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                                OXFORD

                             AND ITS STORY

[Illustration: OXFORD CASTLE (_Photogravure_)]




                                OXFORD

                             AND ITS STORY

                                  BY

                          CECIL HEADLAM, M.A.

                  AUTHOR OF "NUREMBERG," "CHARTRES,"
                               ETC. ETC.

                            [Illustration]

                     WITH TWENTY-FOUR LITHOGRAPHS
                      AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BY

                            HERBERT RAILTON

                         THE LITHOGRAPHS BEING
                               TINTED BY

                             FANNY RAILTON

                                 1912

                                LONDON

                        J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.

                     NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.


                         _First Edition_, 1904

                  _Second and Cheaper Edition_, 1912

                         _All rights reserved_


                              ALMAE MATRI
                     FILIUS INDIGNUS HAUD INGRATUS




PREFACE


The Story of Oxford touches the History of England, social and
political, mental and architectural, at so many points, that it is
impossible to deal with it fully even in so large a volume as the
present.

Even as it is, I have been unavoidably compelled to save space by
omitting much that I had written and practically all my references and
acknowledgments. Yet, where one has gathered so much honey from other
men's flowers not to acknowledge the debt in detail appears discourteous
and ungrateful; and not to give chapter and verse jars also upon the
historical conscience. I can only say that, very gratefully, _J'ai pris
mon bien ou je l'ai trouve_, whether in the forty odd volumes of the
Oxford Historical Society, the twenty volumes of the College Histories,
the accurate and erudite monographs of Dr Rashdall ("Mediaeval
Universities") and Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte ("History of the University of
Oxford to the year 1530") or innumerable other works. Where so much has
been so well done by others in the way of dealing with periods and
sections of my whole subject, my chief business has been to read, mark,
digest, and then to arrange my story. But to do that thoroughly has been
no light task. Whether it be well done or ill-done, the story now told
has the great merit of providing an occasion, excuse was never needed,
for the display of Mr Herbert Railton's art.




CONTENTS


.....PAGE

PREFACE.....vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.....xi

CHAPTER I

ST FRIDESWIDE AND THE CATHEDRAL.....1

CHAPTER II

THE MOUND, THE CASTLE AND SOME CHURCHES.....22

CHAPTER III

THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY.....61

CHAPTER IV

THE COMING OF THE FRIARS.....93

CHAPTER V

THE MEDIAEVAL STUDENT.....148

CHAPTER VI

OXFORD AND THE REFORMATION.....240

CHAPTER VII

THE OXFORD MARTYRS.....276

CHAPTER VIII

ELIZABETH, BODLEY AND LAUD.....291

CHAPTER IX

THE ROYALIST CAPITAL.....312

CHAPTER X

JACOBITE OXFORD--AND AFTER.....349

INDEX.....357




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


OXFORD CASTLE (_Photogravure_)..... _Frontispiece_

_TINTED LITHOGRAPHS_

MAGDALEN TOWER FROM THE WATER WALKS....._Facing page...4_

CHRIST CHURCH....."...20

CORNMARKET STREET....."...26

ENTRANCE FRONT, PEMBROKE COLLEGE....."...46

ARCHWAY AND TURRET, MERTON COLLEGE....."...62

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE....."...78

GARDEN FRONT, S. JOHN'S COLLEGE....."...90

WADHAM COLLEGE, FROM THE GARDENS....."...104

ORIEL COLLEGE AND MERTON TOWER....."...122

BALLIOL COLLEGE....."...130

S. MARY'S PORCH....."...148

S. ALBAN HALL, MERTON COLLEGE....."...174

QUADRANGLE, BRASENOSE COLLEGE....."...202

BELL TOWER AND CLOISTERS, NEW COLLEGE....."...220

THE FOUNDER'S TOWER, MAGDALEN COLLEGE....."...230

FRONT QUADRANGLE, CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE....."...250

CLOISTERS, CHRIST CHURCH....."...262

GRAMMAR HALL, MAGDALEN COLLEGE....."...274

PRESIDENT'S LODGE, TRINITY COLLEGE....."...286

QUADRANGLE, JESUS COLLEGE....."...294

THE GARDENS, EXETER COLLEGE....."...302

ORIEL WINDOW, S. JOHN'S COLLEGE....."...308

THE CLOISTERS, NEW COLLEGE....."...330

QUADRANGLE AND LIBRARY, ALL SOULS' COLLEGE....."...340




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS_


.....PAGE

OXFORD CATHEDRAL (INTERIOR)....._Facing 8_

OXFORD CATHEDRAL (EXTERIOR).....13

HALL STAIRWAY, CHRIST CHURCH.....17

ABINGDON ABBEY.....24

THE BASTION AND RAMPARTS IN NEW COLLEGE....._Facing 30_

CITY WALLS.....31

CHAPEL OF OUR LADY.....32

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF OXFORD (1578)....._Facing 32_

OXFORD CASTLE.....35

S. PETER'S IN THE EAST....._Facing 42_

THE "BISHOP'S PALACE," S. ALDATE'S.....50

THE RADCLIFFE LIBRARY, FROM BRASENOSE COLLEGE.....85

GABLES IN WORCESTER COLLEGE.....103

GATEWAY, WORCESTER GARDENS.....106

ORIEL COLLEGE....._Facing 108_

DOORWAY, REWLEY ABBEY.....109

OLD GATEWAY, MERTON COLLEGE.....117

MONASTIC BUILDINGS, WORCESTER COLLEGE.....127

ORIEL WINDOW, LINCOLN COLLEGE.....147

THE HIGH STREET.....151

S. MARY'S SPIRE FROM GROVE LANE.....155

GABLES AND TOWER, MAGDALEN COLLEGE.....195

OPEN AIR PULPIT, MAGDALEN COLLEGE.....199

MAGDALEN COLLEGE....._Facing 210_

IN NEW COLLEGE.....223

KEMP HALL....._Facing 228_

MAGDALEN BRIDGE AND TOWER.....233

NICHE AND SUNDIAL, CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE.....248

SOUTH VIEW OF BOCARDO.....281

CHAPEL IN JESUS.....298

COOKS BUILDINGS, S. JOHN'S....._Facing 300_

FROM THE HIGH STREET.....314

COURTYARD TO PALACE....._Facing 320_

VIEW FROM THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE.....337

ORIEL WINDOW, QUEEN'S LANE.....342




OXFORD & ITS STORY




CHAPTER I

S. FRIDESWIDE AND THE CATHEDRAL

    "He that hath Oxford seen, for beauty, grace
     And healthiness, ne'er saw a better place.
     If God Himself on earth abode would make
     He Oxford, sure, would for His dwelling take."
                     DAN ROGERS,
         _Clerk to the Council of Queen Elizabeth_.

    "Vetera majestas quaedam et (ut sic dixerim) religio commendat."
                               QUINTILIAN.


It is with cities as with men. The manner of our meeting some men, and
the moment, impress them upon our minds beyond the ordinary. And the
chance of our approach to a city is full also of significance. London
approached by the Thames on an ocean-going steamer is resonant of the
romance of commerce, and the smoke-haze from her factories hangs about
her like folds of the imperial purple. But approach her by rail and it
is a tale of mean streets that you read, a tale made yet more sad by the
sight of the pale, drawn faces of her street-bred people. Calcutta is
the London of the East, but Venice, whether you view her first from the
sea, enthroned on the Adriatic, or step at dawn from the train into the
silent gondola, is always different yet ever the same, the Enchanted
City, Queen of the Seas. And many other ports there are which live in
the memory by virtue of the beauty of the approach to them: Lisbon, with
the scar of her earthquake across her face, looking upon the full broad
tide of the Tagus, from the vantage ground of her seven hills; Cadiz,
lying in the sea like a silver cup embossed with a thousand watch
towers; Naples, the Siren City; Sidney and Constantinople; Hong-Kong
and, above all, Rio de Janeiro. But among inland towns I know none that
can surpass Oxford in the beauty of its approach.

Beautiful as youth and venerable as age, she lies in a purple cup of the
low hills, and the water-meads of Isis and the gentle <DW72>s beyond are
besprent with her grey "steeple towers, and spires whose silent finger
points to heaven." And all around her the country is a harmony in
green--the deep, cool greens of the lush grass, the green of famous
woods, the soft, juicy landscapes of the Thames Valley.

You may approach Oxford in summer by road, or rail, or river. Most wise
and most fortunate perhaps is he who can obtain his first view of Oxford
from Headington Hill, her Fiesole. From Headington has been quarried
much of the stone of which the buildings of Oxford, and especially her
colleges, have been constructed.

Oxford owes much of her beauty to the humidity of the atmosphere, for
the Thames Valley is generally humid, and when the floods are out, and
that is not seldom, Oxford rises from the flooded meadows like some
superb Venice of the North, centred in a vast lagoon. And just as the
beauty of Venice is the beauty of  marbles blending with the
ever-changing colour of water and water-laden air, so, to a large
extent, the beauty of Oxford is due to this soft stone of Headington,
which blends with the soft humid atmosphere in ever fresh and tender
harmonies, in ever-changing tones of purple and grey. By virtue of its
fortunate softness this stone ages with remarkable rapidity, flakes off
and grows discoloured, and soon lends to quite new buildings a deceptive
but charming appearance of antiquity.

Arriving, then, at the top of Headington Hill, let the traveller turn
aside, and, pausing awhile by "Joe Pullen's" tree, gaze down at the
beautiful city which lies at his feet. Her sombre domes, her dreaming
spires rise above the tinted haze, which hangs about her like a delicate
drapery and hides from the traveller's gaze the grey walls and purple
shadows, the groves and cloisters of Academe. For a moment he will
summon up remembrance of things past; he will fancy that so, and from
this spot, many a mediaeval student, hurrying to learn from the lips of
some famous scholar, first beheld the scene of his future studies; this,
he will remember