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 MERTON COLLEGE.

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number of eminent men in the 17th century, among whom was the great Oxford antiquary, Anthony Wood. During the plague year, 1665, when the Court mi- grated to Oxford, not only the Queen but two of Charles II 's favourite ladies were accommodated with rooms in the College, and when the Duke of Mon- mouth landed in Dorsetshire, it contributed no less than 40 musketeers and pikemen to oppose him. It does not, however, appear to have shared the Jacobite reaction of the next century ; on the contrary, it was known as a stronghold of Whig principles in the reigns of George I. and George II. But it was not proof against the intellectual torpor which prevailed throughout the University in that age, and its annals during the 18th century were as uneventful as those of most other Colleges. The scanty proportion of honours obtained by Merton in the early class-lists, and the small number of its students, go far to show that it was little affected by the revival of Academical studies at the beginning of the present century. But its Fellowships were already open to merit, with com- paratively slight restrictions, and among those elected to them within the last three generations several rose to high positions in Church or State, including two successive Bishops of Salisbury, and two successive Governor-Generals of Canada. When the first Uni- versity Commission was appointed, Merton was among the foremost to welcome the necessary reforms, and rendered good service by drawing up new Statutes, which became the basis of those proposed for other Colleges. Having erected new buildings, and re- stored its ancient Hall, it has sin ce largely increased its numbers, and is now exceeded, in this respect, by six or seven only of Oxford Colleges. Notwith- standing the recent annexation of St. Alban Hall, however, its accommodation for students is still limited. Next to the College system itself, of which it was the first example, perhaps the most important contri- bution of Merton to University organization was the institution of Postmasters ( Porlionistae) founded by John Wylliott, about 1380. These differed from the junior Scholares of the original foundation in being a distinct order, and having no right of succession to what are now called Fellowships ; and this new class of poor College " scholars," in the modern sense, long remained a distinctive feature of Merton. Of its primitive mediaeval customs, the more essentially Catholic or barbarous had become obsolete in the days of Anthony Wood, and several described by him have since fallen into inevitable disuse. " The recita- tion of a thanksgiving prayer for benefits received from the Founder at the end of each Chapel service, the time-honoured practice of striking the Hall table with a wooden trencher as a signal for grace, and the ceremonies observed on the induction of a new Warden, are perhaps the only outward and visible relics of its ancient customary which the spirit of in- novation has left alive." But the Chapel and Library, enclosing on three sides "Mob-Quadrangle," the veritable cradle of collegiate life ; the unbroken series of archives in the Treasury, with its high pitched roof and catalogue of deeds, itself 600 years old ; the sub- structure and antique doorway of the Hall ; the College Garden, surrounded on two sides by the city wall of Henry III — these are monumental evidences of corporate vitality which give Merton an historical interest, almost unique among the Colleges of our English Universities. — G. C. Brodrick, D.C.L.

For a much fuller historical notice by the same author see The Colleges of Oxford, by Andrew Clark, M.A., Methuen, London, 1891.