The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-11-06
OXFORD, ENGLAND.
A Revisit to the Great University
Town-Student Life at the Famous
Seat of Learning Buildings
Quaint By-Ways.

Correspondence Of Nec Orleans Picay,tne. ]
There are in this great university town
twenty-five colleges, several schools, be-
sides one or two world-famous libraries
and museums, including the Bodleian hi
brary and the Ashmolean Museum. The
colleges cover the larger part of Oxford,
which, by the way, is city of $4,000 in
habitants, and are generally clustered to-
gether in the heart of the town. Each
college is distinctly separate from the
others, and the particular attractions of
each are usually its chapel, where the
students attend service, its refectory or
dining hall, hall, library, and quadrangle
and cloisters, if it has any. Some of these
colleges are more famous than others,
some are worth days of study for their
beautiful architecture, and some are, to all
intents and purposes, to be seen at a
glance. The buildings are of stone, having
the rich, mellow, and reposeful look that
belongs to buildings of great antiquity, and
the entrance to each is under fine gate
way or opening in the building, which is
in the shape of hollow square. The
court thus formed is termed the quadrangle
or quad, and sometimes the lower floor of
the building will have cloisters, being cor
ridors enclosed in beautiful stone gothic
columns and arches overgrown with ivy.
Tie interior spaces of the court are simply
wide velvety carpets of green grass. In
the quadrangular buildings; which will be
two and three, and not often four, short
Stories high, presenting a great array of
Htle square windows, the students have
their chambers, which they furnish them
selves; then generally in one corner will be
the grand stairway leading to the refectory,
perhaps a private gallery will lead from
this to the chapel, really fine, large, and
noble old church, and in various parts of
the building will be lecture rooms The
students can live pretty much as they
please, and that they do so in more ways
than one is pretty well known to the world
at large They are really under no restric-
tons as to study, and as for their living,
they can make that cheap or expensive,
lust as they please In all of the colleges
except Keble College they take breakfast
and luncheon in their own rooms, and order
from the kitchen just what they please,
separate account being kept for each
student, and the great meal Of the day
(dinner) is taken in much state at s o'clock
at night in the great dining hall, usually a
magnificent hall, famous for its lofty,
groined ceilings, its rich carvings, or its
fine paintings, or all three, to say nothing
of the great men who have occupied 1t
during their Oxford days
Our FIRST visit this morning was paid to
Christ College, the largest in Oxford, and
which was founded in fifteen hundred and
something or other by Cardinal Wolsey,
The chapel belonging to this college is the
Cathedral, noble stone and marble church,
and the refectory is one of the most beauti-
full dining halls in the world. Christ church
has two quadrangles, and, therefore, two
buildings. You enter from the street-a
narrow, winding, little cobble paved street
with the big shoulder Of Pembroke Col
Iege showing just across the way. You
enter from the street, as | was saying,
under fine old gateway cut through the
building, and find yourself at once In the
great space known as Tom Quad. AT the
gateway there is fine tower, in which
hangs a great bell called Tom. Tom is
over 300 years old, weighs 1900 pounds,
and every night at 8 o'clock he tolls 101
times. that having been the original
number of Christ Church students. Tom
Quad, the great quadrangle, is an imposing
place The great square is just like pic
ture of beautiful green grass set In heavy
stone frame, but the stone frame is at IN
teryals here and there broken by fine
arched doorways, or BY doorways like thy
narrow lancet Sits in the wall The court
is more than half as large as Lafayette
Square. in New Orleans, and is one solid
stretch of grass. About it is a broad pave.
ment of white stone, and then the build
ings, over the tops Of which show the
tower of the Cathedral, and there is fine
arched entrance to the church from the
quad. In one corner doorway gives en-
trance to a stone lobby, where flight of
steps lead to the refractory. This lobby
has superb stone roof, fan roof sup
ported by a lovely clustered column spring
Ing from Ine CeulTe Vi tHe HUI. inC o0OhC
stairway, approached by two side flights of
stairs, runs up in the middle of the lobby,
which is lighted by finely carved windows
of stone. At the top of the stairs in a
second lobby we pulled bolt in the wall,
bell tangled, and an usher admitted us,
after fee of ''tuppence each, to the re-
fectory. On the left was an old stone
room-foor, ceiling, walls, apparently built
Of heavy blocks of stone, and furnished
with few oak chests and benches and buff
fets, which the usher said was the place
where the bread and beer were served out
for the students luncheons andsdinners.
The refeetory was as long as am ordinary
church. the ceiling of richly carved oak
dim and far above us, the walls partly of
wood, and down at the further end of the
hall raised platform crossing the entire
width of the room, and at either side a
noble square bow window Of rich stained
glass. The walls were covered with life
size portraits, and down either side ran a
long wooden bench or table, with rows OF
benches in place of chairs.