257). He intended that his college should rival the houses of the
Dominicans and the Franciscans. These friaries were in the southern
part of Oxford, and have completely perished, leaving behind only the
names of two or three mean streets; but the college system which
Walter de Merton founded has grown with the growth of Oxford and of
England, and is to-day as vigorous and as useful as ever.

Walter de Merton provided his fellows with noble buildings, at once
for their common life and for their own private accommodation, and
also with endowments sufficient to enable them to live in comfort,
free from anxiety; most important of all, he gave them powers of
self-government, so that they might recruit their own numbers and
carry out for themselves the objects prescribed by him in his
Statutes.

In this great foundation then the three characteristic features of a
college are found--a common life, powers of self-government, with the
right of choosing future members, and endowments that enable religion
and learning to flourish, free from more pressing cares. It is these
features which distinguish the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and
which have determined their history.

Walter de Merton definitely prescribed that none of the fellows who
benefited by his foundation should be monks or friars; to take the
vows involved forfeiture of a fellowship. He also especially urged on
the members of his society that, when any of them rose to "ampler
fortune" /(uberior fortuna)/, they should not forget their /alma
mater/.

The founder died in 1277, so that none of the college buildings were
complete in his time, except perhaps the treasury, which, with its
high-pitched roof of stone, lies in the opposite corner of the Mob
Quad to that shown in our picture. Why the Quad is called "The Mob
Quad," nobody knows. As was fitting, the chapel was the first part of
the college to be finished--about 1300--and it is a splendid specimen
of early Geometrical Gothic; it retains a little of the old glass,
given by one of the early fellows.

The north side of the Mob Quad, which is shown in our picture, is
very little later than the Chapel, and the whole of the Quad was
finished before 1400; the rooms in it have been the homes of Oxford
men for more than five centuries. It is sad to think that so unique a
building was almost destroyed in the middle of the nineteenth
century, by the zeal of "reformers"; it was actually condemned to be
pulled down