SIX CENTURIES OF ORIEL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 39, 14 August 1926, Page 20

SIX CENTURIES OF ORIEL

CELEBEATIONS AT OXFOED,

The 600 th anniversary of the foundation of Oriel College was celebrated recently at Oxford. A large number of past and present members of the college attended the proceedings, which began with a service in the Church of St. Mary, conducted by the vicar (Dr. J. C. Richards, Fellow of Oriel), the Dean of Oriel (the Eev. J. W. C. Wand), and the Provost (Dr. Phelps). Among the large congregation were the Chancellor of the University, Viscount Cave, who represented the King, who is Visitor of the college, and the Bishop of Oxford.. The sermon.was preached by the Dean of Exeter (Dr. Gamble). The service was followed by a luncheon in a marquee in tho main quadrangle of tho college, when about 500 guests sat down. The Provost, who presided, read a telegram of congratulation from the King, regretting the inability of himself and tho Queen to attend, and stating that, as the College Visitor, he was confident that all associated with the life of the college' were proud and thankful that the important and fruitful work carried on within its walls for centuries was being maintained.

Tho Lord Chancellor proposed the toast, "Floreat Oriel," and said Oriel had always been a college with a character of its own. It ,had always been a very disputatious place, and he supposed that the quarrels between the provosts and the fellows had occupied a great part of its history. In tho days of Wyelifie and the Lollards, Oriel was full of heretics. It had had many contesta with the university about St. Mary's Church, and he believed that when ono of the provost 3, Hawksworth, was elected Chancellor of the Universitl, he had a personal contest with his rival in St. Mary's. Finally, there was a contest on the question who should be the Visitor of the college. For some centuries the Bishop of Lincoln, as bishop 3 sometimes did, usurped that position, and finally it was decided that the true Visitor was the King. Oriel had always been an open-minded college, and towards the end of the eighteenth century it threw open its fellowships to all the university, being the first college to do so. He rapidly reviewed the list of famous men who had been' associated with the college, remarking . that with regard to Cecil Bhodes he had made a deep impression upon the history and fortunes of the world. In referring to the present provost, he said that Dr. Phelps had not been content to uphold the great position of Oriel, but had performed much valuable work outside, and it could be said of him that he enjoyed the_ high regard and esteem not only of his college, but of the university as a whole, The Provo3t, in reply, said the Chancellor had laid his finger upon the characteristic of the-college. He had told them that in the history of Oriel it had nover been false to the history of. progress. Ho paid a great tribute to the work of Bishop Coplestone, who was able to carry through a great competitive system of examinations which made Oriel not merely distinguished in the world, but supreme in tho university. A3 to tho future, that was in other hands than theirs, and in those hands they- left it, but so long as the college was true to its traditions, so long would Oriel of the future bear comparison with the Oriel of tho past.