Transfering from Trinity College Dublin to Magdalen College at Oxford was arguably the event that "made" Oscar Wilde into the popularly depicted, well-dressed Aesthete. To say he flourished under the influence of his tutors and friends John Ruskin (a previous Newdigate winner in 1839) and Walter Pater, who was also J.C. Fletcher's "literary hero." From his freshman year and beyond, he allowed Oxford's influence to shape him into a dapper and aloof dandy with true and obvious literary skill.