Giles Street,
where rooms had been taken for us. Durham, the sculptor, is likewise of
the party.
After establishing ourselves at these lodgings, we walked forth to take a
preliminary glimpse of the city, and Mr. Hall, being familiar with the
localities, served admirably as a guide. If I remember aright, I spoke
very slightingly of the exterior aspect of Oxford, as I saw it with
J----- during an hour or two's stay here, on my way to Southampton (to
meet S----- on her return from Lisbon). I am bound to say that my
impressions are now very different; and that I find Oxford exceedingly
picturesque and rich in beauty and grandeur and in antique stateliness.
I do not remember very particularly what we saw,--time-worn fronts of
famous colleges and halls of learning everywhere about the streets, and
arched entrances; passing through which, we saw bits of sculpture from
monkish hands,--the most grotesque and ludicrous faces, as if the
slightest whim of these old carvers took shape in stone, the material
being so soft and manageable by them; an ancient stone pulpit in the
quadrangle of Maudlin College (Magdalen), one of only three now extant in
England; a splendid--no, not splendid, but dimly magnificent--chapel,
belonging to the same College, with painted windows of rare beauty, not
brilliant with diversified hues, but of a sombre tint. In this chapel
there is an alabaster monument,--a recumbent figure of the founder's
father, as large as life,--which, though several centuries old, is as
well preserved as if fresh from the chisel.
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