The vases are really splendid,--one of them two
feet high, and richly ornamented. It will hold five or six bottles of
wine, and he said that it had been filled, and, I believe, sent round as
a loving-cup at some of his entertainments. He cordially enjoys these
things, and his genuine benevolence produces all this excellent
hospitality. . . . . But Bennoch proposed a walk, and we set forth. We
rambled pretty extensively about the streets, sometimes seeing the shapes
of old edifices dimly and doubtfully, it being an overcast night; or
catching a partial view of a gray wall, or a pillar, or a Gothic archway,
by lamplight. . . . . The clock had some time ago struck eleven, when we
were passing under a long extent of antique wall and towers, which were
those of Baliol College. Mr. D------ led us into the middle of the
street, and showed us a cross, which was paved into it, on a level with
the rest of the road. This was the spot where Latimer and Ridley and
another Bishop were martyred in Bloody Mary's time. There is a memorial
to them in another street; but this, where I set my foot at nearly
midnight, was the very spot where their flesh burned to ashes, and their
bones whitened. It has been a most beautiful morning, and I have seen
few pleasanter scenes than this street in which we lodge, with its
spacious breadth, its two rows of fine old trees, with sidewalks as wide
as the whole width of some streets; and, on the opposite side, the row of
houses, some of them ancient with picturesque gables, partially disclosed
through the intervening foliage.
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