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.

A site had been found on the ground where had stood the Priory of the
Augustine Friars, founded in 1268--suppressed in 1540. It had been
gradually removed or destroyed by time and plunder of its materials: no
traces of it are left, except on the west side of the Warden's garden, a
postern-gate which he maintains was used by the friars for various
purposes. Another memorial of the Priory survived till 1800--the phrase
of "doing Austins." Up to that date, or near it, every Bachelor of Arts
was required once in each year to "dispute and answer ad Augustinenses,"
and the chapel or refectory of the Priory were convenient places in
which to hold the disputations. In the University no official title, no
name indeed of any kind, escapes abbreviation or worse indignity,
instances of which will readily suggest themselves to the mind of any
Oxford reader.

The founders were Nicholas Wadham and Dorothy, his wife, of Merrifield
and Edge in the county of Somerset. He was a squire of good estate and
high degree, the last male descendant of the main line of Wadhams. Born
in 1532, he wa