Entering Oxford from the railway we cross over a bridge, and under it is the picturesque scene here given. The houses are rather old, and not perhaps very desirable as residences, but the effect is very good indeed, and much resembles a view on the Witham in Lincoln, that will form the subject of another engraving. Tetsworth, on the London and Oxford road, is a perfect specimen of an old English coaching town, but its glories have declined, of course, since the days of railroads. Dorchester is an ancient village, and contains the cathedral church of St. Peter and St. Paul, full of venerable memorials, and the embankments called Dyke Hills were thrown up as old fortifications in the Roman times. [Illustration: OLD HOUSES, OXFORD.] But, of course, the chief interest of the county centres in the capital city. The great Oxford historian Anthony-a-Wood tells us that many of the students were “mere varlets, who pretended to be scholars, who lived under no discipline, neither had any tutors, but only for fashion sake would sometimes thrust themselves into the schools of ordinary lectures; and when they went to perform any mischief, then they would be accounted scholars, that so they might free themselves from the jurisdiction of the burghers.” This was the benefit of clergy! The professors of learning there, Franciscan friars, were men of very high character, and free from any suspicion of worldly ambition; indeed Chaucer well describes them in the Oxford Clerk. “The hilly nature of the roads,” says the topographer, “leading to Oxford, makes the city present a magnificent appearance to the traveller as he approaches it, for stretched out before him lies a succession of spires, towers, domes, and public edifices, between which and the rivers extend a number of beautiful luxuriant meadows; nor is he disappointed upon his entrance into the city, for each street presents some building which compels him to stop and admire either its construction or its antiquity. Entering by the London road, and thus traversing Oxford from east to west, we pass Magdalen College with its tower of eight pinnacles, University College, Queen’s College, All Souls’ College, St. Mary’s Church, and All Saints’ Church, a picturesque series of colleges and churches interspersed with antique and modern houses. From [Illustration: MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD.] the Abingdon branch of the London Road the entrance is not quite so effective, but the line of streets running from north to south contains St. Giles’ Church, etc.; the Martyrs’ Memorial, erected in memory of the burning of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, in Queen Mary’s reign. The quiet which characterises its streets, the constant sound of bells summoning to study or prayer, and the absence of heavy traffic, distinguish it from ordinary cities.” [Illustration: GROVE STREET, OXFORD.]