when the plaster was removed, Sir Gilbert Scott found enough
remains to render it possible to restore the whole. The second
quadrangle is divided from Radcliffe Square by a stone screen
and cloister. From the eastern range of buildings twin towers
rise in graduated stages. On the north side is the library. The
whole is in a style partly Gothic, partly classical, fantastic, but
not without dignity. The architect was Sir Christopher Wren’s
pupil, Nicholas Hawksmoor; the building was spread over the
first half of the 18th century. The fine library originated in a
bequest of Sir Christopher Codrington (d. 1710), and bears his
name. One of the traditional customs surviving in Oxford is
found at All Souls. Legend states that a mallard was discovered
in a drain while the foundations were being dug. A song
(probably Elizabethan) on this story is still sung at college
gaudies, and later it is pretended to hunt the bird. With such a
foundation as All Souls, a great number of eminent names are
naturally associated (see Montagu Burrows, Worthies of All
Souls, 1874).
Balliol College is one of the earliest foundations. About 1263 John de Baliol (see Baliol, family) began, as part of a penance, to maintain certain scholars in Oxford. Dervorguila, his wife, developed his work after his death in 1269 by founding the college, whose statutes date from 1282, though not brought into final form (apart from modern revision) until 1504. There are now twelve fellowships and fifteen scholarships on the old foundation. Two fellowships, to be held by members already holding fellowships of the college, were founded by James Hozier, second Lord Newlands, in 1906, in commemoration of Benjamin Jowett, master of the college. The buildings, which front upon Broad Street, Magdalen Street and St Giles Street, are for the most part modern, and mainly by Alfred Waterhouse, Anthony Salvin and William Butterfield. The college has a high reputation for scholarship. Its master and fellows possess the unique right of electing the visitor of the college. In 1887 Balliol College absorbed New Inn Hall, one of the few old halls which had survived till modern times. In the time of the civil wars a royal mint was established in it.
Brasenose College (commonly written and called B.N.C.) was founded by William Smith, bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton of Prestbury, Cheshire, in 1509. Its name, however, perpetuates the fact that it took the place of a much earlier community in the university. There were several small halls on its site, all dependent on other colleges or religious houses except one—Brasenose Hall. The origin of this hall is not known, but it existed in the middle of the 12th century. In 1334 certain students, wishing for peace from the faction-fights which were then characteristic of their life in Oxford, migrated to Stamford, where a doorway remains of the house then occupied by them as Brasenose Hall. From this an ancient knocker in the form of a nose, which may have belonged to the hall at Oxford, was brought to the college in 1890. It presumably gave name to the hall, though a derivation from brasinium (Latin for a brew-house) was formerly upheld. The original foundation of the college was for a principal and twelve fellows. This number is maintained, but supernumerary fellowships are added. Of a number of scholarships founded by various benefactors several are confined to certain schools, notably Manchester Grammar School. William Hulme (1691) established a foundation which provides for twelve scholars and a varying number of exhibitioners on entrance, and also for eight senior scholarships open under certain conditions to members of the college already in residence. The main front of the college faces Radcliffe Square; the whole of this and the first quadrangle, excepting the upper storey, is of the time of the foundation; and the gateway tower is a specially fine example. The hall and the chapel, with its fine fan-tracery roof, date from 1663 and 1666, and are attributed to Sir Christopher Wren. In both is seen a curious attempt to combine Gothic and Grecian styles. Modern buildings (by T. G. Jackson) have a frontage upon High Street. Robert Burton, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, became an undergraduate of the college in 1593; Reginald Heber in 1800; Walter Pater became a fellow in 1864.
Christ Church, in point of the number of its members the largest collegiate foundation in Oxford, is also eminent owing to its unique constitution, the history of which involves that of the see of Oxford. Mention has been made of the priory of St Frideswide and its very early foundation, also of the later but more magnificent foundation of Osney Abbey. Both of these were involved in the sweeping changes initiated by Wolsey and carried on by Henry VIII. Wolsey projected the foundation of a college on an even grander scale than that of the present house. In 1524–1525 he obtained authority from Pope Clement VII. to suppress certain religious houses for the purpose of this new foundation. These included St Frideswide’s, which occupied part of the site which Wolsey intended to use. The new college, under the name of Cardinal College, was licensed by the king in 1525. Its erection began immediately. The monastic buildings were in great part removed. Statutes were issued and appointments were made to the new offices. But in 1529 Wolsey fell from power. Cardinal College was suppressed, and in 1532 Henry VIII. established in its place another college, on a reduced foundation, called King Henry VIII.’s College. Oxford had been, and was at this time, in the huge diocese of Lincoln. But in 1542, on the suppression of Osney Abbey, a new see was created, and the abbey church was made its cathedral. This arrangement obtained only until 1545, when both the new cathedral church and the new college which took the place of Wolsey’s foundation were surrendered to the king. In 1546 Henry established the composite foundation which now (subject to certain modern alterations) exists. He provided for a dean and eight canons and 100 students, to which number one was added in 1664. The church of St Frideswide’s foundation became both the cathedral of the diocese and the college chapel. The establishment was thus at once diocesan and collegiate,[1] and it remains so, though now the foundation consists of a dean, six canons, and the usual cathedral staff, a reduced number of students (corresponding to the fellows of other colleges) and scholars. Five of the canons are university professors. The disciplinary administration of the collegiate part of the foundation is under the immediate supervision of two students who hold the office of censors. Queen Elizabeth established the connexion with Westminster School by which not more than three scholars are elected thence each year to Christ Church. There is also a large number of valuable exhibitions. The great number of eminent men associated with Christ Church can only be indicated here by the statement that its books have borne the names of several members of the British and other royal families, including that of King Edward VII. as prince of Wales and of Frederick VIII. of Denmark as crown prince; also of ten prime ministers during the 19th century. The stately front of Christ Church is upon St Aldate’s Street. The great gateway is surmounted by a tower begun by Wolsey, but only completed in 1682 from designs of Sir Christopher Wren. Though somewhat incongruous in detail, it is of singular and beautiful form, being octagonal and surmounted by a cupola. It contains the great bell “Tom” (dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury), which, though recast in 1680, formerly belonged to Osney Abbey. A clock strikes the hours on it, and at five minutes past nine o’clock in the evening it is rung 101 times by hand, to indicate the hour of closing college gates, the number being that of the former body of students. The gate, the tower, and the first quadrangle are all commonly named after this bell. Tom Quadrangle is the largest in Oxford, and after various restorations approximates to Wolsey’s original design, though the cloisters which he intended were never built. On the south side lies the hall, entered by a staircase under a magnificent fan-tracery roof dating from 1640. The hall itself is one of the finest refectories in England; its roof is of ornate timber-work (1529) and a splendid series of portraits of eminent alumni of the house adorn the walls, together with Holbein’s portraits
- ↑ As a whole it is therefore properly to be spoken of as Christ Church, not Christ Church College. In the common speech of the university it has become known as The House, though all the colleges are technically “houses.”
