OXFORD 



679 



Sr A LEAN HALL, founded about 1230, was united to 

 Herton College in 1882. 



ST EDMUND HALL, founded about 1260. Queen's Col- 

 lege appoints the principal. Thomas Hearne, the anti- 

 quary, was long resident here. 



ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas 

 White. The chapel, hall, entrance tower, and part of 

 the street front of the outer quadrangle are substantially 

 those of St Bernard's College, a house of the Cistercian 

 monks, built here 1437-1530. The garden front of the 

 inner quadrangle was built by Archbishop Laud iq.v.) in 

 1631. Members of this college have deserved well of the 

 university, Archbishop Laud and Dr Richard Kawlinson 

 having been principal benefactors to the Bodleian. Ed- 

 mund Campion, Shirley the dramatist, Edmund C'alamy, 

 and Dean Mansell are other St John's names. 



[ST MARY HALL, founded in 1333 by Oriel College, re- 

 tained a close connection with Oriel, a fellow or ex-fellow 

 of Oriel having generally been principal, till, as contem- 

 plated by the statutes of 1877, it was in 1896 incorporated 

 with Oriel College.] 



SHELDOXIAN THEATRE, built in 1669 by Archbishop 

 Sheldon for the holding in it of the great university 

 degree ceremonies. These had hitherto been held in St 

 Mary's Church, but the riotous conduct of the 8|>ectators 

 (in 1652 the undergraduates had to be kept in order by 

 soMiers of the garrison ) often scandalised those who had 

 regard to the sacred character of the building. The ' act ' 

 (the degree-ceremony in which all M.A. degrees and 

 doctors' degrees granted during the year were supposed 

 to be completed by 'inception') is now superseded by the 

 Enctenia, in which prize compositions are recited (among 

 them the 'Newdigate,' q.v. ), honorary degrees are con- 

 ferred, and a Latin oration delivered. 



TRINITY COLLEGE, founded in 1554 by Sir Thomas Pope. 

 The library is part of Durham College which stood here 

 (see DURHAM ) ; the hall dates from 1620; the chapel, witli 

 its fine carved cedar, from 1694 ; the garden quadrangle 

 was built 1665-1728; and lar^e new buildings were added 

 in 1KX7. The ' Lime Walk,' planted in 1713, is the feature 

 of the garden. Kettell Hall, on Broad Street, near the 

 college, built in 1615 by Ralph Kettell (president of 

 Trinity ), in a characteristic example of Oxford architec- 

 ture of the period. Chillingworth, Selden, Denham, 

 Audrey, Thomas Warton, Landor, Newman, and Free- 

 man were members. 



UNIVERSITY COLLEGE had its origin in an endowment 

 left in 1249 by William of Durham for the maintenance 

 of some graduates of the university. This was at first 

 administered by the university itself, and the institution 

 called the university's Great Hall, 'Magna Anla Uni- 

 versitatis,' in distinction probably from some smaller 

 'halls' which the university owned. Afterwards the 

 administration of the trust was committed to the bene- 

 ficiaries themselves; and, under the influence of the 

 example of Walter de Herton's foundation, the society 

 became a college. In the 14th century there grew up a 

 legend that the building occupied the site of a college 

 founded by King Alfred, destroyed in the Danish invasion. 

 By a later effort of imagination King Alfred was said to 

 have founded University College in 872 A.D. University 

 College was a great power in Oxf i ird in 1686-88, when its 

 master, Obadiah Walker, was the chief agent in the 

 Roman Catholic effort to reconquer Oxford. The lawyers 

 Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, Sir W'illiam Jones, and 

 the poet Shelley were members of this college. 



WADHAM COLLEGE, founded by Dorothy, widow of Sir 

 Nicholas Wadham, in 1613, on the site of the old Austin 

 Friary. The beautiful gardens of this college perhaps 

 owe something to the labours of the friars. The college 

 buildings are an exquisite specimen of Jacobean work ; 

 the street front in particular is one of the prettiest bits 

 in Oxford. Admiral Blake was a student here, and his 

 portrait is in the hall. The Royal Society took its origin 

 in meetings in the rooms of Dr John Wilkins, warden of 

 Wadham. 



WORCESTER COLLEGE, founded by Sir Thomas Cookes of 

 Worcestershire in 1714, in Gloucester Hall Gloucester 

 Hall had in 1560 succeeded Gloucester College, a college 

 for Benedictine monks, founded in 1283, dissolved at the 

 Reformation. Each monastery had its own building; 

 and a row of these, forming one side of Worcester College 

 quadrangle, each witli the coat of arms of its monastery 

 carved in stone over the door, is one of the most interest- 

 ing bite of old Oxford. During the earlier part of Eliza- 



beth's reign Gloucester Hall was filled with Roman 

 Catholic students, their tutors being graduates who had 

 been ejected from their fellowships in various colleges for 

 refusing the oath of allegiance. In the 17th century 

 there was for some time a project to found here a college 

 for the education of clergy of the orthodox Greek Church. 

 Lovelace, Sir Keuelm Digby, and De Quincey were 

 members. 



The university of Oxford is a corporation nmler 

 the title of ' the chancellor, masters, and scholars 

 of the university of Oxford.' It consists of a body 

 of graduates ( masters of arts and graduates in law, 

 medicine, and divinity) who are the governing 

 members of the corporation, and of a body of 

 undergraduates (and bachelors of arts) who are 

 'in statn pupillari,' that is, subject to the govern- 

 ment of the officers of the university and without 

 voice in university business. The statutes by 

 which the university is governed are partly the 

 code promulgated in the chancellorship of Arch- 

 bishop Laud, partly the body of enactments issued 

 by a parliamentary commission in 1877. The busi- 

 ness of the university is formally transacted in 

 three houses : ( 1 ) the Ancient House of Congrega- 

 tion, consisting of masters of arts of less than two 

 years' standing, heads of colleges, deans of degrees 

 of colleges, professors, examiners, &c. , in which 

 the ceremonial business of conferring ordinary 

 degrees is conducted; (2) the House of Congrega- 

 tion, constituted by act of parliament in 1853, con- 

 sisting of university otticers, professors, and resident 

 graduates (in 1891 there were 391 graduates resi- 

 dent), in which proposed statutes are submitted 

 for discussion and vote ; (3) the House of Convoca- 

 tion, consisting of all graduates who have kept 

 their names on the books (5966 in 1891 ), which is 

 in theory the supreme governing body of the 

 university. Thus, all statutes ana decrees of the 

 university are voted upon in convocation, and it is 

 convocation which elects the two members whom 

 the university returns to parliament. Practically, 

 however, the business of the university is in the 

 hands of the Hebdomadal Council and of small 

 committees, called delegacies (or curators). Coun- 

 cil began as a committee of heads of houses, in- 

 vented under Stuart absolutism to control the free 

 spirit of the university. It now consists of the 

 vice-chancellor and proctors, and eighteen persons 

 elected by convocation, six being heads of houses, 

 six professors, and six graduates. Council retains 

 the initiative in all legislation, the control of most 

 of the negotiations in which the university takes 

 part, the nomination of persons to receive honor- 

 ary degrees, and the like. Committees govern 

 the institutions of the university, such as the 

 Bodleian Library, the University Chest, the 

 University Press, and the Museum. The chief 

 officers of the university are ( 1 ) the chancellor, 

 the official head of the university, generally a 

 peer of the realm, elected for life by convocation; 

 (2) the vice-chancellor, nominated by the chan- 

 cellor from the heads of houses in rotation, and 

 holding office (as a rule) for four years; (3) the 

 two proctors, holding office for a year, elected by 

 the graduates of the colleges according to a cycle, 

 each college getting its turn to elect a proctor 

 every eleventh year. The proctors are specially 

 charged with the discipline of the university as 

 regards its junior members. Each college of the 

 university is a distinct corporation, self-governed 

 according to its own statutes under sanction of the 

 parliamentary commissions of 1852 and 1877. 



The earliest historical notice of Oxford shows 

 also its importance in early times. In 912 A.D. the 

 Saxon Chronicle records that, on the death of Ethel- 

 red, Edward (the son of Alfred) took possession 

 'of London and Oxford and all the lands obedient 

 to those cities.' The remarkable Castle mound, 



