[From _Life and Letters of John A. Broadus_, by A. T. Robertson
(Philadelphia, 1901)]
We had four and a half hours at Oxford, and spent it with exceeding
great pleasure, and most respectably heavy expense.
At University College we saw a memorial of Sir Wm. Jones, by Flaxman,
which I am sure I shall never forget--worthy of Sir Wm. and worthy of
Flaxman. At Magdalen College we saw the varied and beautiful grounds,
with the Poet's Walk, where Addison loved to stroll. At New College we
visited the famous and beautiful chapel. (New College is now five
hundred years old.) These are the most remarkable of the nineteen
colleges. You know they are entirely distinct establishments, as much
as if a hundred miles apart, and that the University of Oxford is
simply a general organization which gives degrees to the men prepared
by the different colleges. Then we spent one and a half hours at the
famous Bodleian Library, the most valuable (British Museum has the
largest number of books) in the world. Oh, the books, the books--the
early and rare editions, the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle
Ages, the autographs of famous persons, and the portraits, the
portraits of hundreds of the earth's greatest ones. Happy students,
fellows, professors, who have constant access to the Bodleian Library.