The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction,
Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828

Author: Various

Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11267]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online
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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XII. NO. 328.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE.

[Illustration: Oxford Castle]

By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r
Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves
Intire; or, when they would elude her watch,
Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste
Of dark oblivion.

AKENSIDE

Gentle, courteous, and _patient_ reader--to understand the above plan,
it is requisite that you carry your mind's eye back to those troublous
times when men enjoyed no protection, but in opposing force to force;
and to a period when _every man's house was his castle_, though not in
the metaphorical sense we have since been accustomed to apply these
words, viz. to the protection and security of British subjects.

Few portions of our island have been more amply illustrated, by
antiquarians, than OXFORD; and from one of these we learn that a Keep
Tower, or Castle, existed here a considerable time before the conquest;
for Alfred lived here; and Harold Harefoot was crowned and resided here;
and one of Alfred's sons struck money here. Hearne has likewise
identified this fact by the very ancient and original arms of Oxford,
which have a castle represented, with a large ditch and bridge. Upon the
same authority we learn that Offa "built walls at Oxford," and by him,
therefore, a Saxon castle was originally built at Oxford.

Leland, Dugdale, and Camden, on the other hand, affirm that the castle
at Oxford was built by Robert D'Oiley, who came into England with
William the Conqueror; and the Chronicles of Osney Abbey, preserved in
t