It is now under repair, and there was a great heap of old wood-work and
panelling lying in one of the aisles, which had been stripped away from
some of the ancient pillars, leaving them as good as new. There is a
shrine of a saint, with a wooden canopy over it; and some painted glass,
old and new; and a statue of Cyril Jackson, with a face of shrewdness and
insight; and busts, as mural monuments.
Our next visit was to
MERTON COLLEGE,
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.
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