CHAPTER IX.

Parley tells about Oxford.

THIS is a very handsome city, and famous for its university, which is very ancient, having been founded so early as the reign of Alfred, and its principal buildings were erected between the reign of Henry VI. and that of Queen Elizabeth. Oxford was a place of considerable political importance in the reign of Charles I. Parliaments were summoned to meet there, and it was the last city which that king maintained. Its university is richly endowed, and consists of nineteen or twenty colleges, and four or five halls, containing nearly three thousand students.

If you were to see Oxford, when these students are walking about in their caps and gowns, you would never forget it. The students at one time were much disposed to be thoughtless and wild, breaking out into oper riots with the people of the city, but they behave. better now.

Besides the cathedral, Oxford has about thirteen

D

parish churches; there is, too, a noble market-place and a capital bridge.

I went through University College, the most ancient among them all, and Christ Church. Some of the places seemed rather too gloomy to be shut up in, to study all day long, but many of the walks were delightful. The famous Bodleian Library is at Oxford: I should be sorry to be obliged to read a hundreth part of the books it contains.

I must tell you what happened as I travelled away from Oxford; it will amuse you to know all about it.

When the coach arrived at Henley on Thames, a smart young man with a beautiful spaniel of the King Charles's breed, got up and seated himself opposite me. He had a diamond ring on his finger, and a gold chain across his bosom. Gay, thoughtless, and good humoured, he began to talk very fast, and to hand cigars round to his fellow travellers. I told him that I did not smoke. "Not smoke! well then, take a pinch of snuff," handing me a fine silver box. "I never take snuff." "And why do you not smoke and take snuff?" "Because I can do very well without the one or the

other. It is not wise to increase our wants, and make ourselves dependent on such things." "Well, now, there is the difference! I half empty my snuff-box, and smoke half a dozen cigars, and sometimes a pipe or too, every day of my life.”

He then told me that he was an Oxford scholar, and had offended the heads of his college, and as he would not beg their pardon they had expelled him. He had been spending the night at Henley to keep up his spirits, but had found it a dismal place. "Why, there is not an inn in the town," said he, "that has not a bible in every bedroom, and that has made me as dismal as an owl."

Poor thoughtless young fellow! He had been sent to Oxford to be educated as a clergyman, that he might direct his fellow creatures the way to heaven, and yet the bible being in his bedroom was a trouble to him. I hoped that he would get wiser as he got older. I had no opportunity of inquiring whether what he said about the bible at Henley was true, but I have no doubt it was, and I dropped a word or two that, coming from an old man, might do him good. He shook

me by the hand when he left the coach at Salt Hill, and seemed not at all out of temper with me on account of the little good advice that I had given him.

On went the coach, leaving Windsor Castle a little to the right; we entered London at Hyde Park Corner.

The noise of the carts and carriages almost deafened me; and I was not sorry when the coach put up at an inn, that I was able to get a quiet room to myself.

CHAPTER X.

Description of London. St. Paul's Cathedral. Westminster Abbey.

In the morning I rose betimes, being no lie-a-bed. Now, thinks I, what there is to be seen in London I will see; and sure enough I did, though it took me a long time.

LONDON is the largest city in Europe, and the richest in the world. It contains nearly a million and a half of inhabitants, and is about thirty miles in circum

ference. The river Thames runs through it, and is crossed by several handsome bridges. In the eastern part of the city the merchants transact their business; and in the western part, the rich people have their dwellings.

The streets are crowded with people, houses, and carriages; and you would at first imagine that some great occasion had drawn every body out of their houses; but day after day you would observe the same busy multitude passing and repassing like so many bees.

narrow.

In ancient times London was not nearly so large as it now is. The houses were, in general, badly built of wood and plaster, and the streets were mean and There were not, however, wanting several very handsome buildings, both public and private ; among the former, the old cathedral of St. Paul held the pre-eminence: its steeple is said to have been five hundred and twenty feet high. But, in the reign of Charles II., a dreadful plague, which swept away one hundred thousand persons, was followed by a fire which destroyed almost all the city, consuming four