Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. The important feature of Walter's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows. Merton was the first college to be conceived as a community working to achieve academic ends, rather than just a place for the housing of scholars.
By 1274 when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century. Mob Quad, one of Merton's quadrangles, was constructed in the years from 1288-1378 and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford, while Merton College Library, located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world.
The college is associated with a number of notable people, including four Nobel Laureates and writer J. R. R. Tolkien who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959. Merton is among the wealthiest colleges in Oxford, and had a financial endowment of £189 million as of July 2013. Merton currently ranks first in the Norrington Table.
History
Foundation and origins
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 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s. Merton was also the first college to be conceived as a community working to achieve academic ends, rather than just a place for the housing of scholars.
Merton has an unbroken line of wardens dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influences over the development of the college. Henry Savile was one notable leader whose vision led the college to flourish in the early 17th century.
St Alban Hall
St Alban Hall was an independent academic hall owned by the convent of Littlemore until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the dissolution of the convent. It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881.
Parliamentarian sympathies in 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 interference of their Visitor William Laud, 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 much of Charles I's court when Oxford was 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 a portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court.
Buildings and grounds
The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in Surrey (in present day Old Malden) as well as in Oxford, but it was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now Merton Street). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes.
The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to the east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now Christ Church to the south eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515 for the foundation of Corpus Christi (at an annual rent of just over £4).
Chapel
By the late 1280s the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition", and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present choir, with its enormous east window, was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the Early English Period of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century. The south transept was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as the parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a nave and two aisles extending to the west.
A new choral foundation was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir is directed by Peter Phillips, currently also director of the Tallis Scholars, and Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey. In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, was completed.
A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the University of Virginia since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals."
Front quad and the hall
The hall is the oldest surviving college building, but apart from the door which has medieval ironwork almost no trace of the ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts, first by James Wyatt in the 1790s and then again by Gilbert Scott in 1874. The hall is still used daily for meals and houses a number of important portraits. It is not usually open to visitors.
Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate quadrangle, but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in the north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s.
Mob quad and library
Visitors to Merton are often told Mob Quad, built in the 14th century, is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture, but Front Quad was enclosed earlier (albeit with a less unified design) and other colleges, for example Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, can point to their own older examples.
The old library occupies the upper floor of the south and west ranges of Mob Quad, and the original archive room is still in the north east corner; it houses one of the most complete sets of college records in Europe.
Fellows' quad
The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of the work undertaken by Sir Henry Savile at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later). The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four Orders, probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from Yorkshire (as was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the Bodleian Library and Wadham College.
Other buildings
Most of the other buildings are Victorian or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by Basil Champneys, built on the site of the medieval St. Alban Hall (elements of the older façade are incorporated into the part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by William Butterfield but "chastened" in the 1930s; the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including a real tennis court, and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903); and a new quadrangle in Holywell Street, some distance away from the college.
Gardens
The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows and Merton Field (now used by Magdalen College School, Oxford as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for a mulberry tree planted in the early 17th century, an armillary sundial, an extensive lawn, a Herma statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space).
T.S. Eliot lecture theatre
A new lecture theatre named after T.S. Eliot, a former member of the college, was opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by Jacob Epstein, presented by Frank Brenchley â€" a former member and fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded.
Gallery
Modern academic community
Merton College admits both undergraduate and graduate students. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and was the second former male college to elect a female head of house (in 1994). Merton has traditionally had single-sex accommodation for 1st year undergraduates, with female students going into the Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into three houses on Merton Street. This policy was abandoned in 2007, with all accommodation now mixed by gender and course.
Since the introduction of an official Norrington Table published by the University in 2004, Merton occupied one of the top three positions every year (often coming 1st), until 2012 when it dropped to 14th. In 2014, it regained the first position, preserving its status as one of the most academically successful colleges of the last twenty years.
Undergraduate admission to the college, like other Oxford colleges, is based solely on academic potential. In 2010, it was (incorrectly) reported that Merton had not admitted a black student in the previous five years. A university spokeswoman commented that black students were more likely to apply for oversubscribed subjects. The University also reported that Merton had admitted at least one black undergraduate since 2005.
Student activities
At the (in)famous Time Ceremony students dressed in formal academic dress walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad drinking port. Traditionally participants also held candles, but this practice has been abandoned in recent years. Many students have now adopted the habit of linking arms and twirling around at each corner of the quad.
The alleged purpose of this tradition is 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. However, the ceremony (invented by two undergraduates in 1971) mostly serves as a spoof of other Oxford ceremonies, and (historically) as a celebration of 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. There are two toasts associated with the ceremony, the first is "to good old times!", or "to a good old time!", whilst the second is "long live the counter-revolution!".
Merton is the only college in Oxford to hold a triennial winter ball, instead of the more common Commemoration ball. The most recent of these was held on 30 November 2013.
Merton also plays host to a number of drinking and dining societies, along the lines of other colleges. These include the all-male Myrmidons, the female-equivalent Myrmaids, and L'Ancien Régime.
Merton is host to a number of subject-specific societies, the most notable being the Halsbury Society (Law) and the Chalcenterics (Classics). Other academic societies include the Neave Society, which aims to discuss and debate political issues, and the Bodley Club, founded in 1894 as a forum for undergraduate papers on literature but now a speaker society.
Sports
Merton has a long-standing sporting relationship with Mansfield College, with the colleges fielding amalgamated sports teams for many major sports, except rowing. The JCR Football Premier Division was (jointly) won for the first time by a Merton team in 2010/11. The side, captained by a Mertonian undergraduate, also reached the semi-finals of Cuppers only to lose out to the eventual champions Worcester.
In rowing, Merton College Boat Club has been Head of the River in Summer Eights once; its men's 1st VIII held the headship in 1951. Merton's women have done better in recent years, gaining the headship in Torpids in 2003 and rowing over to defend the title in 2004.
Grace
The college preprandial grace is always recited before formal dinners in Hall, usually by the senior postmaster present. The first two lines of the Latin text are based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145.
- 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 Jesum Christum dominum nostrum, Amen.
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.
- Bless us, O God, with all the gifts which by thy good works we are about to receive.
- Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen.
For the relevant verses of the Psalm, the Authorized Version has:
- 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
- 16. Thou openst thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
In contrast, Merton's post-prandial grace is brief: Benedictus benedicat ("Let him who has been blessed, give blessing"). The latter grace is spoken by the senior Fellow present at the end of dinner on High Table.
At the University of Cambridge, a slightly different version of the Latin text of these verses is painted around Old Hall in Queens' College, Cambridge, and is "commonly in use at other Cambridge colleges".
People associated with Merton
Merton alumni (Mertonians) have pursued careers in a variety of disciplines. This includes writers, politicians, academics and four Nobel prize winners: chemist Frederick Soddy (1921), poet T. S. Eliot (1948), zoologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1973) and physicist Sir Anthony Leggett (2003).
1264 to 1900
Among the earliest people that have been claimed as Merton fellows are William of Ockham and Duns Scotus who were outstanding academic figures from the early 14th century (however these claims are disputed). Other early fellows include the Oxford Calculators, a group of 14th-century thinkers associated with Merton who took a logico-mathematical approach to philosophical problems. Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe was another early fellow of the college.
Founder of the Bodleian Library, Thomas Bodley, was admitted as fellow in 1564. Another significant figure, Henry Savile, was appointed Warden some years later in 1585 (held the position until 1621) and had great influence of the development of the college. William Harvey, who was the first to describe in detail the systemic circulation, was warden from 1645-1646. Lord Randolph Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons (and father of Winston Churchill), matriculated in October 1867, while Max Beerbohm, an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist studied at Merton in the 1890s and was Secretary of the Myrmidon Club.
1900 - today
Merton has also produced a number of notable alumni in more recent times. In the fields of science, Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, mathematician Sir Andrew Wiles who proved Fermat's Last Theorem, computer scientist Tony Hoare, chemist Sir George Radda and geneticist Alec Jeffreys are alumni.
Former students with careers as politicians include Reginald Maudling, Airey Neave, Jesse Norman, Ed Vaizey and Arthur Mutambara who is Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. In business, former Director-General of the BBC and current CEO of the New York Times Company Mark Thompson, CEO of Stonewall Ben Summerskill and former CEO of Sony Sir Howard Stringer are alumni.
Other alumni include mountaineer Andrew Irvine, RAF pilot Leonard Cheshire, former athlete Roger Bannister and Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan. Author J. R. R. Tolkien was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton from 1945 to 1959.
The current Warden of the college is Sir Martin J. Taylor, former Professor of pure mathematics at the University of Manchester.
Women at Merton
Just like the other ancient colleges of Oxford, Merton was originally an all-male college. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and became the second former male college to elect a female head of house when Jessica Rawson was appointed as Warden in 1994.
Alumnae of Merton include British Conservative Party politician Elizabeth Truss, writer Leana Wen and Princess Akiko of Mikasa.