which, though not one of the great colleges, is as old as any of them,
and looks exceedingly venerable. We were here received by a friend of
Mr. Spiers, in his academic cap, but without his gown, which is not worn,
except in term time. He is a very civil gentleman, and showed us some
antique points of architecture,--such as a Norman archway, with a passage
over it, through which the Queen of Charles I. used to go to chapel; and
an edifice of the thirteenth century, with a stone roof, which is
considered to be very curious.
How ancient is the aspect of these college quadrangles! so gnawed by time
as they are, so crumbly, so blackened, and so gray where they are not
black,--so quaintly shaped, too, with here a line of battlement and there
a row of gables; and here a turret, with probably a winding stair inside;
and lattice-windows, with stone mullions, and little panes of glass set
in lead; and the cloisters, with a long arcade, looking upon the green or
pebbled enclosure. The quality of the stone has a great deal to do with
the apparent antiquity. It is a stone found in the neighborhood of
Oxford, and very soon begins to crumble and decay superficially, when
exposed to the weather; so that twenty years do the work of a hundred, so
far as appearances go. If you strike one of the old walls with a stick,
a portion of it comes powdering down. The effect of this decay is very
picturesque, and is especially striking, I think, on edifices of classic
architecture, such as some of the Oxford colleges are, greatly enriching
the Grecian columns, which look so cold when the outlines are hard and
distinct. The Oxford people, however, are tired of this crumbly stone,
and when repairs are necessary, they use a more durable material, which
does not well assort with the antiquity into which it is intruded.
Mr. E------ showed us the library of Merton College. It occupies two
sides of an old building, and has a very delightful fragrance of ancient
books. The halls containing it are vaulted, and roofed with oak, not
carved and ornamented, but laid flat, so that they look very like a grand
and spacious old garret. All along, there is a row of alcoves on each
side, with rude benches and reading-desks, in the simplest style, and
nobody knows how old. The books look as old as the building. The more
valuable were formerly chained to the bookcases; and a few of them have
not yet broken their chains. It was a good emblem of the dark and
monkish ages, when learning was imprisoned in their cloisters, and
chained in their libraries, in the days when the schoolmaster had not yet
gone abroad. Mr. E------ showed us a very old copy of the Bible; and a
vellum manuscript, most beautifully written in black-letter and
illuminated, of the works of Duns Scotus, who was a scholar of Merton
College.
He then showed us the chapel, a large part of which has been renewed and
ornamented with pictured windows and other ecclesiastical splendor, and
paved with encaustic tiles, according to the Puseyite taste of the day;
for Merton has adopted the Puseyite doctrines, and is one of their chief
strongholds in Oxford. If they do no other good, they at least do much
for the preservation and characteristic restoration of the old English
churches; but perhaps, even here, there is as much antiquity spoiled as
retained. In the portion of the chapel not yet restored, we saw the rude
old pavement, inlaid with gravestones, in some of which were brasses,
with the figures of the college dignitaries, whose dust slumbered
beneath; and I think it was here that I saw the tombstone of
Anthony-a-Wood, the gossiping biographer of the learned men of Oxford.
From the chapel we went into the college gardens, which are very
pleasant, and possess the advantage of looking out on the broad verdure
of Christ Church meadows and the river beyond. We loitered here awhile,
and then went to Mr. ------'s rooms, to which the entrance is by a fine
old staircase. They had a very comfortable, aspect,--a wainscoted parlor
and bedroom, as nice and cosey as a bachelor could desire, with a good
collection of theological books; and on a peg hung his gown, with a red
border about it, denoting him to be a proproctor. He was kind enough to
order a lunch, consisting of bread and cheese, college ale, and a certain
liquor called "Archdeacon." . . . . We ate and drank, . . . . and,
bidding farewell to good Mr. E------, we pursued our way to the