OXFORD. Nos. 4 and 5. "The air itself is full of sound From bells and sacred calls, And ancient Faith hath cast around Its shadow on her walls. "Our Church's life here hath its birth, Her very heart that beats, The pulse is felt throughout the earth Which stirs in her retreats." (The Christian Scholar, p. 210.) PORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE was founded in the year 1516 by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, for a President, twenty Fellows, and as many Scholars, "all to be elected from certain specified dioceses and counties." In the election of Scholars a preference was usually given to the younger candidates, and yet, even at the time of Mr. KEBLE'S election, the obtaining a scholarship there was considered a great honour and a mark of much advancement in learning. Mr. KEBLE was admitted Scholar at this College December 12, 1806, when a little more than fourteen years and a-half old; and he continued to be a member of it until the month of April, 1811: adding lasting honour to the College by the association of it with his name, and by the distinction which he gained in the Schools. Many men who have distinguished themselves in after life began their Oxford career as Scholars of this college. The lecture-rooms in which Mr. KEBLE attended his first college lectures are over the gateway, the large window looking into the quadrangle. This college is pleasantly situated near the Christ Church meadows, towards which some of the rooms look out. The colleges of Christ Church, Oriel, and Merton, are in its immediate vicinity. The Father of the Poet was for some time Fellow of this college; he took his B.A. degree on October 30, 1766, and his M.A. degree on January 19, 1770. The Rev. Thomas Keble, the Poet's only brother, was for a long time Scholar of this same college, and for some time Fellow: he took his B.A. degree on December 5, 1811, having obtained a Second Class in Classics, and being placed "under the line" in Mathematics at the Michaelmas examination in that year. The Poet's father-in-law, the Rev. George Clarke, was of the same college, and took his B.A. degree on October 21, 1768, having been brother-fellow with the Poet's father, and in after life (as Rector of Meysey Hampton, otherwise spelt Maisey Hampton, which is a living in the gift of this college) a near neighbour of the Rev. John Keble, the elder. "How blest the sacred tie that binds, In union sweet, according minds; How swift the heavenly course they run, Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes are one! "To each the soul of each how dear! What jealous love, what holy fear! (Barbauld, from the Book of Praise.) |