"He was the great Earl of Warwick: a valiant soldier who slew so many people that he became melancholy, and retired to Guy's Cliff, as it is now called, and there lived alone in a cave for thirty years. He was _nine_ feet high." "And what is _that_?" said Tommy Toby, pointing to an immense pot. "That," said the antique lady, "was the mighty Guy's _porridge pot_." "How much does it hold?" "It holds one hundred and twenty gallons, and weighs eight hundred pounds." "Did the mighty Guy drink as much porridge as that at every meal?" asked Tommy, his curiosity taking a wider circle with each new statement. "I don't know; all of these things happened long, long before I was born. "_That_," said the lady, "is a rib of the Dun Cow." "What kind of a cow was that?" asked Tommy. "It was a cow which the mighty Guy killed on Dunsmore Heath. It weighs nine pounds and a half." "The cow?" "No, the rib." The lady led the party in a procession which she dramatically headed through the lower rooms of the principal building. She showed them the superb old baronial hall; the drawing-rooms, magnificent with tapestries and inlaid furniture; the pictures by Vandyke. Then in an awesome manner she suddenly stopped, and said in a low confidential voice,-- "The Countess herself is above stairs." "How many feet high is the Countess? I'd give a quarter--" Tommy's intended remark was checked by Master Lewis. The lady requested a fee on showing the party back to the lodge, and dismissed Master Lewis with a stiff bow that indicated a want of confidence in American respect for the great and mighty Guy and his successors. CHAPTER X. A VISIT TO OXFORD AND WOODSTOCK. A University a Thousand Years Old.--Woodstock.--Fair Rosamond.--Old Ballad.--The Head of Brass that Spoke. "Beautiful! beautiful!" exclaimed Wyllys Wynn, as the city of Oxford appeared in view. "It looks like a city of churches." "It is indeed a city of institutions," said Master Lewis. "It is a very old city, is it not?" asked Wyllys. "It is said to have been the residence of Alfred the Great, and of King Canute. The University of Oxford was, according to tradition, founded by Alfred the Great." "If it be so, what a monument the good king left behind him! It was this king, was it not, whose mother offered a beautiful manuscript to the one of her four sons who would first learn to repeat it from memory? Alfred, although he was a mere child and could not read, induced an instructor to teach him the manuscript, and so secured the prize." [Illustration: ALFRED AND HIS MOTHER.] "This was the king," said Tommy Toby, "who, when flying from the Danes in disguise, was left by a rustic's wife to watch some cakes that were baking by the fire." "And let them burn," said Wyllys. "The woman," said Tommy, "gave him a gentle hint, saying that if he was too lazy to watch them, he would be glad enough to eat them when they were cooked. I have heard my mother make very similar remarks."