fellows, and a number of inferior students. It is esteemed one of the largest and most wealthy of our Academical corporations, which may be compared to the Benedictine Abbeys of Catholic countries; and I have loosely heard that the estates belonging to Magdalen College, which are leased by those indulgent landlords at small quit-rents and occasional fines, might be raised in the hands of private avarice to an annual revenue of near thirty thousand pounds. Our Colleges are supposed to be schools of science as well as of education, nor is it unreasonable to expect that a body of litterary men, addicted to a life of celibacy, exempt from the care of their own subsistence, and amply provided with books, should devote their leisure to the prosecution of study, and that some effects of their studies should be manifested to the World. The shelves of their library groan under the weight of the Benedictine folios, of the editions of the fathers, and the Collections of the middle ages, which have issued from the single Abbey of St. Germain des Préz at Paris. A composition of Genius must be the offspring of one mind; but such works of industry as may be divided among many hands, and must be continued during many years, are the peculiar province of a laborious community. If I enquire into the manufactures of the monks of Magdalen, if I extend the enquiry to the other Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, a silent blush, or a scornful frown, will be the only reply. The fellows or monks of my time were decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder; their days were filled by a series of uniform employments, the Chappel and the Hall, the Coffee-house and the common room, till they retired, weary and well satisfied, to a long slumber. From the toil of reading or thinking, or

founded Magdalen 1458-merit under James II., zeal, privileges. Ayliffe, Hist. of Oxford, Vol. i. p. 342, etc.*

16 Lively picture in Hist. de l'Acad., tom. 27. p. 219 (from Quirini's own Comment., tom. i. p. 850— Artificumq. manus inter se operumq. laborem miratur - burnt till extinction more or less.†

* See Appendix, 15, p. 88.

† See Appendix, 16, p. 88.

*

writing, they had absolved their conscience, and the first shoots of learning and ingenuity withered on the ground without yielding any fruit to the owners or the public. The only student was a young fellow (a future Bishop) who was deeply immersed in the follies of the Hutchinsonian system; the only author was an half-starved Chaplain, Ballard † was his name — who begged subscriptions for some Memoirs concerning the learned ladies of Great Britain. As a Gentleman-Commoner, I was sometimes admitted to the society

*This was George Horne (1730-1792), Fellow (1750) and subsequently President (1768) of Magdalen College, Oxford (in which office he was the predecessor of Dr. Routh). In 1781 he was appointed Dean of Canterbury, and in 1790 Bishop of Norwich. His best-known work is his Commentary on the Psalms (1771).

He and William Jones of Nayland were the most distinguished adherents of the Hutchinsonian school. Along with a profound reverence for Holy Scriptures, which sometimes led them to be called Methodists, the Hutchinsonians held some eccentric opinions with regard to the origins of the Hebrew language, and were opponents of the Newtonian philosophy. Dr. Horne was the author of several works in defence of these tenets; e.g. A Fair, Candid, and Impartial Statement of the Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Hutchinson (published anonymously, 1753), A View of Mr. Kennicott's Method of correcting the Hebrew Text (1760), etc. Horne had been much influenced by the early writings of William Law, and deplored his "falling from the heaven of Christianity into the sink of Paganism, Quakerism, and Socinianism." In 1758 he published his Cautions to the Readers of Mr. Law, and with very few Varieties to the Readers of Baron Swedenborg, and A Letter to a Lady on the subject of Jacob Behmen's Writings.

"We drank tea with Dr. Horne," writes Boswell in 1776, "late President of Magdalen College and Bishop of Norwich, of whose abilities in different respects the public has eminent proofs, and the esteem annexed to whose character was increased by knowing him personally."

† George Ballard (1706-1755) was not a chaplain, but a choral clerk of Magdalen College. He had a remarkable career; he commenced life as a stay-maker at Campden, co. Gloucester, but displayed an aptitude for scholarship, and especially for Saxon subjects. By the assistance of Dr. Jenner, President of Magdalen, he was appointed to a clerkship in the college, and to the post of one of the Bedells of the University. His health was always infirm, and was much impaired by his close studies, including the transcription of a Saxon Dictionary, which he improved by the addition of nearly 1000 words. He also published, by subscription, his Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain who have been celebrated for their Writings, or Skill in the Learned Languages, Arts, and Sciences (1752). This is the book referred to in the text, but Gibbon does not mention the fact that he himself was among the subscribers. Mr. Mores describes Ballard as "a mantuamaker, a person studious in English antiquities, laborious in his pursuits, a Saxonist, and after quitting external ornaments of the sex, a contemplator of their internal qualifications." Bloxam's Magdalen Coll. Register, vol. ii. p. 95 (1857). "Sometimes" in the MS., but scored through by Gibbon.

of the fellows, and fondly expected that some questions of litterature would be the amusing and instructive topics of their discourse. Their conversation stagnated in a round of College business, Tory politics, personal stories, and private scandal; their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of Youth; and their constitutional toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty for the house of Hanover.1 A general election was now approaching; the great Oxfordshire contest already blazed with all the malevolence of party-zeal: Magdalen College was devoutly attached to the Old interest; and the names of Wenman and Dashwood were more frequently pronounced than those of Cicero and Chrysostom. The example of the senior fellows could not inspire the under-graduates with a liberal spirit, a studious emulation; and I cannot describe, as I never knew, the discipline of the College. Some duties may possibly have been imposed on the poor scholars, whose ambition aspired to the peaceful honours of a fellowship ("ascribi quietis ordinibus Deorum"); but no independent members were admitted below the rank of a Gentleman-Commoner, and our velvet cap was the cap of liberty. A tradition prevailed that some of our predecessors had spoken Latin declamations in the Hall, but of this ancient custom no vestige remained; the obvious methods of public exercises and examinations were totally unknown; and I have never heard that either the President or the Society interfered in the private œconomy of the Tutors and their pupills.

...

The silence of the Oxford professors, which deprives the Youth of public instruction, is imperfectly supplied by the Tutors, as they are styled, of the several colleges. Instead of confining themselves to a single science which had satisfied the ambition of Burman or Bernouilli, they teach, or promise to teach, either History, or Mathematics, or ancient littera17 Fellow's Journal, Idler, No. 33 not by Dr. Johnson—his awe, nonsense, air!*

* See Appendix, 17, p. 89.

ture, or moral philosophy; and as it is possible that they may be defective in all, it is highly probable that of some they will be ignorant. They are paid, indeed, by private contributions, but their appointment depends on the head of the house; their diligence is voluntary, and will consequently be languid, while the pupills themselves and their parents are not indulged in the liberty of choice or change. The first Tutor into whose hands I was resigned, appears to have been one of the best of the tribe: Dr. Waldegrave was a learned and pious man, of a mild disposition, strict morals, and abstemious life, who seldom mingled in the politics or the jollity of the College.* But his knowledge of the World was confined to the University; his learning was of the last, rather than the present age; his temper was indolent; his faculties, which were not of the first-rate, had been relaxed by the climate; and he was satisfied, like his fellows, with the slight and superficial discharge of an important trust. As soon as my tutor had sounded the insufficiency of his disciple in school-learning, he proposed that we should read every morning from ten to eleven the comedies of Terence. sum of my improvement in the University of Oxford is confined to three or four Latin plays; and even the study of an elegant Classic which might have been illustrated by a comparison of ancient and modern theatres, was reduced to a dry and literal interpretation of the Author's text. During the first weeks I constantly attended these lessons in my tutor's room; but as they appeared equally devoid of profit and pleasure, I was once tempted to try the experiment of a formal apology. The apology was accepted with a smile. I repeated the offence with less ceremony; the excuse was admitted with the same indulgence: the slightest motive of

The

*Thomas Waldegrave, born 1721; entered Lincoln College, 1728; Fellow of Magdalen, 1733; D.D., 1747; was Dean and Bursar of the college. In July, 1752, he was presented to the college living of Washington, in Sussex, where he died, 1784. His Annotationes in Platonis Opera he describes as "the oblivia vitæ after the death of a friend, and that friend a wife."

lazyness or indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad, was allowed as a worthy impediment, nor did my tutor appear conscious of my absence or neglect. Had the hour of lecture been constantly filled, a single hour was a small portion of my Academic leisure. No plan of study was recommended for my use; no exercises were prescribed for his inspection; and at the most precious season of Youth, whole days and weeks were suffered to elapse without labour or amusement, without advice or account. I should have listened to the voice of reason and of my tutor: his mild behaviour had gained my confidence; I preferred his society to that of the younger students,* and in our evening walks to the top of Heddington hill we freely conversed on a variety of subjects. Since the days of Pocock and Hyde, Oriental learning has always been the pride of Oxford, and I once expressed an inclination to study Arabic. His prudence discouraged this childish fancy; but he neglected the fair occasion of directing the ardour of a curious mind. During my absence in the summer vacation, Dr. Waldegrave accepted a college living at Washington, in Sussex, and on my return I no longer found him at Oxford. From that time I have lost sight of my first tutor; but at the end of thirty years (1781) he was still alive, and the practise of exercise and temperance had entitled him to an healthy old age.

The long recess between the Trinity and Michaelmas terms empties the Colleges of Oxford as well as the courts of Westminster. I spent at my father's house at Buriton in Hampshire, the two months of August and September, which, in the year 1752, were curtailed, to my great surprize, of eleven days by the alteration of the style. It is whimsical enough that as soon as I left Magdalen college my taste for

"Mr. Finden, an ancient Fellow of Magdalen College, and a contemporary of Gibbon, told me that his superior abilities were known to many, but that the gentlemen-commoners, of which number Gibbon was one, were disposed to laugh at his peculiarities; and were once informed by Finden, rather coarsely, but with some humour, that, if their heads were entirely scooped, Gibbon had brains sufficient to supply them all." - From Dr. Routh. — MILMAN.