VISIT TO OXFORD 



261 



the very threshold, one was obliged to simulate, by bending 

 low, the spirit of the ancient and devout monks, for the arched 

 doorway was under five feet in height. But inside all was 

 glorious, the ceilings rose high and the walls receded. More- 

 over, in this wonderful place of contrasts there was one room, 

 a studio, holding the most modem examples of sculpture, 

 wrought by the dean's own daughter. 



This fen region, the reclaimed Marshlands (some two thou- 

 sand square miles of the best corn land in England), set Mr. 

 Shaler to thinking what might be done by draining the vast 

 acreage of swamp in the United States. His imagination also 

 played about the political consequences of the appropriation of 

 this land to farming uses. He maintained (jestingly, perhaps) 

 that the final deadly struggle between Charles I and Crom- 

 well originated in their early disputes over this same land - 

 whether it should belong to the crown or to individuals. How- 

 ever this may be, the potential riches of the swamp districts 

 in his own country were constantly in mind, and later, in addi- 

 tion to the actual study and reports that he made upon them, 

 he persistently called the attention of business men to this great 

 undeveloped source of wealth. 



Mr. Shaler carried but few letters of introduction to Oxford ; 

 but after the first perfunctory civilities extended to a professor 

 from another learned institution he received attentions which 

 only respect and personal liking call forth. Some of the enter- 

 tainments given in his honor are mentioned in a journal kept 

 by his wife. He himself was so occupied during his travels with 

 his geological notes and sketches that he left to her the record 

 of lighter events. Nearly all of the incidents mentioned in the 

 journal afterwards entered into his conversation, and therefore 

 seem pertinent here. 



Oxford, April 24th, 1873. We dined last evening at Dr. Rolleston's (pro- 

 fessor of anatomy). He is a fine-looking, quick-witted man, with a wide 

 range of knowledge and experience. He talks well, and a great deal, upon 

 every subject. Mr. Shaler has taken a great fancy to him and when the two 



