. His income, however, as lord
chancellor was very large, and Clarendon maintained considerable state,
considering it due to the dignity of the monarchy that the high officers
should carry the external marks of greatness. The house built by him in
St James's was one of the most magnificent ever seen in England, and was
filled with a collection of portraits, chiefly those of contemporary
statesmen and men of letters. It cost Clarendon L50,000, involved him
deeply in debt and was considered one of the chief causes of the "gust
of envy" that caused his fall.[25] He is described as "a fair, ruddy,
fat, middle-statured, handsome man," and his appearance was stately and
dignified. He expected deference from his inferiors, and one of the
chief charges which he brought against the party of the young
politicians was the want of respect with which they treated himself and
the lord treasurer. His industry and devotion to public business, of
which proofs still remain in the enormous mass of his state papers and
correspondence, were exemplary, and were rendered all the more
conspicuous by the negligence, inferiority in business, and frivolity of
his successors. As lord chancellor Clarendon made no great impression in
the court of chancery. His early legal training had long been
interrupted, and his political preoccupations probably rendered
necessary the delegation of many of his judicial duties to others.
According to Speaker Onslow his decrees were always made with the aid of
two judges. Burnet praises him, however, as "a very good chancellor,
only a little too rough but very impartial in the administration of
justice," and Pepys, who saw him presiding in his court, perceived him
to be "a most able and ready man."[26] According to Evelyn, "though no
considerable lawyer" he was "one who kept up the fame and substance of
things in the nation with ... solemnity." He made good appointments to
the bench and issued some important orders for the reform of abuses in
his court.[27] As chancellor of Oxford University, to which office he
was elected on the 27th of October 1660, Clarendon promoted the
restoration of order and various educational reforms. In 1753 his
manuscripts were left to the university by his great-grandson Lord
Cornbury, and in 1868 the money gained by publication was spent in
erecting the Clarendon Laboratory, the profits of the _History_ having
provided in 1713 a building for the university press adjoining the
Sheldonian