Reminiscences of Oxford . t Beautiful of Colleges—Dr. Routh—His Old Young Wife—His Mania for Books—His Friends—Some Famous Men ofMagdalen—New College—Shuttleworth—Whately and Manning—The Abingdon Ball and the Brigands of Bagley Wood—Public Orator Crowe—Christopher Erie—His Sharp Tongue— Lee—One of the Detenus of 1803—Dr. Nares—HisDrollery written for Miss Horseman. I PASS from Cliristchurcli to Magdalen;from the stateliest to the most beautiful ofColleges; Hall and Chapel Ioa elier 2)erhaps,Walks and Tower lovelier past question, thanany of the Oxford groves and buildings : no-where e
Reminiscences of Oxford . t Beautiful of Colleges—Dr. Routh—His Old Young Wife—His Mania for Books—His Friends—Some Famous Men ofMagdalen—New College—Shuttleworth—Whately and Manning—The Abingdon Ball and the Brigands of Bagley Wood—Public Orator Crowe—Christopher Erie—His Sharp Tongue— Lee—One of the Detenus of 1803—Dr. Nares—HisDrollery written for Miss Horseman. I PASS from Cliristchurcli to Magdalen;from the stateliest to the most beautiful ofColleges; Hall and Chapel Ioa elier 2)erhaps,Walks and Tower lovelier past question, thanany of the Oxford groves and buildings : no-where else does the Numen inest so enthral,inspire, haunt. But its j^iii^c of rarity inthose days was its President, Dr. E-outh, ofolden worth the lonely leaf and last; who,born in 1751, was in tlie later Thirties pastfourscore, and was to live iiitcj his hundredthyear. It was as a spectacle that he excitedpopular interest; to see him shuffle into ChapelfroDi his lodgings a Sunday crowd DR. ROUTH, PRESIDENT OF the Pickersgill Portmit, 1851 (?\ MAGDALEN AND NEW COLLEGE. 105 The wig, with troncher cap insecurely poisedabove it, the long cassock, ampU? gown, shortsand buckled shoes : the bent form, pale vener-able face, enormous pendeut eyebiows, genericto antique portraits in Bodleian gallery orCollege Halls, were here to be seen alive— Some statue you would swearStepped from its pedestal to take the air. After 1836 he was rarely visible in thestreets, but presided at College Examinations,and dined in Hall on Gaudy days, occupy-ing the large State Chair, never profanedby meaner loins, constructed from theimmemorial Magdalen elm, Avhich, mucholder than the College, fell with a terrificcrash in 1789. In front of his lodgings stooda scarcely less remarkable plane tree, split fromthe root originally, and divagating in threemighty stems, of late years carefully pro]:> while he was at Tylehurst, his countryhome, word was
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