He made a courteous response, though in exceedingly
decayed and broken accents, being now eighty-six years old, and gave us
free leave to inspect everything that was to be seen. This hall was
erected two years after the Restoration of Charles II., and has been the
scene, doubtless, of many ceremonials and high banquetings since that
period; and, among other illustrious personages, Queen Victoria has
honored it with her presence. Thence we went into several recitation or
lecture rooms in various parts of the buildings; but they were all of an
extreme plainness, very unlike the rich old Gothic libraries and chapels
and halls which we saw in Oxford. Indeed, the contrast between this
Scotch severity and that noble luxuriance, and antique majesty, and rich
and sweet repose of Oxford, is very remarkable, both within the edifices
and without. But we saw one or two curious things,--for instance, a
chair of mahogany, elaborately carved with the arms of Scotland and other
devices, and having a piece of the kingly stone of Scone inlaid in its
seat. This chair is used by the Principal on certain high occasions, and
we ourselves, of course, sat down in it. Our guide assigned to it a date
preposterously earlier than could have been the true one, judging either
by the character of the carving or by the fact that mahogany has not been
known or used much more than a century and a half.
Afterwards he led us into the Divinity Hall, where, he said, there were
some old portraits of historic people, and among them an original picture
of Mary, Queen of Scots.
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