_Eccentric Preaching_[13].--Mr. Tavernour, of Water Eaton, in
Oxfordshire, high sheriff of the county, came, it is said, in pure
charity, not out of ostentation, and gave the scholars at Oxford a
sermon, in St. Mary's Church, with his gold chain about his neck, and
his sword by his side, and accosted them thus: "Arriving at the Mount of
St. Mary's, in the Stony stage, where I now stand, I have brought you
some fine biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, and carefully
conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit,
and the sweet swallows of salvation."
[13] In the fifteenth century.