1789 GEORGE THE THIRD'S RECOVERY. 3 from his first mental illness. The University of Oxford of course sent up an address of congratulation, which was presented by Lord North, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the University, followed by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Cooke1, President of Corpus, and a full Delegacy. In this year and in several following years, an ingenious native of Oxford, Mr. Sadler (afterwards known as 'the Aëronaut'), gave lectures on what he called 'philosophic fire-works; the taste for hard words of Greek formation had not yet set in, or he would probably have called them ' pyrotechnics.' Mr. Sadler was a clever, practical, and experimental manipulator in chemistry, and as such was patronised by the University, or rather by the few scientific men then in the University; what the University, as such, did or even professed to do in scientific matters at that period it were hard to say?. The Aldrichian Professorship of Chemistry, as we know, was not in full action till 1803; -but the Laboratory under the Museum had not been without a Lecturer. Certainly before Dr. Kidd's time Oxford had the advantage of frequent, or at least occasional Lectures, given by Dr. Beddoes on Chemistry and also on Strata and Rocks.' It was on July 29, 1789, that the (locally) famous 'Magdalen 1 It seems strange (judging from subsequent instances of patronage and promotion) that Dr. Cooke never got any ecclesiastical preferment ; especially as he received several Royal visits at Corpus, when the Royal Family drove over from Nuneham to lionise Oxford. After one of these visits the President caused a door to be opened from his own premises into the College garden and used to call it the King's door,' either (as it was said) from the King (George III) having suggested it, or (as is more probable) from the Dr. having himself perceived the want of it on such an occasion. ་ 6 2 In a Biographical Dictionary published in 1784 I read, Dr. Plot is said to have been appointed by the Vice-Chancellor the first Professor of Chemistry.' oak' fell down, at the entrance of what were then commonly called Magdalen Water-Walks. It was twenty-one feet nine inches in girth, and was traditionally said to have been an old tree at the founding of the College; indeed it was supposed to have been six hundred years old at its fall. It fell in the middle of the night, 'accompanied by a violent, rushing noise and a shock felt throughout the College.' A large state-chair made of it was used for many years in the hall of Magdalen1 College, as a seat for the President on the Gaudy-day, being brought for the occasion from the College Library. I remember it light-coloured and fresh from the carver's hands; it has since turned to a dark colour, and is deposited in President Bulley's hall of entrance. The number of Determining B.A.'s in the Lent of 1789 was 147. 1 Having been educated in the School and Choir of Magdalen College, it is but reasonable, as well as natural, that my earliest 'Recollections' should be so often connected with that Society. Thou dear old College! by whatever name Natives or strangers call our Oxford Queen,' To me, from days long past, thou 'rt aye the same,- 6 Not Magdalene-as I have heard it pronounced in church by scrupulous or fantastic persons, who seem not to have learned a lesson from the young man in the Spectator, whose toast Elizabetha' was by acclamation cut down to plain 'Bess.' May I add to my earliest 'Recollections' of Magdalen College the strange impression left on my memory, of having seen the two Bursars, at the first Monday morningservice in Lent, going round the chapel (during the chanting of the Benedicite) and doling out from their caps, to each member, as they passed, a little screw of paper, containing a small sum (from Is. for the President down to 2d. for a chorister), bequeathed by some pious, thoughtful benefactor · ad purgandos renes.' 'Physic-money' we called it. It is still kept up! 1790 HIGHWAYMEN. A.D. 1790. 5 The neighbourhood of Oxford at this time, and for some time after, had rather a bad reputation for highway robberies of a daring kind; stories were rife of such encounters, some true but many exaggerated1. Certainly travelling with pistols, ready-loaded, was a common practice, and banknotes were not unfrequently sewed into the lining of a gentleman's waistcoat or the folds of a lady's dress, for security 2. The great importance attached to the fact of being possessed of an annual income of £300 (or upwards), at the time of graduating, may be inferred from the fact, that at this period the name of any one who took a degree was not made public, i. e. not mentioned in the newspapers, unless it could be added, he went out Grand-Compounder.' This shows that such persons were considered as 'raræ aves,' and, like other unfrequent visitors, thought worthy of especial notice. In May, 1790, the University lost one of its most influential and respected residents, by the death of Thomas Warton, of Trinity College, the accomplished wit, antiquary, and scholar. It is asserted in the Life of Bishop Burgess,' that in 1790 the Heads of Houses refused to grant a D.C.L. degree by Diploma to Edmund Burke, though petitioned for that 1 The real occurrence was said to have sometimes suggested to idle and reckless minds a somewhat dangerous imitation, as a practical joke. Happily no serious mischief is recorded to have attended such rash experiments. Within my own recollection a practical joke of this kind was played upon a New College party going in a post-chaise to a ball at Abingdon. 2 Hence possibly the common phrase of investing money. purpose by forty-nine resident Masters of Arts, who thought that his 'Reflections on the French Revolution' highly entitled him to the honour. It is however to be observed that the thing asked was not a mere Honorary D.C.L. degree (as in Sheridan's case in 1810), but a Degree by Diploma, a Degree which confers immediate and full academical privileges and is a compliment usually confined to persons of high rank or eminent academic services1. It is mentioned in the same work that Burgess's English Prize-Essay on the "Study of Antiquities" (gained in 1780) went to a second edition,'-a very rare thing! A.D. 1791. In April of this year, Dr. George Horne resigned the Headship of Magdalen College on his being made Bishop of Norwich. He had for some years held the Deanery of Canterbury with the Presidency of Magdalen. At Norwich 1 Oxford Diplomas have never been given lavishly, or without high claims (much less sold)-like those of a foreign University, from which the physician Dr. Pitcairn is said, by way of ridicule, to have asked for a diploma for his footman! This having been granted (on the strength of his recommendation and former connection with the place), he soon after applied for one for his horse!! This however was too much;-he was informed in reply, that search had been made in the records of the University and the nearest approach to anything like a precedent was that of a degree having once been conferred on an ass, one Dr. Pitcairn! The Doctor in his turn might have quoted a precedent of even a higher title, that of Consul, conferred by an obsequious Senate upon a Roman Emperor's horse! It has been recorded that Pope Clement VI confessed that if Edward III were to ask him to make a bishop of a jackass, he could not say him nay. (Dr. Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury.) 1 N. B. See in Note 1 (p. 65) in my Recollections' for 1810 the rejection of Warburton's proposed Degree of D.D. 1791 MUSIC. 7 Cathedral he and Dean Lloyd soon collected round them a Choir of Oxford and chiefly Magdalen men as MinorCanons; some of their names, such as Millard, Walker, and Hansell, are still kept up at Magdalen in the persons of their descendants;-the best evidence of the high character of their progenitors! In the same month Dr. (or rather Mr.) Routh succeeded Bishop Horne as President. The new President (who then entered upon an office which he held for sixty-seven years), though a man of studious, literary habits, was not the fireside recluse which he afterwards became and long continued to be; he had even discharged the office of Proctor (or, at least, Pro-Proctor); for I have heard a story of Dr. Shaw (a rough diamond of the College) saying to him, on hearing him one day calling out in vain 'Siste per fidem1' to an Undergraduate tandem-driver, 'Ah! Martin, your oratio ad captandum don't take to-day.' July 5, 1791. The Honorary Degree of Doctor in Music was conferred in the Theatre on the celebrated composer Haydn-called in the printed Notice of the time 'Joseph Haydn, Esquire !' I mention this gladly, because, as a lover of music, I naturally think that the University received as much honour on the occasion as it bestowed, and also because of the rarity of such a degree (I mean as an Honorary degree) in Music. Two years before, indeed, it had been conferred (but not in the Theatre, at the Commemoration) on F. H. Graaf, Director of Music at Augsburg;'-why or through what influence does not appear,—as a composer he is unknown. Indeed the Honorary Music Degree has pro 1 'Siste per fidem' was the traditional cry of a Proctor to a fugacious Undergraduate, sometimes replied to by a good runner with Curre per Jovem.' |