Reminiscences of Oxford by Oxford Men 1559-1850 SELECTED AND EDITED BY LILIAN M. QUILLER COUCH Oxford PRINTED FOR THE OXFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE CLARENDON PRESS PREFACE. It seems expedient to say a word or two in preface on the scope and limitations of this volume. To begin with, it is a selection, and a selection strictly of Reminiscences of Oxford Men,-the writer of each extract being an alumnus of Oxford who, looking back, has described, judged and commented upon its collegiate life by the light of later years and a larger knowledge of the world. No room has been found for diaries, nor for any record of immediate impressions; the case of Evelyn being but a seeming relaxation of this rule, since internal evidence abounds in his 'Diary' to show that it was not posted from day to day, but often, indeed, written up long after the events which it chronicles. These Reminiscences, therefore, may be described as the outside views of men who have been inside the University. Their interest, too, is distinct from the interest of memoirs which treat elaborately of academic politics and intrigue or trace the progress of renowned movements and high events. They are written for the most part by men who came to Oxford to seek an education, though at different periods and with very various notions of what that education ought to be; for the list extends from Elizabethan 288719 |