desolation, and the pathetic motto which it bears--“Quare fecit Dominus
sic domui huic?”--is eloquent of decay. Dr. Byrom Eaton, Archdeacon
of Stow, and then of Leicester, had held the Principality for thirty
years, when in 1692 he resigned it to make way for a younger and more
vigorous man. Such was found in Dr. Woodroffe, one of the Canons
of Christ Church, whose nomination to the Deanery by James II. in
1688 had been cancelled at the Revolution in favour of Dean Aldrich.
Woodroffe is described by Wood as “a man of a generous and public
spirit, who bestowed several hundred pounds in repairing (the place)
and making it a fit habitation for the Muses, which being done he by
his great interest among the gentry made it flourish with hopeful
sprouts.” The hopeful sprouts, however, do not seem to have been so
very numerous after all, since we find the entry in Wood’s _Life_ under
date Jan. 1694--“I was with Dr. Woodroffe, and he told me he had six
in Commons at Gloucester Hall, his 2 sons two.” Prideaux’s letters
to Ellis contain several references to Dr. Woodroffe, the reverse of
complimentary--ludicrous accounts of sermons, which he confesses to
be hearsay accounts, accusations of heiress hunting, of whimsical
ill-temper, of want of dignity. “Last night he had Madam Walcup at his
lodgings, and stood with her in a great window next the quadrangle,
where he was seen by Mr. Dean himself and almost all the house toying
with her most ridiculously and fanning himself with her fan for almost
all the afternoon.” But Prideaux’s gossip was probably inspired by
personal antipathies and College jealousies. Woodroffe was no doubt a
keen, bustling, pushing man.[338] He was shrewd enough, at any rate,
to marry a good fortune; but became involved in difficulties, which
led to the sequestration of his canonry. He seems to have lost no
opportunity of advertising himself and combining “public spirit” with
private advantage. Such was the man who became associated with one of
the most interesting though short-lived experiments in the history of
the University--the establishment of a Greek College. Some seventy
years had passed since Cyril Lucar, Patriarch first of Alexandria and
then of Constantinople, had sent to England a Greek youth, Metrophanes
Critopylos, whom Abp. Abbott placed at Balliol College, of which his
brother had not long before been Master. Here Critopylos remained as a
student till about 1622, when he returned to the East, and subsequently
became Patriarch of Alexandria in the room of Cyril Lucar. Nothing
more seems to have come of this particular overture, but the English
Chaplains of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Aleppo, kept open to some
extent the communications with the Eastern Church. At last, upon the
representations of Joseph Georgirenes, Metropolitan of Samos (a man
who subsequently took refuge in London, and had built for him as a
Greek church what is now St. Mary’s, Crown St. Soho), Archbishop
Sancroft and others who favoured the hope of reunion with the Eastern
Church promoted a scheme for the education of a body of Greek youths
at Oxford, and the establishment of a Greek College there. Foremost
amongst Oxford sympathizers was Dr. Woodroffe, the newly appointed
Principal of Gloucester Hall. In a letter to Callinicos, the Patriarch
of Constantinople, he suggests that twenty students, five from each of
the four patriarchates, should be sent over to the Greek College now
founded at Oxford (Gloucester Hall), which had been placed “on the same
rank footing and privilege which the other Colleges enjoy there.” He
explains the course of study to be pursued, and suggests the advantage
of a reciprocity of students, as also of books and manuscripts. He
designates the three English chaplains named above as convenient
channels of communication. The scheme contemplated an annual succession
of students, who were to be of two classes. For two years they were to
converse in Ancient Greek, and then to learn Latin and Hebrew. They
were to study Aristotle, Plato, the Greek Fathers, and Controversial
Divinity. The services were to be in Greek, and public exercises were
to be performed in Greek, as directed by the Vice-Chancellor. Their
habit was to be “the gravest worn in their country,” and finally they
were to be returned to their respective Patriarchs with a report of
the progress made. Trustees were to manage the funds of the College,
which was to be supported by voluntary contributions. This bold scheme
was but partially attempted, and before long came to a disastrous end.
Mr. Ffoulkes, who first claimed attention in the “Union Review” for
the Greek College, which, as he observes, had been strangely ignored
by Wood’s continuators, quotes from Mr. E. Stevens, a nonjuror, and
enthusiastic advocate of “Reunion,” his account of the experiment and
its breakdown. Five young Grecians were in 1698 brought from Smyrna
and placed in Gloucester Hall. Three of them were, according to Mr.
Stephens, lured away by Roman emissaries: two of these, brothers, after
various adventures, took refuge with Mr. Stephens, and were at last
sent home “with their faith unscathed.” The third was decoyed to Paris,
to the Greek College lately established there, presumably in rivalry of
the Oxford scheme. There appears too to have been another establishment
set up in friendly rivalry at Halle in Saxony. But the most fatal blow
was the mismanagement of the College itself. “Though they who came
first were well enough ordered for some time; yet afterwards they and
those who came after them were so ill-accommodated both for their
studies and other necessaries, that some of them staid not many months,
and others would have been gone if they had known how; and there are
now but two left there.”[339] Add to these drawbacks the temptations
of London, and it is not surprising that the Oxford College received
its quietus in a missive from Constantinople. “The irregular life of
certain priests and laymen of the Eastern Church, living in London, is
a matter of great concern to the Church. Wherefore the Church forbids
any to go and study at Oxford, be they ever so willing.” This was in
1705. From that moment, as Mr. Ffoulkes picturesquely says, the Greek
College “disappears like a dream.” Of its students one name only is
preserved to us. We find in _Hearne_ (March 15th, 1707)--“Francis
Prasalendius, a Græcian of the Isle of Corcyra, lately a student in the
Public Library, and of Gloucester Hall, has printed a book in the Greek
language (writ very well as I am informed by one of the Græcians of
Glouc. Hall) against Traditions, in which he falls upon Dr. Woodroffe
very smartly.”
_Worcester College, founded 1714._
But while the Greek College was still perishing of inanition, its
principal was engaged in a scheme of a more ambitious though less
interesting nature. A Worcestershire Baronet, Sir Thomas Cookes, had
made known his desire through the Bishop of Worcester of founding a
College at Oxford; £10,000 was the sum he proposed for an endowment.
There was competition for the prize. Dr. Woodroffe wanted to secure it
for Gloucester Hall, Dr. Mill for St. Edmund Hall, Dr. Lancaster for
Magdalen Hall; Balliol College was at one time the favourite object, at
another a workhouse for his county. The choice inclined to Gloucester
Hall, but was well-nigh lost; for Woodroffe had inserted in the charter
a clause providing that the King should have liberty to put in and
turn out the Fellows at his pleasure. With the recent experience of
Magdalen fresh in men’s minds, such intervention of the crown was not
likely to find favour, and Bishop Stillingfleet drily observed that
“kings have already had enough to do with our Colleges.” The hopes of
Edmund Hall rose high; for indeed the Bishop had, according to Hearne,
nominated that Hall in the first place. However Dr. Woodroffe prudently
withdrew his clause, and in 1698 a charter passed the great seal for
the incorporation of the Hall under the title of the Provost, Fellows,
and Scholars of Worcester College, with Dr. Woodroffe for the first
Provost.[340] This was followed by a Ratification dated November 18th,
naming the Bishop of Worcester as Visitor, and the Bishop of Oxford as
his assessor in difficult cases, and making elaborate provision for the
organization, conduct, and educational system of the College. There
were to be twelve Fellows, six Senior Tutors, six Junior Sub-Tutors,
and eight Scholars, chosen from the Founder’s schools of Bromsgrove and
Feckenham, or, failing them, from Worcester and Hartlebury. Each Fellow
and Scholar was to have £14 per annum, the Provost double that amount.
There were to be Lectureships, two “solemnes” in Theology and History,
three ordinary in Mathematics, Philosophy, and Philology; the Lecture
in Theology to be catechetical, on the model of that at Balliol, and
to be given in the chapel. The Prælector of History was to lecture
from seven to nine on Sundays on Biblical history. The others were to
lecture at the discretion of the Provost five or at least four times a
week. An elaborate scheme of medical and other studies was prescribed.
There was a carefully-graduated scale of payments “obeuntibus cursus
et acta,” ending with 13_s._ 4_d._ for the speech in commemoration of
the Founder. The Provost was to allot a cubiculum to one or at the
most to two occupants. In winter the afternoon chapel service was to
be at three, the morning service at seven, but in summer at six. This
was to consist of a shorter Latin form “ad usum Ecclesiæ Xti,” with a
chapter of the Bible in Greek. Private prayers and Bible-reading were
enjoined for each day, and two hours specified for Sunday. A chapter in
Greek or Latin was to be read at meal-times in Hall. Offenders against
rules were to be “gated” or sent into seclusion, “quasi minor quædam
excommunicatio,” or else to be exiled to the ante-chapel. As regards
the cook, butler, &c. the Aularian Statutes were to be observed.
After all the Charter remained a dead letter. Sir Thomas Cookes,
anxious to find excuses for putting off Dr. Woodroffe’s importunities,
claimed for his heirs the nomination to the Headship; and after two
years the Chancellor conceded this point. It was objected that the
Chancellor had not the power to make this concession without the
consent of Convocation: which was never asked; and if it had, would
not have been given. Sir Thomas found fresh reasons for hanging back.
The fact that Gloucester Hall was a leasehold and that St. John’s were
supposed to have been forbidden by their Founder to part with the fee
simple was one of these difficulties. Then there were the Statutes,
which Sir Thomas Cookes persistently refused to sign, “nor would he pay
one farthing for passing the Charter.” In 1701 he died, leaving his
£10,000 in the hands of certain Bishops, with the Vice-Chancellor and
the Heads of Houses, for the carrying out his intentions. The money was
left to accumulate for some years till it amounted to £15,000. In the
meantime Dr. Woodroffe tries to obtain an Act in 1702 for settling the
money on Gloucester Hall, the lease of which he proposed St. John’s
College should make perpetual at the then rent of £5 10_s._ The Bill,
however, was thrown out on the second reading. At Oxford, it is clear,
there was a powerful opposition to Dr. Woodroffe and his claim for
Gloucester Hall. On Nov. 22, 1707, nineteen out of the thirty Trustees
met in the Convocation House, and on the ground that “the erecting of
Buildings would make the charity of less use than endowing some Hall
in Oxford already built,” determined “to fix the Charity at Magdalen
Hall, and to endow Fellows and Scholars there.” On the other hand the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Worcester, the Bishop of Oxford
and others were in favour of carrying out what they believed to be in
spite of all his vacillation the final determination of Sir Thomas
Cookes in favour of Gloucester Hall. They deposed moreover[341] that
“the ground Plats of Gloucester Hall and the Gloucester Hall buildings
Quadrangles and Gardens are 3 times as much as Magdalen Hall, and the
ground on which the buildings of Gloucester Hall stand is twice as much
as that of Magdalen Hall, and there are large and capacious chambers
in Gloucester Hall to receive 20 scholars, and 9 are inhabited, and
the principal’s lodgings are in good repair and fit for a family of
12 persons, and there is a large Hall, Chapel, Buttery and Kitchen,
and a large common room lately wainscoted and sash windows, and in
laying out about £500 in repairs there will be good conveniency for 60
scholars, and the place is pleasantly situated and in a good air.” Dr.
Woodroffe dies in 1711, his ambition still unfulfilled, and a Fellow of
St. John’s, Dr. Richard Blechynden, succeeds to the Principalship of
an empty Hall. There was, according to Hearne, hardly one Scholar in
the place. At last the trustees saw their way to carrying out the will
of Sir Thomas Cookes. St. John’s College in 1713 agrees to alienate
Gloucester Hall for the sum of £200, and a quit-rent of 20_s._ per
annum. In the following year, two days only before the Queen’s death, a
Charter of Incorporation, for the second time, passes the great seal,
and Gloucester Hall or College is finally merged in Worcester College.
The foundation was now to consist of a Provost, six Fellows, and six
Scholars, whose emoluments were to be on a somewhat more liberal
scale than that of the original statutes. Fellows and Scholars were
to be allowed sixpence a day for commons, the Fellows to have £30 per
annum, the Scholars 13_s._ 8_d._ a quarter, the Provost £80 per annum,
but no allowance for commons. Among the other “ministri” was to be a
Tonsor, receiving an annual salary of 20_s._ This important official
lingered on in diminished importance till the present generation. The
Bishops of Worcester and Oxford and the Vice-Chancellor were appointed
Visitors. In other respects the provisions of the new Statutes were
much simplified. The scheme of Lectureships was omitted; so were the
elaborate directions as to studies, private devotions, &c., as well
as the scale of payments on the performance of exercises. Latin was
to be the ordinary speech, “so far as might be convenient,” except at
College meetings. Undergraduates were to “dispute” every day, and write
weekly Themes; Bachelors to “dispute” twice a week, and make a Terminal
“Declamation.” Candidates for Degrees were to oppose or respond on a
problem set by the Provost in the College Hall, while candidates for
the M.A. Degree had the option of commenting on a passage of Aristotle.
On the Degree Day a Bachelor was to give a supper, or pay 20_s._ for
the College uses. The supper given by an M.A. was not to exceed 40_s._
Of the new College Principal Blechynden was named as the first Provost;
of the six Fellows, one, Roger Bouchier, was already a member of
the Hall--“a man of great reading in various sorts of learning, the
greatest man in England for Divinity.”[342] The others were Thomas
Clymer of All Souls’, Robert Burd of St. John’s, William Bradley of New
Inn Hall, Joseph Penn of Wadham, and Samuel Creswick of Pembroke, who
was afterwards Dean of Wells.
It was not till 1720, that with the modest sum of £798 0_s._ 3_d._,
the remnant of a disputed bequest of Mrs. Margaret Alcorne, the
newly-founded College was enabled to commence the “restoration” of
its buildings. Had the designs of Dr. Clarke, illustrated by the
Oxford Almanack of 1741, which were similar in character to those of
Hawkesmoor and other architects for the reconstruction of Brasenose,
All Souls’, and Magdalen, been carried out, the picturesque history
of the place would have been entirely effaced, and a quadrangle of
“correct” and “elegant” monotony would have satisfied the taste of
Dean Aldrich and the amateurs of the day. Fortunately the means were
wanting; all that was put in hand at first were the Chapel, Hall,
and Library. By the liberality of Dr. Clarke the interior of the
Library was completed in 1736, its exterior in 1746. The Hall was at
last finished in 1784, while the Chapel still remained incompleted
in 1786, the date of Gutch’s account--nor does the College Register
give any indication on the point. But in the meantime two considerable
benefactors arose, who contributed new Foundations to the corporation.
Dr. Clarke, Fellow of All Souls’ and Member for the University, left
an endowment for six Fellowships and three Scholarships, together with
his valuable library, while Mrs. Sarah Eaton, daughter of the former
principal, bequeathed an endowment for seven Fellowships and five
Scholarships to be held by the sons of clergymen. These new Foundations
were incorporated by Charter in 1744. For lodging Dr. Clarke’s
Foundation the demolition of the old buildings on the north side of the
quadrangle was begun, and nine sets of rooms erected by his trustees,
1753-9, while in 1773 the remainder of the old north side was swept
away, and twelve sets of rooms built for Mrs. Eaton’s Foundation,
together with the present Provost’s lodgings. Meanwhile the College was
providently with such resources as it possessed enlarging its borders.
In 1741 it purchased of St. John’s College for £850 the garden ground
on the south side of the College, and in 1744 the gardens and meadows
to the north and west, “together with the house called the Cock and
Bottle.” In 1801 it bought for £1330 the “King’s Head,” opposite to
the front of the College, and in 1813 enfranchised the premises on the
east front held under lease of the City; while in 1806 it cleared away
“Woodroffe’s Folly,” a building erected by that Principal opposite
the front of the College, for which St. John’s received a valuation
of £401 16_s._ The College thus became surrounded with an open belt,
destined to be an incalculable boon in the modern days of building
extension. The garden ground on the south side was in 1813 ordered to
be kept in hand for the use of the Fellows, and it was about the year
1827 that the late Mr. Greswell signalized his Bursarship by laying
out the ornamental grounds, as they now exist. These gardens, falling
to a piece of water, together with the fortunate preservation of an
open quadrangle, a mode of construction for the merits of which Sir
Christopher Wren contended at Trinity,[343] secured to the College
the sanitary as well as the picturesque advantages of a _rus in
urbe_--a “_rus_” so rural that, the tradition runs, a tutor of the last
generation would take his gun, and slip down between his lectures to
the pool for a shot at a stray snipe.
William Gower, upon Dr. Blechynden’s death, was nominated Provost
in 1736. He had been admitted Scholar in 1715, the year after the
incorporation of the College. He rivalled Thomas Allen in the length
of his connection with the College. For 62 years he was borne upon
its foundations, as Scholar, Fellow, or Provost. Longevity has been
a characteristic of the Provosts of this College. One only, Dr.
Sheffield, held his office for so short a period as 18 years. The
other three, Gower, Landon, and Cotton, were Provosts respectively for
41, 44, and 41 years--collectively 126 years, and Dr. Cotton kept 70
years of unbroken residence. Dr. Gower was a man of great literary
attainments. He left many valuable books to the College Library. Dr.
King[344] says that he was “acquainted with three persons only who
spoke English with that eloquence and propriety that if all they said
had been immediately committed to writing, any judge of the English
language would have pronounced it an excellent and very beautiful
style.” The other two were Atterbury and Johnson. It was in his second
year’s Provostship that Samuel Foote of Worcester School claimed and
established a right to a Scholarship as Founder’s kin. His student
life was brief and stormy. In 1740 the College passes sentence that
“Samuel Foote having by a long-continued course of ill-behaviour
rendered himself obnoxious to frequent censure of the Society public
and private, and having while he was under censure for lying out of
College insolently and presumptuously withdrawn himself and refused to
answer to several heinous crimes objected to him, though duly cited
by the Provost by an instrument in form, in not appearing to the said
citation, for the above reasons his Scholarship is declared void,
and he is hereby deprived of all benefit and advantage of the said
Scholarship.” This entry gives an interest to the opening of Gower’s
Provostship; another of a different character occurs near its close. In
1775 is recorded an injunction of the Visitors of the College “as to
the use of napkins in the Common Hall.”
The Provostship of Dr. Landon, 1795-1835, witnessed the commencement
of that growth of Oxford, of which our own generation has seen so
remarkable a development. The opening up of Beaumont St., as to which
the College was in treaty with the city in 1820, materially assisted in
drawing Worcester within the comity of Colleges.[345] It was still--and
for many years to come--unrecognized upon the Proctorial rota. The
first Proctor it nominated in its own right held office in 1863. The
College could only be approached either by George St. and Stockwell
St., or more directly by the narrow alley called Friar’s Entry; and an
amusing picture is given of the stately Vice-Chancellor--“Old Glory”
was his soubriquet--preceded by his Bedels, with their gold and silver
maces, ducking beneath the fluttering household linen suspended across
the alley on washing day. This must have been a trying test of the
dignified deportment which had distinguished Dr. Landon as host of the
Allied Sovereigns, and gained for him--so it is said--from the Prince
Regent the Deanery of Exeter.
The College, thus drawn more directly within the influences of
University life, began to feel the impulse given to academical resort
by times of peace. New rooms were added; sets long vacant were fitted
up for occupants. In 1821 three additional sets were constructed “in
the space afforded by the old College chapel.” In 1822 it was ordered
that all such apartments not at present inhabited, as shall be found
capable of accommodating undergraduates, be immediately prepared
for their reception. In 1824 the roof of part of the old building
was raised, so as to give six additional sets of rooms. Finally in
1844 a new and handsome kitchen was built and seven additional sets
constructed.[346]
The most distinguished inmate of the College in Landon’s time was
Thomas de Quincey, of whom his old servant on No. 10 staircase--Common
Room man till 1865--retained many memories. He lived a somewhat recluse
life. He was always buying fresh books, and was sometimes at a loss
how to find money for them. In those days men dressed for Hall: and De
Quincey having one day parted with his one waistcoat for the purchase
of a book went into Hall hiding his loss of clothing as best he could.
But concealment was in vain, and he was promptly sconced for the
deficiency. De Quincey crowned the peculiarities of his College career
by suddenly leaving Oxford before the close of a brilliant examination.
In 1826 another member of the College--Francis William Newman--received
the unique distinction of a present of books (now in the College
Library) from his mathematical examiners. Bonamy Price, Arnold’s
favourite pupil, shed a lustre upon the next generation of
undergraduates. Both of them were subsequently Honorary Fellows of
the College, and were present at the celebration of its six hundredth
anniversary. Dr. Bloxam, a contemporary of the two, preserves some
interesting recollections of the customs of the day. The Bachelors who
resided for their M.A. Degree used to appear in Hall in full evening
dress, breeches and silk stockings. Undergraduates had left off
attending dinner in white neckcloths and evening costume. The table on
the right was occupied by the gay men of the College, and was called
the “Sinners’ Table.” These formed a class by themselves. The table on
the left was called the “Smilers’ Table,” who also formed a distinct
set between the “Sinners” and the “Saints,” the latter being the more
quiet men, who occupied the table nearest the High Table, on the left.
The Fellow Commoners, an institution retained at the present day for
the convenience of older men resorting to the University, were at that
time young men of fortune, who desired an exemption from the stricter
discipline of undergraduate life. They dined at the High Table, and
were members of the Common Room. But their affinities lay rather with
the occupants of the “Sinners’ Table,” and their existence must have
been a perpetual difficulty to a sorely-tried Dean. “Bodley” Coxe, a
member of the College in those days, subsequently one of its Honorary
Fellows, would tell of the formidable muster of “pinks” in Beaumont
St. after a champagne breakfast, and of the excuse which satisfied a
simple-minded tutor that the delinquent would not offend again during
the whole of the summer.
There has been a great change too in the habits of the Seniors. The
tutors, as elsewhere, gave their lectures or rather lessons, consisting
of translations by the class, with questions and answers, without form
or ceremony in their own rooms. After an early dinner they would retire
to an uncarpeted Common Room. There after wine long clay pipes were a
regular indulgence. An evening walk or other interlude was succeeded
by a hot supper at nine, and the evening finished with a rubber. Dr.
Cotton in his time was singular in retiring to his rooms after Common
Room without joining the whist and supper party. All these customs have
dropped away with the barbers and knee-breeches of our fathers. The
Latin form of Morning Prayers was abolished by an excess of reforming
zeal, and the Statutes of the College are no longer recited in annual
conclave. Ordinances have succeeded statutes, and statutes succeeded
ordinances. One ancient custom lingers on--the Porter still makes his
morning rounds, and hammers upon the door of each staircase with a
wooden mallet. This is a Benedictine usage, an echo of the thirteenth
century continuing to haunt the old Benedictine walls.
XX.
HERTFORD COLLEGE.[347]
BY THE REV. H. RASHDALL, M.A., FELLOW OF HERTFORD.
Although Hertford is the youngest College of the University, it
stands close to the very centre of the University’s most ancient
home, on a site which has been the scene of Academical life from the
earliest times. What the Oxford Local Board has chosen to call S.
Catherine’s Street, has been known from the earliest times onwards as
“Catte-Street” (Vicus Murilegorum). Lying just outside School Street,
the scene of the Arts lectures, Cat Street was in the twelfth century
the especial home of the Writers, Bookbinders, Parchment-makers, and
Illuminers, for whose wares the growth of the University had created a
demand. In the following century, it was partly occupied by University
Halls or Hospices. At least four were comprised within the limits of
the present College: Cat Hall, near the present Principal’s Lodgings;
Black Hall, at the corner of New College Lane; Hart Hall, and Arthur
Hall, the two latter occupying the Library corner of the Quadrangle.
Hart Hall eventually swallowed up all its neighbours as well as the
ground between them. The history of this process want of space forbids
me to trace. I must confine myself to the Hall which has given its name
to the present College.
_Hart Hall_, 1280(?)-1740.