bounds in
interesting objects within reach of a walk. There is much natural
scenery, possessed of a good deal of variety and picturesque character;
and there are many buildings, and remains of buildings, which either
from something in themselves, or from adventitious circumstances, well
deserve to be looked at. The church at Cumnor, for instance, not only
has within itself much to interest a man fond of architectural or
antiquarian investigation, but, in common with the remains or site of
Cumnor hall, and the village of Dry Sandford, have acquired a sort of
classical notoriety from the magical pen of Sir Walter Scott. The
picturesque ruins of the kitchen, and other buildings at Stanton
Harcourt, the slight vestiges of Godston Nunnery, the Town Hall, the
Gaol, and the two churches at Abingdon, may all become, each in its
turn, the object of a pedestrian expedition. The residence of the
Speaker, Lenthall, at Bessilsleigh, may deserve notice, from historical
recollections, though for no other reason. The Saxon church in Iffley I
have already mentioned. The recently-built Saxon chapel at Kennington is
done in excellent taste, and is a most gratifying instance of the
munificence and piety of an individual clergyman, devoting, I believe,
almost all his resources to the work. The church at Wytham will show you
that a church very lately erected may, by correct judgment, be made to
present the appearance of having been built five hundred years ago. But
I must not go on in this way, or you will think that you have got hold
of an Oxford guide. Most of the villages and village churches in the
neighbourhood, have some character of their own worth examining.

So much for amusements connected with exercise, which has led me into
something like a repetition of some of the sentiments in a former
letter.

A few words on sedentary amusements.

If you read _in earnest_, and are bent upon making the most of your
time, you will have little of it left for amusements of a sedentary
nature.

The less you have to do with cards the better. Young men can have no
occasion for the assistance of cards in order to pass their time; and
there seems to be something almost incongruous in the idea of _their_
sitting down to a rubber. Nor do they need the excitement: if they wish
for it, that very wish is a reason why they ought not to have it. If
they play for money--or, at all events, if they play for such sums as
make the winning or losing an object