Apart from questions of vandalism, the destruction of this the first cathedral of Oxford was an egregious piece of waste and folly. Such places have been only too much needed by the University--indeed the need was felt a few years after the destruction--and vast sums have been spent in the erection of immeasurably inferior buildings. If Oseney Abbey, with its crowd of beautiful outbuildings along the water side, had been converted into a college, it would have been of immense use, and every other college now extant insignificant compared with it. Of all the headstrong and wanton actions of an irreverent age, the destruction of Oseney was one of the most wicked; and, as the train moves into Oxford railway station, the stranger may remember that the present approach to the old city is only so hideous because the glorious old abbey has given place to a collection of gasholders, coal-heaps, railway-sidings, modern tombstones, and obscene jerry-buildings. The diocese of Oxford now includes the deaneries of Aston, Burcester, Chipping-Norton, Cuddesden, Deddington, Dorchester (Oxon), Henley, Witney, Woodstock, and Oxford City, together with the counties of Berks and Bucks. =Robert King= (1542-1557), the first Bishop of Oseney and of Oxford, and the last Abbot of Oseney and of Thame, began life as a Cistercian monk. On the conversion of his abbey into a cathedral, he continued, as bishop of the new see, to preside; but he had already, seven years before, been raised to the episcopate, as suffragan of Lincoln, under the title (conferred by the Pope) of Bishop of Rheon in the province of Athens. He seems to have taken the Reformation pretty easily, passing through all the changes under King Henry, King Edward, and Queen Mary. He died at an advanced age in 1557, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. He left considerable riches to his nephew Phillip King, "which it seems," says Fuller, "was quickly consumed, so that John King, Bishop of London (son of Phillip), used to say he believed there was a fate in abbey money no less than in abbey land, which seldom proved fortunate, or of continuance to the owners." He is supposed to have built "Bishop King's House" in Rose Place. After Queen Elizabeth had kept the see vacant for ten years, =Hugh Curwen= (1567-1568), a "moderate papist," according to Fuller, who had been made Archbishop of Dublin by Queen Mary, and now wished to end his days in peace, was translated to Oxford. "Very decrepid, broken with old age and many state affairs," he died next year. Whereupon Elizabeth kept the see vacant for twenty-one years more, "out of pure devotion to the leases, as some writers say."