[597] 



LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED; 



BEING A REVIEW OF SOME HISTORICAL AUTOGRAPHS. 



BF HENRY SCADDING, D.D, 



{Continued from page SOU.) 



ilL AUTOGRAPHS AND OTHER LITERARY RELICS OF DISTIN- 

 GUISHED OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE MEN. 



I used in my younger days to think the worn condition of many 

 lof the old stone stairways at Cambridge a touching sight. In the 

 short flights of steps leading to the entrance doors of the porters' 

 lodges and dining halls^ and in the corkscrew staircases of the turrets, 

 conducting up to the rooms of students, the middle part of each step 

 was to be seen scooped out by the attrition of feet, often to such an 

 extent that the whole series of stairs was transformed almost into a 

 steep inclined plane, without any distinction of steps remaining — a 

 condition of things somewhat confusing to the foot in the ascent, and 

 more so still in the descent. Who were they who had contributed 

 to the wear and tear shown by these curious depressions'? The 

 possessors of what distiiaguished names in the literature, science, and 

 general history of England? Under the influence of what busy 

 thoughts, what hopes, what fears, had they not in their youth hurried 

 lip and down here ! And in their maturer years, with what memoi'ies 

 and cares, and perhaps honours laden, had they not re-paced the same 

 ways 1 Here were veritable footprints left by preceding travellers, 

 aot on the sands, but the sandstones, the limestones, and other rocky 

 concretions of time. This was a thought obvious enough, that would 

 occur every day, adding to the magic spell that clings to so many 

 spots and buildings in the University and town of Cambridge, 

 Similar reflections would of course arise with equal, if not greater, 

 force, in the mind of a sympathetic sojourner in venerable Oxford, 



Having by me some autograph and other literary relics of men of 

 note ia their day in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, I 

 have reserved them for review by themselves, and I desire that they 

 may in some sort take the place of these indented stones, and in the 



