"Spire, tower and steeple, roofs of radiant tile,
The costly temple and collegiate pile,
In sumptuous mass of mingled form and hue,
Await the wonder of thy sateless view."

But Robert Montgomery is more likely to be remembered for Macaulay's
merciless but well-deserved chastisement than for his praises of
Oxford. Even their utter bathos cannot degrade a group of buildings
so wonderful.




THE BROAD STREET

"Ye mossy piles of old munificence,
At once the pride of learning and defence."
J. WARTON, /Triumph of Isis/

The east side of the University buildings proper was shown in the
last picture (Plate III); in the following (Plate IV), the north side
of the same block is seen. The old University "schools" lay just
inside the city wall, and Broad Street, which is there represented,
occupies the site of the ditch, which ran on the north of the wall.
This picture is a fitting supplement to the last, for the Sheldonian
Theatre on the right of it and the Clarendon Building in the
background may claim rank even with the Bodleian and the Radcliffe as
the University's special buildings.

The Sheldonian celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary