|THIS College was originated about 1260 by John de Balliol, a baron of
Durham, whose son for four years occupied the throne of Scotland. But
inasmuch as John de Balliol only made provision for four students, and
that as penance for an outrage, the greater credit attaches to his wife
Dervorguilla, who endowed a dozen more and hired them a lodging close to
St. Mary Magdalen Church, on the site where part of the present College
stands. Devorguilla gave her scholars their first statutes in 1282. She
bade them live temperately, and converse with one another in the Latin
tongue.
Truth to tell, as the revenues at first yielded each scholar
only eightpence a week, riotous living seemed hardly practicable.
Benefactors, however, presently stepped in, notably Sir Philip
Somervyle of Staffordshire, who in 1340 raised the weekly allowance
to elevenpence, and to fifteenpence in case victuals were dear. The
grateful College accepted from Sir Philip a new body of statutes, in
which the now familiar title, "Master of Balliol," makes its first
appearance, a title associated twenty years afterwards with the honoured
name of John Wycliffe. Among later benefactors may be mentioned Peter
Blundell, founder of the Devonshire school which bears his name; Lady
Elizabeth Periam (a sister of Francis Bacon); and John Snell, a
native of Ayrshire,--it is to his endowment that Balliol owes her most
distinguished Scotsmen, such as Adam Smith, Lockhart (Sir Walter Scott's
son-in-law and biographer), and Archbishop Tait.
Balliol was an early friend to the new learning, and fostered the
scholarly tastes of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, son of Henry IV.,
and Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester (to name but two of her most prominent
humanists). Duke Humphrey left his books to the University, six hundred
in number--a very large collection for those days, when as yet Caxton
had not revolutionised the world. And in Reformation days, when the
humanities were called to account, learning found a zealous supporter in
Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, who had been bred at Balliol.
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The annals of the College during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries are not particularly distinguished. After the Restoration
Balliol men seem to have been considerably addicted to malt liquors,
and much ale does not conduce to profound study. But modern Balliol men
might apply to their own use the words of Dr. Ingram's famous song,
"Who fears to speak of '98?" for it was in 1798 that Dr. Parsons became
Master of the College, and with his advent began the great days of
Balliol.
Parsons, with two other heads of houses, established the Examination
system, which has been so much belauded and so much abused. It was soon
apparent that Balliol tutors had the knack of equipping men to face the
ordeal of "the Schools"; the College speedily came to the front, and its
intellectual pre-eminence in Oxford during the nineteenth century is now
universally admitted. Men trained at Balliol during this period occupied
and still occupy some of the very highest positions in the State. Not to
mention the living, whose fame is in the mouths of all men, some of
the most prominent names are those of Lords Coleridge, Bowen, and Peel
(formerly Speaker of the House of Commons), Sir Robert Morier, and
Archbishop Temple. Matthew Arnold and Clough were undergraduates at
Balliol with Benjamin Jowett, afterwards its most famous Master; and,
to balance the severity of these poets, the lighter Muse of Calverley
sojourned for a time within its walls.
The buildings of Balliol, which Mr. Matthison has sketched from four
points of view, are extensive, but not conspicuously beautiful. The
front towards Broad Street was rebuilt in 1867 by Mr. Waterhouse.
Old prints assure us that it had previously a forbidding and almost
prison-like aspect. Mr. Matthison calls attention to the fact that this
picture shows the spot where the martyrs were burned. The automobile in
the foreground may suggest to the thoughtful reader that martyrdom is no
longer by fire. The drawing from St. Giles' perhaps conveys a pleasanter
impression. The third shews us that part of the College known as
"Fisher's Buildings," erected at the cost of a former Fellow in 1769.
The fourth drawing is of the Garden Quadrangle with the Chapel on the
left (rebuilt in 1856); here the surroundings are more attractive; we
are looking on "a grove of Academe," in which vigorous minds may still,
as heretofore, grow happily towards their maturity.
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