Bishop Roger, whose power he feared. The effects of it were very influential on the fortunes of the king. Nearly the entire body of the prelates and clergy at once declared against him, and perhaps much of his future trouble may be traced to his conduct on this occasion. When the war between Stephen and Matilda fairly began, Oxford Castle was garrisoned for the empress queen; and hither it was that she fled when forced to make a hasty retreat from London: and at Oxford, a year or two later, she fixed her court. In 1142 Stephen marched in person against the city with all the forces he could bring together, avowing at the same time his determination not to quit the place till he had his rival in his hands. He soon took the city, but the queen escaped from him by one of those stratagems which she knew so well how to contrive and execute. The castle had held out till the queen was nearly starved, as well as the garrison. The season was winter, and the frost was of unusual severity. The ground was covered with snow, and the Thames was frozen over. In this it was she trusted. She clothed herself in white, and accompanied by three knights similarly clothed, about midnight, on the 20th of December, she quitted the castle by a postern, and gliding like a ghost over the frozen river and snow-clad fields, escaped the notice of the besiegers. She walked to Abingdon, and having procured horses there, proceeded safely to Wallingford.*

Richard I. was born at Oxford; and bestowed

* Of Oxford Castle, only a fragment remains by the county gaol, which occupies the site of the old pile. Its appearance shortly before being pulled down is shown in the opposite engraving.

many benefits on the city of his birth. During this and succeeding reigns the councils of state were frequently held at Oxford, but it is needless to mention them particularly. The city itself flourished or became depressed according to the varying prospects of the University, on which it had been chiefly dependent. In the Wars of the Roses it suffered much; and several times it was nearly depopulated by the ravages of pestilence. No very remarkable public event occurred till the reign of Mary, when, in October, 1555, Bishops Ridley and Latimer were burnt opposite the front of Balliol College, and in March, 1556, Archbishop Cranmer suffered on the same spot.

In the early part of the great Civil War, Oxford fell alternately into the hands of each party; but when the king quitted London, he made this city his head-quarters, holding his court there, and a Parliament of the Lords and members of the Lower House who still adhered to him. The city remained in possession of the Royalists until the king's cause became hopeless, when it surrendered to Fairfax. With this event all of interest apart from the University ceases. The only thing that need be mentioned is that, owing to the supposed attachment of the University to the Stuarts, troops were quartered in Oxford at the advance of the Pretender into England in 1715.

Oxford is the county-town, and the seat of a bishopric. It is a borough by prescription, and sends two Members to Parliament. With the University it contains nearly twenty-six thousand inhabitants. It stands on a slightly elevated tract of ground, almost insulated by the rivers Thames and Cherwell: and, including the suburbs, is nearly

All the

two miles long and about a mile broad. more important public edifices are of an ecclesiastical or academic character.

As has been mentioned, the University has been stated by some early writers to have existed in the most remote period of even fabulous English history. Others, however, have been content to make Alfred the founder, or at any rate the restorer of the University. But it is now admitted that there is no authentic notice of the existence of a University at Oxford before the reign of Henry II., though there were schools of learning much earlier. Even as early as 1149, Vacarius, an eminent civilian, taught the Roman law, and had numerous students resort to his lectures-a circumstance which denotes an approach to the character of a University. The first Charter was granted by Henry III., in whose reign it arose to great eminence, being only surpassed by the University of Paris, while in scholastic learning it was considered to be unequalled. Wood states that there were in this reign three hundred halls at Oxford and thirty thousand students. This is, no doubt, an extravagant exaggeration; but a great number of students resorted to it from the Continent, and the names are preserved of a great many halls that have long ceased to exist. In succeeding reigns the prosperity of the University greatly varied. A very frequent cause of its depression was the disputatious temper of the students, who would not be content with their peaceful logical contests. With the townsmen their quarrels were frequent, and with others not very uncommon. On these occasions it was usual for them to leave Oxford in a body, and take up their residence elsewhere; and generally the townsmen had some