arer of it was an ancient
physician, who had doctored all the famous people of his time, beginning
with "Pamela."

[9] Mr. R. de C. Welch.

[10] _The Hill._ Chapter vi.

[11] Some authorities say that it was the last on record.

[12] This paper appeared in _The Commonwealth_.

IV

OXFORD

"For place, for grace, and for sweet companee,
Oxford is Heaven, if Heaven on Earth there be."
SIR JOHN DAVIES.

The faithful student of "Verdant Green" will not have forgotten that
Charlie Larkyns, when introducing his Freshman-friend to the sights of
Oxford, called his attention to a mystic inscription on a wall in Oriel
Lane. "You see that? Well, that's one of the plates they put up to
record the Vice's height. F.P.--7 feet, you see: the initials of his
name--Frederick Plumptre!" "He scarcely seemed so tall as that," replied
Verdant, "though certainly a tall man. But the gown makes a difference,
I suppose."

Dr. Plumptre was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford from 1848 to 1851, and Master
of University College for thirty-four years. He died in 1870, and the
College thereupon elected the Rev. G. G. Bradley, then Head-master of
Marlborough, and afterwards Dean of Westminster, to the vacant post. It
was an unfortunate choice. Mr. Bradley was a man of many gifts and
virtues, and a successful schoolmaster; but the methods which had
succeeded at Marlborough were not adapted to Oxford, and he soon
contrived to get at loggerheads both with Dons and with Undergraduates.

However, there existed at that time--and I daresay it exists still--a
nefarious kind of trades-unionism among the Headmasters of Public
Schools; and, as Bradley had been a Head-master, all the Head-masters
advised their best pupils to try the scholarships at University College.

So far as I had any academical connexions, they were exclusively with
Trinity, Cambridge; and my father was as ignorant of Oxford as myself.
All I knew about it was that it was the source and home of the Oxford
movement, which some of my friends at Harrow had taught me to admire.
Two or three of those friends were already there, and I wished to rejoin
them; but, as between the different Colleges, I was fancy-free; so when,
early in 1872, Dr. Butler suggested that I should try for a scholarship
at University, I assented, reserving myself, in the too probable event
of failure, for Christ Church. However, I was elected at University on
the 2