correct colleges, it rests with himself whether he runs the race of public
life in England on equal terms with the sons of the oldest of the titled and
untitled aristocracy, even though his father were an eminent retired dust
contractor, and his mother laundry maid or factory girl. But money alone
won't do it, and the pretension, the display, the coxcombry permitted in a
peer, must be carefully avoided by a parvenu. Thus Oxford interests classes
who care very little for its educational, antiquarian, or architectural
resources, as one of the institutions of the country by which any capable man
may cut off his plebeian entail, and start according to the continental term
"noble."

The material beauty of Oxford is great--the situation, in a rich valley
bounded by softly flowing rivers, fine--the domes, and spires, and old grey
towers rising in clusters, prepare the mind of the approaching traveller for
the city where the old colleges and churches, planting out and almost
composing it, afford at every bend of the long streets, at every turn of the
narrow thoroughfares, some grand picture, or charming architectural effect;
even our Quakers are proud of Oxford in England when they travel in America.
Then Oxford is so decorously clean, so spotlessly free from the smoke of
engines and the roar of machinery; the groves and gardens, and trim green
turf seen through richly-carved and corbeled archways, give such a feeling of
calm study, and pleasant leisure, that we will defy the bitterest radical and
the sourest dissenter not to be softened and charmed by his first
impressions.

To those who arrive prepared to be pleased, stored with associations of the
past, fortunate enough to have leisure and introductions to some affable don
long resident, and proud to display the treasures and glories of his beloved
Alma Mater, Oxford affords for many days a treat such as no other city in the
world can supply to an Englishman.