Wayland Hall

“ Soon the key of the door turned, and two men, whom he knew to be the King's sons, talked softly together. He kept very still, and heard one say: "Let us first get as much from the chest as we can carry, then we will put him to death, lest he should betray us to our father."
Then Wayland took a large sword which lay by his side and hid it behind him, and he had scarcely done so when the princes entered the prison. "Greeting to you," said they. "Nidud our father has gone into the country, and as he is so greedy of wealth that he will give us none, we have come here to get it for ourselves. ”

“ You can see for yourself that all birds rise against the wind and alight in the same way. I am going home to my own country, but first I must have a few words with Nidung. And, remember, if he bids you shoot me, shoot under the left wing, for there I have fastened a bladder filled with blood.”
With these words Wayland flew to the highest tower of the king's castle and called to the king as he passed with his courtiers. ”

“ Wayland laid one hand on the sleeve of his uniform and laughed.
"I was a writer. But there are only soldiers in the world now."
"Quite so ... This is an odd place for an American to live in."
"My father bought it years ago. He was [pg 87] a painter of peasant life." He added, lowering his voice, although Marie-Josephine understood no English: "This old peasant woman was his model many years ago. She also kept house for him. He lived here; I was born here."
"Really?"
"Yes, but my father desired that I grow up a good Yankee. I was at school in America when he—died." ”

“ Here is the key, and in the name of the gods I will swear not to betray you.'
The brothers took the key, and opened the chest that stood by Wayland, which was still half full of gold. It dazzled their eyes, and they both stooped down so as to see it better. This was what Wayland had waited for, and, seizing his sword, he cut off their heads, which fell into the chest. He then shut down the lid, and dug a grave for the bodies in the floor of his dungeon. Afterwards he dried the skulls in the sun, and made them into two drinking cups wrought with gold. ”

“ Wayland mocked by the Queen and Banvilda
A magnificent dinner made the nobles feel more at ease, and they begged the King to tell them what man there was in Sweden so skilled in smith's work. Now Nidud had drunk deeply of mead, and longed to revenge himself on Wayland, whom he held to have caused the loss of his army; so he gave the key of the tower to one of his Earls, and bade him take two men and bring forth Wayland, adding that if the next time he visited the tower he should find a grain of gold missing, they should pay for it with their lives. ”

“ In 1484 Waynflete gave the college the endowment for a free grammar school at his name-place, Wainfleet, sufficient to produce for the chantry-priest schoolmaster £10 a year, the same salary as the headmaster of Magdalen School, and built the school which still exists almost untouched, a fine brick building with two towers, 76 ft. ”

“ Mrs. Pitt laughed. “No doubt Wolsey would have liked one, but he was wise enough to always follow custom in such matters as had to do with his outward appearance and attitude. All religious men rode on asses; it was the habit of the day. Now, come [Pg 132] this way, and see the Great Hall. Oh, Philip! Please fetch me my umbrella; I left it on the step in the court, there!”
Leading into the second or Clock Court, is Anne Boleyn’s gateway. Under this is a broad flight of stairs which takes one to the Great Hall, erected by Henry VIII, probably on the site of Wolsey’s earlier hall. ”

“ In this country we think no one, upon the whole, has written more wisely than Dr. Wayland, whose views are to be illustrated in the future government of the university over which he has so long presided. But we shall not be satisfied until we have a great institution, as much above the existing colleges as they are above the common schools in the wards of the city, to which bachelors of arts only shall be admitted, and to which they, whether coming from Harvard, Oberlin, or Virginia, shall be admitted without charge. ”

“ The foundation now consists of a president, from 30 to 40 fellowships, of which 5 are attached to the Waynflete professorships in the university, [9] senior demies up to 8 and junior demies up to 35 in number. The choir, &c., are maintained, and the choral singing is celebrated. In order to found his college, Waynflete acquired the site and buildings of the hospital of St John the Baptist, a foundation or re foundation of Henry III. for a master and brethren, with sisters also, for “the relief of poor scholars and other miserable persons.” ”

“ But their method was then generally in vogue, and the teaching was excellent of its kind.
To nearly every student the most important event in his college life in those days was the contact with the vigorous and suggestive mind of Dr. Wayland, in the senior classroom, and especially during the study of moral philosophy. It is difficult for those who know Dr. Wayland only by his writings, valuable as some of them are, to understand how he made so deep an impression on his pupils. He was not a great scholar ”

“ I prefer to stay a free lance in the fighting ranks!"
"And do you think the fellows, who want to run and have an ax to grind, do best for the Nation?" asked Eleanor. "Why wouldn't you run if the people demanded it?"
"There is the plain brutal fact that it takes money," explained Wayland. "I haven't the ambition; and I have less money. I haven't more than will set me up on some little one-horse irrigation farm. Oh, I know some fool had been filling him up about my having rich friends East, who would put up money for this campaign and finance a new kind of newspaper for the Valley! ”

“ Before entering, I must give the reader an idea of the internal arrangement of the noble old Hall, [78] which in beauty and size excels most of the college halls in Oxford or Cambridge. At the east end is a raised dais, on which is the “High table,” where the Dons dine in Election week. Along each side are rows of tables. Those on the north side, allotted to the Præfects, were called, “Tub, Middle, and Junior Mess,” respectively. The others, when occupied, being each presided over by a Candlekeeper, were called respectively senior, second, and so on to junior “End.” ”

“ There are banners, so fresh in their hues, and so untattered, that I think they must be modern, suspended along beneath the cornice of the hall, and exhibiting Wolsey's arms and badges. On the whole, this is a perfect sight, in its way.
Next to the hall there is a withdrawing-room, more than seventy feet long, and twenty-five feet high. The walls of this apartment, too, are covered with ancient tapestry, of allegorical design, but more faded than that of the hall. There is also a stained-glass window; and a marble statue of Venus on a couch, very lean and not very beautiful ”

“ There stands the old hall; and yonder is a row of four or five raw-looking, new brick cottages, such as one sees spring up at the edges of great factory towns, by whole streets at once, almost in a night—like Jonah's gourd. They hold nothing—they cost nothing—they are made out of nothing—they look nothing—and they come to nothing—as a satirical friend of mine says, who is satisfied with nothing. If it were not that one knows how very indifferently the common people were housed in those old days when the hall was in its glory, it really is enough to make one dissatisfied with the whole thing. ”

“ The statutes of New College had not made any provision for the admission of commensales, but William of Waynflete, in drawing up the statutes of Magdalen, was the first definitely to{194} recognise the system that had grown up by which men who were not on the foundation lived as members of the college. Waynflete limited the number of non-foundationers to twenty. They were to live at the charges of their own kindred ”

“ The college was to consist of a provost, 10 priests, 6 choristers; 25 poor and needy scholars, 25 almsmen and a magister informatory “to teach gratis the scholars and all others coming from any part of England to learn grammar.” Only two fellows, 4 choristers, 2 scholars and 2 almsmen were named in the charter and probably were only colour ably members. Waynflete was not, as alleged (Dict. Nat. Biog.) , named a fellow. On the 5th of March 1440–1441, the king endowed the college out of alien priories with some £500 a year, almost exactly the amount of the original endowment of Winchester. ”

“ The Founder’s Tower Magdalen College
be taught Logic and Sophistry by the college lecturers, whilst three “Readers,” in Natural and Moral Philosophy and Theology, chosen out of the University, were to provide the higher teaching in Arts and Theology. And all this teaching, in Theology and Philosophy and also in Grammar, was to be given free to all comers at the expense of the college.
In 1481 Waynflete, full of pride in his new foundation, “the most noble and rich structure in the learned world,” persuaded Edward IV. to come over from Woodstock and see it. ”

“ They slipped into the dark silent courtyard, and, flitting across it, entered the house. Two servants lay stretched asleep in the hall, and in a little room to the left of the door they could hear others talking; but no one looked out. Fortune could not have aided them better. With a little laugh of relief and thankfulness madame tripped up the grand staircase and under the great lamp which lit it and the hall. ”

“ Here spoke the citizen of London and the man of the modern world. In much the same way Waynflete, himself ex-Headmaster of Winchester and first Headmaster of Eton, in his foundation of Magdalen College School, carried on by him from 1448 though not finally endowed and settled till 1480, provided by his statutes for the demyes being trained in grammar “that they might go out and teach others,” and he particularly ordered that they were not prematurely to be made sophisters. ”

“ Every mile was a mile deeper into the eternity of her love . . . he knew that; but he also knew that the fulfilment of duty meant renunciation. Was it the cry of the flesh? Wayland scoffed the thought. Flesh in the frontier West doesn't take the trouble to wear fig-leaf signs. It is blazoning, bold, unashamed, known for what it is; but there is no confusion of values. He who wills takes what he wills and wears the mark. Wayland had been long enough away from the confused values of more civilized lands to know belladonna eyes from starlight; and he knew what his being craved was not carrion. ”

“ It is intended that the Hall shall do its utmost to secure for its residents opportunities for religious and social work, and for the study of social problems, such as are possessed by the residents at Toynbee Hall or those at Oxford House. There will be a certain number of rooms in the Hall which can be used for social purposes, for lectures, for recreative and continuation classes and so on. Though the Hall itself is in one of the West Central Squares, it is surrounded on three sides by districts crowded with poor. ”

“ As the general is an old bachelor, and an old beau, and there are several ladies at the Hall, especially his quondam flame Lady Jocelyne, he is put rather upon his gallantry. He commonly passes some time, therefore, at his toilette, and takes the field at a late hour every morning, with his hair dressed out and powdered, and a rose in his button-hole. ”

“ The wide area round the hall, with its untidy grass and the miserable iron fence, gives a singularly forlorn appearance to a beautiful and uncommon-looking building. It is supposed that the famous master-builder, “Richard de Gaynisburgh,” was born at Gainsborough, with whom, then styled “Richard de Stow,” the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln in 1306 contracted “to attend to and employ other masons under him for the new work,” at the time when the new additional east end or Angel Choir as well as the upper parts of the great tower and the transepts were being built. ”

“ That's what I wanted to talk about to Wayland. He's the winning horse! We haven't either of us got anything left to lose but some frayed convictions, and by God," (this time, he did not notice he had said it) , "we'd invest 'em in an independent for all we're worth! I'm hot; and I've an idea Wayland isn't just at milk and water temperature; and the public isn't; and we'd have them! We'd force the other crowd to yell at the top of their voices for reform inside of six months. There's a lot about that Rim Rocks affair even the owners of the sheep don't know ”

“ By the fireside sat Waynflete’s brother, the parson of the parish, and over the chimney, in the light of the candle’s on the card-table, was the picture of his eldest son and heir. The squire and the vicar were big, powerful men, with fair, bushy brows, and faces that told of rough riding and coarse living, hard weather and hard drinking, the only mark of their gentle blood that frank expectation of deference and service which marks a ruling class. The keener, thinner face of their visitor had the opposite look, that of a man accustomed to defer, and perhaps to flatter, for his livelihood. ”

“ The treasury is a small room coeval with the foundation, with a curious high pitched ashlar roof. The other buildings, which are of various dates, are mainly disposed about four quadrangles, including that of St Alban’s Hall, which, possibly dating from the early part of the 15th century, was incorporated with Merton College in 1882. The college hall retains an original door with fine ironwork, but the building is in great part modernized. A beautiful garden lies east of the buildings, being separated from the meadows to the south by part of the old city wall. ”