nd it now so changed that,
when they look back they can hardly believe it is the same place. Even
architecturally the streets of the University have changed, and here
not always for the better. Architects unfortunately object to mere
imitation of the old Oxford style of building; they want to produce
something entirely their own, which may be very good by itself, but is
not always in harmony with the general tone of the college buildings.
I still remember the outcry against the Taylor Institution, the only
Palladian building at Oxford, and yet everybody has now grown
reconciled to it, and even Ruskin lectured in it, which he would not
have done, if he had disapproved of its architecture. He would never
lecture in the Indian Institute, and wrote me a letter sadly reproving
me for causing Broad Street to be defaced by such a building, when I
had had absolutely nothing to do with it. He was very loud in his
condemnation of other new buildings. He abused even the New Museum,
though he had a great deal to do with it himself. He had hoped that it
would be the architecture of the future, but he confessed after a time
that he was not satisfied with the result.

In his days we still had the old Magdalen Bridge, the Bodleian
unrestored, and no trams. Ruskin was so offended by the new bridge, by
the restored Bodleian, and by the tram-cars, that he would go ever so
far round to avoid these eyesores, when he had to deliver his
lectures; and that was by no means an easy pilgrimage. There was, of
course, no use in arguing with him. Most people like the new Magdalen
Bridge because it agrees better with the width of High Street; they
consider the Bodleian well restored, particularly now that the new
stone is gradually toning down to the colour of the old walls, and as
to tram-cars, objectionable as they are in many respects, they
certainly offend the eye less than the old dirty and rickety
omnibuses. The new buildings of Merton, in the style of a London
police-station, offended him deeply, and with more justice,
particularly as he had to live next door to them when he had rooms at
Corpus.

These new buildings could not be helped at Oxford. The stone, with
which most of the old colleges were built, was taken from a quarry
close to Oxford, and began to peel off and to crumble in a very
curious manner. Artists like these chequered walls, and by moonlight
they are certainly picturesque, but the colleges had to think of what
was safe. My