nd would have
defaced all the worke there, had it not been for some townsmen, who
entreated them to forbeare, they replienge that they had not been so
well treated here at Oxford as they expected: many of them came into
Christ Church to viewe the Church and paynted windowes, much admiringe
at the idolatry thereof, and a certain Scot, beinge amongst them, saide
that he marvaylled how the Schollers could goe for their bukes to these
paynted idolatrous wyndoes." From a Scot of that time this utterance was
not surprising: bukes had been substituted for paynted wyndowes
destroyed in his country many years before his visit to Oxford. But to
the honour of the Puritans be it said, there were no serious outrages on
person or property in Oxford, and that its citizens had to endure
nothing more than fear and discomfort: in no other country in Europe at
that time would a city occupied by troops have suffered as little as did
Oxford in those two months.

In 'John Inglesant' a man of genius has drawn a picture of Oxford when
it was the residence of the King and Queen and Court. His description is
so vivid that one is tempted to believe it to be history: it is that,
and not mere fiction, for it is based on a careful study of facts, and,
allowance made for the writer's strong Royalist bias, it is true
ethically or in spirit, that highest truth which accurate and laborious
historians often fail to reach.

John Inglesant entered Wadham before the war began--the date of his
admission is obviously uncertain--and lived there from time to time till
the rout at Naseby, in 1645, brought about the surrender of Oxford to
the Parliament in 1646. It was by a sure instinct that he chose Wadham,
that quiet and beautiful college, for his home. He was a dreamer, and in
no place could he have dreamt more peacefully and happily than there,
though sometimes perhaps, even in his first term, he must have been
disturbed by the ominous sounds of axe and hammer, pick and spade, busy
on the "fortifications in making about the towne on the north and
north-west thereof," and, later, on the east, toward Headington Hill and
close to Wadham. A trace of them remains in the terrace on the east of
the Warden's garden, which did not then exist for Inglesant to walk
in, and muse on the problems of the day.

[Illustration: WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN.]

Oxford in his time at Wadham presented a curious spectacle. Huddled
together were soldiers, courtiers,