The fifty years which follow the promotion of Warden Baker to the see of Norwich in 1727 were an undistinguished period in the history of Wadham, as in that of the University generally. Of the four Wardens, only one, Lisle, became a bishop, and there is reason to think the College was in a bad state; very few of its members rose to distinction, though James Harris of Salisbury, the author of Hermes[316] (whose portrait by Reynolds hangs in the hall), Creech, the translator of Lucretius, and Kennicott, the Hebrew scholar, might be mentioned.
But in Warden Wills, who was appointed in 1783, the College found its most liberal benefactor since the death of the foundress. It was in his time that the present beautiful garden was laid out on the site of the old formal walks, with a mound in the centre, which appear in the prints of the last century. It has been conjectured with some probability that “Capability” Brown had a hand in the laying out of the garden as it now is. Whoever was the gardener, it may be confidently asserted that a finer result was never produced in so small a space. Warden Wills in another way increased the beauty of the College, by buying for the use of the Warden the lease of a large piece of land to the north of the College property; of this the College afterwards bought the freehold from Merton, and it was incorporated with the Warden’s garden.
Early in this century too the College received its final extension in the way of rooms, by purchasing from the University the buildings between itself and the King’s Arms, which had formerly been used by the Clarendon Press; the old name of No. XI. staircase, “Bible warehouse,” long preserved in the books of the College the memory of the old use of the buildings: probably the site had belonged to the College from the first, and it was only the remainder of a lease that was now bought. This purchase was made in the Wardenship of Dr. Tournay, who presided over the College with dignity and success for twenty-five years till 1831, when he resigned. The most distinguished member of Wadham during his time was undoubtedly Richard Bethell, afterwards Lord Westbury, who was elected scholar in 1815, before he had completed his fifteenth year. This fact is duly recorded, at his own especial wish, on his monument in the ante-chapel, as having been the foundation of his subsequent success.
Shortly after the resignation of Warden Tournay, the chapel was taken in hand by the “Gothic Renovators,” a new ceiling was put on, and the whole of the east end was recast by the introduction of some elaborate tabernacle work, which, if not entirely appropriate in design, is yet interesting as displaying a careful study of mediæval models most unusual so early as 1834.
Of the history of the College since 1831 there is not space to say much. Under Warden Symons it became recognized as the stronghold of Evangelicalism in the University; so much was this the case that on his nomination to the Vice-Chancellorship in 1844, he was opposed by the Tractarian party; but this unprecedented step met with no success, as the Chancellor’s nomination was confirmed by 883 votes to 183. It was during his tenure of the Vice-Chancellorship (1844-8) that proceedings were taken against Mr. Ward, and against Tract No. XC. But if on the one hand the College produced leading lights of the Evangelical school, like Mr. Fox and Mr. Vores, it also lays claim to Dr. Church, the late Dean of St. Paul’s, and Father Mackonochie. It may well be doubted whether there ever was a more brilliant period in the history of Wadham than about the middle of the century, when Dr. Congreve was Tutor and one of the leaders in the University of the “Intellectual Reaction” against the Tractarian movement. With him as Tutor was associated the late Warden, Dr. Griffiths, whose name will be always remembered as that of one whose true interest throughout life was in his College, and who ranks among its benefactors by his bequests, especially that of his collection of prints and drawings illustrative of the history of the College and of those who had been educated at it.
Under them within less than ten years there were in residence as undergraduates the present Bishop of Wakefield, the late Professor Shirley, Dr. Johnson the Bishop of Calcutta, Mr. B. B. Rogers the scholarly translator of Aristophanes, Mr. Frederic Harrison, the present Warden, Professor Beesly, Dr. Bridges afterwards Fellow of Oriel, Dr. Codrington the missionary and philologer, and others who might be mentioned, who have won distinction in ways most various. Wadham carried off three Brasenose Fellowships in succession within a very short space of time, just as in 1849 its Boat Club had “swept the board” at Henley; these were but the outward signs of the intellectual and physical activity of the College. And here its story must be left, for we are already among contemporaries, while the action of the Commission of 1854-5 has drawn a gulf for good or ill between old and modern Oxford. Enough has been said to show that the sons of Wadham have not been altogether unworthy of a College of which other than her own sons have said that to know her and “to love her was a liberal education.”
XVIII.
PEMBROKE COLLEGE.
By the Rev. Douglas Macleane, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke.
Pembroke College has its name from William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, Shakespeare’s friend and patron, thought to be “Mr. W. H.,” the “onlie begetter” of the Sonnets. Clarendon calls him “the most universally loved and esteemed of any man of that age.” This Society, constituted as a College in 1624, is one of the younger Oxford foundations. But there had been a considerable place of religion and learning here from the earliest times, Pembroke College having for centuries previously existed as Broadgates, or, more anciently still, Segrym’s Hall.