* Oedipus Magdalensis, in the College Library.
To speak now of the three remaining illustrations, the first shews the garden, reached from the Quadrangle, the exterior of which forms the background of the picture. From here a good view is obtained of the new buildings, a stately eighteenth-century pile, which adjoin the deer park; a part of them, as well as of the deer park, is seen in Mr. Matthison's sketch. Finally, he gives his impression of the College as seen at evening from the entrance of Addison's Walk, with the Tower blue-grey against a paling sky.
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That walk, which commemorates "the famous Mr. Joseph Addison," as Esmond called him, was in part, at any rate, laid out in Queen Elizabeth's day; and here the future essayist may have often strolled and meditated, in the exercise of that gift of "a most profound silence" with which, half in jest, he credited himself. There stood in his time at the entrance of the water-walk an oak, which for centuries had been, according to Chalmers, "the admiration of many generations." Evelyn, the diarist, commemorates its huge proportions. It was overthrown by a storm in 1789, and a chair made of its wood is preserved in the President's lodgings.
Magdalen in its time has welcomed many royal visitors, among them Edward IV. in 1481, and Richard III. in 1483. Richard was so pleased with the disputations provided for his entertainment that he presented the two protagonists (one of them was Grocyn, the Greek scholar) with a buck apiece and money as well. Other guests were Arthur, Prince of Wales, elder son of Henry VII., and Henry, son of James I., whose great promise was cut short by an early death. Cromwell and Fairfax dined at Magdalen, when they received the degree of D.C.L. in 1649, and, instead of hearing the usual disputations, played at bowls upon the College green.