44 GILBEKT WHITE OF SELBORNE i780 



appears that the practice in the eighteenth century 

 was to take the then value of a Fellowship from 

 all sources, including allowances during residence, on 

 an average of the last seven years ; and if the value 

 so ascertained was exceeded by the value of the 

 benefice or other property, the Fellowship was held to 

 be vacated. But the only cases which are noticed in 

 the College register are those of ecclesiastical prefer- 

 ment ; and the value of these was taken from the 

 King's Books. It was not till 1816 that the College 

 confirmed this practice by a College order. 



The above account is kindly furnished from Oriel 

 College ; but the opinion of other experts in the his- 

 tory of College statutes, and their interpretation by 

 college custom (which is quite as important as the 

 statutes themselves), difiers widely as to what is meant 

 by the words ''patrimonium" and "redditus" — 

 whether the former word was held to include all 

 inherited property, or only patrimony in its strictest 

 sense; and as to what was held to constitute ''red- 

 ditus," or income ; some authorities holding that 

 nothing but ecclesiastical preferment or distinct 

 " patrimonium," i.e, inheritance of real property, 

 would void a Fellowship. Certainly income earned 

 by a Fellow's own exertions, including a stipend 

 received as curate, has never been held to disqualify 

 him ; and it would seem naturally to follow that 

 money saved by a Fellow during his tenure of a 

 Fellowship would not be reckoned as disqualifying 

 him. 



