume and permitted dress to attain its
highest pitch of negligence in the one spot where it
is still regulated by statute. A long line of founders
and benefactors look down on the results of their
munificence in the group of boyish strollers got up in
260 OZFORD STUDIES
boating flannels and red comforters, or gracefully
lounging beneath mediaeval porches in the abmdon of
a wide-awake and a pea-jacket. It is in vain that
Heads lecture and tutors preach, and proctors insist
on a morning call and a statutory fine. The whole
thing melts in an atmosphere of laughter and fun.
The Head whom nobody cares for, the sermons that
nobody goes to, the halls that fade away into boating
suppers, the tutors that submit to a terminal screw-
ing-in, the proctor who stifles his smile as he pockets
the half-crown, dissolve into unreal beings beneath
the jests of young Oxford. "We dress this jeunesse
dorfa in the philosophic toga and set it before ex-
aminers in bands and white tie, but it is impossible
to make it believe in statutes or testamurs. The
young barbarian believes that he has been sent to
these venerable cloisters to play. The scene at Com-
memoration, the chaff which breaks upon the Latin
poem, the interruptions of the portly orator, the roar
of laughter which greets the Vice-Chancellor's appeal
for a little gravity in the proceedings, convey simply
the undergraduate's impression that everything which
aims at not being play is a joke.
Oxford is young, and oddly enough it is this
peculiar characteristic of the place which has been
especially intensified by modern reforms. The old
Don of port and prejudice has disappeared. The
new teachers are hardly older than the boys they
teach. The country parson who brings up his son
for matriculation stares at the beardless Vice-President,
OXFORD AS IT IS 261
at the gay group of unwhiskered young Fellows round
the High Table, "who are tossing from one to another
the grave titles of Tutor and Dean. The chaff, the
vivacity of common room, strike him as dumb as if
he had looked in casually upon Convocation and
caught bishops playing high jinks. And no doubt
among the actors themselves there is a slight sense
of unreality. Graduate and undergraduate hardly
meet without a smile; the tutor displays somewhat
defiantly a shade of his old interest in the cricket-
score ; it is difficult to bring home to the friends of
last term the impropriety of bonneting the Dean.
The Dean himself longs sometimes for a grey hair or
two when it is necessary to impress on young Oxford
the principles of decorum and self-respect. Still on
the whole the experiment is a success. There is a
great deal more unity and good-feeling about the
place than could possibly exist when a gulf of twenty
years separated governors and governed. Discipline
is quite as efficiently maintained by friendly appeals
to men's good sense as by the puerile severity of
college meetings, and religion can hardly be said to
have suffered from the abolition of compulsory
chapels. The place in fact has quietly changed from
a school into a university, and a discipline originally
framed for boys of fifteen, and which had become an
anachronism with men of twenty, has at last been
adapted to the altered circumstances of the time.
Nor has the change been unfavourable to the Don
himself. No doubt he is young ; young, for instance,
262 OXFORD STUDIES
in dandyism and a tendency to soft living, a youthful
taste for sybarite little dinners in common room, a
weakness in the way of flirtation, a certain poetic
effervescence, a juvenile drift towards laborious
pleasantry and elephantine jest. His muscular energy
has a youthful rawness about it; he is proud of
doing Constantinople in the four weeks of an Easter
vacation, he revels in the Alpine peaks of the Long.
Intellectually he has a boy's want of balance, a wide,
unconscious ignorance, which satisfies itself easily
with parrot-like phrases and a general reliance on
cram ; a juvenile narrowness of mental range, and an
absolute blindness to the greater lines along which
human knowledge is destined to advance. He is
totally ignorant of history in one of the most historic
cities of the world. He knows nothing of science,
though he votes thousands in a lordly way towards
its support from the University chest. He is young
in the intensity of his worships, in the precocity of
his criticism. Before Balliol he falls down, like
Sisera, dead. German has a strange power over him,
as a language in which all human science is summed
up. He contemptuously refers the Professor of
History to a Leipzig treatise, which turns out to be a
summary of Hallam, and bursts upon the Physio-
logical Reader with a scientific Eureka, which proves
to be a translation of Darwin. He has, like most
people of his years, a tendency to epigram, an intoler-
ance of bores and boredom, a turn for paradox. His
youth breaks out in defiant heterodoxies and ortho-
AS IT IS 263
doxies, in a fiery party-spirit, in a passionate loyalty
to academical wire-pullers, in an abhorrence of
" caves " and moderation, in a preference for strict
party votes. He moves heaven and earth to frustrate
the reactionary intrigues which aimed at substituting
a comma for a semicolon in the statute on blunder-
busses. He has the last news from the lobby about
the Tests Bill, and shakes his head distrustfully over
the Solicitor-General But with all this he is honest
and hard-working. The number of books turned
out from Oxford just now is probably greater than at
any time since the years of the Newmania, and the
intellectual energy which produces them is far wider
in temper and actual extent of interest than the
energy of 1840. The Academy is a good index to
the nature of Oxford activity a little too impatient
of vulgarity, too contemptuous of fine writing,
aiming too passionately perhaps at thoroughness and
originality, but still genuine and useful so far as it
goes. In a word, the young Don is a little priggish,
as young people are apt to be. But he is for the
most part eminently genial and good-humoured. His
gaiety and vivacity give life and colour to the place.
People never meet each other without a good story or
a piquant little jest. Nowhere are differences so
wide or so keenly expressed, but nowhere do they
tell less upon the grace and courtesy of social con-
verse. The philosophers who have been rending one
another in pamphlets and on platforms are in common
room the best friends in the world.
264 OXFORD STUDIES
It is curious to watch the influence of the young
Don upon the world into which he is thrown. On
the place itself it tells rapidly, because it is a place
without a tradition, without a past. No place lives
so absolutely in the present, and nowhere is the
present so short. The " old resident," who was the
one chain that linked the generations together, is
quietly drifting away. If he stays, the atmosphere
of youth around him turns Oxford into a Medea's
kettle. He prides himself on being younger than the
youngest. He cracks jokes, he trots out his little
anecdotes, he is the life of the common room, he is
fatal on the croquet-ground. It is on the croquet-
ground that the new social aspects which young
Oxford has introduced can be best studied. Beyond
the classic fields of St. Giles stretches the land
of Professors and Professors' wives, hundreds of
mediaeval little villas where learned young ladies
invite young Oxford to early tea. The old celibate
spirit has vanished before this invasion of the vestals.
There is a curious action and reaction; the young
tutor becomes a shade over-festive, the maiden some-
times a shade over-blue. She is generally Liberal,
learned in University politics, divided in her affec-
tions between boating-men and first classmen, cautious
not to get entangled with penniless barristers, and
secretly dreaming of blissful union with a "tuft."
Her tea is a little weak, but she is very strong in
croquet, and strongest of all in a chat beneath the
willows. Grave "Heads" wield the mallet for her,
OXFORD AS IT IS 265
and grave Professors vary their lectures with pretty
little stories which are rewarded with her smiles.
She mourns over the scarcity of balls and at the
perpetual monotony of musical evenings. But she
quickens into new life at the advent of Summer Term.
There are the Art Lectures to begin with, and art is
always pleasant to dabble in. What can be more
delightful than the Master of St. Simon's and the*
charming little sketches he leaves on the blotting-
book at every delegate's meeting? What more
entrancing than the new Art-Professor, and the
wonderful fireworks which throw their magical light
over every subject on earth but the subject of his
chair 1 Quiet art-students there have been in Oxford
for a long time ; its art-circle is one of the most real
and worthy results of the life of young Oxford ; but
the Vestal of the Parks votes their talk a bore, and
hurries off to the Taylor to see a great genius crown
itself with foolscap and burn the Church Catechism
in effigy before the nose of the Vice-Chancellor. But
the Vestal is only one instance of the wider world
into which young Oxford plunges. The great am-
bition of the modern Don is to turn Oxford into a
suburb of town. The non-resident Fellow forms the
link between society and Alma Mater. Troops of
lions and lionesses, poetesses and novelists, Comtists
and Cardinals, flutter down on the Saturday, to
return on Monday morn. Sunday is spent in
"academical regeneration," in breakfasts and boating,
barges to Nuneham and breaks to Woodstock, lioniz-
266 OXFORD STUDIES
ing, flirting, chatting, dining. In this way Oxford is
"saturated with modern thought." So at least
thinks young Oxford, as he rests from his flirtations,
and turns back with a sigh to the old-fashioned
grind.
NOTES
P. 27. l It lias been thought best to alter nothing in
the wording of the following papers; the expressions "this
century," "present century," "last century" have therefore
been left as they originally stood. The reader mil under-
stand that, as these papers were written in 1859, "the last
century" stands throughout for the eighteenth, and "the
present century " for the nineteenth century.
P. 29.- 1 The large shop in the High Street occupied by
the late Mr. "Wyatt (printseller) was formerly the well-known
"Tom's " coffee-house. The front part was the general room,
but the small back room was the sanctum of dons, and Mr.
Wyatt used to point out the Chippendale chairs which had
been there more than a century, and tell how the room was
always known as "The House of Lords," set apart for men
like Tom Warton or Dr. Johnson, The chairs had been sat
on by many a learned talker, while he and his listeners enjoyed
their pipes and coffee. J. K.
P. 30. i Lord Bathurst to Swift, June 30, 1730. Swift's
Works, ed. Scott, 1824, vol. xvii. pp. 304-5.
2 " The man of God doubted not but that very soon Oxford
would be sought for, even in Oxford." Amherst, Terras F^l^us,
No. 5. "Oxonium quceras in Oxonio." U. No. 44.
P. 31. l Wood's Autobiography, a. 1650.
2 Aubrey, Lives of Eminent Men (published with Letters
written by Eminent Persons, 2 vols. 1813), vol. ii. p. 198;
268 OXFORD STUDIES
Clark's edition (1898), vol. ii. p. 10. It should be noted that
"this city" in the text means London.
3 Oxford Sausage (1764).
P. 32. 1 Jackson's Oxford Journal, April 14, 1759.
2 Ib. April 21, 1759.
P. 33. I This reference has not been identified. For the
gentleman commoner see prologue to Colman's Oxonian in
Town.
P. 34. 1 Zach. Conrad von TJffenbach, who visited Oxford
in 1710, relates that the Protobibliothecarius of the Bodleian,
" Bookseller " Hudson, left the making of the new catalogue
to the Eypobibliothecarii, Master Crab and Master Hearne.
"This Hearne is a man of 30 year, a poor starveling mean
little creature, yet diligent withal and of good scholarship.
He is only keeper (Beschhesser) of the Library, and shows the
Anatomy Camera, wherefore he is very eager for the fee. He
has not much from the Library, and as he assured me, only
10." Uffenbach's Itinerary (1754), iii. 158, quoted in
Wordsworth's University Society, p. 21, note 2. The German
words represented by "a poor starveling, mean little creature "
are sehr unansehnlich.
3 Dr. Bouth of Magdalen College used to tell in 1848
(being then in his ninety- third year) how he " well remembered
the time when every academic of any fashion resorted to the
coffee-house during the afternoon, ' Tom's,' nearly opposite the
present market, being frequented by the most gay and ex-
pensive ; 'Horseman's,' also in the High Street, nearly
opposite the house of the Principal of Brasenose, received the
members of Merton, All Souls', Corpus and Oriel ; 'Harper's,'
the corner house of the lane leading to Edmund Hall, those of
Queen's and Magdalen; 'Bagg's,' the stone house (built out
of the surplus materials from Blenheim by Sir John Vanbrugh),
at the corner of Holywell, facing the King's Arms, used
by New College, Hertford and "Wadham ; and 'Malbon's,' a
diminutive tenement some feet below the present street, at
the north-east corner of the Turl, was filled from Trinity, and
by the members of the neighbouring colleges." Wordsworth's
University oriety t p. 145,
NOTES 269
P. 35. 1 "Last week the bp. of Winchester sent half a
buck to Magd. Coll., Oxford (the president himself
being absent) for the felloes, and about the same time Queen
Carolina sent them a whole buck (it being had from Which-
wood forest), and they eat it on Monday last, September 11,
going to dinner at one o'clock." Hearne's Diary, Sept.
14, 1732.
2 " Whereas the University disputations on Ash Wednesday
should begin exactly at one o'clock, they did not begin this
year 'till two or after, which is owing to several colleges
having altered their hour of dining from eleven to twelve,
occasioned from people's lying in bed longer than they used to
do." Ib. Feb. 10, 1721-2.
8 75. Feb. 27, 1722-3.
4 See Colman's Jtandom Records, vol. i. p. 274.
P. 37. l Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. p. 343.
2 Ib. pp. 585-86.
P. 38. 1 Mr. Thomas Allen, of Gloucester Hall (Worcester
College); see Aubiey's Lwes, vol. ii. pp. 201-3. There is a
portrait of Allen in the Bodleian picture-gallery. He died at
about ninety-sis years of age , " a very cheerfull, facetious man,
and everybody loved his company, and every house on their
Gaudie-dayes were wont to invite him. He had a great many
instruments and glasses in his chamber, and his servitor
thought it for his credit to serve such a master. Allen used,
every long vacation, to ride into the country to visitt his old
acquaintance and patrons, to whom his great learning, mixt
with much sweetness of humour, rendered him very welcome.
One time being at Home Lacy, in Heiefordshire, at Mr. John
Scudamore's (grandfather to the Lord Scudamore), he happened
to leave his watch in the chamber windowe (watches were
then rarities). The maydes came in to make the bed, and
hearinge a thing in a case cry Tick, Tick, Tick, presently
concluded that that was his Devill, and tooke it by the string
with the tongues, and threw it out of the windowe into the
mote (to drowne the Devill). It so happened that the string
hung on a sprig of an elder that grew out of the mote, and
this confirmed them that 'twas the Devill. So the good old
gentleman gott his watch again."
270 OXFOBD STUDIES
3 Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. p. 238.
3 Hearne's Ihary, Aug. 17, 1721.
4 Whitefield, Short Account of God's Dealings, etc. (1740),
pp. 14, 18, 19.
p. 39. i "In Dr. Whitehead's Lives of the Wesleys and in
the life which is prefixed to the collected edition of Mr.
Wesley's Works, it is said that Wesley the father was about
sixteen "when he entered himself at Exeter College. But as
he was born 'about the year 1662, or, perhaps, a little earlier/
he must have been not less than two-and- twenty at that time,
as the following extracts from the registers of Exeter College
will prove : * Deposit of Caution Money. Sept. 26, 1684.
Mro, Hutchins pro Samuele Westley, paup. schol. de Dorchester,
3/" etc. Southey, Life of Wesley, 3rd ed. (1846), vol. i.
p. 8, note.
2 Amherst, Terra "Films, No. 11.
P. 40. * Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. p. 238.
2 Nov. 28, 1754. BoswelTs Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck
Hill, voL i p. 276.
3 No reference has been found for this.
P. 41. * Hearne's Diary, Aug. 17, 1721.
2 Tariffs Edinburgh Magazine, new series, voL ii. p. 374.
8 Salmon, Present State of the Umversities (1744), p. 423.
P. 42. x Hearne's Diary, March 4, 1705-6.
2 J&. July 14, 1708.
8 The preface to Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii.,
was written in Cambridge gaol.
4 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 457.
5 Hearne's Diary, March 4, 1705-6.
6 Philips, The Splendid SJdlhng (1709).
P. 43. 1 Warton's Panegyric on Oxford Ale.
2
8 Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. pp. 421-22.
4 Ib. p. 425.
P. 44. l Mr. Green himself received a prize at Magdalen
School from the hands of Dr. Routh, the last man who wore a
wig in Oxford, who had seen Dr. Johnson stand in the High
NOTES 271
Street, lost in thought, with one foot on either side of the
kennel down the middle of the way, surrounded by a group of
street -boys, "none daring," as Dr. Kouth used to tell, "to
interrupt the meditations of the great lexicographer."
2 Boswell's Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill (1887), vol. i. p. 74.
3 II. vol. iii. p. 303.
P. 45. l n. vol. iii. p. 304.
2 II. vol. i. p. 73.
P. 47. 1 Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 31.
2 75. No. 41.
3 Ib. No. 46.
4 Ib. No. 31.
8 Ib. No. 41.
6 Ib. No. 46.
P. 48. l Hogg's Life of Shelley (1858), vol. i, p. 66.
2 "The Lownger," Oxford Sausage, p. 92.
3 Amherst, Terra Filius, Nos. 30, 46.
P. 49. * Jackson's Oxford Journal, Sept. 27, 1755.
2 Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 46.
3 Whitefield, Short Account, p. 39.
P. 50. x Amherst, Terra MUus, No. 46.
2 "Uffenbach (Reisen, iii. 171) thus describes Paradise
Garden : * This is hard by an end of the town near a tavern
which is in connexion with it, and at the back of which, on
the water, are countless little boxes partitioned by hedges,
where the Fellows drink in summer.' . , . This pleasaunce
appears in the map of T. Nealo and R. Agas (1566-78), en-
graved by Loggan a century later, as ' Paradise ' ; and in
Loggan's own (1675) as 'Paradise Garden' at the bend of
the river to the south of the castle. ' Paradise Walks ' is the
scene of the three first acts of The Humows of Oxford, a play
by James Miller of Wadham (1703 ; d. 1744)." Wordsworth,
University Society, pp. 365, 366. The garden had belonged
to the Grey Friars. Oxford Historical Society's Publications,
vol. xvii. pp. 395-6. Its name is preserved in the present
Paradise Square and Paradise Street.
3 "Thus I tope all the night, as I trifle all day." "The
Lownger," Oxford Sausage, p. 93.
272 OXFORD STUDIES
P. 51. l Earle, MicrocosnwgrapUe (1628), c. 25.
2 Amherst, Terras Filius, No. 9.
P. 52. I Gibbon's Autobiography (1869), pp 23, 29.
p, 53. i Dianes aiid correspondence of the first Earl of
Malifiesbuiy (1844), vol. i., introductory memoir, p. ix.
P. 54. x Quarterly Review, Sept. 1854, p. 492.
p. 55. i Twit's Edhiburgh Magazine, new series, vol. li.
(1835), p. 79.
P. 57. a Amherst, JfcrwB .WZfow, No. 19.
2 J&. No. 28.
3 In the life of Dr. Eettle of Trinity, the builder of Kettle
Hall (Aubrey's Lives, ii. 417-430), the story is told of his
rebuke to Lady Isabella Thynne (who "lay" at Balliol) and
her friend Mrs. Fenshawe, who "would have a frolick to
make a visitt to the President. " l ' 'Tis probable this venerable
Dr. might have lived some years longer, and finisht his
centmy, had not these civill warres come on ; which much
grieved Him, that was wont to be absolute in the colledge, to
be affionted and disrespected by rude soldiers. I remember,
being at the Khetorique lecture in the hall, a foot-soldier came
in and brake his hower-glasse " "The dissoluteness of the
times, as I have sayd, grieving the good old Doctor, his dayes
were shortned, and dyed. . . . Anno Dni. 164-, and was
buried at Grarsington."
P. 58. * "On Miss Polly Foote's unexpected arrival at
Oxford, 1758." Oxford Sausage, pp. 101-3.
2 The meaning and derivation of High Borlace are not
known. Wordsworth (Univ. JSoc. pp. 153-4) says: "Of
clubs at Oxford (in addition to the Constitution and TJie
Club, with others which I have already mentioned), there
were the Banterers (1678) ... the Free Cynics (1734), ( a
kind of philosophical club who have a set of symbolical words
and grimaces unintelligible to any but those of their own
Society/ There was also the 'High Borlace,' a Tory Club
which had a convivial meeting held annually at the Bang's
Head Tavern in Oxford on the 18th of August, or if that fell
on a Sunday, on the 19th ; as in 1734, on which occasion Dr.
NOTES 273
Leigh, Master of Balliol, was 'of the High Borlace,' and the
first clergyman who had attended. It seems to have been
patronised by the county families, and it is not improbable
that there was a ball connected with it. The members chose
a Lady Patroness; in 1732, Miss Stonhouse ; in 1733, Miss
Molly "Wickham of Garsington ; 1734, Miss Anne Cope. . . .
On that occasion Mr. Moseley of Merton was proposed as
member of the said Borlace, but rejected, probably because he
was a member of a Whig college." See p. 165.
3 Oxford Sausage, p. 109.
P. 59. 1 Oxford Sausage, pp. 101-104.
2 Ib. p. 108.
3 "Some years agoe came out at Oxford a poem called
Alerton Walks, the walks in the garden of that place being
every Sunday night, in the pleasant time of the year, thronged
with young gentlemen and young gentlewomen, which grow-
ing scandalous, the garden gate was, at last, shut up quite,
and thereupon the young gentlemen and others betook them-
selves to Magdalen College walk, which is now every Sunday
night in summer-time strangely filled, just like a fair."
Hearne's Diary, July 30, 1723.
P. 63. 1 Spectator, No. 30.
P. 64.- 1 Amherst, Terror Mlius, Nos. 25, 26.
P. 66. * Spectator, No. 17.
2 Oxford Journal, July 15, 1775.
3 Hearne's Diary, Aug. 22, 1733.
4 * * Engrain on an Epigram.
One day in Christ Church meadows walking,
Of Poetry and such tilings talking,
Says Kalph, a merry wag,
An Epigram, if right and good,
In all its circumstances should
Be like a Jelly-Bag.
Your simile, I own, is new,
But how dost make it out, quoth Hugh *
Quoth Ralph, I'll tell thee, Friend ,
Make it at Top both wide and lit
To hold a Budget-full of Wit,
And point it at the End.
T
274 OXFOPvD STUDIES
T.B. This Epigram is printed from the original Manu-
script, preserved in the Archives of the Jelly-Bag Society."
Oxford Sausage, pp. 87, 88. "Ralph" is said to have been
Ralph Bathurst. Wordsworth, Univ. Soc. p. 150.
P. 67. l Plot, Natural History of Oxfordshire, ch. iii.
sec. 43.
2 Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. p. 512.
p. 68. * Oxoniana (1807), vol. iv. pp. 115, 116.
3 Hearne's Diary, Sept. 5, 1723.
3 Xb. Jan. 3, 1726-7.
4 n. June 25, 1727.
P. 69. i Ib. June 12, 1727.
2 This speech was suppressed and printed. A copy is in
the Bodleian, Pamph. 384.
3 Amherst, Terras Filius, No. 34. "ColL," Amherst ex-
plains in a footnote to No. 33, stands for "college ale."
4 Twiss, Life of Lord Mdon, vol. i. p. 53.
P. 70. 1 This letter has not been identified. Adelung in
his WorterbucJi (1808) says the Latin form " Supernaculum"
had lately come in to describe the ancient "Nagel-Probe,"
i.e. the pouring of the last drop of liquid on the nail to prove
the cup was empty. He quotes the English phrase " to drink
supernaculum." See Brand's Popular Antiquities, ii. 209,
210, and for etymology, p. 200. Golman in his Random
Records, vol. i. p. 136, describes the decayed old-fashioned inn at
Oxford where the landlord (1775) brought out his " smeared
decanter, containing sloe-juice, which he called a bottle of his
supernaculum." The word was in use among old peasants in
Connaught twenty-five years ago.
2 See on this bowl A. Clark, Colleges of Oxford (1891), p
387. It was given in 1732.
3 BoswelTs Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, vol. iii. p. 245.
4 Southey's Life and Correspondence (1849), vol. i. p. 177.
5 Memorials of Andrew Crosse (1857), pp. 32, 33.
P. 71. * Twiss, Life of Lord Eldon, vol. i. p. 54.
3 Memorials of A. Crosse, p. 32.
3 Hearne's Diary, May 11, 1712.
4 Ib. Feb. 17, 1712-13.
NOTES 275
P. 72. - 1 Hearae's Diary, Nov. 13, 1726. He dates the
event "about the year 1704.'*
2 II. Oct. 23, 1729.
3 U>. Sept. 1, 1721.
4 A number of names of taverns have been preserved in
Larwood and Hotten's History of Signboards, p. 33, under the
title of Signs of Love at Oscford, by an Inn-consolable Lover.
"She's as light as the Grey-hound as fair as the Angel,
Her looks than the Mitre more sanctified are ;
But she flies like the Roebuck and leaves me to range ill,
Still looking to her as my true polar Star.
Neio JjiTi-ventions I try with new art to adore,
But my fate is, alas ! to be voted a Boar.
My Goats I foisook to contemplate her charms,
And must own she is fit for our noble King's Amis.
Now Cross* d and now Jockey'd, now sad, now elate,
The Chequers appear but a map of my fate.
I blush'd like a Blue-Cur to send her a Pfoasant,
But she calTd me a Turk and rejected my present.
So I mop'd to the Barley-Mow, griev'd in my mind
That the Ark from the flood ever rescu'd mankind.
In my dreams Lions roar and the Green Dragon gnns,
And friends rise in shape of the Seven Deadly Sins
When I ogle the Bells, should I see her approach,
I skip like a Nag, and jump into the Coach.
She is crimson and white like a Shoulder of Mutton,
Not the red of the Ox was so bright when first put on.
Like the Holly-tush prickles she scratches my liver,
"While I moan and die like a Swan by the river." -J. R.
B T. Warton's Poetical Works, ed. Mant (1802), intro-
ductory memoir, vol. L p. ciii.
P. 73. * Philips, TJic 8plend<id Shilling.
2 Amherst, Terra Films (1726), appendix, p. 327.
P. 76. 1 " Penniless Bench is a seat joyning to S. Martin's
Church apud Quadrwium" [Carfax], "where butter- women
and hucksters use to sit," says Anthony Wood in a note to
this passage (AvAofiiogra/pliy, Feb. 1647-8). See the Uni-
versity regulation in 1584, "that no schollars shall sit
on bulkes or penniless bench, or other open places " (Oxoniana,
vol. iv. p. 176). " On. the left hand, under the east end of
276 OXFORD STUDIES
St. Martin's Clmrcli, yee see that seate, which is called Penne-
lesse Bench, builded by the Cittie, as well for their solace and
prospect every waie, as for the convenience of the Market
Women in the tyme of Raine " (Hutten's Survey, 0. H. S.
voL xxxis. p. 59). It was first built in 1545, " re-sedified with
stone pillars, July 1667, "says "Wood (0. H. S. vol. xvii. p. 86) ;
Peshall adds (p. 180), " since pulled down, and instead thereof
an alcove." "Adjoining to the east end of Carfax Church are
to be found the imperfect traces of a place properly dedicated
to the Muses, and described in our statutes by the familiar but
forbidding denomination of Pennyless Bench. History and
tradition report that many eminent poets have been Benchers
here. To this seat of the Muses we are most probably in-
debted for that celebrated poem Tlie Splendid Shilling of
Philips ; and that the author of the Panegyric on Oxford Ale
was no stranger to this inspiring bench may be fairly con-
cluded from these verses where he addresses the God or
Goddess of Ticking -
'Beneath thy shelter, pennyless I quaff
The cheerful cup.' "
A Companion to the Guide (by T. Warton), pp. 15, 16. See
also Fletcher's Carfax Church (Oxford, 1896), pp. 12, 13, and
pi. iii.
3 Wood's Autobiography, Dec. 1647, Feb. 1647-8 ; Euddes-
ford and Warton, Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood (1772),
vol, ii. pp. 44-46.
P. 77.* Probably fields on the west side of St. Giles's
Street, now built over.
2 Southey's Life, vol. i. p. 176.
3 Hurdis, The Village Curate.
P.. 78. * Built in 1742. Wordsworth, Univ. Soc. p. 201.
2 Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, new series, voL ii. (1835),
p. 542.
s Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 1.
P. 79. ! Twiss, Life of Lord Eldon, vol. i. pp. 56, 57.
2 Warton, The Phaeton and the One-horse Chair.
P. 80. * Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. pp. 585-86.
NOTES 277
P. 82. * No reference has been found for this.
2 Warton, Panegyric on Oxford Ale.
3 Wordsworth, Univ. JSoc p. 128, quotes from a letter written
by an undergraduate of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1792, who
used to breakfast at 8.30 with his neighbour
Pnend Warren takes accustomed seat,
Pours tea on sugar very sweet,
And cream not over rich ;
And rolls he cleverly does spread,
Or from brown George toasts slice of bread.
"Brown George" is the name of a loaf in a poem of Samuel
Wesley the elder.
4 " . . . misspending the morning; since (as you [i.e.
Dr. Newton] once ingeniously express'd it) nothing more can
"be expected from those Jentacular Confabulations." Amhertsfc,
Terra J?ihv& (1726), appendix, p. 330.
P. S3. 1 Oxford Sausage, pp. 17-20
2 Warton, Ode to a Grizzle Wig.
P. 85. l Warton, Newsman's Verses, 1770.
P. 86. 1 These lines have not been found.
P. 87. J Oxford Journal, June 1, 1776.
P. 90. * Ib. March 18, 1775.
2 Ib. Nov. 26, 1774.
3 16. Nov. 9, 1776.
P. 94. * Trial and Memoirs of Isaac Darkvn, alias Dumas.
Oxford, 1761. Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxi. p. 139.
2 Oxford Journal, Feb. 10, March 9, July 20, Sept, 7, 1776 ;
March 8, April 5, 1777.
8 Ib. Oct. 19, 1776.
4 Ib. June 10, 1775.
P. 95. l Ib. Nov. 5, 1774.
P. 96. * "In the middle of the street, facing Colesbourne
Lane ; " the exact position of the lane is not known. 0. H. S,
vol. xxxix. p. 69.
2 The pillory of Holy well manor, in the jurisdiction of
Merton College. Ib. p. 136.
278 OXFORD STUDIES
3 Tlie stocks replaced the gallows before 1800. The gallows
got the name of "Gownsman's Gallows" about 1780. Dr.
Kouth, President of Magdalen, gave the reason. "What, sir,
do you tell me, sir, you never heard of Gownsman's Gallows *
Why, I tell you, sir, I have seen two undergraduates hanged
on Gown&man's Gallows in Holy well hanged, sir, for highway
robbery, " 0. S. 8. vol. sxsdx. p 136.
4 An account of the rights of Merton College, and the
former rectors of St. Peter's-in-the-East, to hang offenders on
this gallows will be found in PeshalTs edition of "Wood's City of
Ox/Old, pp. 243-44, with the case of Bogo de Clare.
5 The Httle house between the passage into Amsterdam and
the new gateway to Brasenose College occupies the site of this
Hall. Borouwaldescote Inn took the name of Broadgates Hall
about 1426. 0. H. S. vol. xsziz. p. 176. See also PeshalTs
Wood, p. 48.
6 PeshaU's Wood, pp. 48, 49.
7 II. p. 117.
P. 97. 1 "A 'Butter Bench* still remained within living
memory in the corner of Carfax where Boffin's shop now is."
0. H. S. vol. xv. p. 47, note 10. This was a part of the old Butter-
bench which stood on the west side of Fish Street (now St.
Aldate's) and perhaps down the Great Bayly (now Queen
Street), running round the corner opposite to that occupied by
Penniless Bench (see above, p. 76, note 1). Both Benches
were originally made to shelter the market-women; see
PeshalTs Wood, p. 181. The stocks are figured in a woodcut
opposite p. 15 of Warton's Companion to the Guide (2nd ed.
1762), with the following note: "This Structure formerly
stood on the South Side of Carfax Conduit ; from whence it
was removed to the City Hill, as a more convenient Situation,
in the mayoralty of Thomas Munday, Eso^., Anno MDCCLIX."
2 Oxford Jowmal, April 13, 1776.
P. 98. T A stone bridge with pointed arches, widened with
wooden additions on the north side ; it was known as Tu-
brugge, from crossing the two Cherwells.
2 No reference for this has been found. It may bo noted
that in September 1761 Thomas Munday, Mayoi, accompanied
NOTES 279
by two aldermen, the bailiffs, two assistants, and the Town
Clerk, went to London to assist on the Coronation day, with the
Lord Mayor of London, as Chief Butler of England. Oxford,
Journal, Sept. 19 and 26, 1761.
P. 99. i 11. Oct. 1, 1774.
2 Ib. Sept. 23, 1775.
3 Aubrey, Lives, vol. ii. p. 303.
P. 100. J The family was flourishing c. 1240. 0. S. S.
vol. xxxix. p. 67. A Lambert Burewald is mentioned 1262 ;
and Dionysia Burewald, c. 1424. Ib. pp. 153, 139.
2 Eepeharme's Hall was near St. Edward's Church, the
foundations of which have been found north of Blue Boar
Lane and west of Alfred Street. Ib. p. 195.
3 Peshall's Wood, p. 156. 0. H. S. vol. xv. p. 199.
4 Oxford Journal, Oct. 5, 1776.
P. 101. -J Wood's Autobiography, Sept. 15, 1673.
2 Ib. Sept. 29, 1679.
P. 102. i Ib. Sept. 15, 1673.
2 Ib. Feb. 2 and Sept. 20, 1695.
P. 103. J Ib. Nov. 27, 1682.
2 Ib. June 28, 1685.
3 Ib. June 22, 1685.
4 "Broken Heys, limited on the south and west sides with
the castle and Stockwell Street, on the north and east by the
King's Pallace (since the White Fryers), and the street on
the west side of Magdalen parish church, hath bin from all
antiquity till within 24 years a rude, broken, and undigested
place. ' "Magdalen parish taketh it to be a common belong-
ing to their parish. The toune look on it as theirs because
(they are) Lords of North Gate Hundred, build houses round
it and set trees, anno 1671. The toune levelled it and made
it a bouling green anno 1638 or 1639." Wood's City of Oxford,
0. J5T. S. vol. xv. p. 363. Stookwell Street is now Worcester
Street ; the Bang's Palace of Beaumont, afterwards the White
Friars, stood near the north-west corner of the present Beaumont
Street. In Peshall's map, 1773, the name of Broken Heys is
replaced by that of Gloucester Green, which the place still
280 OXFORD STUDIES
retains ; but "the rough land to the east of the well"
which Stock-well Street took its name) "is still known as
Broken -hays among the older population, and the floors of
some of the old cottages there are even now most undecided
which level to take." 0. H. S. vol xxxix. p. 97. The name
Broken Hayes is now attached to a small passage leading out of
George Street into Bulwarks Alley at the west end of the play-
ground of the Oxford High School. 0. H. 8. vol. xv. p. 363,
note 2.
6 Wood's Autobiography, June 30, 1685.
p. 104. i ft. July 24, 1694.
2 Hearne's Diary, Dec. 14, 1732.
P. 105. i 75. Nov. 1, 1705.
2 Oxford Journal, Jan. 21, 1775.
8 II. Feb. 11, 1775. The Jowrnal does not say that the
man was supposed to he a clergyman.
P. 106. l Oxford Journal, Aug. 27, 1774.
2 75. Sept. 3, Oct. 8, 1774.
P. 107. 1 " The late Mayor of Oxford, with several gentle-
men of the Corporation, were called before the House for mal-
practice with respect to the ensuing election of members for
that city. They were severely reprimanded and committed to
Newgate." Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1768. "The speech
of the Speaker of the House of Commons when he reprimanded
Philip Ward, late Mayor of the City of Oxfoid ; John Treacher,
Sir Thomas Munday, Thomas Wise, John Nichols, John
Philips Isaac Lawrence, Richard Tawnay, all of the said
city ; Thomas Robinson and John Brown, late bailiffs of the
said City, upon their knees at the Bar of the said House, upon
Wednesday the 10th day of February 1768," is given in
Gentleman's Magazine, March 1768. " The Mayor and Alder-
men of Oxford had written word to their members that they
should be re-elected if they would pay 7500, to discharge
the debts of the Corporation. With proper spirit the members
laid the case before the House, and the House committed the
peccant Mayor and Aldermen to Newgate for five days, when
having acknowledged their guilt and asked pardon they were
discharged. , . . During their very imprisonment it is said
NOTES 281
they completed another bargain for their borough with the
Duke of Marlborough and Lord Abingdon." Mahon, Hist, of
England, vol. v. p. 190. This incident, which made so great
a stir, is not alluded to in the Oxford Journal.
2 Oxfoid Journal, Aug. 19, 1769.
J 11. Aug. 6 and Get. 8, 1774.
4 Now Grove Street 0. H. S. vol. zv. p. 137.
P. 108. J Wood's Autobiography, April 15, 1669.
- Oxford Journal, Jan. 21, 1775. "A third ox was roasted
whole in the market-place for the benefit of the populace ; and
by way of diversion there was backsword playing and other
amusements."
3 No reference has been found for this.
4 Oxford Journal, Aug. 27, 1774.
5 Ib. Nov. 5, 1774.
P. 109.-* Peshairs Wood, p. 84.
2 Oxford, Journal, Feb. 10, 1776.
3 Ib. Feb. 24, 1776.
4 Ib. Oct. 14, 1775.
P. 110. * Ib. July 29, 1775.
2 Ib. March 4, 1775.
P. 111. 1 Ib. Nov. 26, 1774.
P. 112. i Ib. Dec. 31, 1774.
2 U. Jan. 7, 1775.
3 75. May 4, 1776.
P. 118.* J5. May 4, 1776.
2 J&. Oct. 28, 1775.
3 /&. March 23, 1776.
P. 114. l Wood's Autobiography, Sept. 3, 1687.
2 Peshall's "Wood, p. 123.
P. 115. 1 J&. pp. 40, 41. See also 0. &. S. vol. zvii. p.
111.
2 Peshall's Wood, p. 39.
3 7&. p. 175.
P. 116. J "Pary's Meadow, roughly the Physic Garden."
0. JET. S. vol. xxxix. p. 31.
282 OXFORD STUDIES
2 Shydyard Street was formerly derived from "Scheda," a
roll of paper or strip of papyrus. An. older version of the
name, however, is " Sid-therd-street " (side-thread-street), or
Silk- thread Street. It used to run south to the city wall, and
was first leased by the city to Corpus in 1556. 0. H. S. vol.
xxxix. p. 180.
P. 117. J Peshall's Wood, p. 332.
2 76. pp. 335-337.
P. 118. * "The name Gloucester Green in Loggan's map,
1675, is attached to an open space which is now that part of
Walton Street which is over against the Provost of Worcester's
garden ; in Peshall's map, 1773, it is attached, as it is now,
to what in Loggan's map is called Broken Hays. " 0. H. S. vol.
xv. p. 363, note 3. See above, p. 103, note 4. In 1601 Queen
Elizabeth granted three fairs "to be kept every year in
Broken Heys and Gloucester Grene . . . but," says Wood,
"this I suppose was either neglected for the same causes with
the market that was to be kept here and granted at the same
time, or else by the seldome recourse or paucity of people
thereto." 0. H. S. vol. xv, pp. 504-5. Peshall, p. 338, says :
"A Fair was attempted some years ago for beasts of all sorts, to
be held on Gloucester Green. Some faint efforts were made for
its restoration, but soon vanished and disappeared, as hereto-
fore. At present we have no fair, a wake is at St. Giles's,
called St. Giles's Wake, yearly, the Monday after St. Giles's
day. The other on Gloucester Green the 3rd of May."
2 Oxford Journal, Sept 23, 1775.
3 Salmon, Present State of the Universities (1744), p. 410.
4 Oxford Journal, June 22, 1776.
5 Hearne's Diary, Feb. 16, 1723-4.
6 Oxford Journal, May 7, 1774.
P. 119. 1 See the Chronicle given in Annual Reguter,
1770-76.
P. 120. 1 Oxford Journal, Aug. 12, 1775.
2 76. Sept. 16 and 23, 1775.
3 Il>. March 12 and 19, 1774.
P. 123. x PeshalTs Wood, p. 88.
NOTES 283
2 "He says, that the tradition used to be, that Blake's
oak (as we go to Abbington) was so called, because Blake was
hanged there upon it (he being a great Parliamentary villain)
for betraying three Christian kings." Hearne's Diary, Feb.
21, 1723-4. This " Will Bremicham, of S. Peter's parish in the
East," was then in his ninety-first year, and had never lived
out of Osford, " unless it were before he was in breeches, when
he was not two years of age, that he staid a little while at
Norleigh. "
P. 124. l "Wood's Autobiography, Aug. 15, 17, and 31,
1681.
P. 125. l Bliss, note to Hearne's Diary, Oct. 23, 1711.
2 Hearne's Diary, Sept. 3, 1720.
P. 126. ! 11. Feb. 14, 1720-1.
2 Ib. Nov. 11, 1720.
3 Amherst, Terras Fitius, No. 32.
P. 127. 1 Hearne's Diary, March 15, 1733.
P. 132. l Fuller, Worthies of England, ed. Nuttall (1840),
voL iii. p. 2.
2 Plot, Nat. Hist, of Oxfordshire (1677), ch. iii. sec. 2.
P. 134. 1 Edmund Miller, Account of the University of
Carriage (1717), p. 196.
P. 135. ! Hearne's Diary, Sept. 19, 1709.
2 Ib. Oct. 18, 1705.
8 Southey, Life of Wesley, vol. i. pp. 9-11.
P. 136. * Hearne's Diary, Sept. 28, 1705.
P. 187.* II.
3 Ib. Nov. 9, 1705.
* Ib. Nov. 13, 1705.
4 Ib. March 4, 1709-10.
P. 138. i II. March 1, 1706-7.
P. 139,-^ II. Nov. 11, Dec. 5, 1709 ; March 4, 1709-10.
See also the letter of Sacheverell to the Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford, Feb. 5, 1709-10, in Letters written ly Eminent Pers&ns
(1813), i, 200-1. He had taken his degree of D.D. 1708.
284 OXFORD STUDIES
2 Of. Eearne's Diary, July 20, 1710.
P. 140.* Ib. Oct. 23, 1711.
p. H3. l Southey, Ufe of Wesley, vol. i. p. 23.
P. 144, - 1 Hearne's Diary, Aug. 5, 1714.
P 145. * Ib. Aug. 4 and 5, 1714.
2 A room in the old Clarendon, described in Amherst's
Terras Fdius, No. 11 : "That famous apartment, by idle wits
and buffoons nicknamed Golgotha, i.e. the place of Sculls or
Heads of Colleges and Halls, where they meet and debate
upon all extraordinary affairs which occur within the precincts
of their jurisdiction," etc.
3 Ib. No. 50.
P. 146. l Ib.
2 Hearne's Diary, May 28, 1715.
P. 147. * Amherst, Terra* Mlius, No. 50. Hearne's Diary,
May 29, 1715.
2 Hearne's Diary, May 29, 1715.
P. 148. * Amherst, Terros Filius, No. 50.
2 Hearne's Diary, May 29, 1715.
P. 149. * Amherst, Terras Filius, No. 50.
3 Hearne's Diary, July 29, 1707.
P. 150. i Ib. June 5, 1715.
P. 151. J J&. June 10, 1715.
2 I&. Sept. 10, 1715,
3 Ib. Oct. 20, 1714.
4 Parliamentary Debates, vol. vi. pp. 325-28. Sir "William
"Whitlocke, member for Oxford University, "made a kind of
excuse for what he said " ; Sir William "Wyndham refused to
apologise and was reprimanded by the House.
5 Oct. SO, 1715.
6 " The Officers and Soldiers of Sterne's Regiment quartered
there." Political State of Great Britain, vol. x. p. 506.
P. 152. x March 25, 1717.
P. 154. ! A full account of the riot of October 30, 1716, and
the subsequent proceedings in Parliament is given in Political
State, vol. sii. pp. 505-531; vol. xiii. pp. 420-444.
NOTES 285
2 The riots above described occurred on October 30, 1716,
and the parliamentary proceedings on them in March and
April 1717. The address here referred to was sent up, and
rejected by the king, in August 1715. "The University of
Oxford had also prepared an address to be presented to his
Majesty ; but the Deputies they had sent up to London for
that purpose were given to understand 'That as they had
shewn a manifest Disrespect to his Majesty's Person and
Government in all their late Proceedings, so his Majesty
expected they should convince him of their Loyalty by their
Actions and not by Words.*" Polit. Mate, vol. x. p. 121.
There had been riots in Oxford on August 27, 1715, at the
very time when the address was sent
P. 155.* October 5, 1715.
2 "One Lloyd, the famous Jacobite Coffee-man at Charing
Cross, near "Whitehall, who formerly followed the same em-
ployment in Dublin." Polit. State, vol. x. p. 345. For the
trial and execution of the conspirators in November see *&.
pp. 535-36.
3 Brigadier Handasyde.
4 October 28, 1715.
5 The whole account of Owen, Pepper, and Handasyde is in
Polit t jState, vol. x. pp. 343-46. On Pepper and Owen see also
Amherst, Terras Filius, ]STos. 6, 29, 41.
P. 156. J Hearne's Diary, Aug. 26, 1720. A letter from
Oxford in September 1715 says : "I think myself very happy
in being settled in this so loyal a place, and only want your
good Company to compleat it ; for here we fear nothing, but
drink James's Health every day." PoM. State, vol. x. p. 342
(wrongly numbered 332).
3 The author was Dr. Trapp; see The Book of Rarities in
the University of Cambridge, by Eov. 0. H. Hartshorne, 1829.
-r-J. E.
P. 157. * Monk, Life ofBentley, vol. i. p. 377.
P. 158. x Smollett, History of England, ed. Hughes, vol.
viii. p. 203.
P. 161.* Dr. Wintle. Amherst, Terras Filius, dedication,
p. x., 2nd ed.
286 OXFORD STUDIES
P. 162. * They shewed (1721) in the battlements of the
gateway turret at St. John's a hole said to be made by Oliver
Cromwell's cannon shot, when he besieged Oxford. Amherst,
Terra Filius, No. 34.
P. 163. ! n. No. 45.
2 Richard Meadowcourt, B.A., Merton, 1714 ; afterwards
(1735) canon of Worcester. A. 0.
p. 164. * One of them is of special interest : "D a Carte
e Coll. Univ." This must be the historian ; matriculated at
University, 1698; B.A., Brasenose, 1702; M,A., King's,
Cambridge, 1706 ; but still, apparently, with his name, as a
B.A., on the books at University College. Carte never
sought a repeal of the sentence against him. A. C.
2 On June 28, 1716. A. C.
3 On November 28, 1718. A. C.
4 Amherst, Terra Filius, Nos. 22, 23, 24, 50.
P. 165. 1 II. No. 50.
\Hearne's Diary, Aug. 26, 1734.
3 Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 5.
P. 166. * n. No. 50.
3 Eearne's Diary, Oct. 22, 1723.
8 It. May 29, 1727.
4 "On Saturday (Sept. 5) came to Oxford two of the
daughters of Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, pro-
tector, one of which is married to Dr. Gibson, the physician,
who writ the Anatomy ; the other is unmarried. They are
both presbyterians, as is also Dr. Gibson, who was with them.
They were at the presbyterian meeting-house in Oxford on
Sunday morning and evening ; and yesterday they and all the
gang of them dined at Dr. Gibson's, Provost of Queen's, who
is related to them and made a great entertainment for thorn,
expecting something from them, the physician being said to
be worth 30,000. They went from Oxford after dinner."
Hearne's Diary, Sept. 8, 1719.
5 BoswelTs Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, vol. i. p. 73.
P. 167. 1 Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 3.
2 "The Cushion Plot," Oxford Sausage, pp. 105-6.
NOTES 287
8 Amherst, Terrcs Filius, 'No. 35.
P. 168. l Amherst, Terra Filius, No. 35.
2 Wood's Autobiography, Jan. 30, 1693-4.
P. 169. * Jackson, Life of Charles Wesley (1841), vol. i.
p. 33.
2 Eearne's Diary, Feb. 23, 1726-7.
P. 171. l Amherst, Terra Filius, Nos. 14, 15, 16, 39.
P. 172. x Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa (1781), vol. ii. pp.
53-73.
P. 173. 1 Hume and Smollett, History of England, ed.
Hughes, vol. ix. pp. 154-5.
P. 175. 1 Warton, Poetical Works, ed. Mant, introductory
memoir, vol. i. p. xxii.
2 II. pp. xcviii-ciii.
P. 176. x Jo. p. cvi.
P. 177. l "William King, Anecdotes (1818), pp. 251-52.
P. 178. * Warton, Poetical Works, ed. Mant, introductory
memoir, vol. i. p. xv.
P. 181. * Mrs. Hewlitt. See Introduction, p. xx.
P. 184. * See Introduction, p. xx. John Bickerton
matriculated at St. Edmund Hall in 1793, then aged
twenty-eight, and took B.A. in 1799. Later in life he is
said to have taken possession of some rooms in Hertford
College, then tumbling to decay, and become a squatter
there. For the "squatting" at Hertford College see G-. V.
Cox's Recollections of Oxford, 2nd ed. p. 190.
P. 186. * See Introduction, pp. xix, xx.
P. 190. * A. Young, Vi&w of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire
(1809), p. 324.
2 Pope, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, vol. i. p. 236 ;
vol. vii. pp. 78, 79.
P. 191. a Young, Agriculture of Oxfordshire , p. 324.
p. 193._ .2 Oxford Journal, Oct. 11, 1783.
p. 194. i JJ. Oct. 25, 1783.
2 75. Nov. 8, 1783.
288 OXFORD STUDIES
P. 198. l Young, Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 35.
2 75. p. 232.
P. 199. * n. p. 35.
p. 200. l William Lilly, History of his Life and Times
(1715), p. 1.
3 Young, Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 204.
P. 201. a n. p. 4.
2 Ib. p. 91.
* 75. p. 11.
4 II. p. 87.
P. 202. l n. pp. 91-94.
2 75. p. 231.
P. 203. * H. p. 239.
3 75. pp. 227-29.
3 Ib. p. 19.
4 7. p. 75.
6 " I have so rarely met with horse-hoeing in Oxfordshire,
which is so much wanting in their bean culture, that I hope
the practice will gradually travel from Henley." Ib, p. 77.
6 75. pp. 110 et seq.
P. 204. 1 Ib. pp. 173-76.
2 75. p. 207.
3 75.' p. 268.
4 Ib. p. 264.
c 75. p. 315.
c Ib. p. 268.
P. 205. l 75. pp. 317-22.
2 Ib. p. 23.
3 75. p. 323.
P. 206. 1 The chain was sent to France ; it was sold for
163,600 times the worth of the pig-iron, taking that at less
than Jd. the two ounces. R. K
2 Young, pp. 325-330.
P. 207. a 75. pp. 43-44, 59.
2 75. p. 340.
P. 208. * Oxford Journal, July 24, 1784.
NOTES 289
P. 209. * Oxford Journal, July 27, 1782.
2 "Mr. Sadler of Oxford was the first Englishman who
ascended with a balloon. He constructed one himself, with
which he rose from Oxford on the 4th of October, and a second
time on the 12th, and sailed 15 miles in 18 minutes." Imison,
Elements of Science, ed. by Webster, i. 168 (London, 1822).
R. R. See Oxford Journal, Feb. 14, June 12, July 24, Sept.
25, 1784.
3 Oxford Journal, Feb. 21, June 5, 12, 1784.
4 Ib. Nov. 13, 1784. See June 25, 1785.
P. 210. I IT). June 25, 1785.
2 It. July 27, 1782.
3 75. Aug. 23, 1783.
P. 212. 1 21. Feb. 14, 1784.
P. 213. 1 Ib. Sept. 17, 1785.
2 II. Sept. 21, 1782.
8 Ib. Sept. 20, 1783.
4 75. April 3, 1784.
5 75. July 24, 1784.
6 21. July 31, 1784. He was succeeded in September by
Mr. John Treacher, brewer. Ib. Sept. 24, 1784.
7 11. Sept. 24, Oct. 1, 1784.
P. 214. * 75. Oct. 4, 1783.
2 75. April 16, 30, 1785.
3 II. April 3, 1784.
P. 215. J 75. April 10, 1784.
2 76. Aug. 7, 1784.
P. 216. * Ib. Feb. 4, 1786 ; Dec. 2, 1786.
2 Built in 1610 by Otho Nicholson, M.A., of Christ Church,
one of the Examiners of the Chancery (0. H. S. vol. zv. pp. 62,
441, 446 ; at the first reference the date is wrong), " who for the
publike good both of the Universitie and Citty, builded the
same, every Colledge from thence haveing a Cock to their
Kitchins, and the wholl Towne recourse thereunto for their
Water." Hutten's Survey, O.&.S. vol. xxxix. p. 58. It stood
on the site of the old Bull Ring, and at the time of its erection
there was plenty of room for it ; but fifty years later the
TT
290 OXFORD STUDIES
encroachment of houses and shop-fronts had so narrowed the
space around it that it was alieady complained of as a
nuisance. 0. SC. /$'. vol. xv. pp. 62-63, 441-46, where it is fully
described,
3 Oxford Journal, Oct. 28, 1786.
P. 217. l Ib. May 5, 1787.
2 Ib. Aug. 19, 1786.
P. 218. T II. Sept. 16, 1786.
2 Ib. April 7, 1787.
3 Ib. Jan. 7, 1786.
4 Ib. March 18, April 1, 29, 1786. "The indictment
against the actor and abettors before the fact for stealing
plate out of the chapel belonging to Magdalen College in
Oxford" is in The Grown Circuit Companion, pp. 98, 99
(London, 1820). Not long after Le Maltre robbed the Ash-
molean (1776), Tho. Gerringand Miles "Ward robbed Magdalen
Chapel; see the Newgate Calendar, vol. iii. p. 37 (London,
1824). R R.
P. 219. 1 Oxford Journal, Aug. 5, 1786.
2 II. Dec. 12, 1789.
* Ib. Sept. 23, 1786.
4 Ib. Oct. 21, 1786.
5 Ib. Sept. 1, 1787.
Ib. June 30, 1787.
P. 220. 1 An Hart Hall man goes to Trinity because they
had a fine garden there which he hoped would be of advantage
to his health. "I do acknowledge it is a very fine garden.
I question whether there are finer evergreens in any garden in
Europe than in that of Trinity College." Newton, University
Education, p. 82, in Amherst, appendix to Terrce Fihus (edition
1726), pp. 165, 166. Newton maintains, quoting Spenser,
Faerie Queen, I. i. 9, that the yews were meant to teach
undergraduates obedience to fcheir benders and pruners. R. R.
2 Oxford Journal, June 23, 1787.
3 Ib. May 29, 1790.
P. 221. 1 Ib. Sept 22, Oct. 6, 1787.
2 Ib. July 12, 19 ; Aug. 16, 1788.
3 Ib. May 31, 1788.
NOTES 291
4 Oxford Journal, Jan. 10, 1789.
P. 222. * Ib. March 14, 21, 1789.
2 75. Oct. 81, 1789.
3 /&. Jan. 30, 1790.
P. 223. 1 It is placed in Loggan's map of 1675 to your
left as you cross the bridge into the Water "Walk, beyond an
arched gateway of stone.
2 Oxomana, vol. ii. pp. 155-56 ; Oxford Journal, July 4,
1789.
3 Oxford Journal, Sept. 27, 1788.
4 Ib. Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 1789.
P. 224. x II. Aug. 28, Dec. 25, 1790.
P. 225. l Ib. Sept. 4, 1790.
2 IZ>. Aug. 7, 1790.
p. 227. * 7&. June 9, 1792.
P. 228. * 11. Dec. 8 and 15, 1792.
2 IS. Aug. 4, 1792.
3 II. Nov. 10, Dec. 22, 1792. In March 1795 Convoca-
tion voted that two thousand copies of the New Testament in
Latin, from the University Press, should be placed at the
service of the French refugee clergy in England. They
had most of them escaped from France without books or any-
thing else, and this distribution of these copies of the Vulgate
was received with thankfulness. J. R. See Oxford Journal,
March 14, 1795.
4 Oxford Journal, Jan. 12, 1793.
5 It. Jan. 26, 1793.
P. 229. l xb. April 20, 1793.
3 Ib. May 18, 1793.
P. 230.^ L n. July 6, 1793.
2 lo. July 13, 1793.
3 J&. Nov. 16, 1793.
4 Jb. April 12, 19, May 31, June 7, and Oct. 25, 1794.
6 II. June 14, 1794.
P. 231.- x II. Nov. 1, 8, and 15, 1794.
2 Jb. June 7, 1794.
290 OXFORD STUDIES
encroachment of houses and shop-fronts had so narrowed the
space around it that it was already complained of as a
nuisance. 0. ff. 8. vol. xv. pp. 62-63, 441-46, where it is fully
described.
8 Oxford Journal, Oct. 28, 1786.
P. 217. 1 IB. May 5, 1787.
2 16. Aug. 19, 1786.
P. 218. l II. Sept. 16, 1786.
2 Ib. April 7, 1787.
3 16. Jan. 7, 1786.
4 16. March 18, April 1, 29, 1786. "The indictment
against the actor and abettors before the fact for stealing
plate out of the chapel belonging to Magdalen College in
Oxford" is in The Crouxi Cwcwt Companion, pp. 98, 99
(London, 1820). Not long after Le Maitre robbed the Ash-
molean (1776), Tho. G-erring and Miles "Ward robbed Magdalen
Chapel; see the Newgate Calendar, vol. iii. p. 37 (London,
1824). R. R.
P. 219. x Oxford Journal, Aug. 5, 1786.
2 16. Dec. 12, 1789.
9 16. Sept. 23, 1786.
4 16. Oct. 21, 1786.
5 76. Sept. 1, 1787.
6 76. June 30, 1787.
P. 220. 1 An Hart Hall man goes to Trinity because they
had a fine garden theie which he hoped would be of advantage
to his health. " I do acknowledge it is a very fine garden.
I question whether there are finer evergreens in any garden in
Europe than in that of Trinity College." Newton, University
Education, p. 82, in Amherst, appendix to Terror Filius (edition
1726), pp. 165, 166. Newton maintains, quoting Sponsor,
Faerie Queen, I. i. 9, that the yews were meant to teach
undergraduates obedience to their benders and prunors, R, R.
2 Oxford Journal, June 23, 1787.
3 16. May 29, 1790.
P. 221. l 15. Sept, 22, Oct. 6, 1787.
2 16. July 12, 19 ; Aug. 16, 1788.
3 16. May 31, 1788.
NOTES 291
4 Oxford Journal, Jan. 10, 1789.
P. 222. * 76. March 14, 21, 1789.
3 76. Oct. 31, 1789.
3 15. Jan. 30, 1790.
P. 223. x It is placed in Loggan's map of 1675 to your
left as you cross the bridge into the Water Walk, beyond an
arched gateway of stone.
2 Oxoniana, vol. ii. pp. 155-56 ; Oxford Joitrnal, July 4,
1789.
8 Oxford Journal, Sept. 27, 1788.
4 II. Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 1789.
P. 224. ! 75. Aug. 28, Dec. 25, 1790.
P. 225. l 15. Sept. 4, 1790.
2 76. Aug. 7, 1790.
P. 227. l 76. June 9, 1792.
P. 228. * 76. Dec 8 and 15, 1792.
2 75. Aug 4, 1792.
8 75. Nov. 10, Dec. 22, 1792. In March 1795 Convoca-
tion voted that two thousand copies of the New Testament in
Latin, from the University Press, should be placed at the
service of the French refugee clergy in England. They
had most of them escaped from France without books or any-
thing else, and this distribution of these copies of the Vulgate
was lecoivod with thankfulness. J, K See Oxford Journal,
March 14, 1795.
4 Oxford Journal, Jan. 12, 1793.
6 76. Jan. 26, 1793.
P. 229. x 75. April 20, 1793.
a 76. May 18, 1793.
P. 230. * J6. July 6, 1793.
* 76. July 13, 1793.
8 76. Nov. 36, 1793.
4 76, April 12, 19, May 31, June 7, and Oct. 25, 1794.
/&. June 14, 1794.
P. 231. * 76. Nov. 1, 8, and 15, 1794.
2 /6. June 7, 1794.
292 OXFORD STUDIES
3 Oxford Journal, Marcli 28, 1795.
4 /&. March 7, 1795.
p. 232 * 15. Jan. 24, 1795.
2 16. July 4, 1795.
* II. Sept. 26, 1795.
4 16. Dec. 19, 1795.
6 J6. Dec. 26, 1795.
P. 233. * Ib. July 11, 1795
2 J5. Dec. 23, 1797.
3 II Sept. 7, 1793.
4 J&. May 5, 1792.
5 Ib. Nov. 16, 1793.
P. 234. J Ib. Aug. 2, 9, 1794. William Tainan appears
in Foster's Alumni Oxonienses with, the description "toiisor
priwUgiatus," and the date of matriculation, April 13, 1778.
2 Oxford Journal, April 25, June 20, 1795.
P. 243. 1 Eraken or Kraxen. See Pigott, (Scandinavian
Mythology, p. 177.
P. 249. 1 Oxford Spectator, No. 1, Nov. 26, 1867.
P. 252. i 75. No. 5, Dec. 5, 1867.
INDEX
Abbot, Lord Tenterden, 71
Abmgdon
Abbey of, 6, 12, 13
Earls of, 103, 107, 153, 203,
208, 222
Adams, Dr., 45
Addison, quoted, 127, 147
Adynton, Stephen, Mayor of
Oxford, 100
.^Sthelred the Unready, 15
Age of the Georges, 27-29,
235-44
Agriculture in Oxfordshire, 88,
198-204, 240
Aldrich, Henry, 67
All Hallows' or All Saints, 114
America, comment on war with,
178
Amherst, persecution of, on a
Whig, 161-6J
Aune, Queen, Jacobite sym-
pathies, 140 ; death of, 142
Annesley, Arthur, election of,
224
Architecture of old Oxford, 7,
10
Arran, Earl of, 151
Astrey, Sir James, 40
Astrop, village of, 80
Athelm, Abbot, 12
Atkins, Mr., City Marshal,
187
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester,
139, 140, 141, 143, 153,
161
Aubrey, John, quoted, 31, 37,
43, 57, 67
Auckland, Lord ("William
Eden), 222, 242
Auriel, Captain, 230
Austin Fair, 117
Austria, Ferdinand, Archduke
of, visit to Oxford, 217
Bagley Forest, 131
Bailly, the, 12
Barbers, company of, 114
Bathiirst, 43
Bayley, Mr., 106
Beatrice, Princess of Modena,
visit to Oxford, 217
Beaumont, Royal Manor of, 7,
19
Ben well, Thomas, 113, 220
Berry, John, Mayor of Oxford,
115
Bertie
Captain, 79, 208, 214 ; death
of, 224
Family, 108
Hon. Peregrine, 113
Mr., charitable donations, 109
Billington, Mrs., 229
Birkenhead, Sir John, 38-40
294
OXFORD STUDIES
Blackett, 137
"Blake's Oak/' 123
Blandford, Marquis of, 209,
217, 225
Blaze, Bishop, 215
Blenheim Palace, 104
Blowfield, Mrs. Anne, 32
Bodleian Library, 122
Bolrngbroke, Lord, 140, 142
Bowler, Mr., 208
Bowyer, Admiral, 230
Bradshaw, Dean, 166
Bremicham, " Old Will," 123
Brickenden, Miss, 58, 85
Bristow, Mr., Ill
Broadgate Hall, 96
Broadwater, Mr., Mayor of
Oxford, 144
Bromley, 151, 156
Broom, sale of a wife, 218
Brown, Simon, 220, 221
Browne
Thomas, 32
Sir William, 156
Buckingham, Duke of, 153
Buokland, Dr. William, 249
Bullock-
Francis Brownsword, 113
John, 32
Mr., 77
Burewald, Dionysia, 100
Burford, Mr., 193
Bush, Mr., 213
Bute, Lord, 229
Cambridge, politics of, 156 ;
Duke of Newcastle ap-
pointed Chancellor, 1 74
Campbell, Archibald, 168
Camperdown victory, 233
Carfax, centre of the old town, 23
Castle of Oxford, built by
Robert D'Otfly, 7, 11-14
Castlemaine, Lady, 57
Catalani, 210
Cavendish, Lord George, 229
Charles II., devotion of Oxford
to, 124
Charles X., refugee at Hatfield,
240
Charles JEdward, Piince, biith
of, 125, 126
Charlett, Dr., 150
Charters granted to Oxford, 18,
22
Chatterton, Thomas, 127
Chevalier St. George, name
taken by the Pretender, 126
Chillingworth family, 99
Churches
All Hallows or All Saints,
114
Christchurch Chapel (St.
Frideswide), 3
Holywell, 13
Magdalen Chape], robbery
from, 218
St. Aldate, 6
St. Ebbe, 6, 13
St. Edmund, 6
St. Edward's, 96
St. Fiideswide (Christchurch
Chapel), 3, 7, 114
St. Giles, 19
St. Martin's, 6, 23, 115
St. Michael's, 13, 100
St. Mildred's, 6
St. Peter's-m-the-East, 13,
107, 109
St. Peter lo Bailly, 12
St. Thomas', 120
Clubs, 64-67. See also Consti-
tution Club
Cnut, King, assembly at Oxford,
15
Cockburu, Captain, robbery of,
92
Cock-fighting, 118, 208
Coffee-houses, origin and de-
scription of, 31-34
Colledge, The Protestant
Joiner," 124
INDEX
295
Colley, Jonathan, 166
Collins, William, 242
Collinson, Kev. Dr., 233
Collis, John, 213
Colman, George, 66
Companies or Guilds, 112-
117
Coningsby, Mr., 169
Constitution Club, Whig Politi-
cal, 146-49, 153, 163-65
Coombes, Elizabeth, 32
Cordwainers, Company ofj 224
Cornbury, Lord, 71
Costar, William, 213
"Counsellor Bickerton," 184-86
Country, isolation and non-
progress of, causes of, 127,
128, 189-207, 238
Cowper, Lord, 153
Cox-
John, 220
Richard, 221
Craggs, Secretary of State, 171
Cross, Mr , 214
Crosse, quoted, 70, 71
Culley, Samuel, Mayor of Ox-
ford, 99
D'Aeth, Sir Narborough, 113
Dalton, Mr., 138
Darkins, Isaac. See Dumas
D'Avenant, Sir William, 99
Davenport, William, 113
Dawes, Archbishop, 153
Dounet, Barber, 188
Dennis, Dr., Vice-Chancellor,
212
De Qumcey, at College, 242 ;
quotod, 34, 41, 55, 78, 191
Derwentwater's Eebellion, 155
" Deus-cum-crescat," 8
Devonshire, Duke of, 229
Dewy family, 100
D'Oilly, family of, 11-14
"Don. The," disappearance of,
250
Dormer, Colonel, Pope's visits
to, 190
Dover, Farmer, 90
Drinking, 68-72, 118
Dry den, John, quoted, 178
Du Cain, Mr., 149
Dudley, Lord, 232
Dumas, the Highwayman, 89-
94, 237
"Dyer's Letter," 128
Eadnc, minister of ^Ethelred,
15
Earle, Dr., quoted, 50
Early rising, 47
Earthquake in 1775, 120
Eastred, Bishop, 153
Eastwich, Sampson, 67
Eaton, Deodatus, 113
Eclipse of 1793, 233
Eden. See Auckland
Education in the country, 199
Eighteenth century, changes in,
239-241
Eldon, Lord, reminiscences of
Oxford, 69, 70, 79
Elliot, N., 112
Elliott, General (Lord Heath-
field), 219
Enclosure Acts, 88, 201-203,
240
Erasmus, 37, 133
Fairs and wakes, 117, 118, 241
Fane, Mr., 204
Farmers of Oxfordshire, 198-
200, 203, 238
Fell, Dr., 122
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria,
visit to Oxford, 217
Fidler, William, 99, 113
Field, Rev. Robert, 107
Fmch, Dr., 138
Fishmongers, Company of, 116
Fleming, Richard, Bishop of
Lincoln, 133
296
OXFORD STUDIES
Fletcher-
James, jun., 193
William, Mayor of Oxford,
213
Miss Rebecca, 87
Flood m 1774, 120
"Florist Feasts," 210
Foote
Samuel, 53, 242
Miss Polly, 59, 85
Forbes, Mr., 156
Ford, quoted, 44
"Forestalling and regrating,"
109, 219, 238
Forty, William, 219
"Founder's Oak," falling of,
223
Fox, Charles James, 211, 221,
242
France, effect of Eevolution on
England, 226
"Freshman's Dream, The," 248
Freshmen. See wider University
Fuller, Thomas, 132, 137
Gardiner
Dr., 126, 146, 165
Sir James Whalley, 208
Garnck, David, 127
George I., accession of, 142
George III, visits to Oxford,
211-21S, 217, 221 ; gift of
money to poor debtors,
218 ; temporary insanity
of, 221
Georges, age of the, review of,
27-29, 235-244
Gibbon, Edward, 51, 242
Gibson, Head of Queen's, 166
Giffard, Mr., 140
Gifford, Sir Tom, 72
Giles, John, 113
Gloucester, Duke of, 217
Glovers, Company of, 114
Godolphin, Sidney, Earl of, 139
Goldsmith, Oliver, 127, 195
Government, attitude towards
Oxford during Jacobite
troubles, 155, 158, 171-
173
Gower, Provost, 54, 242
Grabe, Dr., 68
Grampound, 19
Great Rebellion, Oxford mem-
ories of, 131, 132
Green
Rev. William, 233
Mr., organ-builder, 214
Grey, Lord, 153
Griffin, Lord, 137
Gulden, Francis, 194; Mayor
of Oxford, 220
Guilds or Companies, 112-117
Hacker, Mr., 109
Hadley, Thomas, 32
Hales, Mr., 42
Hall, Anthony, Mayor of Ox-
ford, 101
Halse
James, 223
Nicholas, Mayor of Oxford,
213
HandysitVfl Regiment of Foot,
155
Harcourt, Earls of, 153, 210,
212, 217, 232
Hardy, Thoman, 223
Harloy, Robert, Earl of Oxford,
140, 142
Harper, William, 32
Harpur, Joseph, 113
Harry, J , 96
Hawkins, Mr., 77
Hayes
Dr., 212, 214, 229
Richard, 99
Haynes, Stephen, 213
Hearne, Thos., described, 34 ;
quoted concerning college
life, 35, 42, 66, 68, 118 ;
Earl of Abmgdon, 104 ;
INDEX
297
Jacobite csuse, 134, 137,
140, 145, 146, 155, 165,
166, 169; "Old Will
Bremichani,"123; Wesley,
137
Heath, Judg% 234
Heathfield, Lord (Gen. Elliott),
219
Henry I, and IL, Charters
granted to Oxford, 18
Henry III., "Provisions of
Oxford " granted by, 16
Herne, Mr., 113
"High Borlace Club," 58, 66,
165
Highwaymen, 89-94, 192-194,
237
History of Oxford, early, 4-
24
Hitchmgs, or Hitchins, Edward,
113, 219
Hoadley, 162
Hobbes, 47
Hobson, 32
Holdsworth, 125-
Holt, Mr., of Magdalen, Pro-
proctor, 163
Holy Trinity, Order of, for the
Bedemption of Captives,
98
"Honest," term for Jacobite,
125
Horseman, James, 32
Howe, Lord, 230
Hurdis, Professor, quoted, 77
Hurst, ironmonger, 152, 153
Hyde
Dr., 40, 42, 122
William, 100, 220
Ibbetson, Mr., 138
lies, Dr., 37
Immorality, 119
Inett, death of, 71
Inoculation for smallpox, new
remedy, 110-112
Jackson
Mr., 193
William, proprietor of Oxford
Journal, 219
Jacobitism. See under Uni-
versity
Jenner, Sir William, 110
Jews, establishment of, in Ox-
ford in eleventh century,
7 ; protection accorded to,
8 ,* wealth and influence, 9-
11; "Jews' MounV 14;
separate jurisdiction, 19
"Johnny," 188
Johnson
John, 223
Samuel, "poor scholar" at
Oxford, 44, 243 ; capacity
for drinking, 70 ; attracted
to London, 127; quoted, 40
Jonas, Mr., 91
Jones
Thomas, 99
William, 100
Joy, Thomas, 113
Kenyon, Lord, 220, 238
Kettle, Dr., 43
King
Charles, 32
Dr., Pimcipal of St. Mary'b
Hall, 130, 143, 176-178
John, 32
Labour in Oxfordshire, 112,
204
Langton, Col, 228
Laud, Archbishop, 184
Lawrance
Isaac, Mayor of Oxford, 213
Mr., 104
Laws, arbitrary, 112
Leak, 125
Lee-
Mr., 107
Sir William, 209
298
OXFORD STUDIES
Lernster, Duke of, 222
Leland, John, quoted, 13
Le Maitre, 94
Leslie, "Memorial of the
Church of England," 135
Lilly, William, 200
k < Little Dickey James," 187
Lloyd
Mr., 66
Richard, 228
Loehard, the newsman, 85
Lock, Edward, Mayor of Ox-
ford, 100, 193, 228
Locke, John, 124, 134
Lollards, the, 133
London, league with Oxford,
17 ; compared with Oxford
as to municipal growth,
18 ; the centre of civilisa-
tion, 126
Lovelace, Lord, 71
"Loyal Association," 227
Lydiatt, Mr., 41
Lyne's Coffee-house, 48
Macadam, 129
Macclesfield, Lord, 171, 224
"Mad Parliament," the, 16
Malmeshury, Lord, 53, 242
Manufactures, 205, 206
Mar, Earl of, rebellion of, 142,
154-158
Mara, 210
Marlborough, Dukes of, Parlia-
mentary elections, 104-
108, 237 ; charitable dona-
tions, 109 ; royal visit to
Oxford, 217 ; present to
Oxford, 225; Test and
Corporation Act, 222 ;
poor relief during war, 232
Masham, Mrs., 140
Mason, 174
Massey, Mr., quoted, 95
Maud, Empress, besieged at
Oxford Castle, 14
Maynwaring, 134
Mayor, authority of, in old
days, 4
Meadowcourt Mr., 163, 164,
170
Mercers, Company of, 114
Merchant Guilds, 17, 22
" Merton Walks, or the Oxford
Beauties," 60
Milton, John, 47
"Monitor, The," 33
Monmouth's Rebellion, 103
Montague, Lady Mary, 111
Montfort, Earl Simon de,
16
Moore, Bishop, Library of, 156,
157
Morcar, assassination of,
15
MorrelL Mr., 193
Moseley, Mr., 165
Moss, Dr., 139
"Mother Goose, "184
Municipal affairs of Oxford.
See under University
Municipal life in England com-
pared with that of foreign
towns, 21
Municipal Reform Act, 102,
237
Music room, the, 210
Nares, Sergeant, 107
Nash, Beau, 63
Nesbitt, Arnold, 105
Newcastle, Duke of, Chancellor
of Cambridge, 174
Newton, Dr., quoted, 73
Nibb, Mr., 104
Nicholas, Dr., 101
Nicholson, attempted assassina-
tion of the King, 217
Norris, Lord, made Earl of
Abmgdon, 103
North, Lord, 153, 214 ; death
of, 229
INDEX
299
Northwade, Dr., 114
Nourse, Sir Charles, 219
Nuneham, residence of
Har courts, 210
the
Ockley, Mr , 42
Ogilvie, Mr., Parliamentary
candidate, 224
Orange, Pnnce of, journey to
Oxford, 127, 191
Ordric, Abbot, 17
Ormond, Duke of, 141, 151
Osney, Abbey of, 7, 13
Owen, Col., 155, 160
Oxford Journal, the, William
Jackson, originator and
proprietor, 219 ; specimen
of contents, 85-97; quoted,
31, 66, 105, 193
Oxford Spectator, the, extract
from, 248
Oxfordshire Eegiment of Militia,
221, 230, 234
Paine, Tom, 227, 228
Pantm, sale of a wife to,
218
Panting, Master of Pembroke,
166
Parker, 153
Parker, Captain, 224
Parker, Lord, ib,
Parker, Major, 230
Parliamentary elections, bribery
and corruption, 105-108
Parsons, John, Mayor of Oxford,
223
Pauling, Robert, Mayor of
Oxford, 101, 103
Pears, Mr., 213
Peckwetlier, Radulph, 99
Pennyfarthmg Street, 99
Penyverthing family, 99
Pepper, Major-Gen., 155
Percival, Lord, robbery of, 89,
Percy, Dr., collector oi Religues,
229
Peshall, quoted, 109, 114, 115
Phipps, Sir Constantino, 151
Pillory, the, 95, 96
Pitt, William, 211, 214, 221,
222
Plot, Dr., quoted, 67, 132
Police, inadequacy of, 89, 193
"Poor Jack the matchman "
183
Poor-
Bates, 206
Relief during the war, 231-
233
"Poor scholars," 41-45
Pope, Alexander, 190
Population of Oxford town and
county, 207
Portland, Duke of, 229
Portmannimote, 6, 22
Port-meadow, 6, 17
Pretender, the. See Jacobite
Cause, under University
Prickett, Thomas, 193
Prince, bookseller, 178
Prisons, condition of, 94
Progress, absence o in country
compared with towns, cause
of, 127, 189-207
Provincial towns, importance
of, 129
" Provisions of Oxford," 16
Punishments, 95-97
Purnell, Dr., 173
Races, city, 208
Radcliife Infirmary, 241
Raymond, Jemmet, 167
Reformation, the, attitude of
Oxford University, 133
Regency, question in 1788, 221
Religion in eighteenth century,
240
JReliques of Ancient English
Poetry, by Dr. Percy, 229
300
OXFORD STUDIES
Rice, P., 113
Roads, condition of, 127, 190-
192
Boberson, Thomas, 32
Robinson, Bishop, 38, 40
Fred., 113
Mr., Proproctor, 138
Rowland, James, 223
Rudge, Mr., 209
Rupert, Prince, 123
Sacheverell, Dr., impeachment
of, 134, 138
Sadler
Present of a wife, 219
Mr., balloon of, 209
St. Aldate, 6
St. Ebbe's, 6, 13
St. Edmund's, 6
St. Edward's, 96
St. Frideswide Church, 3, 6,
114 ; monastery, 5 ; fan*,
117
St. Giles, 19
St. John's Hospital, 96
St. Martin's, 6, 23, 115
St. Michael's, 13, 100
St. Mildred's, 6
St. Peter's-in-the-East, 13, 107,
109
St. Peter le Baffly, 12
St. Thomas, 120
Salmon, quoted, 118
Sampson, Mr., Ill
Sancroft, Archbishop, 137
Sanctuary, right of, 96, 98
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough,
139
Scott, John (Lord Eldon), 71
Segrim family, 100
Servitor, the, 36-41, 237
Shakespear, 99
Shelley, 242
Sherwin, the beadle, 150
Shirburne, H., 122
Shoemakers, Company of, 113
Shortland, Mr., 193
Shotover Woods, 132
Sigeferth, assasisnation of, 15
Skinner, John, 97
Slatford, contest for town
clerkship, 104
Slatter, William, 220
Smallpox, new remedy of in-
oculation, 110-112
Smalridge, Bishop, 139, 140,
150, 153, 158
Smith, Adam, 232
Smith, "The Linen Draper,"
187
Smoking, 67
Sotham, Mr., 202
Southey, quoted, 70, 77, 159
Spectator, the, 78
Spencer
Earl, 229
Family, 105
Lord Charles, 221
Lord Henry, 222
Lord Robert, 107, 109, 153,
208, 212, 214
Spinning, 200
Spratt, Bishop, 137
Stanley, Lord, robbery of, 89
Stapylton, Mr., 107
Steele, Sir Richard, quoted,
62
Stephen, King, siogo of the
Empress Maud, 14; as-
sembly at Oxford, 16
Stephenson, George, 129
Stocks, the, 97
Stodely, J., Mayor of Oxford,
114
Stone houses first built by Jews,
10
Stonhouse, Miss, 66
Streat, Mr., 166
Street, Mr., 77
Streets, 99, 100, 116, 216, 241
Sunderland, Earl of, 153, 159
INDEX
301
Swegen, death of, 15
Swift-
Dean, quoted, 189
John, 223
Tagg, James, 220
Talbot, Mr., 138
Tainan, William, trial of, 233,
234
Tatham, Dr., 186
Taunton, Mr., 193, 198
Taverns and ale-houses, 72
Tawney, Edward, Mayor of
Oxford, 213
Richard, 193 ; knighthood
conferred on, 217
Taylors, Company of, 113, 224,
228
Tennison, Archbishop, 138
Test and Corporation Act,
222
Thompson, W., 113
Thornton, Bonwell, 66
Thorp, Win., sen., Mayor of
Oxford, 223
Thorpe, Wm., Mayor of Oxford,
99
Thurston, contest for Town
Clerkship, 104
Thynne, Lady Isabella, 57
"Toast, the," influence of, on
college life, 57-63
Tongue, Mr., 193
Town
Architecture, 7-10
Boundaries of jurisdiction in
early days, 19
Charters granted by Henry I.
and II., 18, 22, 23
Early history of, 4-24
Jews' settlement in (see Jews)
League with London, 17
Loyalty at end of eighteenth
century, 221, 227
Municipal affairs, 100, 102,
216-225, 241
Prosperity of, in early days,
3-5, 18, 23
"Provisions of Oxford," 16
Streets, 99,100, 116,216,241
War, distress during the,
231, 233
Town-mote, 23
Townshend, Lord, 153, 156,
159
Trapp, Mr., 42
Treacher, Sir John, Mayor of
Oxford, 212, 218
Trevor, Lord, 153
Tyrrel, Ben, 82, 85
University
Amusements, 74-83, 241
Clubs, 64-67
Coffee-houses, 31-34
Dinner-hour, 34
Don, the, disappearance of,
250
Drinking, 68-72, 118
Early iismg, 47
"Freshman's Dream," 248
Freshmen, life of, 46-63, 166,
168
German universities, com-
pared with, 160
Hatred of foreigners, 167
Jacobite sympathies, causes
of, 122 - 130 ; attitude,
130-140, 146-149, 151-
154 ; Mar's rebellion, 142,
154-158 ; forbearance of
Government, 155, 158,
17l-173j Whigs and Tories,
160-173; disappearance of
Jacobitism and loyalty to
the Georges, 178, 211, 239
Plans of reformation of the
colleges, 171
"Poor scholars," 41-45
Reformation, attitude during,
133
Servitor, the, 36-41, 237
302
OXFORD STUDIES
University CMimed.
Smoking, 67
Taverns and ale-houses, 7*2
Toast, the, influence on col
lege life, 57-63
"Young Oxford," 247-266
Vernon, Miss, 108
Villiers, Barbara, 57
Vives, Ludovicus, 133
Wake, Archbishop, 171
Wakes, 118
Walden, Lionel, 155
Walker
John, 193
Thomas, President of " Loyal
Association," 227
Walley, John, 113
War, the, how it affected Ox-
ford, 226-233
Ward, Tippety, 183
Warton
Tom, jun., college life, 48,
175, 243; Court laure-
ate, 212 ; death of, 220 ;
quoted, 31, 32, 73, 82
Tom, sen., 64, 170
Watson, John, Mayor of Ox-
ford, 213
Waynflete, William of, 223
Wealth of Nations, 232
Weavers, Company of, 115
Wenman, Thomas Francis, 97
Wesley-
Charles, 168
John, 168, 240
Samuel, sen., 39, 135, 143, 242
Samuel, jun., 143
West, Eichard, 113
Weston, Eichard, Mayor of
Oxford, 99, 219
Whately, 249
Whigs and Tories at Oxford,
160-173
Whitefield, George, 38, 240
Whiteside, 72
Whitlock, 151, 156
Wickham, Miss Molly, 66
Wife, sale of a, 119, 218
Williams, Eev. John, 87
Willis-
Browne, 34
Dr. Thomas, 37, 80
Willoughby, Sir C., 204
Wills, Dr., 161
Witchcraft, 119
Wolsey, Cardinal, 133
Wood, Anthony a, quoted,
coffee, 31 ; municipal elec-
tions, 101, 102, Earl of
Abmgdon, 103 ; public en-
tertainments, 107 ; com-
panies, 114 ; Whigs and
Tories, 161 ; memoranda,
123
Woods near Oxford, 132
Woolcombers, Company of, 215
Wright, William, 223
Wyatt, Mr., Principal of Mary
Hall, 168
Wycliffe, 133
Wyndham, 151
Wyndham, Right Hon, William.
229
Wynn, Sir Watkin, punch-bowl
bequeathed to Jesus Col-
lege, 70
Wynne, Dr., 126
Yeats, Christopher, 213
Young, Arthur, quoted, 191,
198, 201, 203
Young Oxford, 247-266
Young Travellers, or a Visit to
Oxford, 181
PnUd by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh
The Eversley Series.
Globe SVQ. Cloth. 5 s. far volume*
The Works of Matthew Arnold.
ESSAYS IN CRITICISM Fust Series
ESSAYS IN CRII ICISM Second Series.
EARLY AND NARRATIVE POEMS.
LYRIC AND ELEGIAC POEMS
DRAMATIC AND LATER POEMS.
AMERICAN DISCOURSES.
LETTERS Edited by G. W. E. RUSSELL. Two Vols.
The Holy Bible. Arranged in paragraphs, with an Introduction
by J. W. MACKAIL, M.A. In Eight Volumes.
Vol. I. GENESIS NUMBERS. Vol. II. DEUTERONOMY 2 SAMUEL.
Vol III. i KINGS ESTHER Vol. IV. JOB SONG OF SOLOMON.
Vol V ISAIAH LAMENTATIONS. Vol VI. EZEKIEL MALACHI.
Vol VII. MATTHEW JOHN VoL VIII. ACTS REVELATION.
Essays by George Brimley. Thud Edition.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Edited by A. W. POLLARD.
Two Vols.
Dean Church's Miscellaneous Writings. Collected Edition.
Nine Vols.
MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. | DANTE : and other Essays.
ST. ANSELM | SPENSER I BACON.
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. Twelve Years, 1833-1845.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES. (Included m this Series by
pe: mission of Messrs LONGMANS & Co.)
OCCASIONAL PAPEKS. Selected fiom The Guardian., The Times, T7te
Saturday Review^ 1846-1890. Two Vols.
Life and Letters of Dean Church. Edited by his Daughter,
MARY C. CHURCH.
Lectures and Essays by W. K. Clifford, F.E.S. Edited by
LESLIE STEPHEN and Sir F. POLLOCK. New Edition.
Two Vols.
Emerson's Collected Works. Six Vols. With Introduction by
JOHN MORLEY.
MISCELLANIES. | ESSAYS. | POEMS.
ENGLISH TKAITS AND RFPRP&ENTATIVK MPN.
THE CONDUCT OF LIFE, AND SociKnr AN SOLITUPE.
LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS.
Letters of Edward FitzGerald. Edited by W. A, WRIGHT.
Two Vols.
Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble, 1871-1883.
Edited by W. A. WRIGHT.
More Letters of Edward FitzGerald. \In the Press,
Pausanias and other Greek Sketches. By J. G. FRAZER, M.A.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON,
The Eversley Series Continued.
Goethe's Prose Maxims. Translated, with Introduction, by
T. B. SAUNDERS.
\* The Scientific and Artistic Maxims were selected by Prqfessot
Huxley and Lord Leighion respectively.
Thomas Gray's Collected "Works in Prose and Verse. Edited
by EDMUND GOSSE.
Vol. I. POEMS, JOURNALS, and ESSAYS. Vols. II. and III LETTERS.
Vol. IV. NOTES ON ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO.
Works by John Richard Green.
STRAY STUDIES FROM ENGLAND AND ITALY.
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE Eight Vols.
THE MAKING OF ENGI AND With Maps. In Two Vols.
THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. With Maps. In Two Vols.
OXFORD STUDIES
Guesses at Truth. By Two BROTHERS.
The Choice of Books, and other Literary Pieces. By FREDERIC
HARRISON.
Earthwork out of Tuscany. By MAURICE HEWLETT.
Poems of Thomas Hood. Edited, with Prefatory Memoir, by
ALFRED AINGER. In Two Vols. With Vignettes and
Portraits.
VoL I. SERIOUS POEMS. Vol II. POEMS OF WIT AND HUMOUR.
E. H. Button's Collected Essays.
LITERARY ESSAYS.
ESSAYS ON SOME OF THE MODERN GUIDES OF ENGLISH THOUGHT
IN MATTERS OF FAITH.
THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS.
CRITICISMS ON CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT AND THINKERS. Two Vols.
ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. Selected from
The Spectator^ and Edited by his Niece E. M. ROSCOE. With
Portrait.
Thomas Henry Huxley's Collected Works. Nine Vols.
VoL I. METHOD AND RESULTS.
VoL II. DARWINIANA.
VoL III. SCIENCE AND EDUCATION.
Vol. IV. SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION.
Vol. V. SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN TRADITION.
VoL VI. HUME. With Helps to the Study of Bexkeley.
VoL VII. MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE, and other Anthropological Essays.
Vol, VIII, DISCOURSES, BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL.
VoL IX. EVOLUTION AND ETHICS, AND OTHER ESSAYS.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
