Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/251

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obtained a Fellowship in 1710, when he was called by Hearne "a pretender to poetry, who was put over the heads of better scholars." In 1711 he was Professor of Poetry, when, still according to Hearne, "his first lecture was a very indecent performance, by an empty-headed, vain pretender without any learning—who, as a vain, conceited coxcomb, was author of a silly, weekly paper called 'The Surprise.'" That Hearne was, sometimes, a little bitter and, perhaps, a little unjust in his epithets will be seen later.

Tickell resigned his Fellowship upon his marriage in 1726.

William Collins was at Queen's from 1740 until 1741; but, like Addison, he obtained a" Demieship" at Magdalen, where the better, and the more important, part of his University life was spent.

Jeremy Bentham, the Jurist, after an unusually precocious youth, was sent to Queen's in 1760, and at the mature age of twelve. But he left college with very few pleasant recollections, and he found but little to interest him, either in the studies or in the amusements of the institution. He declared in after years, that the only effects, the only sure effects, of an English University education were mendacity and insincerity!

While at Queen's he wrote what was naturally an insincere and mendacious "Ode on the Death of