We must not forget that Greene's _Honourable History of Friar
Bacon_ does not give us a picture of what Oxford was when seen by that
famous philosopher, who is sometimes claimed as a Fellow of Brasenose
College, probably long before that College existed; but what is said
in that play in praise of the University, may at least be taken as a
recollection of what Greene saw himself, when he took his degree as
Bachelor of Arts in 1578. In his play of the _History of Friar Bacon_,
Greene introduces the Emperor of Germany, Henry II, 1212-50, as paying
a visit to Henry III of England, 1216-73, and he puts into his mouth
the following lines, which, though they cannot compare with Shelley's
or Mat Arnold's, are at all events the earliest testimony to the
natural attractions of Oxford. Anyhow, Shelley's and Mat Arnold's
lines are well known and are always quoted, so that I venture to quote
Greene's lines, not for the sake of their beauty, but simply because
they are probably known to very few of my readers:

"Trust me, Plantagenet, these Oxford schools
Are richly seated near the river-side:
The mountains full of fat and fallow deer,
The battling[10] pastures lade with kine and flocks,
The town gorgeous with high built colleges,
And scholars seemly in their grave attire."

[10] Will it be believed that the battels (bills) in College
are connected with this word?

The mountains round Oxford we must accept as a bold poetical licence,
whether they were meant for Headington Hill or Wytham Woods. The
German traveller, Hentzner, who described Oxford in 1598, is more true
to nature when he speaks of the wooded hills that encompass the plain
in which Oxford lies.

But while the natural beauty of Oxford has always been admired and
praised by strangers, the doctors and professors of the old University
have not always fared so well at the hands of English and foreign
critics. I shall not quote from Giordano Bruno, who visited England in
1583-5, and calls Oxford "the widow of true science[11]," but Milton
surely cannot be suspected of any prejudice against Oxford. Yet he
writes in 1656 in a letter to Richard Jones: "There is indeed plenty
of amenity and salubrity in the place when you are there. There are
books enough for the needs of a University: if only the amenity of the
spot contributed so much to the genius of the inhabitants as it does
to pleasant living, nothing would seem wanting to the happiness