|IF Magdalen is the most beautiful of Oxford Colleges, Christ Church
is assuredly the most magnificent. Building was one of the favourite
pursuits of Cardinal Wolsey, first Founder of Christ Church, as it was
of Wykeham and Waynflete before him: it is almost mysterious how men of
this type, who had the highest affairs of the State as well as of
the Church upon their shoulders, found so much leisure to devote to
architecture. Wolsey's plans were cut short by his fall from power, but
he had already shewn by his completed palace in Whitehall and by Hampton
Court, which he built as a present for his sovereign, the grandeur and
largeness of his ideas. Out of the revenues of suppressed monasteries
he had designed to establish a College far larger and far more richly
endowed than any of its predecessors; and three sides of the Great
Quadrangle had arisen before he fell upon adversity. Then the king
stopped the work, and for a century the unfinished structure stood as a
reminder of
Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself,
And falls o' the other side.
Yet Wolsey had a public as well as a private ambition. He loved
learning, and desired to promote it: he sought to save the Church by
rearing instructed ministers for her service. If he failed, it was a
noble failure; for though Henry VIII., who now assumed the title of
Founder, sanctioned an establishment less wide and generous than Wolsey
proposed, even so the new College easily surpassed all others in the
scale of its endowments.
[Illustration: 0211]
[Illustration: 0213]
The finest view of Christ Church from without is that which is obtained
from St. Aidates Street, and is shewn in Mr. Matthison's first drawing.
"Tom" Tower, which forms the centre of the façade, was not part of the
original scheme, but was added in 1682, when Dr. John Fell was
Dean. The College owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Fell for employing
Wren as his architect, if for nothing else. Wolseys gate, which was
no higher than the two smaller towers between which his statue stands,
might easily have been spoilt by a less skilful designer, but Wren added
to its beauty, and made it one of the finest structures in Oxford. The
Tower is named after the great bell which it contains, brought from
Osney Abbey. Every night "Tom" tolls a curfew of a hundred and one
strokes at nine o'clock, and at the closing stroke all College gates are
shut and all undergraduates supposed to be within their College walls.
Dr. John Fell, by the way, is the Dr. Fell whom the epigrammatist
disliked without being able to assign a cause. His pictures shew a
forbidding countenance enough, but he deserved well of his College and
the University. In addition to the Tower, he completed the front towards
St. Aidates, fostered the University Press, and did his best to make
examinations a reality. He planted also the elms of the Broad Walk, a
beautiful avenue which custom has decreed as the regulation promenade on
"Show Sunday" (in Commemoration Week); but within the last twenty years
storms have made havoc of the trees, and little of the Walk's former
beauty remains.
The Great Quadrangle--"Tom Quad." in Oxford parlance--dwarfs by
its large dimensions all the other courts of Oxford. The arches and
rib-mouldings indicate the original intention of the first builders,
which was to surround the Quadrangle with a cloister. As it is, though
this design was never carried out, the impression conveyed is one of
great splendour. Never is the appearance of "Tom Quad." more effective
than at the moment when the white-robed congregation comes out of the
Cathedral doors. All undergraduates of "The House" wear surplices--worn
by scholars only, save here and at Keble--and the Cathedral is their
Chapel. Mr. Matthison has chosen such a moment for his drawing, when the
Quadrangle is in a moment flooded by the white surplices, varied here
and there by the crimson hood of a Master or a Doctor's scarlet robes.
On the left of the drawing appears the Cathedral spire; in the centre
the Belfry Tower, a solid and handsome structure put up in Dean
Liddell's day; and on the right the windows and pinnacles of the Hall.
[Illustration: 0216]
[Illustration: 0217]
To approach the Hall one passes through the archway at the south-east
corner of the Quadrangle, and ascends a wide staircase notable for the
wonderful fanwork tracery of the ceiling. This tracery dates from the
time of Dean Samuel Fell (father of Dr. John Fell), and was completed
in 1640; it appears in Mr. Matthison's fourth drawing. The Hall itself
(which is the subject of the next illustration) has no rival in Oxford
and no superior in England, Westminster Hall only excepted. It measures
115 feet by 40, and is 50 feet in height. The window above the dais
contains full length stained-glass representations of Wolsey, More,
Erasmus, Colet, and other great men of the Reformation era; and the
walls are hung with a very fine collection of portraits, including those
of Henry VIII. and Wolsey (by Holbein), Deans Aldrich and Atterbury (by
Kneller), Charles Wesley (by Romney), George Canning (by Lawrence),
Gladstone (by Millais), "Lewis Carroll" (by Herkomer), and Dean Liddell
(by Watts).
[Illustration: 0220]
[Illustration: 0221]
There is still much of Christ Church to explore, as the remaining
illustrations indicate. From Merton Street one approaches "The House"
by Canterbury Gate, which opens upon the small Canterbury Quadrangle
(erected towards the end of the eighteenth century). Beyond is Peckwater
Quadrangle, built in 1705 after the Italian model, on the site of
Peckwater's Inn. The black and crumbling walls of this quadrangle are
in striking contrast to the smooth surface of "Tom Quad.," but in
the summer term, when every window is gay with flowers, the gloom of
Peckwater is forgotten. On the right hand is the Library, which, beside
books, contains an interesting collection of paintings of the early
Italian schools. The outlook from the Meadow Buildings (1863), which
includes the Broad Walk, the Long Walk, and glimpses of the River, is a
pleasant one, though the buildings themselves are not, from the outside,
particularly attractive.
Some of the famous sons of Christ Church have already been incidentally
mentioned. As might be expected from its numerous muster-roll, it
has had members who attained distinction in every walk of life; but
statistics seem to shew that there is something in the atmosphere of
"The House" peculiarly favourable to the growth of statesmen. No other
College, at any rate, has given England three premiers in succession,
Mr. Gladstone (a double first), Lord Salisbury, and Lord Rosebery. To
make an exhaustive list might weary the reader, but the honoured name
of Sir Robert Peel must at least be mentioned. Strenuous as were these
men's labours in after-life, it is permissible to fancy that amid the
pleasant surroundings of their student days they did not altogether
"scorn delights." Here, for instance, is an extract from the diary
kept by Charles Wesley when an undergraduate: "Wrote to
V.--translated--played an hour at billiards." There is no harm in
supposing "V." a girl, if we choose.