Walter de Merton
_founded_ the first college there, and others started the collegiate
system of corporate colleges which makes English universities unique.
The most celebrated colleges are Christ Church, Magdalen, New College,
and Merton. Keble, Mansfield, and Hertford were established in Victorian
times. In one part of the High Street the scene is architecturally
magnificent. On the south side is University College, which claims the
oldest foundation, although the present building only dates from the
seventeenth century. Opposite is Queen's College, then comes All Souls'.
On the same side is St. Mary's Church, and a little further All Souls'
Church. A turning by St. Mary's Church leads to the Bodleian Library,
the Sheldonian Theatre, and the Ashmolean Museum. At one end of St.
Giles' Street is the Martyrs' Memorial and the Taylor Institution.
Returning to High Street, and going towards the stations, a turning on
the left leads to Oriel, Corpus Christi, and Merton Colleges, and still
further on, St. Aldate's Street, on the left, leads to Pembroke College
and the fourteenth-century church of St. Aldate's. Opposite the church
are the buildings known as Christ Church, which has the Cathedral Church
of St. Frideswide for its chapel. In the principal entrance is "Great
Tom," the famous bell that tolls at 9.5 P.M. Christ Church, though the
smallest cathedral in England, and possibly in Europe, is of great
interest on account of its very distinct transitional style.
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