OXFORD 



677 



South from Carfax runs St Aldate's Street, past 

 the town-hall (Imilt 1752), public library, corn 

 exchange, anil post-office ( 1881 ), St AKlate's 

 Church (rebuilt since 1863), Pembroke College, 

 the front of Christ Church, the entrance to Christ 

 Church Meadow and Broad Walk, to Folly Bridge 

 across the Thames. This bridge was rebuilt in 

 1815. Over the old bridge was a watch-tower 

 (taken down in 1779) known as 'Friar Bacon's 

 Study.' From near Folly Bridge, for about a 

 quarter-mile along the north bank of the river, are 

 moored the barges (see BARGE) of the university 

 and college boat-clubs. 



East from Carfax runs High Street in a grace- 

 ful curve. In the High Street itself, or just off it, 

 stand these buildings, in this order from Carfax : 

 the city market (1773), the Mitre Hotel (extant, 

 as Dagville's Inn, before 1470), the church of All 

 Saints (built in 1706 from designs by Dean Aid- 

 rich), the new front of Brasenose, the University 

 Church (St Mary the Virgin), wliere are preached 

 the university sermons (including the 'Hampton 

 Lectures,' q.v.). All Souls, University, and Queen's 

 Colleges, the Examination Schools (1882), with 

 the Non-collegiate Students' buildings, Magdalen 

 College School (founded 1480), Magdalen College, 

 and the Botanic Gardens ( laid out in 1632). The 

 street ends with Magdalen Bridge over the Cher- 

 well. From this bridge roads lead to Cowley and 

 IrHey, past the college cricket-grounds and the 

 running-ground of the University Athletic Club. 

 At Cowley is a college for army candidates, called 

 the Oxford Military College, opened in 1876, and 

 the barracks of the Oxford military depot. At the 

 church of All Saints, Turl Street runs north from 

 the High, leading to Lincoln, Jesus, and Exeter 

 Colleges, and so into Broad Street at Trinity 

 College. From opposite St Mary's Church, Oriel 

 Street leads soutli past Oriel College and the 

 Canterbury gate of Christ Church into Merton 

 Street, where are Corpus Christ! and Merton 

 Colleges. From St Mary's Church, Catherine or 

 Cat Street leads north, having on the east the 

 Codrington Library (built about 1720 by All Souls 

 College to receive the library of Christopher Cod- 

 rington, and maintained by the college as a law 

 library), and on the west the Radcliffe Library 

 (built in 1737 as a library for medicine and natural 

 science ; since 1861 a reading-room in connection 

 with the Bodleian) ; and farther on the Old Schools 

 (including the Bodleian Library and the Divinity 

 School ) on the west, and Hertford College on the 

 east. Past Hertford College a street leads to New 

 College. Cat Street, after crossing Broad Street, 

 is continued by Park Street, which leads north- 

 wards past Wadham College and the garden front 

 of Trinity College to the University Museum, 

 Keble College, and Lady Margaret Hall (a ladies' 

 college, opened about 1880). Here are the Uni- 

 versity Parks, laid out and kept up by the university. 

 They contain the university observatory, erected 

 in 1874. Here are played most of the football 

 matches (Kugby, Association, Winchester, and 

 other varieties of the game) of the university and 

 college chilis. Here also is the new ground of the 

 University Cricket Club, one of the finest in itself, 

 and in its surroundings, in England. A walk lead- 

 ing from the Parks, east and south, is known as 

 ' Mesopotamia,' being between two cuts of the 

 Cherwell. 



ALL SOOLS COLLEGE wag founded in 1437 by Arch- 

 bishop Chichele as a chantry for the souls of those who 

 had fallen in the wan with France. It remains still 

 a college entirely of fellows ; several of the fellowships 

 have been attiched to university professorships. The 

 front quadrangle is practically as the founder left it ; 

 the fine ohapel (consecrated 1442) contains a beautiful 

 reredos, partially destroyed in 1577 and in 1604, but 



restored in 1876. The hall (built in 1720) contains some 

 pood portraits of former fellows, among them those of 

 Sir William Blackstone, Reginald Heber, Sir Christopher 

 Wren, Thomas Tanner, John Linacre, Jeremy Taylor, 

 and Herrick. 



AsHMOLEAN MUSEUM, the earliest public museum in 

 England, built in 1632 to receive the antiquities, &c. of 

 Elias Ashmole (q.v.). The original collections have since 

 I860 been dispersed ; the books and MSS. going to the 

 Bodleian, the natural history specimens to the Museum, 

 the anthropological (including curiosities brought home 

 by Captain Cook) to the Pitt-Rivers collection. The 

 museum now contains British antiquities, antiquities 

 from Cyprus, Egypt, &c. 



BALLIOL COLLEGE, founded about 12C8 by Devorguilla 

 BallioL, mother of John Balliol, king of Scotland. The 

 buildings are chiefly modern, the hall (1877) being a 

 favourable example of recent Oxford building. This 

 hall contains por' raits of John Wyclif the Reformer, 

 formerly mastt rot the college ; of Archbishop Tait ; of 

 Robert Browning, honorary fellow ; and of Benjamin 

 Jowett, master. By means of the Snell and Warner 

 exhibitions, Balliol has had since the 17th century a 

 close connection with Scotland, including among its 

 members Adam Smith, John Gibson Lockhart, Sir 

 William Hamilton. Colet, Parsons the Jesuit, John 

 Evelyn, Robert Southey, Dean Stanley, Matthew Arnold, 

 A. C. Swinburne, and Cardinal Manning were members 

 of the college. 



BODLEIAN LIBRARY (q.v.), founded in 1602 by Sir 

 Thomas Bodley, in a room (built about 1460) over the 

 Divinity School for the old library of the university, 

 augmented by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Duke 

 Humphrey's Library had been plundered by King 

 Edward VI. 's commissioners. The library has grown 

 to be one of the great libraries of the world ; it contains 

 more than 30,000 MSS. and 500.000 books, and now 

 occupies the whole of the Old Schools (built 1618) of 

 the university. The library contains a fine portrait of 

 the founder. The picture-gallery attached is one of the 

 finest extant examples of an ' ambulacrum,' or room for 

 walking in, found in old great houses. On its walls hang 

 portraits of many benefactors and famous members of the 

 university ; also many historical portraits e.g. Lord 

 Burleigh, Mary Queen of Scots, Prince Henry (son of 

 James L ), James Edward the Old Pretender, &c. 



BRASENOSE COLLEGE, founded in 1509 by William 

 Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton. The 

 gateway tower (1512) is the most striking feature of the 

 old building. The old ' brasen nose ' knocker of Brase- 

 nose Hall, on the site of whicli the college was built, was 

 ( it is claimed ) acquired in ISM, and is now found in the 

 hall. John Foxe, Robert Burton, Dean Miliuan, Barhaui, 

 and F. W. Robertson were students. 



CHRIST CHURCH is both the cathedral of the diocese of 

 Oxford and a college of the university. The cathedral 

 was instituted in 1546 by King Henry VIII. in the church 

 of the old priory of St Frideswide (q.v.). This church 

 contains many remains of Norman architecture (1120- 

 80), and (it is claimed) some fragments of the older 

 Saxon church. The college was founded by Cardinal 

 Wolsey in 1525 as ' Cardinal College,' the priory of St 

 Frideswide being suppressed by him ; was remodelled by 

 the king as ' King Henry VIII.'s College," in 1532 ; and 

 finally settled, as 'Christ Church,' in 1546. The hall and 

 the kitchen ( 1529 ) are Wolsey's work, and surpass any 

 building of the kind in Oxford, or even in England. The 

 great quadrangle ( ' Tom ' Quad. ) begun by Wolsey was 

 not completed till 166.S. Peckwater Quadrangle was re- 

 built in 1705-61. The entrance tower (finished 1682) 

 now contains 'Great Tom,' one of the largest bells in 

 England, being the great bell of Osney Abbey recast (see 

 BELL, Vol. II. p. 55 ). The ' Broad Walk ' of elms leading 

 from the Meadow Gate to the Cherwell, planted by Dean 

 Fell (q.v.) in 1670, was long one of the finest avenues in 

 England ; but its glories have been lessened of late years 

 bv storms, the elm being unable to outlast two centuries. 

 The library contains a valuable collection of paintings, 

 especially bv great Italian masters, with a few of tne 

 Dutch masters. The hall contains many portraits of 

 eminent statesmen and divines by great painters, from 

 Holbein to Millais. Sir Philip Sidney, Camden, George 

 Peele the dramatist, John Locke, Sir George Cornewall 

 Lewis, Dr Liddon, Gladstone, and John Raskin are a few 

 of the famous names of Christ Church men. 



