OXFORD By Robert Peel And H. C. Minchin With 100 Illustrations In Colour New York The Macmillan Company 1906 |THIS volume is not intended to compete with any existing guides to Oxford: it is not a guide-book in any formal or exhaustive sense. Its purpose is to shew forth the chief beauties of the University and City, as they have appeared to several artists; with such a running commentary as may explain the pictures, and may indicate whatever is most interesting in connection with the scenes which they represent. Slight as the notes are, there has been no sacrifice, it is believed, of accuracy. The principal facts have been derived from Alexander Chalmers' _History of the Colleges, Halls, and Public Buildings of the University of Oxford_, from Mr. Lang's _Oxford_, and from the _Oxford and its Colleges_ of Mr. J. Wells. The illustrations, with the exception of six only, which are derived from Acker-mann's _Oxford_, are reproduced from the paintings of living artists, mostly by Mr. W. Matthison, the others by Mrs. C. R. Walton, Walter S. S. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Bayzant, and Miss E. S. Cheesewright. OXFORD OLDEST OXFORD |OXFORD is so naturally associated with the idea of a University, and the Collegiate buildings which confront one at every turn have such an ancient appearance, that a stranger might be excused for thinking that the University is older than the town, and that the latter grew up as an adjunct to the former. Of course, the slightest examination of facts suffices to dissipate this notion. Oxford is a town of great antiquity, which may well have been in existence in Alfred the Great's time, though there is not a shred of documentary evidence to prove that he was, as tradition so long asserted, connected with the foundation of a university there: it certainly existed in the reign of his son and successor, Edward the Elder, because--and this is the earliest historical mention of the place--the English Chronicle tells us that Edward took "Lundenbyrg and Oxnaford and all the lands that were obedient thereto." That was in 912, a date which marks the first authenticated appearance of Oxford on the stage of English history. .