1825 - 1830 .] 
SUNDAYS IN OXFORD . 
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and entering by the porch which has in a niche over the 
door an image of the Blessed Virgin. In 1640 Archbishop 
Laud was charged with many offences. He had repaired 
crucifixes ; he had allowed “ the scandalous image ” to be 
set up in the porch of St. Mary’s ; and Alderman Nixon, 
the Puritan grocer, had, so he declared, seen a man bowing 
to the scandalous image. Alderman Nixon’s picture, with 
that of his wife, is to be seen in the fine old council 
chamber of the Guildhall. This lady’s portrait, it may be 
added, is the only likeness of a woman admitted among 
the interesting collection of Aldermen, with the exception 
of a fine full-length portrait of Queen Anne. Mrs. 
Buckland took the younger members of the family to 
the simple morning service at St. Ebbe’s Church, of which 
the Rev. F. Waldegrave, an excellent evangelical preacher, 
was in charge. Mrs. Buckland was an assiduous worker 
in Mr. Waldegrave’s poor parish. 
After the early dinner came the treat of the week—a 
walk with their father in Christ Church meadows, or, if the 
floods were out, up Headington Hill. No plant, tree, or 
stone escaped observation, and special notice was taken of 
the dates of the reappearance of palm blossom, or the first 
return of daisies, and other spring delights. The family 
never missed evensong in the Cathedral. The seat allotted 
to the Canon’s ladies was like a very long saloon railway 
carriage, with a seat running along one side of it. As this 
pew had only occasional oval openings in the heavy wood¬ 
work to admit the light and air, its dreariness and stuffiness 
may be imagined. 
The yearly assizes were a great annual function in 
