Oxonium, Oxford, The Famed Athens Of England; That Glorious Seminary
Of Learning And Wisdom, Whence Religion, Politeness, And Letters,
Are Abundantly Dispersed Into All Parts Of The Kingdom.
The town is
remarkably fine, whether you consider the elegance of its private
buildings, the magnificence of its public
Ones, or the beauty and
wholesomeness of its situation, which is on a plain, encompassed in
such a manner with hills, shaded with wood, as to be sheltered on
the one hand from the sickly south, and on the other from the
blustering west, but open to the east, that blows serene weather,
and to the north, the preventer of corruption, from which, in the
opinion of some, it formerly obtained the appellation of Bellositum.
This town is watered by two rivers, the Cherwell and the Isis,
vulgarly called the Ouse; and though these streams join in the same
channel, yet the Isis runs more entire and with more rapidity
towards the south, retaining its name till it meets the Thame, which
it seems long to have sought, at Wallingford; thence, called by the
compound name of Thames, it flows the prince of all British rivers,
of whom we may justly say, as the ancients did of the Euphrates,
that it both sows and waters England.
The colleges in this famous University are as follows:-
In the reign of Henry III., Walter Merton, Bishop of Rochester,
removed the college he had founded in Surrey, 1274, to Oxford,
enriched it, and named it Merton College; and soon after, William,
Archdeacon of Durham, restored, with additions, that building of
Alfred's now called University College; in the reign of Edward I.,
John Baliol, King of Scotland, or, as some will have it, his
parents, founded Baliol College; in the reign of Edward II., Walter
Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, founded Exeter College and Hart Hall;
and, in imitation of him, the King, King's College, commonly called
Oriel, and St. Mary's Hall; next, Philippa, wife of Edward III.,
built Queen's College; and Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Canterbury College; William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, raised
that magnificent structure called New College; Magdalen College was
built by William Wainflete, Bishop of Winchester, a noble edifice,
finely situated and delightful for its walks; at the same time,
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, that great encourager of learning,
built the Divinity School very splendidly, and over it a library, to
which he gave an hundred and twenty-nine very choice books,
purchased at a great price from Italy, but the public has long since
been robbed of the use of them by the avarice of particulars:
Lincoln College; All Souls' College; St. Bernard's College; Brazen-
Nose College, founded by William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, in the
reign of Henry VII.; its revenues were augmented by Alexander Nowel,
Dean of St. Paul's, London; upon the gate of this college is fixed a
nose of brass; Corpus Christi College, built by Richard Fox, Bishop
of Winchester - under his picture in the College chapel are
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