Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/collegesofoxford00clarrich Transcriber’s note: The editor of this book did not trouble himself to impose a consistent style on the contributing authors’ spelling, hyphenation, etc. The transcriber of this e-text has not ventured to do so either. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A carat character is used to denote superscription of the character or characters enclosed by curly brackets following the carat character (example: y^{e}). THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD: THEIR HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges. Edited by ANDREW CLARK, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. Methuen & Co., 18, Bury Street, London, W.C. 1891. [All rights reserved.] Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. PREFACE. The history of any one of the older Colleges of Oxford extends over a period of time and embraces a variety of interests more than sufficient for a volume. The constitutional changes which it has experienced in the six, or four, or two centuries of its existence have been neither few nor slight. The Society living within its walls has reflected from age to age the social, religious, and intellectual conditions of the nation at large. Its many passing generations of teachers and students have left behind them a wealth of traditions honourable or the reverse. Yet it seems not impossible to combine in one volume a series of College histories. What happened in one College happened to some extent in all; and if, therefore, certain periods or subjects which are fully dealt with in one College are omitted in others, a single volume ought to be sufficient, not merely to narrate the salient features of the history of each individual College, but also to give an intelligible picture of College life generally at successive periods of time.