town and country-planted with a row of elms on either side, and having a parterre of green before the several houses.' 'Canditch' was seriously encroached upon by a terrace in front of Balliol College, shaded by lofty elms, and resembling that before St. John's. The unwonted breadth acquired for the street when this excrescence was at last removed caused its old appellation to disappear in favour of Broad Street.' A double row of posts-where boys played leap-frog-marked the northern limit of St. Mary's Churchyard. The Radcliffe Library was a rotunda without railings. Hart Hall (which had come to be called 'Hertford College,' and which resumed its title yesterday after its disuse for fifty years) had no street front; and where Canterbury Quad' now stands there were yet to be seen traces of the ancient college of which Wickliffe is said to have been warden, and Sir Thomas More a member. St. Peter's Vicarage still occupied the north-east angle of St. Peter's Churchyard,where its site is commemorated by an inscription from the President's pen. It was but fifteen years since, that on St. John Baptist's day the last sermon had been preached in the open air from the stone pulpit in front of Magdalen College Chapel (and a pleasant sight it was): the Vice-Chancellor, proctors, and masters occupying seats in the quadrangle; the walls being adorned with green boughs and flowers, the ground covered with rushes and grass; and all in order to create the illusion that the preaching 'resembled that of John the Baptist in the wilderness.'

The University life of 1770 presented even a greater contrast. The undergraduates rose early, but spent their days in idleness. Practically, the colleges were without discipline. Tutors gave no lectures. It is difficult to divine how a studiouslydisposed youth was to learn anything. I should like to read some Greek,' said John Miller of Worcester to his tutor, some thirty years later. 'Well, and what do you want to read?' Some Sophocles.' "Then come to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock.' He went, and read a hundred lines: but could never again effect an entrance. This state of things was effectually remedied by the Examination Statute and by the publication of the class-list; but neither came into effect till the year 1801. The dinner-hour was 2; and for an hour previous, the impatient shout of Tonsor! tonsor!' was to be heard from every casement. The study, or inner room, was reserved for the 'powdering.' Blue coats studded with bright buttons, shorts

4

Jones' Life of Horne,' prefixed to his Works,' vol. i. p. 117. Pointer's Ozoniensis Academia,' p. 66. Peshall, ad fin. p. 31.

and

and buckles, was the established costume. A passage from Scripture was read during dinner. At 8, all supped on broiled bones and beer. There was not to be seen till long after a carpet in a single Oxford common-room: what need to add that undergraduates were without carpets? Thedons' frequented some adjoining tavern or coffee-house. Mr. Wyatt's premises in High Street (known at that time as Tom's Coffee House') were the favourite resort of seniors and juniors alike. The undergraduates drank and smoked in the front room below, as well as in the large room overhead which looks down on the street. The older men, the choice spirits of the University, formed themselves into a club which met in a small inner apartment on the ground-floor (remembered as the House of Lords'), where they also regaled themselves with pipes, beer and wine. The ballot boxes of the club are preserved, and the ancient Chippendale chairs (thanks to the taste of their present owner) still stand against the walls. Drunkenness was, unquestionably, at that time the prevailing vice of Oxford. Irreligion reigned; not unrebuked, indeed, yet not frowned down, either. It would be only too easy to produce anecdotes in illustration of both statements. Should it not be remembered, when such discreditable details are brought before our notice, that our Universities perforce at all times reflect the manners and spirit of the age; and that it is unreasonable to isolate the Oxford of 1770 from the England of the same period? The latter part of the eighteenth century was a coarse time everywhere; and the low standard which prevailed in Church matters outside the University is but too notorious. Only because her lofty traditions and rare opportunities set her on a pinnacle apart, does the Oxford of those days occasion astonishment and displeasure.

Such was the state of things when young Routh became a commoner of Queens'. Jacobite sentiments he found universally prevalent, and he espoused them the more readily because they fell in with the traditions of his family. He was remarkable even as a boy. I like that little fellow in blue stockings,' said the second Earl Temple (afterwards Marquis of Buckingham), with whom Routh used to argue, when he met him in a friend's rooms. (I suppose,' remarked the President, at the end of eighty years, they weren't very tasty.') But the topic of the hour was the Act of Parliament which had been just obtained for the improvement of the city,-an Act which in a few years effectually transformed ancient into modern Oxford. Meanwhile Dr. George Horne and Dr. Thomas Randolph were pointed out as the most conspicuous divines in the University;

Dr.

Dr. Kennicott as the most famous Hebraist; Tom Warton as the most brilliant wit. In the very next year young Routh migrated from Queens' to Magdalen. The record survives in his own writing: 1771, July 24th. I was elected a Demy of Magdalen, on the nomination of the President, Dr. Horne.' And now he came under improved influences-the best, it may be suspected, which the University had at that time to offer. Dr. Benjamin Wheeler, Regius Professor of Divinity in 1776, was a fellow of the College (my learned friend, Dr. Wheeler,' as Dr. Johnson calls him); and Dr. John Burrough was his tutor. Especially is it to be considered that young Routh now lived under the eye of Dr. Horne, who was still engaged on his Commentary on the Psalms. It is impossible to avoid suspecting that the character and the pursuits of this admirable person materially tended to confirm in Martin Joseph Routh that taste for sacred learning which was destined afterwards to bear such remarkable fruits. He listened to Horne's sermons in the College Chapel and at St. Mary's; and at the President's lodgings met every one who at that time was most distinguished in or out of the University for learning, ability, or goodness.

The youth (for we are speaking of a boy of sixteen) had already established the practice of returning to Beccles once a year, and spending some part of the summer vacation under his parents' roof. This annual visit went on till 1792. On such occasions it is remembered that he sometimes acted as the assistant or substitute of his father in the school-room, where his presence was always welcomed by the pupils, on account of his urbane manner and the happy ease with which he communicated information.' In 1774 (February 5th) he took his B.A. degree: and it was intended that he should at once go down.' The interval before he could be ordained was to have been passed at Beccles. His father had a large family to provide for: two children had been born to him since Martin had gone up to Oxford in 1770; and the expenses of an University education already pressed somewhat heavily on the domestic exchequer.

'I hope by this time you have passed the pig-market,' writes the anxious parent (Feb. 4th, 1774), indulging in an allusion which will be intelligible at least to Oxford men. Then follow directions as to what the son was to do with his effects before his departure:

This I mention' (proceeds the writer), 'on the supposition of your not having a very near prospect of returning to college, which must be the case unless somewhat approaching to a maintenance

* The Fauconberge Memorial' (privately printed), 1849, p. 37.

could

could be contrived for you there; since, as you must be aware, your education hitherto has been full as much as my circumstances will allow of. The particulars now occurring for the refreshment of your memory are all your clothes, linen, sheets and table-linen, spoons, and such books as you think may be useful, if Wormall should become your pupil, in the use of the globes and a smattering of astronomy. ... Whether you will have heard the bad news from London, I cannot tell; but, by a letter from Kelsale on Wednesday, we are informed of the death of Mrs. Heber, who was brought to bed of a son, heir to an entailed estate of 1500l. per annum, on old Christmas Day.'

His election to a fellowship at Magdalen (July 25th, 1775) determined Routh's subsequent career. He undertook two pupils-one of whom (Edward South Thurlow) was a nephew of the Lord Chancellor and of the Bishop; Granville Penn was the other. And now Routh gave himself up to study. He proceeded M.A. in 1776; was appointed College Librarian in 1781; and, in 1784 and 1785, Junior Dean of Arts, enjoying the satisfaction in the latter year of seeing his brother (Samuel) admitted Demy. He had already been elected Proctor,* in which capacity he was present at an entertainment given to George III., who, with Queen Charlotte, visited the University about this time. The first symptoms of the King's subsequent malady had not yet appeared: but Routh, in describing the scene, while he did full justice to the intelligence and activity which marked the King's face and conversation (he sat opposite to him), dwelt on the restlessness of his eye and manner, which was afterwards but too easily explained.

A

It was the belief of Mrs. Routh, on being interrogated in her widowhood on the subject, that when her dear man' first went to Oxford, he interchanged letters with his father weekly. The impression may have resulted from the very active correspondence which certainly went on, as long as life lasted, between Peter Routh at Beccles and his son at Magdalen. mere scantling of the father's letters survive; but they betoken a good and thoughtful person: grave, yet always cheerful; affectionate, and with an occasional dash of quiet humour. Between the two there evidently prevailed entire unity of sentiment. Peter Routh keeps Martin' informed of what is passing in his neighbourhood; tells him the rumours which from time to time reach remote Suffolk; and relieves his parental anxiety by communicating the concerns of their own immediate circle. The son, in return, chronicles his pursuits and occupa

*1784, April. I was elected Senior Proctor of the University in my twentyninth year.'-MS. note.

tions, which are, in fact, his studies; and until long after he is thirty years of age-throughout his father's life, in short-submits his compositions as deferentially to his judgment as when he was a boy of fifteen. 'I do not recollect' (he wrote in 1791, with reference to his dedication of the 'Reliquiæ' to the Bishops of the Scottish Church)' that I was indebted for any alteration of the original dedication I sent my father, except in two instances. I adopted the words non nisi precarium, and the fine sentence, et ipsi emineatis in principibus Judæ.' It is with reference to the speech which, in pursuance of ancient custom, Martin had to deliver at the expiration of his Proctorship, that his father sends him the following shrewd remarks (April 3rd, 1786) on writing a speech for delivery:

'In regard to the part of your speech transcribed in your last, I have to remark that upon revising it you must pay a particular attention to your own manner of speaking, and how the periods run off your own tongue; and that probably where you find an obstruction it will arise from the feet not being sufficiently varied, or the same endings or cases following close upon each other. A little change, I think, would improve a clause which struck me for the last reason, viz. "Si animos ex desidi improbaque muneris mei executione graviori ictu," &c. Alter this, if you please, to per and the accusative, and think of a better word than executio. Again, change some words which occur too often in so short a composition, as Orator, Oratio, and munus. After cum, which you begin with, the subjunctive should follow, according to classical usage, even where the sense is positive and without contingency. Not but I believe there are instances to the contrary.

At the end of a fortnight, the father enters into minuter criticism, and discovers excellent scholarship. But the correspondence is not by any means always of this severe type. Father and son wrote about books, because learning was with both a passion; and about divinity, because it was evidently uppermost in the heart of either. As a rule, however, these letters have a purely home flavour; and sometimes, when Martin lets out incidentally what a very studious life he is leading, he draws down on himself affectionate rebuke. It may be grown trite by repetition, and I shall not render it more irksome by prolixity :-Air and exercise, and, above all, the cold bath is what you must pluck up resolution to make use of.' The hint was not thrown away. A showerbath continued to be a part of the President's bed-room furniture till the day of his death.

·

'I am glad you find more entertainment in Tertullian than I am afraid I could do myself. All I know of him is from quotations, very frequently