h of some of the colleges is enormous, and they
are said to own altogether nearly two hundred thousand acres of land in
different parts of the kingdom, and to have about $2,100,000 annual
revenues, of which they expend not over $1,500,000, the remainder
accumulating. They also have in their gift four hundred and forty-four
benefices, with an annual income of $950,000. It costs a student about
$1200 to $1500 a year to live at Oxford, and about $325 in university
and college fees from matriculation to graduation, when he gets his
degree of B.A., or, if inattentive, fails to pass the examination, and,
in Oxford parlance, is said to be "plucked."

THE OXFORD COLLEGES.

[Illustration: GATEWAY OF CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE.]

The enumeration of the colleges which make up the university will
naturally begin with the greatest, Christ Church, founded by Cardinal
Wolsey, of which the principal facade extends four hundred feet along
St. Aldate's Street, and has a noble gateway in the centre surmounted by
a six-sided tower with a dome-like roof. Here hangs the great bell of
Oxford, "Old Tom," weighing seventeen thousand pounds, which every
night, just after nine o'clock, strikes one hundred and one strokes,
said to be in remembrance of the number of members the college had at
its foundation. Wolsey's statue stands in the gateway which leads into
the great quadrangle, called by the students, for short, "Tom Quad."
Here are the lodgings of the dean and canons, and also the Great Hall,
the finest in Oxford, and the room where the sovereign is received
whenever visiting the city. The ancient kitchen adjoins the hall, and
near by is the entrance to the cathedral, which has been restored, and
the ancient cloisters. From the buildings a meadow extends down to the
rivers, the Cherwell on the left and the Thames (here called the Isis)
on the right, which join at the lower part of the meadow. Beautiful
walks are laid out upon it, including the famous Oxford promenade, the
Broad Walk, a stately avenue of elms bordering one side of the meadow.
Here, on the afternoon of Show Sunday, which comes immediately before
Commemoration Day, nearly all the members of the university and the
students, in academic costume, make a promenade, presenting an animated
scene.

[Illustration: MERTON COLLEGE CHAPEL.]

[Illustration: GATEWAY, MERTON COLLEGE.]

[Illustration: ORIEL COLLEGE.]

Corpus Christi College was founded by Bishop Fox of Winchester in 1516