same. and yet he had spent a week there, diligently occupied in its exploration, and had been fortunate, as he said, in having Heber for his guide, "who was intimately acquainted with all, both animate and inanimate, that is worth knowing." Our rough general survey will then, we hope, hardly be complained of on account of incompleteness, or of some indistinctness of detail. We must first visit the famous High Street-Oxford's pride-a place which never fails to surprise the stranger with its beauty, and one which no amount of intimacy with ever lessens in our estimation. Had it been designed merely with a view to the general effect, the result could not have been better. The great and rich variety of buildings-colleges and churches mingling with modern shops and old-fashioned dwellings,-and the diversity of the styles in which they are constructed are brought, by the gentle curvature of the street, into combination and contrast in the most pleasing manner. Nothing can well surpass the way in which the splendid architectural array opens gradually upon the passenger who descends it from Magdalen Bridge. Well may the poet celebrate governed by its fellows in accordance with the statutes 66 And now let us look round the city, and note a few of the more noticeable features. Even these, however, are too numerous to stay long in examining. So large is the number of collegiate buildings, and specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, and so interesting often are their contents, that weeks might be spent in their examination, and volumes would be required to convey a satisfactory notion of them. Wordsworth, on looking over the city, exclaims "Ye spires of Oxford! domes and towers! Gardens and groves! Your presence overpowers The soberness of reason." And an observer, no less skilful than Sir Walter Scott, wrote to a friend after his first visit: "The time has been much too short to convey to me separate and distinct ideas of all the variety of wonders which I My memory only at present furnishes a grand but indistinct picture of towers, and chapels, and oriels, and vaulted halls, and libraries, and paintings:" saw. "The stream-like windings of that glorious street." There is none other like it in England. Even Scott, in describing his " own romantic town" in the 'Provincial Antiquities,' when declaring that "it cannot be denied that the High Street of Edinburgh is the most magnificent in Great Britain,"—even he is forced to except, perhaps, the High Street of Oxford;" while Dr. Waagen (Art and Artists in England'), without any hesitation, asserts that "the High Street of Oxford has not its equal in the whole world." Be that as it may, it is a most noble street; and its general proportions are such as most favourably exhibit the magnifi. cence of its edifices. It is of sufficient breadth✶ to preserve an air of dignity, without being so wide as to cause the stately structures on either side to appear dwarfed ; while the easy curvature brings the varied architectural forms and styles into opposition, and prevents anything like formality. Our sketch (Cut, No. 2) is taker. from near Queen's College, part of which is seen at the right-hand corner. The college beyond is that of All Souls. University College is at the left-hand corner. The highly-wrought spire seen above All Souls' College is that of the University Church; the church lower down the street is that of All Saints Generally the quiet of the street well accords with its academic appearance; the stillness being only broken by a few gownsmen, and two or three straggling passengers stepping leisurely along. Its scrupulously clean look too, is generally noticed by the visitor. Yet a century back it must have been rather remarkable for the want of both these qualities. In the "Gentleman and Lady's Pocket Companion for Oxford, 1717," it is said that the butcher-market is held in the High Street. and "greatly diminishes the beauty of it:" and it also states, that "another great nuisance is the dirt which * High Street is 2,038 feet long and 85 feet broad. people bring out of their houses, and lay in the middle | feel little inclined to linger over the exterior of the of the street in heaps every morning." The High Street is the eastern and principal entrance to the city. The northern entrance is also very fine; the part called St. Giles's being a sort of "place" some two hundred and fifty feet broad and two thousand feet long, planted with noble trees, and having on one side the extensive buildings of St. John's College, and the University Galleries on the other, while Magdalen Church and the Martyrs' Memorial are directly in front. The southern entrance-that by which railway passengers enter the city over Folly Bridge is the least imposing. The most noticeable thing here was an ancient sort of gatehouse, known as Friar Bacon's Study, which used to stand on the old bridge. To the tradition which identified it as the study of the redoubted friar, was appended a prediction that it would fall whenever a man more learned than Roger passed under it. It remained, nevertheless, quite unshaken till near the close of the last century—a period when Oxford was in a wonderfully enlightened condition. Then, as is reported, certain senior fellows began to quake; and it being found very inconvenient to make the long, roundabout passage that had become necessary whenever they had occasion to go beyond the city in that direction,-it being feared, too, that in some fit of cogitation of more than ordinary depth, some one of them might even pass under it,-it was thought advisable to remove the dangerous structure. Some thirty years later the bridge itself was pulled down, and the present one built in its place. The western entrance to the town has rather a singular appearance, from the road being carried across the meadows on a raised causeway. This road is known as the Seven Bridges, from its passing over the seven streams into which the Thames here separates. The immediate approach to the town in this direction is very mean. It may be as well, in looking a little more particularly at the principal buildings, to commence with those belonging to the University. Of these the largest and most important is that called the Schools, which was so named from its being originally intended as the place in which the University lectures in the various faculties should be given. The names of these still remain in gold letters over the several doorways; but the building itself has long been applied to other purposes, only natural philosophy and medicine being now taught in it. The chief part of the upper story is appropriated to the Bodleian Library and Picture Gallery: the lower part is used for the exhibition of the Arundel Marbles, the preservation of University records, and for examination for degrees, and the transaction of University business. The building consists of a very large quadrangle, the external front of which is 175 feet in length. The first stone was laid in 1613; and the style is rather fanciful than elegant, as will be supposed when it is mentioned that a chief beauty (and one which the cicerone never fails to point out) is that the tower "consists of the five orders of architecture." If, however, the visitor should building, he will find treasures inside enough to occupy the longest time he can devote to them. A doorway at the left corner of the quadrangle is the entrance to the Bodleian Library. This noble library owes its foundation to the munificence and the zeal of Sir Thomas Bodley. When he retired from the public service in 1573, and took up his abode in Oxford, he discovered that of the public library which Humphrey, surnamed the good Duke of Gloucester, had founded in the fifteenth century, not above three or four volumes were left. To the task of refounding the library, Bodley devoted the remainder of his life. His own library, which he had accumulated on the Continent at an expense of £10,000—a sum very much larger in those days than at present--served as the nucleus of the collection; and to its increase he zealously urged the noble and wealthy to contribute. His efforts were abundantly successful; and though he did not live to see the building completed which he began as soon as he found the number of books would require a new house to contain them, he yet lived long enough to behold a library collected such as took rank among the very first in the kingdom, and a building rising worthy to contain it. In subsequent times additions have been made by various benefactors, on a scale worthy of the prince-like founder. Whole collections, often of a most costly character, have been presented; and endless have been the gifts of a lesser grade, both in printed books and manuscripts. The University too, has, for the last sixty-seven years, annually set aside a considerable sum for the purchase of books; while, by Act of Parliament, a copy of every new work has to be forwarded to the library by the publisher. By all these means the Bodleian Library has grown to be one of the finest public libraries in existence; and in some departments-that of Oriental Literature, for example-it is probably unrivalled. The management of the library is creditable to the liberality of the University. Literary men, whether belonging to the University or not, are freely admitted to the use of the books, upon proper introduction; while the rooms are open to the public three days in each week. Some of the most curious articles are exposed to general view in glass cases, and will be found interesting, else, perhaps, the mere outsides of books are not commonly very attractive. Still, even in the rooms appropriated to books, there will be found much that will repay the visit; to say nothing of the portraits of eminent literary men that hang upon the walls, or the curious ceilings of the rooms, or the arrangement of the presses which contain the books, and which, to those not accustomed to college libraries, have an air of novelty. From the Library we ascend the stairs to the Picture Gallery, which occupies the three upper stories of the quadrangle. The pictures consist for the most part of portraits, the chief interest of which arises from their representing men of literary eminence, or benefactors to the University. Some of them, however, are valuable as works of art. Several The are by Holbein; one or two are attributed to Jansen; | defaced or the painted windows broken, must have had Vandyke, Lily, Kneller, Reynolds, Phillips, and Wilkie a splendid appearance. It was built in 1480, and was are the painters of others. Among those by Holbein, one of the richest specimens of the architecture of the portraits of Henry VIII., as well of his noble that age. During the religious troubles, however, it victims, the Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas More, was greatly injured, so that in the reign of Edward VI. will attract attention; as will also those of Luther and it was in a state of dilapidation; the lead was stript Erasmus, of Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell, though a from the roof, the fittings were stolen from the interior, connoisseur would, perhaps, hesitate before he ac- and nettles and brambles grew about it. During the quiesced in every instance either in the authenticity of civil wars it was used as a storehouse for corn. It the portrait or the genuineness of the master. Among was not till the beginning of the eighteenth century the more interesting of those which bear the name of that it was restored to its present condition. Vandyke are those of Charles and his queen, of Laud, upper room, which was used for Duke Humphrey's and of the earls of Strafford, Falkland, and Pembroke. library, now contains a portion of the Bodleian. From Ben Jonson, Dryden, Cowley, Addison, Swift, Prior, the Divinity School a door leads into the Convocation and Locke, may be taken as samples of the literary House, where the members of convocation meet for the men whose likenesses adorn the walls. The portrait transaction of the University business, and the conof Handel is said to be the only one for which he sat. ferring of degrees. The building itself has nothing Paine, the Architect, instructing his Son,' is a very remarkable about it-only at a convocation would it pleasing example of the genius of Sir Joshua Rey- be worth seeing. nolds. The two full-length portraits of William IV. and Queen Adelaide, by Wilkie, are by no means favourable specimens of his powers. One of the latest additions to the gallery is the large portrait, by Lucas, of the Duke of Wellington, in his robes, as Chancellor of the University. In the centre room are a few casts from Grecian statues, and also some original busts. One of the best of these is Chantrey's bust of the Duke of Wellington: there is another, by the same artist, of the late Dean of Westminster, Dr. Ireland. Those of Newton and Sir Christopher Wren are by Wilton and Bacon. One of the most striking objects in this room is a brass statue of the Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University from 1616 to 1630. It is the work of Le Soeur, but is traditionally said to have been designed by Rubens. Along the centre of the rooms are numerous models of the ancient temples of Greece and Italy; a very curious one of a subterraneous palace in Guzerat; an elaborate model of the Cathedral of Calcutta; and two, of extremely beautiful execution, of the Eleanor Cross at Waltham, and the Martyrs' Memorial at Oxford. Among the "rarities" in the room are a chair made out of the ship in which Drake sailed round the world, and the veritable lantern of Guido Fawkes! In a room on the basement story are the celebrated Arundel Marbles. They consist of inscribed stones, brought mostly from Smyrna, and were part of the collection made by the Earl of Arundel in the seventeenth century. Their chief value is, of course, for students of classic antiquities, but they are otherwise interesting, as being a part of the earliest collection of ancient sculpture brought to this country, and as having done much to excite the study of antiquity in England. Selden wrote a description of the Earl's collection; his own stores are now deposited along with them. Close by the Picture Gallery is the Divinity School, wherein the exercises for degrees in divinity are performed. It is a large and noble room, and in its original state, before the elaborate carvings were The buildings we have been noticing are all united with each other, and most of the other University buildings are close at hand. The Theatre will of course be visited. It is a large semi-classic structure, of the style that Jones and Wren made so popular in England. It was erected under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren, who is said to have taken the ground plan from the theatre of Marcellus at Rome. The interior area is 80 feet by 70; and the roof which spans it, unsupported by a single pillar, is one of the largest roofs in existence which is borne merely by the walls. There is a tradition at King's College, Cambridge, that Sir Christopher used annually to visit their famous chapel in order to study the manner in which its ponderous roof is hung aloft; but if so, he did not succeed in discovering the secret of its stability: this roof at Oxford, when it had stood little more than a century, seemed "nodding to its fall," and it had to be rebuilt in 1802, while that at King's is still as firm as though it were but of yesterday's erection. The Theatre is sometimes called Sheldon's Theatre, from having been built at the expense of that prelate, who paid £15,000 for its construction, and gave a further sum of £2,000 to be laid out in estates, the rents of which are appropriated to its repair. It is used for the public ceremonials of the University, for which it is admirably adapted. will contain above three thousand persons, and the vast space being entirely unobstructed, permits all the proceedings to be freely seen. The room, too, is a very splendid one, and richly painted and gilt. The ceiling is intended to represent painted canvass strained over gilt cordage, after the fashion of a Roman amphitheatre. On great occasions the area is occupied by masters of arts and strangers, the latter, perhaps, in brilliant uniforms; on the semicircle at the northern end sit the University magnates and noblemen in their robes of scarlet or purple, and gold; the lower galleries are filled with ladies, in all the glory of beauty-and full dress; while the upper galleries are crowded by undergraduates:-as will be conceived, a brave sight. It Some senior fellows love yet to talk of its appearance | Dr. Radcliffe, who bequeathed the sum of £40,000 for when the allied monarchs were entertained in it in the purpose; to which he added an endowment of 1814. The most memorable of its latest gala days is £350 a year for the purchase of books, the salary of the visit of the Queen and Prince Albert in 1841; to a librarian, and the repairs of the building. The which may perhaps be added the entertainment of the library and collections are to be especially connected savans in 1847, on occasion of the meeting of the with the study of natural philosophy, whence it used British Association at Oxford. For many years after to be sometimes called the Physic Library. On no the erection of the Theatre the University press was account should the stranger omit to visit the Radcliffe. worked in the roof, and long after the printing was By the door is a bust of the founder, by Rysbrach. done in the building called the Clarendon, all books Another, with the comical physiognomy of the archiprinted by the University bore the words "E Theatro tect (which looks as if Hogarth might have moulded Sheldoniano." The Clarendon Press stands just by the it), stands at the top of the staircase. The interior Theatre it is a neat building, which was erected out of the library is light and graceful, though perhaps of the profits of the University edition of Clarendon's not very appropriate. A gallery, supported by Ionic History, whence its name; Vanbrugh was the architect. pilasters, is carried round the room. The dome, which It was used as the University printing office for above is forty-six feet in height from the floor, is divided into a century, but when, in consequence of the great compartments, and, like the walls, elaborately ornaincrease in the printing business, the present largemented in stucco. The contents of the room deserv: building was erected, the old Clarendon was of course applied to other uses. The Museums of Geology and Mineralogy, collected by Doctors Buckland and Simmons, are now deposited in it: they are open to the public. At a little distance from the Clarendon is the Ashmoleian Museum, so called after that odd compound of learning and quackery, Elias Ashmole, who presented his museum to the University. In its former state it was a choice collection of 'rarities;' including all kinds of marvellous relics, from the head of the Dodo down to a very curious shoe made of more than a thousand pieces of leather.' Ashmole's collection was the Tradescant Museum so famous in its day, swelled by the addition of coins, manuscripts, and all sorts of oddities accumulated by himself. The library of Lilly, the notorious astrologer, is among its treasures. Within these few years it has undergone a careful rearrangement; the worthless rarities are dismissed or removed out of sight; judicious selections have been made of new objects of natural history, and without becoming a mere dry and formally-arranged collection of scientific display, it is now rendered instructive to the naturalist and antiquary, and interesting to the general visitor. 6 In the centre of the square of which the Schools form one side, stands the Radcliffe Library, a building which presents a curious contrast to the surrounding edifices. The building itself is supported upon arches and surmounted by a dome. The basement consists of a double octagon; the upper part is round, and has attached Corinthian columns. Not much can be said either for its grandeur or beauty when seen close at hand, but the lofty dome is a striking object from a distance, and adds a pleasing variety to the general view of the "city of spires and pinnacles." Gibbs was the architect; and the building occupied from 1737 to 1749. Whatever others may think of the pile, the architect himself was very well satisfied with his work; of which he published an elaborate series of elevations and working plates, under the title of 'Bibliotheca Radclivinia,' fol., 1747. The building was founded by the eccentric but eminent physician, a leisurely examination. Among the works of art are casts of some of the most celebrated antique statues, which are so arranged as very considerably to heighten the general effect of the room; but of more value to the visitor are the few original antiquities, such as the marble candelabra found in the ruins of the Emperor Adrian's villa. There are also some busts of eminent naturalists, the first place among which is due, perhaps, to that of Cuvier, by the younger David. Among the more generally interesting of the objects connected with the particular purpose of the library, are the large and choice collections of Italian and other marbles, which display a variety that not a little surprises a novice; and some excellent models, illustrative of geology and physical geography. From the interior you pass to the balustrade which surrounds the dome on the exterior, from whence you may obtain an excellent view of the city. It was for this, as much as for the library itself, that we counselled the stranger not to omit visiting the Radcliffe. The building stands nearly in the centre of the city, and from it you have a panoramic view of Oxford, such as should not be missed. The marvellous assemblage of academic architecture can here be fairly understood; the extent and variety are perceived, and their positions and connection become clear; while the height, although quite sufficient to let the whole of the city, and a good portion of the suburbs, be seen, is yet not so great as to produce that very unsatisfactory appearance common in what are called bird's-eye views. The buildings we have been noticing are placed close together: the other University buildings are situate at some distance from them. The Radcliffe Observatory stands a short distance north of the city : the University Press is only just within the limits. Neither of these shall we visit. The former has nothing in its exterior to attract the stranger, who is, of course, not admitted inside. The University Printing-office is a very large building, having a frontage of 250 feet, and projecting wings 288 feet long; and it has some architectural pretensions. The erection of it was commenced in 1826. A press-room in the south wing is |