Oxford and its Story Author: Cecil Headlam The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oxford and its Story, by Cecil Headlam This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: Oxford and its Story Author: Cecil Headlam Illustrator: Herbert Railton Fanny Railton Release Date: July 13, 2014 [EBook #46274] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OXFORD AND ITS STORY *** Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) 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 où je l'ai trouvé_, 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 ("Mediæval 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 MEDIÆVAL 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 quædam 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 slopes 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 coloured 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 mediæval student, hurrying to learn from the lips of some famous scholar, first beheld the scene of his future studies; this, he will remember, is the Oxford of the Reformation, where, as has been said,[1] the old world and the new lingered longest in each other's arms, like mother and child, so much alike and yet so different; the Oxford also of the Catholic reaction, where the young Elizabethan Revivalists wandered by the Isis and Cherwell framing schemes for the restoration of religion and the deliverance of the fair Mary; the loyal and chivalrous Oxford of the Caroline period, the nursery of knights and gentlemen, when camp and court and cloister were combined within her walls; the Oxford of the eighteenth century, still mindful of the King over the water, and still keeping alive in an age of materialism and infidelity some sparks of that loftier and more generous sentiment which ever clings to a falling cause.