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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.
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orders. It is true that they were to study divinity,
but that did not imply the clerical restrictions after-
wards imposed and only shaken off in the last half of
this century.
Another point noticeable is that the power of visi- tation, that is of deciding disputed points about the interpretation or observance of the statutes, was at first vested in the University itself, and this continued to be until the reign of George the Second, when in the year 1726, owing to a disputed election to the headship, the right of visitation was brought before the King's Bench, which decided, in the teeth of all history and precedent, that the college was a royal foundation and that the Sovereign was the rightM visitor. This absurd decision was founded on the tradition first mentioned in the days of Richard II., that King Alfred founded the College. Since 1726 the Crown has acted as visitor, and in 1736 King George II. issued a new set of statutes by which the College was governed until the time of the Royal Commission of 1850. The decision of 1726 was in all ways regrettable. The College is anyhow the oldest foundation in the University, although it was organized as a College — in the sense in which we understand that word— later than Balliol and Merton Colleges. There was therefore no excuse for claiming for it a bastard antiquity.
The present arms of the College are — Azure, a cross patonce between four martlets or — and were only sub- stituted for the shield of William of Durham after 1726. The latter — or, a fleur-de-lis azure each leaf charged with a mullet of the field — may still be seen in the Library. The earliest college buildings were located as we have said upon School-street at the N.E. corner of what is now Brazenose College. In or soon after the year 1343 the College was removed to its present situation in the High-street. In that year White Hall and Rose Hall in Kibald- street (now Grove Place) were bought by the College. As to the names by which the College has been known, its members were by the statutes of 1311 to cause themselves to be known as the Scholars of William of Durham, but their old hall in the Vicus Scholarum was simply called the Aula Universitatis,
the Hall of the University ; and the same name con-
tinued to be attached to their residence after their
removal in or about the year 1343 to the Alius Vicus
or High-street. In 1361 the College is in deeds known
as "The Master and Fellows of the Hall of William
of Durham, commonly called Aula Universitatis."
In the year 1381 we meet with the appellation Magna
Aula b'niversitatis, the Mickle or Great Hall of the
University, and this was confirmed in a later charter
granted to the College by Queen Elizabeth.
The present buildings were erected between 1634 and 1674, largely out of money contributed by the great physician Radcliffe, who was a member of the College. In 1845 the northern annexe called the New Buildings was added. On the east side and separated by l.ogic-lane is another annexe or hall. In all over a hundred students can be accommodated with rooms, and it is the hope of the College to some day extend itself in the direction of the New Schools. To provide for such a possible future extension the College a few years ago acquired all the land inter- vening between Logic-lane and the New Schools. The present Master's house was erected about twelve years ago under the headship of Dr. Bradley. A house for a married tutor within the College precincts was added behind the Library six years ago, and has a frontage upon Grove-place. The library itself was built in 1860-61, when the old library over the kitchen was turned into small-sized students' rooms. There are thus provided for students, who have not too much money to spend, an unusually large number of rooms let at a very small rent. The latest architectural addition to the College is a monument to the Poet Shelley. It is still in course of erection, and will consist of a domed apartment visible from the High- street covering a recumbent statue of the poet. It is built in the vacant space separating the old buildings of the seventeenth century from the new block erected in 1845.
A fuller account of the constitution and history of the College by the same author will be found in The Colleges of Oxford, by A. Clark, M.A. ; Methuen, 1891.
oxford crown piece. — From Ingram.
