a ford for oxen to pass over." Admitting this to be correct, we must believe that the city was rather abandoned by the Britons than destroyed by the Romans, since it has been shewn that the invaders entered into a ready and familiar association with the original inhabitants of the larger parts of Oxfordshire, the Dobuni: a circumstance of abandonment that appears by no means unlikely; for the Romans fixed their chief station on the eastern part of the county, and the tributary natives may reasonably be supposed to have flown to that neighbourhood for shelter. Although Wood, Leland, and many other antiquaries, have endeavoured to establish it as an opinion that Oxford, "like a Phoenix, rose from her ashes," and was a place of splendour and notoriety during the Roman sway in England, the arguments. which they have advanced are by no means conclusive. It is contended, that Ptolemy distinguishes Oxford, though he mistakes its situation, and calls it Calleva; but there is no mention of it in the Itinerary of Antoninus; and it is allowed not to have formed, at any era, a Roman garrison-town. When the Saxons commenced their ravages, Oxford fell a speedy sacrifice, and is asserted by Leland" to have been reduced by hard usage to a village, having little more to boast of than its ancient name." But, after the Saxons had effected a complete conquest of the island, they restored Oxford to its former respectability, and exchanged its ancient British appellation for one more agreeable to their own language, though still retaining the precise meaning of the original. In 727, the city gained new consequence from the erection of a monastery, which was founded by Didan, Subregulus, or Earl, of Oxford. This monastic structure was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the founder and his wife were both interred within its walls. Fridiswida, the daughter of this noble pair, was governess of the monastery so founded; concerning whom is told the following marvellous tale :-" Algar, Earl of Leicester, had been inflamed with the love of this lady, and coveted her, though sacred and forbidden, for his wife. On her concealing herself from him in a wood at Benson, twelve miles from Oxford,

the city was threatened with destruction by fire, on condition she was not found. Such tyrauny and presumption could not escape Divine vengeance; he was struck blind! Hence arose such a dread to the kings of Britain, that none of his successors dared enter Oxford for some time after."*

At what period the "kings of Britain" were first enabled to overcome this panic we are not informed; but the Great Alfred chose the city for the residence of himself and his three sons. He established a mint at Oxford, and the money there coined was termed Ocsnafordia. He is, likewise, supposed to have effected a more important establishment; and, from this period, the annals of learning are inseparably blended with those of Oxford, as a city.

Few circumstances have caused more discussion among the votaries of literature than the precise era of the FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY. Many books have been written on the subject, with a wasteful prodigality of recondite erudition. Thomas Key, Master of University College, was the original champion for the antiquity of Oxford; against whom Dr. Caius of Cambridge entered the lists, and maintained that Oxford was much inferior, in point of age, to the Sister University. The question was totally unworthy of the learning and labour bestowed, and has long been put to rest with the quibbles of Duns Scotus, and the legend of St. Fridiswida. Some of the fantastical writers who entered into this dispute referred the origin of Oxford, as a seat of learning, to "the age next succeeding the destruction of Troy."-"The studies of literature flourished here," says Mid dendorp," ever since those excellent philosophers, with the Trojans coming out of Greece, under the command of Brute, entered and settled in Britain." Others, somewhat more modest, only wish to affirm that "the University was founded by Arviragus, a British king, according to Juvenal, under the reign of Domitian, about seventy years after our Lord's Incarnation." Another party, with greater appearance of candour, declines to mention the exact

period

*Life of St. Frid. Leland's Coll. &c.

period of its foundation, but still is of opinion that it took place soon after this kingdom was converted to Christianity." It will be obvious that these controvertists argue without any authoritative data, and merely build their hypotheses on absurd monkish traditions.

Even the foundation of Oxford, as a place of study, by King Alfred, has afforded room for discussion. John Ross, the historian before mentioned, who lived in the time of Edward IV. asserted that, "when the King and the Pope had suspended all the Universities of England, Alfred established, within this city, at his own expense, three teachers of grammar, arts, and divinity, in three different places; one in the High Street, towards the east gate, for twenty-six grammarians, which, for the inferiority of the science, was to be called Little University Hall, a name it retained to the time at which he wrote; another hall, towards the north wall, in the present school street, for twenty-six logicians, or philosophers, called Lesser University Hall; and a third, in the High Street, near the first hall, for twenty-six divines. Several other halls arose, shortly after, erected by the townsmen, in imitation of their sovereign, but at their own cost."

When Camden published, in 1603, his edition of Asser (the contemporary and biographer of King Alfred) there appeared a paragraph corroborative of the above statement; but Gough, in his observation on Camden's account of Oxfordshire, in the Britannia, says, "The paragraph from Asser was not in that older MS. published by Archbishop Parker, 1574; nor in that in the Cottonian library, since burnt, which Wanley dates about a century after Asser. The manuscript which Camden printed has never appeared since; and all we have, in favour of its genuineness, is an affidavit of Twyne to Wood; * for both Camden and Tanner thought it no older than Richard the Second's time; and Camden may have published it, as he found it, without any preVOL. XII. fatory

F

Hist, and Ant. of Oxford, p. 9.

fatory account of its variations, or even without noting their insertions, if they were so."

It is certain, as is further observed by Gough, that Leland expressly says, "the History of Oxford University prorsus nullam facit de Ealfrido mentionem;" but, still, many early writers of credit unequivocally ascribe the foundation of schools at Oxford to that king; and Asser himself in Archbishop Parker's copy, as well as in that of Camden, insinuates the circumstance when speaking of the academy to which Alfred put his youngest son, Ethelwerd.

According to the edition of Asser, published by Camden, and various other works, commonly deemed respectable, Alfred divided his whole yearly income into two parts; afterwards subdivided one into other portions, and then appropriated the third thereof to the maintenance of his novel establishment. The old aunals of the monastery of Winchester even venture so far as to name the first professors in the University:-" In the year of our Lord 886, in the second year of St. Grimbald's coming over into England, the University of Oxford was founded. The first regents there, and readers in divinity, were St. Neot, an abbot and eminent Professor of Theology; and St. Grimbald, an eloquent and most excellent interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. Grammar and rhetoric were taught by Asserius, a monk, a man of extraordinary learning. Logic, music, and arithmetic, were read by Jolm, a monk of St. David's. Geometry and astronomy were professed by John, a monk, and colleague of St. Grimbald, a man of sharp wit and immense knowledge. These lectures were often honoured with the presence of the most illustrious and invincible monarch, King Alfred, whose memory, to every judicious taste, shall be always sweeter than honey.",

According to the suspected tenor of Asser, as he is presented in Camden's edition, the first year of foundation produced a commencement of dissension, among the teachers. The "old scholars," whom Grimbald found at Oxford (by which term we must,

probably,

probably, understand the learned men assembled by Alfred from various religious institutions) disapproved of his laws and forms of reading. This difference of opinion remained within tolerable bounds for the term of three years; but then produced such violent effects that the king repaired in person to Oxford, and listened to the statement of both parties with much patience. He forbore to make any peremptory decision, but exhorted all the complainants to lay aside their disputes, and to live in brotherly concord. The pride of Grimbald was too great to allow of his attending to such mild admonitions. He retired to the monastery of Winchester; to which place he, shortly after, conveyed a cenotaph that he had caused to be prepared for himself, and had originally fixed in a vault under the chancel of St. Peter, at Oxford. In contempt of the injury sustained from these dissensions, literature, however, flourished to so eminent a degreeunder the fostering care of Alfred, that, before the end of his reign, he had the honourable pride of saying" that all his bishops' sees were filled by prelates of great learning, and every pulpit in England furnished with a good preacher." *

But, with the death of the great Alfred, the prosperity of his establishment for the dissemination of learning faded. Edward, his son and successor, though he had received a careful education, wanted the genius of his illustrious father. The progress of

learning depends on political ease; and Edward was not able to preserve the independence of his country. The Danes entered England in successful multitudes; and that era which has been styled "the age of iron for its barbarism and wickedness, the age of lead for its dulness and stupidity, and the age of darkness for its blindness and ignorance," took place.

In the year 979, Oxford was burned to the ground; and, in 1002, the partially-renovated city experienced the same fate. Yet was the temper of the inhabitants so steady and persevering, that (with "the benevolence of nobles, and others affected to learning," as Wood asserts,) it soon was, in some measure, reF2

Dr. Henry's Hist. Eng. Vol. IV.) 33.

stored.