34 HOUSES. 



living for another in Somersetshire. 

 My leisure hours I spent partly in 

 inspecting the far-famed buildings of this 

 celebrated University, and partly in pur- 

 suing my love of literature, or in courting 

 the Muses. I of course shall not give a 

 description of the beautiful colleges and 

 temples founded by our pious ancestors, 

 and erected for the advancement of re- 

 ligion, the diffusion of knowledge, the cul- 

 tivation of science, and the education of 

 the nobility and gentry of the land. At 

 these I wondered and admired, but turned 

 with disgust from the mean appearance of 

 the houses, some of which were attached to 

 the churches and chapels, and from the 

 unseemly approaches by which the exte- 

 rior of these venerable buildings were hid 

 from the public view. Indeed it would 

 seem to a close observer that succeed- 

 ing generations had endeavoured to stop 

 the progress which the arts architecture in 



