of those elected. Besides the greatest of English essayists, there
were among the new "demies," a future archbishop, a future bishop,
and the high Tory, Henry Sacheverell, whose fiery but unbalanced
eloquence overthrew the great Whig Ministry, which had been the
patron of his college contemporary.

Magdalen Meadow preserves still the well-beloved Oxford fritillaries,
which are in danger of being extirpated in the fields below Iffley by
the crowds who gather them to sell in the Oxford market.

Of the part of the College on the High Street, the most interesting
portion is the old stone pulpit (shown in Plate XIV). The connection
of this with the old Hospital of St. John is still marked by the
custom of having the University sermon here on St. John the Baptist's
Day; this was the invariable rule till the eighteenth century, and
the pulpit (Hearne says) was "all beset with boughs, by way of
allusion to St. John Baptist's preaching in the wilderness." Even as
early as Heame's time, however, a wet morning drove preacher and
audience into the chapel, and open-air sermons were soon given up
altogether, only to be revived (weather permitting) in our own day.
The chapel lies to the left of the pulpit, and is known all the
world over for its music; there are three famous choirs in Oxford--
those of the Cathedral, of New College, and of Magdalen, and to the
last, as a rule, the palm is assigned. It is to Oxford what the choir
of King's is to Cambridge; but the chapel of Magdalen has not

"The high embowed roof
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light"