"He had

as just, as it is favourable and humane. "a natural propensity to discover, and an un"daunted mind to speak, the truth. He had a "sincere abhorrence of every thing mean and ser"vile; and if he is at any time guilty of misrepresenting the characters of others, it is owing "to his being first deceived himself."

.....West of the College is MERTON GROVE, whence only can a good view be obtained of the western and southern side of the Chapel, which, with part of the buildings of the small quadrangle, bounds the Grove on the east, as Corpus Christi College does on the west. A foot path, leading from King Street to Christ Church meadow, runs through this Grove, which, although a mere strip of ground, yet, being in grass, and pretty thickly planted with elms, breathes a most agreeable air of retirement. Oft has the writer of these pages seated himself on the low wall beneath the Library windows of Merton College, and after admiring, in turn, the solemn grandeur which marks the whole exterior of the adjoining church, the pleasingly varied ramifications of the eastern window of Corpus Christi College Chapel, the half-seen Chapel of Oriel, and the feathery spire of St. Mary's, partially disclosed at the head of a lane on the north, gradually resigned himself to all the luxury of that local emotion, relative to which Dr. John

son, in one of the most celebrated passages of his writings, thus eloquently expresses himself:

"To abstract the mind from all local emotion "would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, "and would be foolish, if it were possible. "Whatever withdraws us from the power of our "senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or "the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. "Far from me and from my friends be such frigid

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philosophy, as would conduct us, indifferent and "unmoved, over any ground which has been dig"nified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man ❝is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not "gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose "piety would not grow warmer among the ruins "of Iona." And who but must feel emotion of such a nature-who but must be sensible of a generous elevation of soul-when, as he contemplates at leisure the magnificence which here surrounds him, he reflects that he is pressing the same soil, breathing the same air, and admiring the same objects, which the Hookers, the Chillingworths, the Lowths, and a host of other learned and pious men, have trodden, breathed, and admired before! From the soil which has already proved so fertile, may champions in the cause of divine truth and order, and successful

labourers in the fields of literature and the sciences, continue to spring up in plenteous succession i.

i Wood mentions among others the following customs, as having formerly obtained at Merton College.

Previously to the Reformation, to which the major part of the Society were se adverse as resolutely to deny the first Protestant Warden admittance into the College, the Fellows were in the habit of assembling round the hall fire, for the purpose of singing hymns on holyday evenings and their vigils, from the vigil of All Saints to the evening of the Purification. At the Reformation this cus, tom was abolished as superstitious! Alas! alas! what pity was it, that, in the fever of reforming the superstitions, our fathers, in too many instances, shook off also the piety of Roman Catholicism!

Another curious custom which prevailed here was the election of a King of Christmas, or Misrule. The last of these merry monarchs who held sway over Merton flourished in Queen Mary's time. His office was to take cognizance of all misdemeanors committed during the Christmas holydays, and the punishments which he inflicted were sometimes sufficiently ludicrous.

At St. John's College, the Christmas Ruler was styled only Lord; but at Trinity he bore the dignified title of Emperor. Of one of the former the titles have been preserved, and are as follows: The most magnificent and renowned Thomas, by the favour of fortune, Prince of Alba Fortunata, Lord of St. John's, High Regent of the Hall, Duke of St. Giles, Marquess of Magdalens, Landgrave of the Grove, Count Palatine of the Cloisters, Chief Baylive of Beaumont, High Ruler of Rome, (a piece of ground so called near the end of the walk called Non Ultra, on the northern side of Oxon.) Master of the Man or of Walton, Governor of Gloucester Green, sole Commander of all tilts, tournaments, and triumphs, Superintendant in all solemnities whatsoever.

A third curious observance was that of Merton Black Night, as it was called; a species of diversion observed when the Dean kept the Bachelors at disputations till twelve at night. It consisted in breaking open the buttery and kitchen doors, rifling them of their

Immediately adjoining on the west to Merton Grove stands

CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE,

a

the front of which, viewed in perspective from the south-western corner of Magpie lane, certainly possesses considerable beauty, although its uniformity is, in some degree, injured, by a large pointed window belonging to the Hall. With this exception, the College presents, towards King Street, a regular embattled elevation of three stories, the upper one of which is finished with an enriched cornice. Over the gateway, which divides the front into equal portions, rises a square embattled tower, ornamented with a handsome oriel window, and with three very richly canopied niches, one on each side of the oriel, the third above. The qua

stores, and making merry with the spoil. The origin of this praetice is said to have been an unlucky answer made by Johannes Duns Scotus, father of the sect of the Realists, and at the time Dean of the College, to Gulielmus Occham, father of the Nominalists, and then a Bachelor Fellow of the same Society. Occham, after a hot dispute with the Dean, in which the latter is said to have been worsted, being an inferior, at parting submitted himself, with the rest of the Bachelors, to the Dean, in this form, Domine quid faciemus? as it were begging punishment for their boldness and arguing. To whom Scotus unluckily replying, Ite, et facite quid vultis, these obstreperous sons of mode and figure are understood to have established a precedent for the spoliations committed in the pantry on Merton Black Night. OXONIANA.

a This, with the western side of the court, was rebuilt in 1737. The whole quadrangle has been since cased with stone.