the capital of a county of the same name in England, celebrated for its university, and pleasantly situated in a plain, with a fine fruitful country all around. The composition of the name is obvious. In the British times it seems to have been a place of study. "The wisdom of our ancestors (says Camden), as appears in our history, consecrated even in the British times this city to the muses, transplanting them from Greekland (now a small town in Wilts) hither, as to a more fruitful nursery. For Alexander Necham * * De Naturis, Italy claims superior knowledge of civil law; tura Rerum, but the study of divinity and the liberal arts prove, lib. 2. that the university of Paris deserves the preference of all others. Agreeable also to Merlin's prophecy, Wisdom has flourished at the Ford of Oxen, and will in its due time pass over also into Ireland." But in the following Saxon age, when so many critics were destroyed, it underwent the common fate, and for a long while was famous only for the relics of Frideric, who was ranked among the saints for her holy life, merely because she had solemnly devoted herself to God; and prince Algier, soliciting her in marriage, was miraculously, as they say, deprived of his eye-light."

Perhaps the following additional extract from Camden will be more to the purpose in developing the ancient state of learning in this city, than anything which we could bring forward of our own. "When the storm of the Danish war was over, the most religious prince Alfred restored their retreats to the long-*A.D.886. exiled muses, by founding three colleges, one for grammarians, another for philosophy, and a third for divinity. This will be more fully explained by the following passage in the old annals of the New Monastery at Winchester. 'In the year of our Lord 806, the second year of the arrival of St Grimbald in England, the university of Oxford was begun; the first who presided and read divinity lectures in it being St Neoth, an abbot and able divine; and St Grimbald, a most eminent professor of the incomparable sweetness of the sacred pages; after the monk, an excellent scholar, professing grammar and rhetoric; John monk of the church of St David giving lectures in logic, music, and arithmetic; and John the monk, colleague of St Grimbald, a man of great parts, and a universal scholar, teaching geometry and astronomy before the most Oxford, glorious and invincible King Alfred, whose memory will dwell like honey in the mouths of all." Soon after, as we find in an excellent MS. of the said After, who was at that time professor here, "broke out a sharp and fatal quarrel between Grymbold and those very learned men whom he had brought thither with him, and the old scholars whom he found there; who, on his coming, unanimously refused to receive the rules, methods, and forms of lecturing, that Grymbold introduced. Three years had passed without any great difference between them; but the secret aversion afterwards broke out with the utmost violence. In order to quell it, the invincible King Alfred, as soon as he heard of it by the messages and complaints from Grymbold, went in person to Oxford to put an end to the dispute, and he took the greatest pains to hear the causes and complaints on both sides. The foundation of the difference was this: The old scholars maintained, that before Grymbold came to Oxford learning had flourished there, though the scholars at that time were fewer than in more ancient times, the greater part being driven out by the cruelty and oppression of the Pagans. They also proved and showed, and that by the undoubted testimony of ancient chronicles, that the ordinances and regulations of the place were established by certain religious and learned men, such as Gildas, Melkinus, Ninius, Kentigern, and others, who had all lived to a good old age in these studies, having settled matters there in peace and harmony; and also that St Germanus came to Oxford, and laid there half a year in his journey over Britain to preach against the Pelagian heresies, and wonderfully approved their plan and institution. The king, with unheard-of censure, gave both parties attentive hearing, and repeated his pious and seasonable advice to maintain mutual union and concord, and left them with the prospect that both parties would follow his advice and embrace his institutions. But Grymbold, offended at this proceeding, immediately retired to the monastery at Winchester lately founded by King Alfred. He also caused his tomb to be removed to Winchester, in which he had intended to lay his bones when his course of life was ended, in the vault under the chancel of St Peter's church at Oxford, which church himself had built from the ground of stone polished in the most costly manner.

"This happy restoration of learning was followed in a few years by various calamities. The Danes in the reign of Edward plundered and burnt the place; and soon after Harold Harefoot practised the most inhuman barbarities here in revenge for some of his men who were killed in an affray; so that the most melancholy remove of the students ensued, and the university remained almost extinct, a lamentable spectacle till the time of William the Norman. Some have falsely supposed this prince took the city, misled by a wrong reading in some copies of Oxonia for Exonia. At that time, however, it was the seat of an university, as we learn from these words of Ingulphus, who lived at that time. 'I Ingulphus settled first at Westminster, was afterwards sent to study at Oxford, having made greater proficiency than many of my own age in Aristotle, &c.' What we call an university, they in that age called a study." Many are of opinion that it was deserted till about the year 1129, and that this defection was in consequence of its having been besieged and taken by William the Conqueror. About this year, however, Robert Pulen began to read lectures in divinity, or (as it is expressed in the chronicle of Ofeney abbey) the Holy Scriptures, which had fallen into neglect in England; and such was the resort of students to it, that in the reign of King John there were not fewer than 30,000. Robert d'Oily, a Norman, to whom William the Conqueror had given the greatest part of it, built a castle on the west side in 1071; and he is supposed to have surrounded it with walls. In a palace built by Henry I. was born Richard I., commonly called Cœur de Lion. About the tenth of King John, there happened a quarrel between the citizens and students; in consequence of which many of the latter quitted it, but returned again a few years afterwards. Here Henry III. held a parliament to settle the differences betwixt him and his barons; when he confirmed the privileges granted to the university by his predecessors, and added others of his own. In this reign the students are said to have been 30,000, who were all excommunicated by the pope for some rudeness to his legate. In the time of Duns Scotus, we are told that 30,000 scholars attended his lectures. Matthew Paris styles the university of Oxford, "the second school of the church after Paris, and the very foundation of the church." The popes had before this honoured it with the title of University, which they had conferred by their decrees on no other but that of Paris, this of Oxford, and those of Bologna and Salamanca. It was decreed in the council of Vienne, that "schools for the study of the Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldee languages, should be erected in the studies of Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca (as the most considerable), that the knowledge of these languages might prevail by their being thus taught; and that Catholic persons be chosen, sufficiently versed therein, two in each language. For those in Oxford, the bishops, monasteries, chapters, convents, colleges, exempt and not exempt; and the rectors of churches throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, were to provide a competent maintenance." In Edw. III.'s time, the scholars were split into two factions, called the northern and southern men; a division which was attended with many disorders and much violence, but in a short time concord and harmony again prevailed.

As colleges began about this time to be founded and endowed, we shall here present our readers with a list of them, together with the time when, and the persons by whom, they were founded.

| Colleges | Founders | Kings reign | |----------|----------|-------------| | University | King Alfred | Alfred | | Balliol | Sir J. Balol, father to the king | Henry III. | | Merton | Walter Merton, lord chancellor | Edward I. | | Oriel | Edward II. | Edward II. | | Exeter | Walter Stapleton, bishop | Edward II. | | Queens | Robert Eglesfield, B. W. | Edward III. | | New College | William of Wickham, bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor | Edward III. | | Lincoln | Richard Fleming, bishop of Lincoln | Henry VI. | | All-Souls | Hugh Chicheley, archbishop of Canterbury | Henry VI. | | Magdalen | William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, lord chancellor | Henry VI. | | Brazen-Nose | William Smith, bishop of Lincoln, and Richard Sutton, Esq. | Henry VIII. |

Corpus Oxford.

Colleges.

Corpus-Christi. Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester, and lord privy seal. Hen.VIII.

Christ-Church. Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey. Hen.VIII.

Trinity. Sir Thomas Pope. Mary.

St John Baptist. Sir Thomas White, merchant of London. Mary.

Jesus. Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth.

Wadham. Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham. James I.

Pembroke. Thomas Tylde, Esq; and Dr Richard Whitwick. James I.

Worcester was called Gloucester-bell till lately, that it was endowed by Sir Thomas Coke, and made collegiate.

Harvard was Hart-bell till 1740, that it was erected into a college by Dr Richard Newton.

All these are richly endowed, and have fine gardens, libraries, chapels, &c. The halls in which the students maintain themselves, except a few that have exhibitions, are these: St Edmund's, belonging to Queen's college; Magdalen, to Magdalen college; St Alban's to Merton; St Mary's, to Oriel; New Inn, to New college. Several persons have been great benefactors to particular colleges, as Dr Ratcliffe to University college; Colonel Codrington and Dr Clarke, to All-souls; Queen Caroline, to Queen's; the before-mentioned Dr Clarke and Mrs Eaton, to Worcester; Dr Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, to Christ-church.

The most considerable of these colleges are Magdalen's and Christ church, which are as noble foundations as any in the world. The church of the latter is the cathedral, and has a dean, eight canons, eight chaplains, eight singing men, eight choristers, a teacher of music, and an organist. Each of the colleges has its visitor appointed by its statutes, except Christ-church, which is subject to the visitation of the Sovereign alone.

The other remarkable buildings belonging to the university are, first, the public schools; secondly, the Bodleian or public library; thirdly, Ratcliffe's library, a most elegant structure, for building and furnishing which, Dr Ratcliffe left 10,000l; fourthly, the theatre, built by Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury; fifthly, the museum in which is an elaboratory and a repository for natural and artificial rarities and antiquities; sixthly, the Clarendon printing-house, so called, because it was built partly with the money arising to the university by the sale of Lord Clarendon's history.

To the south of Magdalen college lies the physic garden, instituted by the Earl of Danby, and much improved by Dr Sherrard. It contains five acres, in which is a complete series of such plants as grow naturally, disposed in their respective classes; together with two neat and convenient greenhouses, stocked with a valuable collection of exotics, and a hot-house, where various plants brought from the warmer climates are raised. The whole body of the university, including professors, fellows, and students of all sorts, exceeds 3000. Each college has its particular statutes and rules for government. There are four terms in the year for public exercises, &c., and particular days and hours for public lectures by the several professors. The university is governed by a chancellor, high steward, vice-chancellor, two proctors, a public orator (see Public Orator); a keeper of the archives, a registrar, three esquire-beadles, and three yeomen-beadles. As to the city, it has had the same privileges granted to it as London, particularly an exemption from toll all over England. It was made an episcopal see in 1541, when Robert King, the last abbot of Osney, was elected Bishop. It is governed by a mayor, high-steward, recorder, four aldermen, eight assistants, two bailiffs, a town-clerk, two chamberlains, all that have borne the office of bailiff and chamberlain, and twenty-four common-council men; but these are subject to the chancellor or vice-chancellor of the university in all affairs of moment; and not only the mayor, but the principal citizens, and sheriff of the county, take an oath to maintain the privileges of the university. The city, including the colleges, is a place of considerable magnitude, having 13 parish churches, besides the cathedral, well built, clean, and regular.

At the entrance of the town from the Woodstock and Banbury roads, a neat hospital hath been lately erected by the trustees of Dr Ratcliffe's benefaction, out of the surplus money remaining after defraying the expense of his library. The male line of the family of Vere, to whom the city had given the title of earl for 500 years, failing in Aubrey de Vere, who was twentieth earl, Queen Anne conferred the title upon Robert Harley, a descendant of the Veres, in whose family it still continues. The chief trade of the city is in malt, conveyed in barges to London. It is impossible, in the narrow bounds necessarily prescribed to this article, to give so particular an account of this celebrated place as its importance demands; but we shall refer our readers to the article University, when this seminary, amongst others, shall be more particularly described.