Part 4 (1/2)

Samuel Wesley, the father of Samuel, John, and Charles, entered Exeter College as a ”pauper scholaris,” and was an eminent divine. His son Samuel, the intimate a.s.sociate of Pope, Swift, and Prior, wrote squibs against Sir Robert Walpole, the Whigs, and the Low Church divines, and was a member of Christ Church, as well as Charles. These three brothers compiled the ”Book of Psalms and Hymns,” Charles alone composed and published some four thousand hymns, besides leaving about two thousand in ma.n.u.script.

Pusey, born near Oxford in 1800, entered as a commoner and died as a canon of Christ Church, at the age of eighty-two.

The great scholar of Corpus Christi, John Keble, became member of that college at the age of fifteen, and when nineteen was elected Fellow of Oriel,--a very proud distinction, for Oriel was then the great centre of the most famous intellects in Oxford.

To this society belonged Copleston, Davison, Whately, and soon after Keble's election Arnold, Pusey, and Newman became members. Newman, whose tendencies were in turn Evangelical and Calvinistic, to become finally cardinal, matriculated at Trinity College. Amongst other famous members of Wolsey's foundation must be included the statesmen William Gladstone and the late Marquis of Salisbury.

Other distinguished inmates of this college are Anthony Ashley Cooper, the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, who interested himself in the practical welfare of the working cla.s.ses; and John Ruskin, author of ”The Stones of Venice,” whose father had at first conceived the ambition of seeing him become bishop; Cecil Rhodes, the Imperialist, whose health was so uncertain that at one time his doctor gave him only six months to live, acquired wealth in South Africa, and came home to be admitted to Oriel, Oxford.

The author of ”Alice in Wonderland,” under the _nom de plume_ of ”Lewis Carroll,” was also a student of Christ Church. As Charles Lutridge Dodgson he wrote many important works on mathematics.

These, with a host of other celebrated men of all the various colleges, have all shed l.u.s.tre upon their _alma mater_; and, as long as old traditions be revered and followed, Oxford need never fear a decline.

The beautiful buildings, collegiate and ecclesiastical, the wonderful university libraries, ”The Bodleian” and ”The Ashmolean,” the sumptuous plate and silver of the colleges, are some of the great features of this cathedral city.

Such, in brief, is the history of this prominent seat of learning.

Peterborough

St. Petrius de Burgh.

(”Doomsday Book.”)

This ancient cathedral city of Peterborough is most curiously situated.

On first looking at the map it is extremely difficult to determine off-hand to which of the three counties, Northamptons.h.i.+re, Huntingdons.h.i.+re, or Cambridges.h.i.+re, it belongs. It is true part of the city lies in Huntingdons.h.i.+re. Happily for Northamptons.h.i.+re, the near proximity of the river Nene probably decided the worthy monks to select that site for the monastery. It was dedicated to St. Peter, whose saintly name was evidently borrowed to designate the name of the borough, and to displace the original appellation, which was Medeswelhamsted, or Medeshampsted, taken out of compliment to a whirlpool in the river Aufona, now the Nene. Though we are told that this monastery was founded, about 655, by a royal Christian convert, Paeda, the fifth king of Mercia, and finished by his brother, Wulfhere, in atonement for his crime in connection with the premature death of his sons for their Christian proclivities--though we are told this, nevertheless we are inclined to think that the worthy brethren were chiefly responsible for the selection of the site.

If we come to consider closely the locality of each monastic inst.i.tution, we generally stumble across a river, however small and humble it may appear. And why is this? Simply for the fish, which was carefully preserved and encouraged to multiply. Even to this day all monks, nuns, and strict followers of the Roman Catholic persuasion rigidly adhere to the observance of eating fish, instead of flesh, on every Friday and fast day, though nowadays it is not customary for them to catch fish in its natural element. In the good old days the holy friars had to depend princ.i.p.ally upon the yield of the river for Friday's requirements, if perchance the monastery was situated far inland. Travelling in mediaeval times was somewhat precarious and slow.

This monastery would be in all probability a wooden erection of Anglo-Saxon style. Philologists demonstrate that ”getimbrian”--to construct of wood--was the Anglo-Saxon word for ”build.” If this argument holds good, it accounts not only for the scarcity of Old English lapidary remains, but also for their peculiar character. Till the arrival of masons in 672 from the continent, the buildings had been composed mostly of wood covered with thatch. Only towards the close of the tenth century, with a better knowledge of stone-work, did architects develop a definite style in England.

With the arrival of the Danes, about the middle of the ninth century, the town was sacked, the monks were ma.s.sacred, and the monastic buildings were burnt. For more than a century it remained in oblivion, till the combined efforts of Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, King Edgar, and his wealthy chancellor Adulph, produced a monastery, over which, in recognition of his pecuniary a.s.sistance, Adulph was made abbot. As usual, the Norman Conquest left its mark in the shape of a castle to protect the town, and to instil wholesome awe in the English.

It was early in the reign of Henry I. that a fire caused great injury to the town and monastery. Though deplorable, as it at first appeared, it nevertheless gave birth to the present Norman cathedral church, which Abbot Salisbury commenced to build in 1118, two years after the accident. At the same time the site of the town was transferred from the eastern side of the monastery to the present situation north of the Nene.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PETERBOROUGH

THE WEST FRONT]

Six years before the death of Henry VIII., to wit, in 1541, Peterborough was separated from the Diocese of Lincoln and was created into an episcopal see. The last abbot of Peterborough was appointed first bishop, with the abbot's house as the episcopal palace, and the monastery church as the cathedral. To this building, the Norman effort of Abbot Salisbury, was grafted the architecture of the Early English style. No pen can so adequately describe the magnificence of the west front of this cathedral as the brush of Mr. Collins. This artist has done full justice to his subject, which has evidently been a work of love to him. In his rendering he has both successfully caught the true spirit of the church's grandeur, and has managed to incorporate his distinct individuality. Mr. Collins has shown the same qualities with regard to the ”market-place.”

The three lofty and beautiful arches of this west front are Early English. Perhaps a jarring note to its fine composition is the small porch, over which there is a chapel to St. Thomas a Becket.

A square tower at the north-west angle and another similar one at the south-west angle of the nave enrich the general effect. The nave itself is Norman, and is separated from the aisles by finely cl.u.s.tered piers and arches of the same style, but lighter than usual in character.

The east end is circular, and there are several chapels of the English style subsequent to the Early English. They are elegantly designed with fan tracery, and the windows, since their original foundation, appear to have been enriched with tracery.

On the south side there is the shrine to St. Tibba, and close to it Mary Queen of Scots was buried. Her remains were afterwards exhumed and removed to Westminster.