INTRODUCTION.

SCARCELY any question of English local history has been a more fruitful source of controversial discussion, than that which has for its object to ascertain, with precision, when, and by whom, the University of Oxford was founded. Some writers have not scrupled to place its origin in the twelfth century before Christ. They assert, that when, in the year of the world 2855, Brutus the Trojan, great grandson of Æneas, came into this island, he was accompanied by certain Greek Philosophers, who first settled at a place, called from their establishment, Greeklade, but afterwards removed to a situation close by the spot now occupied by Oxford; where they established Schools, and to which, on account of its pleasantness, they gave the name of Bellositum. This opinion, to which Cay, Fox, and Twyne, give their support, is maintained by J. Rouse, or Ross, of Warwick, who lived in the reign of Edward IV. and is styled by

b

Dugdale, a famous antiquary". Others ascribe the foundation of the University to ARVIRAGUS, a British King, contemporary with the Roman Emperor Domitian. A third party, rejecting these accounts as wholly fabulous, maintains, without, however, pretending to fix the precise time of institution, that the University was founded shortly after the introduction of Christianity into Britain.

It can scarcely be necessary to observe, that all these accounts of the origin of this celebrated literary establishment rest on the uncertain ground of tradition. The last of them is not, however, so wildly improbable as the two that precede; since it is generally acknowledged, that the existence, on or very near the spot occupied by modern Oxford, of one of those Institutions, distinguished in ancient times by the name of Studia Generalia, may be traced to a period far more

a" In Brompton's Chronicle, written before Rouse's "time, it is asserted, that, before the year of Christ 66 632, certain Schools for Greek and Latin were "established at Greeklade, (Cricklade in Wiltshire,) "and Latinlade, (Lechlade in Gloucestershire;) but 66 no mention is made of such Schools being removed "to Bellositum, Ryd-ychen, or Oxenford."

b General studies, i. e. places of general learning, a name bestowed on the higher public Schools, previously to the adoption of the term University. The latter term originated either in the universality of sciences taught, or in what was taught being learned ab universis scholaribus.

remote than any of which satisfactory records now exist. But it is not till near the end of the ninth century that we find the light of authentic history beginning to beam on the academical annals of Oxford. At that time the Schools, which had subsisted here for ages, had sunk into that state of extreme depression, into which, in a kingdom long harassed by successive hordes of ignorant and savage invaders, the seats of learning might naturally be expected to fall. In this melancholy condition they are said to have been found by King ALFRED; who, having, by the complete overthrow and consequent expulsion of the Danes, succeeded in restoring to his dominions the long untasted blessings of peace and security, had leisure to meditate on the best means of promoting the welfare of his subjects. And this wise, this truly patriotic King had not to learn that a right education is the greatest of earthly blessings, the sure basis of national as well as of individual prosperity and happiness. He knew, that with the intellectual character, the external circumstances of a people are always found to improve. Alfred had himself experienced the want of proper instructors. In his youthful days, so general and so extreme was the ignorance which prevailed, that, between the Thames and the Humber no person could be found capable of translating a Latin letter.

Alfred reached the twelfth year of his age without having learned to read. And although, after having, with his step-mother's assistance, mastered the rudiments of Saxon literature, he profited by the leisure that he enjoyed during the successive reigns of his two elder brothers, to improve himself in other branches of knowledge, as far as could be done at an æra so peculiarly unpropitious to literary pursuits; yet Alfred ever reckoned among his misfortunes, that, "when he had

youth, and leisure, and permission, and in"clination to learn, he could not find in-

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structors." One of the first objects, therefore, which, after the establishment of peace, engaged the attention of this illustrious prince, was providing for the due instruction of succeeding generations of his countrymen. With this object in view, Alfred would, it is likely, especially foster a place of study, which, decayed as was then its condition, had been for ages the chief seminary of the land. Deprecating, therefore, as we do most heartily deprecate, that spirit of limitless scepticism, which is, at the present day, too frequently chracteristic of investigations into the occurrences of time long passed, we do not hesitate to declare, that, although it has become fashionable to doubt, and even to deny, Alfred's having had any share in restoring the University of Oxford, we have not ourselves been able

to discover sufficient reason for withholding our assent to the statements of Camden and other distinguished writers, by whom this monarch is represented as having actually been, first its Restorer, and afterwards its liberal Patron. According to the writers in question, after reestablishing the Schools previously existing here, Alfred, in the year 886, founded three others, conferring on the whole number certain privileges. He also obtained for them certain immunities from Pope Martin the Second. Of the new Schools, or Halls, the first, called Little University Hall, was situated near the eastern extremity of High Street, and was endowed with competent salaries for twenty-six Grammarians : the second, called Lesser University Hall, was founded in School Street, for twenty-six Students in logic and philosophy: the third, named Great University Hall, was situated in High Street, a short distance westward of Little University Hall, and was endowed for twenty-six Divines. For the due support of these foundations, Alfred is understood to have assigned the third part of a moiety of his whole yearly income, and the pensions themselves are said to have been regularly issued from the Exchequer, till the time of either Harold, or William the Conqueror, The first regents and readers in divinity in the University, thus happily restored, were, ac