Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/21

 INTRODUCTION overworked, and underpaid, old, English, rural curate, a lover of his country's history and of his country's heroes, had a six-weeks' holiday once; and he spent it all in Westminster Abbey.

A certain underpaid, and not overworked, middle-aged, American writer, a lover of British Letters, and of the Makers of British Letters, had a six-weeks' vacation lately; and he spent it all in Oxford.

Never were six weeks more happily, or more profitably, or more busily spent; and six times six months might, easily, have been devoted to the search for the Homes and the Haunts of the Literary Worthies who were educated in, or associated with, that beautiful, restful, inspiring old University Town.

If, as has been said, and happily said, by some one, "the History of Westminster Abbey is the History of England," so, surely, are the histories of Oxford and Cambridge the annals of the inception and of the consummation of the best of English intellect and thought.

Oxford is very rich in guide-books, from a sixpence up; and very, very rich in Literary