IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 149 



St Oswald Hospital, Worcester/ he rebuilt it in a 

 sumptuous manner, bestowing all the profits of his 

 income there in augmenting and recovering its 

 estates. In 1663 an Act of Parliament was 

 passed for " governing of the hospital of St Oswald 

 in the county of Worcester." 



In 1666-1669 Fell was Vice-chancellor of the 

 university, during which time he successfully re- 

 stored discipline there and greatly raised the 

 reputation of the college. In 1675 he became 

 Bishop of Oxford. He rebuilt the Episcopal Palace 

 of Cuddesden. He was, says Wood, " The most 

 zealous man of his time for the Church of England; 

 a great encourager and promoter of learning in the 

 university, and of all public works belonging there- 

 unto ; of great resolution and exemplary charity ; 

 of strict integrity ; a learned divine, and excellently 

 skilled in the Latin and Greek languages." It is 

 now generally allowed that he was the subject of 

 the epigram, " I do not like you, Dr Fell," though 

 the origin of the epigram has been the subject of 

 much learned and interesting discussion.^ Fell 

 wrote a life of Dr Henry Hammond. He died a 

 bachelor, and was buried in Christ Church 

 Cathedral. There is a picture in which he figures 



1 This hospital was originally an infirmary, founded for leprous 

 monks of Worcester Priory. 



- So popular was Fell, says W. L. Bowles in his Life of Ken, that 

 a loyal Oxford apothecary left eight pounds a year for a prize com- 

 position at Christ Church, " In laudem Doctoris Fell." 



