known as s creek runs through the city in two branches and you find it in odd places walled in closely by the buildings hung over by little and the like of which i did not see again until i reached there were in the sky as i noticed when i came out of the railway station i was charmed with winding streets and a general air of peace and quiet � but i could not the cathedral anywhere i made my way up high street � which is english for main � and finally found my recommended inn small and dark but in the hands of and consequently well furnished in the matter of food i came out after a time and followed this street to its end passing the famous gate where the used to sink on their knees and in that position pray their way to the cathedral as usual my gave me a world of information but i could not stomach it and preferred to look at the old stones of which the gate was composed wondering that it had endured so long the little that i knew of st and king and and thomas a and came back to me i could not have a at forty called it sacred ground but it was colored at least the romance of history and i have great respect for what people once believed whether it was sensible or not is a city of twenty eight thousand with gas works and and an electric power plant and moving pictures and a but though it has all these and much more of the same kind it nevertheless that something which is pure poetry and makes england exquisite as i look at it now having seen much more of other parts of europe the quality which produces this beauty in england is not so much embodied in the individual as in the race if you look at in other countries you have the feeling at times as if certain individuals had greatly influenced the appearance of a city or a country this is true of paris and and some one seems to have worked out a scheme at some time or other in england i could never detect an individual or public scheme of any kind it all seemed to have grown up like an bed of flowers again i am satisfied that it is the english temperament which at its best the which exists in all these places i noticed it in the towns about where in spite of rain and smoke the same poetic prevailed here in where the architecture dates in its through all of eight centuries you feel the of the english temperament which has produced it to day in the sections of london � and seven kings west and north � you still feel it at work accidentally or instinctively this atmosphere which is common to oxford and it is of a sense of responsibility and cleanliness and religious feeling and strong national and family ties you really feel in england the distinction of the fireside and the family and the fact that a person must always keep a nice face on things however bad they may be the same spirit bird boxes on poles in the yard and lays charming white stone and plants vines to over walls and windows it is a sweet and poetic spirit however dull it may seem by comparison with the brilliant of other here along this little river the came down to the water in some instances the bridges over it were built with the greatest care and although houses lined it on either side for several miles of its it was nevertheless a clean stream i noticed in different places where the walls were quite free of any other marks a giving the picture and the history of a murderer who was wanted by the police in and it came to me in looking at it that he would have a hard time anywhere in england concealing his identity the native horror of disorder and scandal would cause him to be yielded up on the moment in my wanderings which were purely casual and i finally came upon the cathedral which up suddenly through a street under a leaden sky it was like a lovely song rendered with great pathos over a gate of exquisite and endless labor it � two black stone towers rising and into the gray air i looked up to some which gave into what might have been the and saw birds perched just as they should have been the walls originally gray had been turned by time and weather into a soft black which somehow fitted in exquisitely with the haze of the landscape i had a curious sensation of darker and lighter shades of gray � lurking pools of darkness here and there and brightness in spots that became almost silver the a at forty grounds were enclosed in vine covered walls that were nevertheless worked out in harmonious detail of stone an ancient walk of some kind with broken arches that had fallen into decay led away into a green court which by a process of other courts and covered arches gave into the proper i saw an old or of the church walking here in stately meditation and a typical english his trousers fastened about the knee by the useless but came by a few bricks in a there were endless courts it seemed to me surrounded by two story buildings all quaint in design and heaven knows what of the life they seemed very simple to me children played here on the walks and grass worked at vines and fences and occasional workmen appeared � men who i supposed were connected with the which were being made to the as i stood in the of the s house which was in front and to the left of the 