Oxford - Balliol College

The building of Balliol College, situated next to Trinity College, was undertaken in 1263 by John de Balliol, as a penance for having taken the Bishop of Durham prisoner, the foundation of the college being secured with the help of bequests from his wife in 1282. The present buildings are however 19th century. The library has an outstanding collection of medieval manuscripts. Balliol is traditionally preferred by Scottish students.

Distinguished members of the college have included John Wycliffe, who taught here in 1361; Adam Smith (1723-90), the philosopher and economist, who founded classical political economy; Robert Southey (1774-1843), Poet Laureate, who produced over 100 volumes of poems and ballads; Charles Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), a poet of epics and ballads; and more recently, the prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath, King Olaf of Norway and the novelist Graham Greene (b. 1904).