[Illustration: MAGDALEN COLLEGE, FROM THE CHERWELL.]
[Illustration: DORMER WINDOW, MERTON COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: STONE PULPIT, MAGDALEN COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: GABLE AT ST. ALDATE'S COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: BOW WINDOW, MAGDALEN COLLEGE.]
As we float along the quiet Thames the stately towers and domes of the
university city of Oxford come in sight, and appear to suddenly rise
from behind a green railway embankment. Here the Cherwell flows along
the Christ Church meadows to join the great river, and we pause at the
ancient Ousenford--or the ford over the Ouse or Water--a name which time
has changed to Oxford. The origin of the famous university is involved
in obscurity. The city is mentioned as the scene of important political
and military events from the time of King Alfred, but the first
undisputed evidence that it was a seat of learning dates from the
twelfth century. Religious houses existed there in earlier years, and to
these schools were attached for the education of the clergy. From these
schools sprang the secular institutions that finally developed into
colleges, and common interest led to the association from which
ultimately came the university. The first known application of the word
to this association occurs in a statute of King John. In the thirteenth
century there were three thousand students at Oxford, and Henry III.
granted the university its first charter. In those early times the
university grew in wealth and numbers, and intense hostility was
developed between the students and townspeople, leading to the quarrels
between "Town and Gown" that existed for centuries, and caused frequent
riots and bloodshed. A penance for one of these disturbances, which
occurred in 1355 and sacrificed several lives, continued to be kept
until 1825. The religious troubles in Henry VIII.'s time reduced the
students to barely one thousand, but a small part of whom attended the
colleges, so that in 1546 only thirteen degrees were conferred. In 1603
the university was given representation in Parliament; it was loyal to
Charles I., and melted its plate to assist him, so that after his
downfall it was plundered, and almost ceased to have an existence as an
institution of learning; it has since had a quiet and generally
prosperous history. The university comprises twenty-one colleges, the
oldest being University College, founded in 1249, and the youngest the
Keble Memorial College, founded in 1870. University College, according
to tradition, represents a school founded by King Alfred in 872, and it
celebrated its millennial anniversary in 1872. Balliol College, founded
between 1263 and 1268, admits no one who claims any privilege on account
of rank or wealth, and is regarded as having perhaps the highest
standard of scholarship at Oxford. Christ Church College is the most
extensive in buildings, numbers, and endowments, and is a cathedral
establishment as well as college. There are now about eighty-five
hundred members of the university and twenty-five hundred
undergraduates. The wealth of some of the colleges is enormous, and they
are said to own altogether nearly two hundred thousand acres of land in
different parts of the kingdom, and to have about $2,100,000 annual
revenues, of which they expend not over $1,500,000, the remainder
accumulating. They also have in their gift four hundred and forty-four
benefices, with an annual income of $950,000. It costs a student about
$1200 to $1500 a year to live at Oxford, and about $325 in university
and college fees from matriculation to graduation, when he gets his
degree of B.A., or, if inattentive, fails to pass the examination, and,
in Oxford parlance, is said to be "plucked."