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fhop of Exeter, who gave 6000 Marks towards the buil ding of this College, befides feveral Eftates for the Endowment of it.

William Froft, Steward to the Founder; John Claymond, the first President of this College; and Robert Morwent, fecond President, gave to the College feveral Portions of Lands: And in 1706, Dr. Turner, when Prefident, gave the New Buildings, and his Collection of Books.

The prefent Members of this Society are a Prefident, 20 Fellows, 2 Chaplains, zo Scholars, 4 Exhibitioners, and 6 Gentlemen-Commoners.

Vifitor. The Bishop of Winchester.

MERTON COLLEGE.

MERTON College is fituated Eaft of Corpus Chrifti,

and confifts of three Courts. The largeft, or inner Court, is about 110 Feet long, and 100 broad,

The Chapel is at the Weft End of the first Court, and is likewife the Parish Church of St. John Baptift de Merton. It is one of the largest and beft proportion'd Gothic Structures in the Univerfity, 100 Feet in Length, and 30 in Breadth, and has a very capacious Tower, and Ante-Chapel. But large as it is at prefent, it has been thought, from its whole Appearance, and from the Form and Manner of the Arches clofed up in the Wall of the West End, on each Hand of the great Window, to have been built with a View to a farther Addition of a Nave and Side-Iiles; the prefent Building being no more than the Choir, and Crofs-Ifle. Such a Defign was more eafy to be made than executed, and after all, moft' likely reached no farther than to the carrying on the Building, as far as it went, in the Cathedral Manner, In the Chapel are the Monuments of Sir Thomas Bod

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ley,

ley, Sir Henry Saville, Bishop Earle, and fome others. In the Ante-Chapel, befides the reft, by the North Door, is that of Mr. Anthony Wood, the famous Antiquarian. And near the Entrance into the Chapel is a very neat though small one, for the late Warden Dr. Wyntle and

his Sifter.

The Hall is between the firft and the inner Court; and the Library in the fmall old Quadrangle, South of the Chapel, and is well furnished with ancient and modern Books and Manufcripts.

The Gardens are very pleasant, having the Advantage of a Prospect of the adjacent Walks and Country from the South Terras.

This Society, confifting of a Warden and about the fame Number of Scholars or Fellows as at present, was first placed at Maldon in Surry, (but with a Provifion for the Abode and Refidence of the chief Part of them here in Oxford) Anno 1264, the 48th Year of King Henry the Third, by Walter de Merton, fometime Lord Chancellor of England, and then after Bishop of Rochefter: The Inftrument of Endowment, with the Statutes under the Broad Seal, the Founder's, the Bifhop of the Diocefe's, and that of his Chapter, being at this Time in the College Treafury, and deemed to be the firft Charter of the Kind in Europe. Not long after, viz. the Year 1267, he gave the Statutes in their prefent Form, transferring the whole Society from Maldon to St. John Baptift's Street, in Oxford, and placing them in a Houfe or College he had built there. The Statutes then given were fuperfeded for a fhort Time by an intermediate Charter with others in 1270, but were replaced and finally established under the Broad Seal and his own, Anno 1274, the fecond of the Reign of King Edward the First.

Such was the Original of this ancient Society, by thefe Charters, five hundred Years fince, incorporated, and endowed with almost all the Lands they at this

Time poffefs, and provided with the fame Statutes which, without any Alteration or Addition, they are now governed by.

Thefe, by the Recourfe had to them, were of much Ufe to the After-Foundations both here and in Cambridge, and indeed to thofe likewife which have the Precedency*. And with fo much Prudence was this College founded, that King Edward the First recom mended it to Hugh de Balham, Bishop of Ely, as a Model for his intended Munificence in Cambridge, according to which Pe. er-Heufet, the firft College was afterwards erected in that Univerfity. And farther, it is faid of the Founder of Merton College, that though in reality he was the Founder of only one, by Example he was the Founder of all the other Colleges .

The Poft-mafters in this Houfe are of a diftinct and different Foundation, which took Place about an hundred Years after the other. John Williot, S. T. P. who was Chancellor of Exeter, and had been Fellow of this College, and Chancellor of the Univerfity, giving all his Real, and most of his Perfonal Estate, for the Support and Education of them. Mr. John Chamber, Cànon of Windfor, and Fellow of Eton, and once Fellow of this College, at his Deceafe in 1604, made Provifion for two additional ones to be always fent at the Nomination and Appointment of the Provost of King's and Eton Colleges from Eton School. The Number then became fourteen: And their Revenues have been fince

*University and Balliol. Their firft and earliest Statutes, to be feen in Smith's Annals of Univerfity College, and in Dr. Savage's Balliofergus) were of a later Date, and therefore capable of this Advantage: But fome of their fucceffive ones more plainly had it, and Sir Philip Somervyle's in particular, befides the General Form, &c. are in many Places Word for Word the fame as thofe of this College.

The Statutes of Merton College are alfo referred to for their Rule and Direction in the Statutes of Simon Montacute, Bishop of Ely, who about half a Century after compleated this Foundation.

See the Infcription upon his Monument in Rochester Cathedral.

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increased

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increased by Thomas Jeffop, M. D. fometime Fellow of the College, and other Benefactors.

Befides the Poft-Mafters, there are now four other Scholars of the Foundation of Mr. Henry Jackson, late of this College, which commenced in 1753.

In the Election of a Warden, the Fellows chufe three Perfons whom they prefent to their Vifitor, the Archbifhop of Canterbury, who appoints one of them.

The prefent Members are a Warden, twenty-four Scholars, fourteen Post-mafters, Mr. Jackson's four Scholars, two Chaplains, and two Clerks: the whole Number of Students of all Sorts, being about eighty.

Vifitor. The Archbishop of Canterbury.

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CHRIST CHURCH.

HIS College merits the particular Obfervation of Strangers. It confifts of four Courts or Squares, viz. 1. The great Quadrangle; 2. Peckwater Square; 3. Canterbury Court; 4. The Chaplain's Court; and fome other Buildings.

The ftately Weft Front of the great Quadrangle is a magnificent Gothic Building, 382 Feet in Length, terminated at each End with two correfponding Turrets. The great Gate is in the Middle of this Front, and over it a beautiful Tower, enriched with Gothic Ornaments, defigned by Sir Chriftopher Wren, erected by Dr. Fell, and admirably correfponding to the Taste of the reft of the Buildings. In this Tower hangs the great Bell, called Tom, on the Sound of which the Scholars of the Univerfity are to retire to their refpective Colleges. Though the Windows in the Front are not exactly regular, yet fuch are the Greatnefs of the Proportions, and the Magnificence of the Whole, that they raife the Admiration of every Spectator, and help him

to

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