who lived by it, and pretended that it was a detriment to his house.
As long ago as 1705, they had pulled down the building of Peckwater
quadrangle, in Ch. Ch." Queen's also "pulled down the old refectory,
which was on the west side of the old quadrangle, and was a fine old
structure that I used to admire much." It appears that the College
was also anxious to pull down the chamber of King Henry V. This is a
strange craze for destruction, that some time ago endangered the
beautiful library of Merton, a place where one can fancy that Chaucer
or Wyclif may have studied. Oxford will soon have little left of the
beauty and antiquity of Patey's Quad in Merton, as represented in our
illustration. What the next generation will think of the
multitudinous new buildings, it is not hard to conjecture. Imitative
experiments, without style or fancy in structure or decoration, and
often more than medievally uncomfortable, they will seem but
evidences of Oxford's love of destruction. People of Hearne's way of
thinking, people who respect antiquity, protest in vain, and, like
Hearne, must be content sadly to enjoy what is left of grace and
dignity. He died before Oxford had quite become the Oxford of
Gibbon's autobiography.



CHAPTER VII--GEORGIAN OXFORD



Oxford has usually been described either by her lovers or her
malcontents. She has suffered the extremes of filial ingratitude and
affection. There is something in the place that makes all her
children either adore or detest her; and it is difficult, indeed, to