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 PREFACE

, with all apologies for its egoism, as to how this book came to be. It is the record of travel over familiar ground. It tells again what has, perhaps often, been better told before. It originates in what schoolmasters used to call a 'holiday task.' College Dons, unlike the popular idea of them, are busy folk, who are constantly at work, teaching or preparing to teach, examining or writing, and each of these things as part of their professional obligation. But even Dons must have a holiday sometimes, and much more so must undergraduates.

Years ago, when I lived in the suburbs, I spent many days out of Oxford vacations in the gardens and galleries of Hampton Court. Week by week I was there, and was never tired of the delightful prospect and its memories. This year I have found the fascination still as strong as it was a decade ago; and I have had the delight of wandering about with Mr. Railton, and of trying, under his guidance, to see the familiar scenes with something of his artistic inspiration. Curious nooks, quaint byways, courts in which a stranger's footfall rarely sounds, here a solitary turret, v