,
and its quadrangle, which remains much as at the foundation, contains
the founder's statue, and also a remarkable dial, in the centre of which
is a perpetual calendar. This college is not very marked in
architecture. It stands at the back of Christ Church, and adjoining it
is Merton College, founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton. His idea was to
forbid the students following in after life any other pursuit than that
of parish priest. The chapel of Merton is one of the finest in Oxford,
and its massive tower is a city landmark. The entrance-gateway,
surmounted by a sculptured representation of St. John the Baptist, is
attractive, and the two college quadrangles are picturesque, the "Mob
Quad," or library quadrangle, being five hundred years old, with the
Treasury and its high-pitched ashlar roof and dormer windows above one
of the entrance-passages. St. Alban Hall, built about 1230, adjoins
Merton, and is a Gothic structure with a curious old bell-tower. Oriel
College stands opposite Corpus Christi, but the ancient buildings of the
foundation in 1324-26 have all been superseded by comparatively modern
structures of the seventeenth century: though without any striking
architectural merits, the hall and chapel of this college are extremely
picturesque. Its fame is not so much from its buildings as from some of
its fellows, Whately, Keble, Wilberforce, Newman, Pusey, and Arnold
having been among them. St. Mary's Hall, an offshoot founded in the
fourteenth century, stands near this college. All Souls College is on
the High Street, and was founded in 1437, its buildings being, however,
modern, excepting one quadrangle. In the chapel is a magnificent
reredos, presented by Lord Bathurst, who was a fellow of All Souls, and
containing figures representing most of the fellows of his time: in the
library are Wren's original designs for building St. Paul's. This
college was founded by Archbishop Chichele for "the hele of his soul"
and of the souls of all those who perished in the French wars of King
Henry V.; hence its name. We are told that the good archbishop was much
troubled where to locate his college, and there appeared to him in a
dream a "right godly personage," who advised him to build it on the High
Street, and at a certain spot where he would be sure in digging to find
a "mallard, imprisoned but well fattened, in the sewer." He hesitated,
but all whom he consulted advised him to make the trial, and
accordingly, on a fixed