LIFE AND MANNERS.] THE "HANOVER RATS." 315 was the by-word first applied to the Calvinistic preachers in the Civil Wars, from the close-cropped hair which they affected as distinguished from the flowing curls of the Cavaliers. The second phrase was of far more recent origin. It so chanced that not long after the accession of the House of Hanover, some of the brown, that is the German or Norway rats, were first brought over to this country (in some timber as is said); and being much stronger than the black, or till then the common rats, they in many places quite extirpated the latter.* The word (both the noun and the verb to rat) was first, as we have seen, levelled at the converts to the government of George the First, but has by degrees obtained a wider meaning and come to be applied to any sudden and mercenary change in politics. 66 While we may reject in all the more essential features such gross caricatures as those of Squire Western and Parson Trulliber, we yet cannot deny that many both of the country gentlemen and clergy in that age showed signs of a much neglected education. For this both our Universities, but Oxford principally, must be blamed. "I have heard," says Dr. Swift, "more than one or two persons of high rank declare they could learn nothing more at Oxford and Cambridge than to drink ale and "smoke tobacco; wherein I firmly believed them, and "could have added some hundred examples from my ડે own observations in one of these Universities," meaning that of Oxford. † At Cambridge such men as Professor Saunderson had kept up the flame, worthily maintaining her high mathematical renown. But even there it is plain, from the letters of Gray, how little taste for poetry and literature lingered in her ancient halls. Oxford, on the other hand, so justly famed both before 14.). See the ceremony of the water-decanter described in Redgauntlet, letter iv. * See Pennant's British Zoology, vol. i. p. 115. ed. 1776. Though the brown species bears with us the name of the Norway Rat, Mr. Pennant assures us that "it is an animal quite unknown in Scan"dinavia."-Rats, of any kind were, it appears, first brought to America by a ship from Antwerp. Essay on Modern Education, Works, vol. ix. p. 373. ed. 1814. The Dean, however, afterwards limits his remark to "young heirs "sent thither only for form." that age and after it, had then sunk down to the lowest pitch of dullness and neglect. Gibbon tells us of his tutor at Magdalen College, that this gentleman well remembered he had a salary to receive, and only forgot he had a duty to perform. The future historian was never once summoned to attend even the ceremony of a lecture, and in the course of one winter might make unreproved, in the midst of term, a tour to Bath, a visit into Buckinghamshire, and a few excursions to London.* We may incline to suspect the testimony of the sceptic against any place of Christian education, but we shall find it (allowing only for the superior license of every Gentleman Commoner), confirmed in its full extent by so excellent and so eminent a member of our Church as Dr. Johnson. Here is his own account of his outset at Pembroke College. "The first day after I came I waited 66 on my tutor Mr. Jordan, and then stayed away four. "On the sixth Mr. Jordan asked me why I had not "attended. I answered, I had been sliding in Christ "Church meadow."† This apology appears to have been given without the least compunction, and received without the least reproof. It is painful to read such charges against an University so rich in her foundations, so historic in her fame, and standing once more so high in the respect of those who have been trained within her walls. But the case is even worse, if possible, when we come to her system of Degrees. In granting these, the Laudian Statutes still in name and theory prevailed. But in practice there appeared a degree of laxity which, were the subject less important, would be wholly ludicrous. Lord Eldon, then Mr. John Scott of University College, and who passed the Schools in February, 1770, gave the following account of them: "An examination for a Degree at "Oxford was in my time a farce. I was examined in Hebrew, and in History. 'What is the Hebrew for 66 "the place of a skull?' I replied, Golgotha.' * "Memoirs of my Life," p. 70. ed. 1839. Dean Milman, himself for many years a Professor at Oxford, adds in a note (p. 86.), that from the best authority, he has understood Gibbon's observations to have been at that time by no means exaggerated. † Life of Boswell, ch. iii. LIFE AND MANNERS.] 66 66 "founded University College?' I stated (though, by "the way, the point is sometimes doubted), that King "Alfred founded it. Very well, Sir,' said the Examiner, you are competent for your Degree!'" Similar to this is the description in 1780 by the Rev. Vicesimus Knox: "The Masters take a most solemn "oath that they will examine properly and impartially. "Dreadful as all this appears, there is always found to "be more of appearance in it than reality, for the greatest "dunce usually gets his TESTIMONIUM signed with as "much ease and credit as the finest genius. . . . . The "Statutes require that he should translate familiar English phrases into Latin. And now is the time when "the Masters show their wit and jocularity. I have "known the questions on this occasion to consist of an "inquiry into the pedigree of a race-horse!"† The Commissioners of 1850, who quote these testimonies, add, that at the time in question the Examiners were chosen by the candidate himself from among his friends, and that he was expected to provide a dinner for them after the examination was over. Oaths upon this subject, as upon most others, proved to be no safeguard. Oaths at Oxford were habitually taken because the law required them, and habitually disregarded, because their fulfilment had become impossible in some cases, and inconvenient in many more. From this ignominious state the studies of the University were not rescued till the commencement of the present century. In 1800 a new Statute was passed, chiefly, it is said, at the instance of Dr. Eveleigh, Provost of Oriel +, which reformed the whole system of Examination, and awarded honours to the ablest candidates. By another Statute, in 1807, a further great improvement was effected. A division then was made between the Classical and the Mathematical Schools, and the first who attained the highest rank in each was a future Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. The last century at Oxford was indeed as a valley between hills. Look either at the age which preceded, *Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon, vol. i. p. 57. † Works of Dr. V. Knox, vol. i. p. 377. Report of the Oxford University Commission, p. 60. ed. 1852. or at the age which followed it, and own their intellectual elevation. At either of those periods a traveller from London might, as he left the uplands, and crossed the Cherwell bridge, have wandered through the proud array before him of pinnacles and battlements, from where spread the cloisters of Magdalen, and the groves that bear Addison's name to the books and the galleries of the Bodleian, to that unequalled chapel of New College, or to that noble bequest of Wolsey, the wide quadrangle of Christ Church, and all the way met nothing that misbecame the Genius of the Place-nothing to clash with the lofty and reverent thoughts which it suggested. He would have seen many men of eminent learning and high spirit, men not unworthy of the scenes in which they dwelt, men not misplaced among the high-wrought works of Art, or the storehouses of ancient knowledge, — the foundations of Saints, and the monuments of Martyrs. There, in the reign of Charles the First, he might have seen the Heads and Fellows cheerfully melt their plate or pour down their money for the service of their Royal Master, willing to dare deprivation and poverty,-willing to go forth unfriended into exile, rather than bate one jot of their dutiful allegiance both to Church and King. There, in the reign of James the Second, he might have seen those cloisters of Magdalen the last and the firmest citadel of freedom. Or, if the lot of the traveller whom we suppose had been cast on these later days, if he had visited Oxford under the Fourth George, or the Fourth William, he would then, amidst some indefensible abuses, have found much, very much, to admire and commend. He would have found most indefatigable Tutors, most searching Examinations, most hard-fought Honours. He would have found on all sides a true and growing zeal for the reputation and well-being of the place. But in the middle of the last century there were none of these things. The old spirit had sunk, and the new not yet arisen. The general contempt into which Oxford had fallen in the middle of the last century is further indicated by a lively touch of satire in Lord Chesterfield's Essays. The writer assumes it as quite impossible, that any person well acquainted with that University could desire it to LIFE AND MANNERS.] THE CATHEDRALS. 319 become the place of education of his children. Speaking in the character of a country gentleman he says, "When "I took my son away from school, I resolved to send him "directly abroad, having been at Oxford myself!"* The remissness of the tutors at Oxford and at Cambridge led, of course, to other neglects of duty in those whom they had failed to teach. Such neglects were only too apparent in the Church of England of that age. Let us hear upon them a wholly unexceptionable witness -Dr. Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, who died in 1782. In his Account of his own life this Prelate states, that by living and residing so much at Bristol he had hoped that his example would have induced the other members of the Church to perform their part also, and fulfil, at least, their Statutable duties. The Deanery, he states, was worth at least 5007. a year, and each Prebend about half that sum; and for these preferments the residence then usually required was three months for the Dean and half that time for each Prebendary. "But "alas!" continues the worthy Prelate, " never was "Church more shamefully neglected. The Bishop has "several times been there for months together without "seeing the face of Dean or Prebendary, or anything "better than a Minor Canon." And as, in some cases, there were undisguised neglects of duty, so in others we may trace its jocular evasion. We may learn, on the same Episcopal authority, that the Church of Rochester was in no less ill plight than the Church of Bristol; and that on one of the Prebendaries dining with Bishop Pearce, the Bishop had asked him: "Pray, Dr. S., what "is your time of residence at Rochester?"-"My Lord," said he, "I reside there the better part of the year.". "I am very glad to hear it," replied the good Bishop. * Essay in "The World," May 3. 1753. In 1746 a poet describes as follows the reminiscences of a country clergyman while yet an Oxford Fellow: "When calm around the common room, "I puff'd my daily pipe's perfume, "The portrait of our pious Founder!" See the "Progress of Discontent," in Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. iv. p. 257. ed. 1755. |