CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.*
IT is natural that any one writing on an Oxford subject should make much of ancient associations, and it must be allowed that the connexion of St. Frideswide with Christ Church is more real than that of King Alfred with University College: Part of the church which contained her shrine was permitted to remain when the new buildings were planned, and it is. possible to find a spot in the cathedral consecrated by tradition, ecclesiastical if not academic, of nearly twelve centuries. It is, then, with St. Frideswide that Mr. Hassali begins : in his second chapter he comes to Wolsey and tells the story of what be did and of how his work was undone. We have no fault to find with it till we come to the statement that " Henry VIII., with all his faults, was a patron of learning." If he was, never surely did a man miss such opportunities. How much of the revenues of the monasteries went to the furtherance of learning P Not to go beyond the Wolsey foundation, how much of the spoils of Ipswich and Cardinal College were given back to Christ Church ? After hearing about the foundation of the "House" we have a sketch of its history, the Deans, who make on the whole a worthy succession, serving as central figures.
In Part II. we oome to the "Anthology." Among the passages chosen is a picturesque description of Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1560 by Thomas Neal, Reader in Hebrew, who was certainly flattering her Majesty when be told her that the foundation was " patris Henrici censibus aucta." Further on we have George Whitefield's experiences when he sought to make acquaintance with the "Methodists." "I was strongly pressed to follow their good example when I saw them go through a ridiculing crowd to receive the Holy Eucharist at St. Mary's." After Whitefield, by way of contrast, comes George Colman the younger, and after him Henry Fyne& Clinton, the learned author of the Fasti ifettenici, who gives an interesting account of his course of study. A glimpse that we incidentally get of the government of the House is not satisfactory. Clinton obtains a studentship, not because he is a bard worker, but because be is made tutor to two young aristocrats, who, he says, " derived certainly nc► benefit from my instructions." One of Clinton's friends was Thomas Gaisford, in whom the old school of Oxford learning reached its highest attainment. Frederick Oakley, afterwards an illustrious "'vent," gives an amusing sketch of his contemporaries, senior and junior, and tells a good story against himself. He was writing for the Newdigate, and had elaborated what he thought was a very fine line. The subject was " Tadmor " "High o'er the waste of Nature and of Time," A friend altered it to " High o'er the waste of paper and of time." The " verse " portion of the anthology is not particu- larly brilliant. Bishop Corbet's contributions are certainly curious, but the heat thing comes from outside—a stanza of Matthew Arnold's Scholar Gypsy. One great attraction of this very handsome volume is to be found in the sketches, by Hr. Arthur Garratt, of Christ Church localities and the• reproduction of some of the portraits in the Hall, from Cardinal Wolsey down to "Lewis Carroll."
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