-=-


[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 95]

our hero; "but I've heard my sister Mary read a great deal of his
poetry."

"Shews her taste," said Charles Larkyns. "Well, this shop - you see
the name - is Spiers'; and Wordsworth, in his sonnet to Oxford, has
immortalized him. Don't you remember the lines?-

'O ye Spiers of Oxford! your presence overpowers
The soberness of reason!'*

It was very queer that Wordsworth should ascribe to Messrs. Spiers
all the intoxication of the place; but then he was a
Cambridge man, and prejudiced. Nice shop, though, isn't it?
Particularly useful, and no less ornamental. It's one of the
greatest lounges of the place. Let us go in and have a look at what
Mrs. Caudle calls the articles of bigotry and virtue."

Mr. Verdant Green was soon deeply engaged in an inspection of those
~papier-mache~ "remembrances of Oxford" for which the Messrs. Spiers
are so justly famed; but after turning over tables, trays, screens,
desks, albums, portfolios, and other things, - all of which displayed
views of Oxford from every variety of aspect, and were executed with
such truth and perception of the higher qualities of art, that they
formed in