Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-22
A DAY AT OXFORD.
POINTS OF INTEREST Al THE RE.
N0wNRD UNIVERSITY.
The City at Night-The University's
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of Some
OF the Colleges-Etc.
rFor the REcoRD-UNIos.l ]

through beautifully diversified country.
brought me, late in the evening" to the
city once called Oxenford, name derived
either from ford over the isis used by
oxen, or from corruption of Ousenford,
the ford over the Ouse-the latter being
the original designation of the river. One
only half sees this magnificent university
unless he sees it as Scott recommends us to
see Melrose Abbey.
He who would see fair Oxford Alright,
Should visit it by the pale moonlight"
My room was just in sight of
st. Mary's church, and the effect
of the soft radiance falling on the
spire and the entire structure is simply
exquisite, embodying something almost
| like fairy dream. OF the purely ecclesi-
astical edifces in Oxford this is unques-
tionably the most magnificent No one
| can tire going in md about it, | had met
at Malvern bright young man, who was
Vicar to the Duke of Marlborough, and to
| him | was indebted for suggestions as to
how to get about and one or two cordial
notes of introduction. | found the spot
where Amy Robsart, the unhappy wife of
| the Earl of Leicester was buried in the
| church, and the old seat in it which Gran
mer occupied prior to his execution. Like
most ancient buildings of this kind the va
rious parts have been built at different
times, the chanceI alone dating
as far back as the reign of Edward |.
Having but little while to stay, / was up
| early in the morning and you may be sure
made the most of my time. / took
breakfast at the Angel Hotel, near Queens
College, started in 1858 by Jacob, a Jew.
where everything was clean and palatable
and well served. AS | scudded along, with
fierce appetite, l hastily took in the Crown
Inn, now a private house, which Shake
speare visited once year, and KetteI Hall,
where DR.. johnson resided for five weeks
during his visit to the city. What shall
say of High street.-the pride of Oxford,
so full Of surprises, and which no amount
of intimacy with ever lessons in our esti-
nation? | saw it in leafess month, vet
in a moment l was in sympathy with the
poet who celebrates-
"The stream-like wiDdings OF that glorious
street."
The great street of Edinburgh
and the broad avenue of Ohio's pic |
turesque city are worthy of all praise, but |
| can conceive nothing to compare with |
Oxford's great gateway, if l may call it |
such, which, however, only measures some |
5000 feet in length. Descending it from |
Magdalen Bridge nothing can well surpass |
the way in which the splendid architect |
ural array opens gradually upon the view.
To attempt fathoming the antiquity of |
the university has bai1ed all scholars. |
That school of distinction existed there
in the earliest periods there can be no !
doubt so early that Pope Martin in a |
deed dated S02 describes it as an |
cient." To any one interested in |
the principal events which cluster around |
this venerable foundation, and. in |
fact, the stirring epochs of its entire his
tory, the best work is Dean Stanley's, who |
graphically describes the city as "a mass of
towers, pinnacles and spires, rising in the
bosom Of the valley, from groves which
hide all buildings but such as are conse-
Grated to some wise and holy purpose"
Before alluding to the colleges constituting
the university let us view at the northern
end of the town the Martyrs Memorial,
which, l imagine, in the main must have
been the basis of the design of the Kew
monument, Just erected in Golden Gate
Park. 1t is very beautiful, and tie build
ings about and all the surroundings add
very much to its impressiveness. The
style is Decorated and the details seem per-
feet. The statues of Latimer, Ridley and
Cranmer are inclosed midway, like in the
Key, though, unlike his, the figures are
standing erect instead of seated. 1t was
long in contemplation, the first stone be-
ing laid in 1871, exactly three centuries
after Cranmer's English Bible was finished
and authorized "by royal au. ..oritv"
to be used The colleges are
nineteen in number, and the halls
five. Then there are other distinct build
ings, such as " The Schools" once used for
lectures now appropriated to the Bodleian
Library and Picture Gallery-the lower
story for the exhibition of the Arundel
marbles and the preservation of the Uni
versity records. The library, founded
toward the end of the sixteenth century.
is most rich in all lore, especially Oriental
literature. Close by is the Divinity School.
bullt III 14S0, and not far eff the theater
erected in 1869, under the superintendent =.
OF Sir Christopher Wren, in imitation of
Marcellus' at Rome. | would love to tell
you something of the Clarendon press
erected in I'LL, and the splendid work /;
shown me there; of the Ashmolean Mu
scum, made up of oddities and rarities; of /,
the Radcliffe Library, and the great piv
;ician who endowed it; of the Obserya i.
.ory, which is pigmy compared to the :
Lick; of the Infirmary, secured with sand
md water every day; of the newer Uni
versity Press, built in 1880, from profits
accumulated by the printing business of
he ITpi (a1lariar o,,d Al
about it rich in busts and statues and por-
rats and all sorts of ornamentation of :
he splendid new museum near the parks.
md last of all, the Botanic Garden founded 5
oy Henry DAnvers, Earl of Dandy. in
1862, and occupying upwards of five acres !.
If ground; but | must hasten to the close
n briefly alluding to the colleges consti- )
uting this vast University. In architect Y
lral beauty and completeness, the three !
inest unquestionably are: New College !
not very new, however, foT it was founded
n 1880; Christ Church College and Mag
ialen College. No one who has strayed =
long High street will soon forget Uni =
Tersity College, remarkable for its length :
md Its black, weather-beaten front. [ saw a
he rooms occupied by Shelley, who was y
Expelled in 1872 ON account of the bold /"
pinions enunciated in his youthful poem, ),
Queen Nab" DR.. johnson was a fire. =
uent visitor of the Common Room, and u u
gould often drink off three bottles of port. a
avs Boswell, without being the worse ).
or it. The chapel of Baliol Col e
ege is its most notable feature, on Il
ccount of its stateliness and its splendid
Internal decorations. When we come to r
Exeter we gaze with admiration on its
rest front, with its oriel windows and mas Q
i've tower-gateway. Oriel College has its !.
hiefest interest from having enrolled u
lmong its members that great type of the u
English race, Sir Walter Raleigh. and a
augby's sainted patron, DIR. Arnold. At U
Queens College was educated Edward, the a
Black Prince, and later Prince Henry. r
fterwards Henry V. Dean Stanley has Y
lrawn an interesting comparison between !.
he present and past of Queens. You may
till, he says, hear the students summoned
o dinner, as he was, by the sound of s.
and in the hall you may still
ee, as he saw, the fellows sitting all ON e
me side of the table, with the head of the s.