LIFE OF 

 DR. ROLLESTON 



Materials for a full memoir of Professor Rolleston do not 

 exist. But his letters, and the recollections of friends, have 

 preserved some details of the life of a man whose power of 

 mind and nobility of character made him a figure of moment 

 in Oxford during the years 1 860-1 880, a period full of im- 

 portance in the history of the University. 



The Rollestons doubtless had their name from one of the old 

 townships in mid or north England, named from some chief 

 bearing the Danish name of Rolf, and which in Domesday are 

 variously written Eolvetune, Eolvestune, Rollestune, Bollestone. 

 The family were of good standing in Derbyshire early in the 

 18th century, and their first appearance in the world of letters 

 was made by Miss Frances Rolleston, born in 1781, a lady 

 well known in Evangelical circles, zealous for the abolition of 

 slavery, and a supporter of the temperance movement in its 

 beginnings. Living at Keswick, she knew Wordsworth and 

 Southey, about whom her published letters contain some stories ; 

 but her main claim to popularity consists in a book entitled 

 ' Mazzaroth ; or the Constellations,' an abridgment of which was 

 published so late as 1879. In it she discovers primeval prophe- 

 cies in the signs of the Zodiac, ending with the Fishes, to her an 

 anticipation of the well-known Christian emblem, and a prophetic 

 type of the multitudes of the Church to come. Educated people 

 are now apt to smile at the etymological vagaries which were 

 this learned lady's grounds of argument; thus it seemed quite 

 obvious to her that the Hebrew word or, ' light,' was the source 

 of the French word for ' gold.' But it is instructive to remember 



