Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/481

 IN REHALF OF THE ROYAMST CAUSE. 37'.) rude soldiers. Most of their precious time was lost l)y i)eing upon the guard night after night, and by doing those duties that appertained to them as l)earers of anus, and so, couse- quentl}^ had opportunities as hiy sohliers had, of gaming, drinking, swearing, &c., as notoriously appeared to the visitors that wTre sent by ParHament to reform the University. Tlic truth is (I blame not all) that they wxto so guilty of these vices, that those that were looked upon as good witts and of great parts, on their first coming, were by strange inventions (not now to be named), to entice them to drinking and to be drunk, totally lost and rendered useless. I have had tlio opportunity (I cannot say hap]iiness) to peruse several songs, ballads, and such like frivolous stuff, that were made by some of the more ingenious sort of them, while they kept guard at the Holly Bush and Angel, near Rewdey, in the west suburbs ; which even, though their humour and chiefcst of their actions are in them described, yet I shall pass them by as very unworthy to be here, or in any part mentioned. " The colleges were much out of repair by the negligence of soldiers, courtiers, and others that lay in them, a few chambers that -wore the meanest (in some colleges none at all) being reserved for scholars' use. Their treasures and plate were all gone, the books of some libraries embezzled, and the number of scholars few and mostly indigent. The halls (wdierein as in some colleges beer w^as sold by the penny in the butteries) were very ruinous, occasioned through the same ways as the colleges were, and so they remained except Magdalen Hall and New Inn Hall (which were upon the surrender replenished with the Presbyterian faction) for several years after. Further, also, having few or none in them, except their respective principals and families, tlic chambers in them were, to prevent ruin and injuries of weather, rented out to laiks. In a w^ord there was scarce the face of an University left, all things being out of order and disturbed." Such is the account that Anthony a Wood gives of the making of the lines round Oxford, and of the siege ; it now becomes necessary to say something of the sketch of the forti- fications and its probable authenticity. In Skelton's " Oxonia Antiqua," a plate is given of tlic lines, this is called a "/«c si?mlc from Anthony a Wood ; " in the edition of Anthony a Wood, as pubhshcd by Gutch, it is