Sun, cloud and hill, all things thou fam'st so fair,
With us are glad and gay, greeting the time.
The College of the Lily leaves her sleep,
The grey tower rocks and trembles into sound,
Dawn-smitten Memnon of a happier hour;
Through faint-hued fields the silver waters creep:
Day grows, birds pipe, and robed anew and crowned,
Green Spring trips forth to set the world aflower."

The tower was put to a far different use when, in the Civil War, it
was the fortress against an attack from the east, and stones were
piled on its top to overwhelm any invader who might force the bridge.

Tradition connects this tower with the name of Magdalen's greatest
son, Thomas Wolsey, who took his B.A. about 1486, at the age of
fifteen, as he himself in his old age proudly told his servant and
biographer, Cavendish. Certainty he was first Junior and then Senior
Bursar for a time, while the tower was building, 1492-1504. But the
scandal that he had to resign his bursarship for misappropriation of
funds in connection with the tower may certainly be rejected.

On the right of Magdalen Bridge, looking at the tower, as we see it
in the picture, stretches Magdalen Meadow, round which run the famous
water walks. The part of these on the north-west side is especially
connected with Joseph Addison, who was a fellow at Magdalen from 1697
to 1711. He was elected "demy" (at Magdalen, scholars bear this name)
the first year (1689) after the Revolution, when the fellows of
Magdalen had been restored to their rights, so outrageously invaded
by King James. This "golden" election was famous in Magdalen annals,
at once for the number elected--seventeen--and for the fame of some