He noticed with delight that his success was announced in the "Oxford University
Gazette" of July 11th, 1874. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, on October
17th, a day after his twentieth birthday.

Just as he had been more successful at Trinity than at school, so he was
destined to be far more successful and win a far greater reputation at Oxford
than in Dublin.

He had the advantage of going to Oxford a little later than most men, at twenty
instead of eighteen, and thus was enabled to win high honours with comparative
ease, while leading a life of cultured enjoyment.

He was placed in the first class in "Moderations" in 1876 and had even then
managed to make himself talked about in the life of the place. The Trinity Don
whom I have already quoted, after admitting that there was not a breath against
his character either at school or Trinity, goes on to write that "at Trinity he
did not strike us as a very exceptional person," and yet there must have been
some sharp eyes at Trinity, for our Don adds with surprising divination:

"I fancy his rapid development took place after he went to Oxford, where he
was able to specialize more; in fact where he could study what he most affected.
It is, I feel sure, from his Oxford life more than from his life in Ireland that
one would be able to trace the good and bad features by which he afterwards
attracted the attention of the world."

In 1878 Oscar won a First Class in "Greats." In this same Trinity term, 1878,
he further distinguished himself by gaining the Newdigate prize for English
verse with his poem "Ravenna," which he recited at the annual Commemoration in
the Sheldonian Theatre on June 26th. His reciting of the poem was the literary
event of the year in Oxford.