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WADHAM COLLEGE.
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The first thirty years of the history of the College
are mainly famous for the presence there of Admiral
Blake, who graduated in Feb., 1617-18 ; his portrait
still adorns the College Hall.
The Civil War affected Wadham as it did the rest of the University. Its plate disappeared .... only the Communion Plate ( " donum funda- tricis ") being spared ; its students were largely dis- placed to make room for the King's supporters, among whom the Attorney General, Sir Edward Herbert, seems to have made Wadham a kind of family residence. After the final defeat of the King, the Warden, Pytt, and the great majority of the Foundation were deprived by the Parliamentary Commissioners. But it may be fairly said that the changes made did far more good than harm to the College. The man appointed to the vacant Wardenship, was the famous John Wilkins, divine, philosopher, and mathematician, who enjoyed the almost unique honour of being promoted by the Parliament, by Richard Cromwell, and by Charles II., and to whom the College owes the honour of being the cradle of the Royal Society. Warden Wilkins had, for two hundred years, the distinction of being the only married Warden of Wadham. His wife was a sister of the Lord Protector, with whom he had great influence, which he used for the benefit of the University as a whole, and of individual Royalists. Among the most famous of his pupils were Sir Christopher Wren, who, on his election to be Fellow of All Souls', presented the College with the clock which it still uses ; and Bishop Sprat, the historian of the Royal Society, who has had the mis- fortune to have his portrait sketched by Macaulay in his account of James II. 's reign.
Wilkins and three of his four successors all became Bishops ; of these the most famous was Ironside, who, as Vice-Chancellor in 1688, ventured to oppose the king in his arbitrary proceedings against Mag- dalen. The fall of James saved Ironside, who was made Bishop of Bristol (and afterwards of Hereford) by William III., and was succeeded by Warden Dunster, the object of Thomas Hearne's hatred and contempt. He accuses him of being " one of the violentest Whigs and most rascally Low Churchmen " of the time, and of various other defects, physical and moral, which may perhaps be conjectured to be in Hearne's mind convertible terms with the above.
Wadham as a whole during this period was strongly Whig and Low Church ; not improbably this was due to its close connection with the West country, where the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion had taught men to hate the Stuarts ; but whatever the reason, the fact is undoubted. Probably there is no other College hall in England which boasts, of portraits both of the "glorious deliverer" and of George I.
The history of Oxford during the 18th century is neither glorious nor eventful ; and Wadham was no exception to the rule, but it was one of the first Colleges to feel the revival which began with the last quarter of the century.
In Warden Wills, who was appointed in 1783, the College found its most liberal benefactor since the death of the foundress. It was in his time that the present beautiful garden was laid out on the site of the old formal walks with a mound in the centre, which appear in the prints of the last century. It has been conjectured with some probability that " Capability " Brown had a hand in the laying out of the garden as it now is. Whoever was the gardener,
it may be confidently asserted that a finer result was
never produced in so small a space.
Of the history of the College during this century there is not space to say much. Under Warden Symons it became recognised as the stronghold of Evangelicalism in the University ; so much was this the case that, on his nomination to the Vice-Chancellorship in 1844, he was opposed by the Tractarian party ; but this unprecedented step met with no success, as the Chancellor's nomination was confirmed by 883 votes to 183. It was during his tenure of the Vice- Chancellorship (1844-8) that proceedings were taken against Mr. Ward, and against Tract No. XC. But if on the one hand the College produced leading lights of the Evangelical school, like Mr. Fox and Mr. Vores, it also lays claim to Dr. Church, the late Dean of St. Paul's, and Father Mackonochie.
The prosperity of the College culminated about the middle of the century, when Dr. Congreve was one of the leading tutors in Oxford, and when among his pupils almost at the same time were Dr. Johnson, the Bishop of Calcutta, the present Warden, Frederick Harrison, the late Dr. Shirley, one of the founders of the school of History, which is among modern Oxford's chief glories, Dr. Codrington, the scholar and missionary, the late T. C. Baring, the munificent benefactor of Hertford College, and Professor Beesly. Nor was athletic distinction wanting ; in 1849 the College Boat Club "swept the board" at Henley, and twice during six years the Wadham boat was head of the river. Here it is best to end the story : with the new statutes imposed in 1855 by the authority of Par- liament, the history of the old Oxford ends, and that of the modern one begins. Wadham enters on the new era with noble traditions, and with buildings and gardens which have been felt to be an inspiration of beauty by other than her own sons.
The greater part of the above notice is taken from my chapter on Wadham College in A. Clark's The Colleges of Oxford (Messrs. Methuen & Co.), to which I must refer all who wish for further particulars.
J. Wells.
