454 MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA, 



University the academic dress, it secured a fixed place in public assem- 

 blages, and opened the way with extra facility to libraries and 

 museums, as well as to the lecture-rooms, in several instances, of 

 professors of preeminent ability and world-wide fame. And, as- I 

 have said, the boon is good for the remainder of one's days. 



I need not say, I endeavoured to avail myself to the utmost of the 

 rich and varied privileges with which, for a period all too brief, I 

 found myself surrounded. 



In respect of area covered by buildings and in regard to external 

 grandeur, Merton College cannot compare with Christ Church, All 

 Soiils, New College, Balliol, and perhaps other Colleges in the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford. But no College in the University matches Merton 

 in severe venerableness of aspect, or in the exteiit, I think, to which,. 

 in its general outline, it has retained unaltered the visible embodi- 

 ment of the ideas of its several very early architects. 



Its entrance gateway, bearing the statues of Henry III. and 

 Walter de Merton, founder of the College; the two diminutive 

 courts or quadrangles first traversed inside ; the low vaulted passage 

 leading from one to the other of them ; the east window of the chapel 

 and the massive square tower seen just beyond the gable ; the steep 

 slopes of the Treasury-roof, made fireproof by plates of rough ashlar 

 instead of slate ; finally, the quaint lights of the Library along the 

 walls, and rising above the eaves of the roof on the sotith and west 

 sides of the third court ; all at first sight stir the imagination very 

 strongly and stamp themselves indelibly on the memory. 



Of the Library just named — its internal air and aspect — I desire 

 especially to speak to you for a moment, such a surprise and delight 

 was it to myself when I first entered it, either from not having been 

 previoiisly aware of its existence, or else from never having fallen 

 in with any striking description of it. 



It is supposed to be at the present day the most genuine ancient 

 library in the British Islands. Its shelves and books look as if they 

 had not been meddled with for several centuries. The wood of the 

 book-cases has a pale weather-worn hue. The covers of the volumes 

 are almost all of them of vellum or forel, with the names of the 

 authors or matters treated of in them inscribed with a pen on the 

 back, or on the outer edge of the leaves when the book is turned on 

 the shelf with its back inward and clasps outward. Some of the 

 volumes are still attached by chains to the bookcases, with the con- 



