The too short article in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' has been of much service: it gives the bibliography of the subject, or an equivalent, for no life of Wilkins has been written till now, and indicates the sources of information about him: it also puts in clear order the events of his varied life. Mr Sanders must know much which he should be gently forced to tell. Fain would I acknowledge to Wood and Aubrey the debt I owe to them, especially to Wood, and ask his pardon for occasional ill-natured remarks about him, as ill-natured nearly as his own about most of his contemporaries. The only merit claimed for this _libellus_ is its brevity--no small recommendation in this age of "exhaustive treatment" when, in bibliography especially, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees. It is an inadequate expression of the writer's affection for the College in which he has spent more than forty years of his life, and the unvarying kindness and indulgence which he has received from pupils and colleagues. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP 1 II. WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP 30 III. WILKINS' WARDENSHIP 54 IV. WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD 105 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE WARDEN WILKINS _Frontispiece_ NICHOLAS WADHAM 12 DOROTHY WADHAM 16 ADMIRAL BLAKE 28 WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN 48 WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN 78 SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 100 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP. Wadham College was founded in 1610, when on July 31st the foundation-stone was laid; and opened in 1613, when, on April 20th, the Warden and Fellows elected by the Foundress were admitted; the Warden, by the Vice-Chancellor of the University in St Mary's Church; the fifteen Fellows by the Warden in the College Hall; the fifteen Scholars by the Warden and Fellows in the same place. All of them, from the Warden to the Junior Scholars, were sworn to obey the Statutes of the College, save three of the Scholars, who were supposed to be too young to understand the nature of an oath.