from Sir Thomas Cookes,. of Worcestershire, Bart., which was appropriated to the purchase of Gloucester Hall, a seminary wherein the Benedictine Monks of Gloucester had formerly studied under the government of a prior. The collegiate erections on this site are of a noble and chaste character. 'The Library, their most interesting part, is conspicuous in front. It is a fine structure of the Ionic order, one hundred feet in length, with the Chapel projecting from it on one side, and the Hall on the other. The buildings on the north contain three stories of commodious rooms for students, with apartments for the provost. On the opposite side is a low irregular range, which formed a part of the ancient buildings tenanted by the Benedic tine Monks.

The founder of WADHAM COLLEGE was Nicholas Wadham, Esq., of Somersetshire. "On its site formerly stood the priory of Austin Friars, a scholastic house of so much celebrity, that the University acts were kept, and the exercises in arts performed there, before the Divinity School was erected. The premises were demolished shortly after the Dissolution; and the site becoming the property of the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty of Oxford, of them it was purchased for the use of this foundation. The royal license for the institution was granted in 1611.

The quadrangle which comprises the entire buildings of this college, is one hundred and thirty feet square, and an attractive specimen of the modern Gothic; though, in one instance, the false taste of the era induced the violation of simplicity by the introduction of classic embellishments. The Chapel, and its east window in particular, are beautiful examples of the same style. The painted glass in the latter, executed in 1623, deserves to rank among the best efforts of Van Linge. The Library is commodious, with a fine Gothic window; the Hall one of the largest in the University, and, like the Library, ornamented with a window conspicuously beautiful. The first meetings of the Royal Society, it is perhaps well deserving of remark, were held in a room over the gateway of Wadham College.

A very brief mention of the principal Public Buildings of Oxford, must close our notice of that interesting city.

The SCHOOLS, with part of the BODLEIAN LIBRARY, form a splendid quadrangle, rising to the sublime of the Gothic style, yet injured in effect in one instance by the Grecian decorations of the noble tower over the entrance. In these schools the professors read lectures in the several sciences, and the scholars are enjoined by the University statutes to perform in

them the exercises requisite for their degrees. The Divinity School, one of the richest pieces of Gothic architecture that has been preserved to Oxford, was completed in 1480, chiefly through the liberal assistance of the good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester: it was repaired, with careful respect to the original design, by Sir Christopher Wren. The first public schools were built by the Abbot of Oseney, early in the fifteenth century; but these buildings were removed in the seventeenth, when the major part of this structure was erected. The Picture Gallery, which occupies the upper range of three sides of the quadrangle, contains portraits, many of them fanciful, of all the founders of the colleges; with copies of the cartoons, &c. The Bodleian, or Public Library, comprises three extensive rooms, disposed in the form of the Roman H. It was founded by Duke Humphrey; but had sunk into entire neglect, until Sir Thomas Bodley, with noble zeal, and unbounded generosity, effected its restoration in 1597: subsequent augmentations have probably rendered it the most valuable collection in

Europe. The Arundelian Marbles are preserved in an apartment on the north side of the Schools: their noble collector, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, one of the most accomplished scholars of the seventeenth cen

tury, obtained them through the medium of Sir William Petty, whom he had dispatched to Asia in quest of monuments of ancient art, and who purchased the greater part of them from a Turk. This antiquarian treasure has been said to form "the most authentic history of Greece."

The THEATRE, in which are held the acts termed the Encania and Comitia and Lord Crewe's annual commemoration of benefactors, was one of the first works of Sir Christopher Wren, and built at the entire expence of Archbishop Sheldon. The ground-plan is that of the Theatre of Marcellus at Rome. Though the dimensions appear insufficient for that purpose, it is calculated to contain nearly four thousand persons.

The CLARENDON PRINTING HOUSE, one of the massy efforts of Sir John Vanburgh, was built in 1711, with the profits arising from Lord Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion," which work was presented to the University. by the son of the noble author. Besides the rooms used for printing, here is a large apartment in which meetings are held by the Heads of Houses.

The RADCLIFFE LIBRARY was founded by the eccentric, though skilful and benevolent physician, Dr. Radcliffe. The four sides of

the area in which it stands, are occupied by St. Mary's Church, (a beautiful Gothic structure,) part of All Souls' College, the Schools, and the great front of Brazen-Nose College. Here therefore is an assemblage of buildings, very favourable to grandeur of architectural effect; and the Library itself assuredly ranks among the most splendid ornaments of the University in an architectural point of view. But the Bodleian collection of books has ever been, and appears likely to remain, infinitely superior.

The ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, founded by Elias Ashmole in the year 1682, for the reception of rare productions, both natural and artificial, was erected by Sir Christopher Wren, at the expence of the University, and affords a very fine instance of that architect's genius for harmony of proportion, and judicious employment of external decoration. Nor is the interior less conspicuously well-adapted to the purposes for which it was designed. The ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY is also a very elegant building, in an appropriate situation, and provided with a library, lecture-room, and an extremely valuable set of instruments. The PHYSIC GARDEN, which contains a large and valuable collection of plants, &c., comprises about five acres, and was instituted by Henry Danvers, Earl of Derby, in 1622. The grounds

G