THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XII. NO. 328.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828. [PRICE 2d.

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ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE.


[Illustration: Oxford Castle]

By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r
Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves
Intire; or, when they would elude her watch,
Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste
Of dark oblivion.

AKENSIDE

Gentle, courteous, and _patient_ reader--to understand the above plan,
it is requisite that you carry your mind's eye back to those troublous
times when men enjoyed no protection, but in opposing force to force;
and to a period when _every man's house was his castle_, though not in
the metaphorical sense we have since been accustomed to apply these
words, viz. to the protection and security of British subjects.

Few portions of our island have been more amply illustrated, by
antiquarians, than OXFORD; and from one of these we learn that a Keep