Merton College, Oxford
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| Merton College, Oxford | |
| Image:Merton College front quad.jpg | |
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| College name | The House of Scholars of Merton |
| Named after | Walter de Merton |
| Established | 1264 |
| Sister College | Peterhouse |
| Warden | Prof Dame Jessica Rawson |
| JCR President | James Lamming |
| Undergraduates | 315 |
| Graduates | 157 |
| Merton on the web | |
</div> Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The squat, square tower of its chapel is one of the city's landmarks. It is claimed that Mob Quad, built in the 14th century, is the oldest quadrangle (or courtyard) of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for collegiate architecture for future generations (though this claim is disputed by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who say their Old Court is older). The other quads are Front Quad, Fellows Quad (planned by Sir Henry Savile), St. Albans ("Stubbins", built on the site of St Albans Hall which was purchased by Merton in the 19th century due to its habit of taking on Merton students who had been 'sent down', or dismissed), Grove (a Victorian house built after a parliamentary report forced Merton to take on more undergraduate students) and Rose Lane, across the magnificent Fellows Gardens. The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows.
Another remarkable, and little known, architectural feature is the tunnel, which has an opening in the old drying room, located in a subterranean realm of the college known as The Underworld, and which leads to a door to the stock room of the college bar. The door is locked and the whereabouts of the keys have been unknown for many years, since a former bar steward left the college.
It is one of the most wealthy colleges with an estimated financial endowment of £104m (2003).
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History
The foundation of the college
Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester. It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, although this claim is disputed between Merton College, Balliol College and University College. The substance of Merton's claim to the title of oldest College is that Merton was the first college to be provided with "statutes", a constitution governing the College set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1274, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s. Merton was also the first to be conceived as a community of scholars working to achieve academic ends, rather than just a place for the scholars to live in. At its founding, Merton consisted of several houses and a farm in Surrey which existed to support students at schools; however, shortly afterwards the College moved to three houses on Merton Street, the site on which it still stands. The oldest buildings in Merton date back to the late 13th century, with the oldest quadrangle (Mob Quad), college chapel (originally the church of John the Baptist) and dining hall in any College in Oxford. The chapel was originally planned to be very large and to function both as a college chapel and as the parish church for that area of Oxford (the original church of John the Baptist was demolished to make way for Merton's dining hall). However, by the 15th century plans to extend the nave of the chapel were dropped due to lack of funds, and the land on which it would have been built was leased out to what is now Corpus Christi College. The chapel tower was finished in the 15th century and one side of the original stained glass, as well as the historic rose window, are still intact, providing the longest expanse of original medieval stained glass in Oxford.
Two relics of the College's founding still survive. The number of Postmasters (the word used at Merton to denote what are called Scholars at other colleges) is still set at 25, which was the original number of students at Merton (the first students consisted of Walter de Merton's many nephews). There also exists the original archive room which Walter de Merton had built above the entrance to Mob Quad and which, along with the college library, houses one of the most complete set of college records in Europe, dating back to 1264.
The Civil War
During the English Civil War Merton was the only Oxford College to side with Parliament. The reason for this was Merton's annoyance with the uncalled-for interference from their visitor, who has always been the Archbishop of Canterbury. Due to this, the college was moved to London at the start of the Civil War and its buildings were commandeered by the Royalists and used to house many of Charles the First's court when Oxford was used as the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads.
Differences were quickly settled after the war, however, and until very recently a portrait of Charles the First hung in Merton's Hall as a reminder to the role it played in his court. Since the Civil War Merton has been a fairly sleepy place.
Modern times
In recent years, the College has achieved high rankings in the Norrington Table and in the last five years, Merton has been top of the Norrington table five times. It is, thus, the most academically successful College in the last twenty years, with more First Class degrees being awarded to its students than Upper Seconds.
Merton has been Head of the River just once, in 1950, which makes it one of the least successful colleges at competitive men's rowing; Merton's women's VIII has done rather better in recent years.
Merton's peaceful precincts are disturbed once a year by the (in)famous Time Ceremony, when students, dressed in formal sub-fusc, walk backwards around Fellows' Quad holding candles and drinking port. The purpose is ostensibly to maintain the integrity of the space-time continuum during the transition from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time which occurs in the early hours of the last Sunday in October. There are two toasts associated with the ceremony, the first is "to good old times" whilst the second is "long live the counter revolution!". The ceremony was invented by two undergraduates in 1971, partly as a spoof on other Oxford ceremonies, and partly to celebrate the end of the experimental period of British Standard Time from 1968 to 1971 when the UK stayed one hour ahead of GMT all year round. It is also seen by many as a protest against the abandonment of sub fusc in recent years.
Student life and politics
Merton college admitted its first female students in 1980 (largely due to pressure from the JCR) along with other traditionalist colleges such as Christ Church, leaving Oriel as the only remaining all-male college. Since this time however men have predominated at Merton and it consistently has one of the highest male to female ratios of an Oxford college (around 3:2). However Merton was the second traditionally male college to elect a female Warden in 1994. Merton has the distinction on these grounds also of being the only college to have single sex accommodation as freshmen are sorted with female students going into the Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into 3 houses on Merton Street. Merton has had a reputation for having the best food in Oxford since an old Mertonian left money specifically for the improvement of the kitchens, however after a dominant period spanning over 20 years this reputation is fading.
In 2003 Merton JCR passed a motion expressing general support for student tuition fees making it the only pro tuition fee student body in the UK, However this has generally been put down to an apathy towards student politics and a feeling that student opposition to such fees would not be successful. This apathy has come to typify Merton politics with no Mertonians rising to the top of either the Oxford Union or OUSU for many years. Depending on who you ask they are all far too busy in the library or have come to see the pettyness of student politics at Oxford.
Notable former Mertonians
This list of Merton Fellows and alumni is grouped into centuries; where the person's life spans more than one century, the (approximate) date of matriculation is used, and given in brackets when known). The names are alphabetical by surname within each group.
Medieval
- Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor, Bishop of Rochester (Founder)
- Archbishop Thomas Bradwardine, theologian and astronomer (1321)
- John Wycliffe, theologian (1356)
- John Duns Scotus, theologian and philosopher
- William of Ockham, philosopher
16th century
- Sir Thomas Bodley, diplomat, scholar, and librarian (1563)
- Sir Henry Savile, scholar and statesman (1565)
17th century
- John Bainbridge, astronomer (c1610)
- Admiral Robert Blake, military comander and MP for Bridgewater (1615)
- William Harvey, physician (1645)
- Richard Steele, politican and writer (1691)
- Anthony Wood, antiquary
19th century
- Sir Max Beerbohm, author and caricaturist (1890)
- F. H. Bradley, philosopher
- Mandell Creighton, historian and Bishop of London (1862)
- Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman (1867)
- F. E. Smith, British statesman (1896, at Merton as a graduate)
- Frederick Soddy, radiochemist and Nobel Laureate for chemistry (1895)
- Lord Halsbury, Lord Chancellor, compiler of the Laws of England (1842)
20th century (matriculated before 1960)
- Theodor Adorno, philosopher, sociologist, musicologist, and art critic (1934)
- Sir Lennox Berkeley, composer (1922)
- Sir Roger Bannister, middle-distance runner and neurologist (1950)
- Sir Basil Blackwell, bookseller and publisher (1907)
- Edmund Blunden, Professor of Poetry (1931)
- Frank Bough, broadcaster
- John Carey, Merton Professor of English
- Leonard Cheshire, RAF pilot and philanthropist (1936)
- T. S. Eliot, poet and Nobel Laureate for literature (1914)
- Andrew Irvine, mountaineer (1921)
- Sir Jeremy Isaacs, broadcaster and impressario
- Philip Jones, musician
- Kris Kristofferson, actor and musician
- Professor Anthony Leggett, physicist, Nobel Laureate in physics (1959)
- John Lucas, philosopher (JRF 1953, Fellow 1960)
- Louis MacNeice, poet (1926)
- Reginald Maudling, politician
- Airey Neave, politician
- Reynolds Price, poet
- Sir George Radda, scientist
- Siegfried Sassoon, war poet (at Merton as a graduate)
- Howard K. Smith, journalist and broadcaster
- Professor Niko Tinbergen, ethologist (1949)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, author and Merton Professor of English (1945)
- Angus Wilson, author
Contemporary (matriculated since 1960)
- James Clark, open source software developer
- Mark Haddon, author (1981)
- Sir Tony Hoare, computer scientist
- Tim Jackson, auctioneer
- Alec Jeffreys, geneticist
- HIH Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
- David Parkinson, broadcaster (Former college barman)
- Michael Ridpath, author
- Dana Scott, logician
- Sir Howard Stringer, businessman, next chief of Sony
- Mark Thompson, broadcaster, director general of the BBC
- Ed Vaizey, MP for Wantage
- Professor Sir Andrew Wiles, mathematician (1971)
Grace
The college preprandial grace, always recited before formal dinners in Hall and usually by the senior Postmaster present, is based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145. The precise words of the Latin are:
Oculi omnium in te respiciunt, Domine. Tu das escam illis tempore opportuno. Aperis manum tuam, et imples omne animal benedictione tua. Benedicas nobis, Deus, omnibus donis quae de tua beneficentia accepturi simus. Per Iesum Christum dominum nostrum, Amen.
This is fairly long by Oxford standards, but at least there is no postprandial grace.
Roughly translated it means: "The eyes of the world look up to thee, O Lord. Thou givest them food in due season. Thou openest thy hand and fillest every creature with thy blessing. Thou blessest us, O God, with all the gifts which by thy good works we are about to receive. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen."
References
- Bott, A. (1993). Merton College: A Short History of the Buildings. Oxford: Merton College. ISBN 0952231409.
- Martin, G.H. & Highfield, J.R.L. (1997). A History of Merton College. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199201838.
See also
- Mob Quad at Merton
- Merton College Library
External links
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Categories: Colleges of the University of Oxford | Former students of Merton College, Oxford | Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
