The sun., 1912-08-11
OXFORD TOWN IS A
THOUSAND YEARS OLD
A Place Before Students Came
and Has History Apart
From Them.
TOWN AND GOWN ROWS
How Immunity From Lay JUS
tice Came to Be Given to
tho University.

oxford Is Q thousand years old this
Aonth and IL to celebrate Its birthday
with fun and feasting. with pageants
and professions, with lectures and dane
Ing. and all the delight Of mhlenarlan
With money In his pocket. But 1t is
not the oxford Of the university. 1t
10 the city Of oxford, which began It's
career many years before the scholars
came to begin the contest between
town" and gown"
And the celebration has been thought
fully arranged in the month OF July
when the undergraduate may not. unless
by special leave. appear in Oxford. He
will have no part in the commemora
tion. For the city Is q thousand years
old and the university. which has often
quarrelled with the city. Ia not.
1t Is not true that the university
was founded by Alfred the Great. But
1t seems true. writes Clarence Rook, In
the London Daily Mail, that city was
there set down as a place OF some i'm
portance In A. D. 912. For oxford has
Its documentary evidence In the English
Chrouicle: "Died. Aelthered. Eardorman,
Of the Mercians. and King Eadweard
| took to himself Lundenbyrg and Oxna-
ford and all the lands that were obedient
thereto"
Oxford was . place long before the
students came to 1t as to a refuge. The
city was the mother Of the unruly
! student. And when the visitor takes
his tour through oxford ne should no.
tice on his journey from the railway
station to the High street that conf
cal mound which stili stands mysteri-
ously. 1t Is Just like that mound in
| the Dane John at Canterbury. Yet
there is' really no mystery about II.
The mound was the outpost Of the
men OF commerce and peace against the
forces Of barbarism-men with pens
behind their ears and daggers under
their doublets. as 1t were. In 1911?
oxford city Is quite justified in cele-
| brating the thousandth year OF its
existence. For II was the outpost OF
safety that brought in the scholars.
1t had the advantage Of situation. 1t
was at the confluence of rivers and
| one OF those rivers ~as the Thames.
| with outlet to the sea 1t was also al
the natural crossing Of the roads OF
| commerce. and the tower OF Carfax still
reminds us OF those -four ways" the
old. safe centre for traders. who had
travelled through dangers and were
about to face more.
II YOU wish to get the three periods
| Of Oxford into a nutshell you should
| nots the conical mound where they
fought: Carfax, which was the centre
Of trade; and. just down the High
street. st. Mary's. tho university church.
| which with some difficulty and fights
| to . hnish implanted itself under the
| shadow Of a municipality.
For Oxford city cannot forget that It
has q history apart from the university
which has always tried to overshadow
It: that the students from the Continent
nrst came thither because Oxford could
defend itself against pikestafYs and
lonEbows: that 1t had given hospitality
to Parliament when King Charles was
hard pressed Though rather unwill-
inglY: that It gave refuge in its castle
you may still see the jagged teeth Of 1t
TO Matilda, whom Stephen the King
was besieging-Matilda who. while the
bridge which oxford had built was
guarded. draped herself In white and
stole unObserved across the fronzen and
snowbOund river; that II has been there
as village. a town. city for at least
q thousand years. and that 1t has q
right to a celebration.
But the contest between town and
gown has been long. Look at the rec
srds Of Oxford and you will find the
same struggle that has produced the
students card" at all German uni
versities You disobey the law. You
are . student. You produce your
credentials. And you are dealt with
by the university authorities. Here
you will see the root Of the quar-
rel between town and gown. since the
town said the students were inside the
municipal law. and the gown protested
that they were outside 1t.
There came the somewhat sordid case
Of . woman OF the town-murderpd--
and two innocent students were collared
and hanged with the consent Of King
John. then at Woodstock. The uni
versity protested. 1t deserted its halls;
but the loss OF trade and q strong hint
from the Pope brought the town to
performance OF q public penance.
Stripped and barefooted. they went
daily to the churches carrying scourges
In their hands.
| control which gave immunity from lay
i IJuEisuICtIOu w ISSiucut uteiuDcIS VI tHo
university. which enabled the vice.
chancellor to commit disorderly women
to the spinning house, to organize his
own proctorial system Of police and to
rescue all undergraduates from the civil
authority and punish them-being male
factors--academically with exclusion
from the area.
The undergraduate could he sent
down." But It must not be forgotten
that oxford city produced the women
champions Of Queen Catherine when the
divorce question was afoot among the
King. his cOnsort. the Pope. and those
women OF Oxford-thirty OF them--who
we're clapped into jail for three days
and three nights for their claim Of
womens rights some centuries ago. And
that Ia the town ,lde Of oxford. the
oxford which received Anne the Queen,
i with hroah chQoAA tnhacpn pinoa