Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/117

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
87

the President of Corpus, in 1899, is satisfied that the Hooker who occupied those particular premises was one Peter Hooker, not Richard. And thus in Oxford, as elsewhere, the more one finds out, the less one seems to know. Any baldness visible in the present writer is owing to the involuntary hair-tearing caused by the discovery that his discoveries were apparently no discoveries at all!

Where Hooker's rooms really were, was known conclusively half a century ago, it is believed. But they seem to have gone up their own chimney, wherever that was.

Edward Young was at this College for a short season, between his life at New and his appointment to a Fellowship at All Souls, in 1708; but he has left no enduring Landmark within the gates of Corpus.

The British and American Boys of a good many years ago, who were brought up on "Sandford and Merton," and on porridge and milk, will, naturally, be more interested to hear about the peculiarities of Thomas Day than will be those boys, of a younger growth, who never went out to be bored to death by the didactic Mr. Barlow.

The creator of Tommy Merton, of Harry Sandford, and of Mr. Barlow, was sent from the Charter House School to Corpus in 1763, where he