ENGLAND REVISITED- 1885 399 



afternoon to a beautiful concert in the great hall of Christ 

 Church. A curious sort of accommodation in quasi-boxes 

 was provided by pushing the dining-tables to the sides 

 of the room and placing the audience in chairs upon 

 them and in front of them ; it seemed to me more service 

 able than cleanly. In the evening dined at Lincoln Col 

 lege with the rector, Dr. Merry, who was very agreeable 

 and entertaining, giving interesting accounts of his pre 

 decessor, Mark Pattison, and of Wilberf orce when Bishop 

 of Oxford. One of the guests, a fellow of New College, 

 told me that some fifty years ago an American, being en 

 tertained there showed the college dons how to make mint- 

 julep, or something of the sort, and then sent them a 

 large silver cup with the condition that it should be filled 

 with this American drink every year on the anniversary 

 of the donor s visit, and that this is regularly done. This 

 pious donor must have been, I think, &quot;Nat&quot; Willis. 



Sunday, November 15. 



Lunched with Johnson, fellow of Merton, and met my 

 old friend Mile. Blaze du Bury. Her comments, from the 

 point of view of a brilliant young Frenchwoman, on all 

 she saw about her at Oxford were pungent and sugges 

 tive. In the evening heard the Archbishop of York, 

 Thompson, preach at St. Mary s. He urged the students 

 to consecrate themselves by their example to the mainte 

 nance of a better standard of morality; but, despite his 

 strength and force, the sermon seemed heavy and per 

 functory. 



November 16. 



To Windsor with a party of friends, and as we had 

 a special permit to see a large number of rooms and 

 curious objects not usually shown, the visit was very 

 interesting. Sadly suggestive was Gordon s Bible, every 

 page having its margins covered with annotations in his 

 own hand : it was brought from Khartoum after his mur- 



