up
the scene, and spots for simple enjoyment." And then he breaks out
into poetry:

Salvete Athenae nostrae, Athens Belgicae,
Te Gallus, te Germanus, et te Sarmata
Invisit, et Britannus, et te duplicis
Hispaniae alumnus, etc.

Extravagant, then, and wayward as might be the thought of my learned
coach companion, when, in the nineteenth century, he imagined,
Norman-wise, to turn a score of villages into a park or pleasaunce,
still, the waywardness of his fancy is excused by the justness of his
principle; for certainly, such as he would have made it, a University
ought to be. Old Antony-a-Wood, discoursing on the demands of a
University, had expressed the same sentiment long before him; as Horace
in ancient times, with reference to Athens itself, when he spoke of
seeking truth "in the _groves_ of Academe." And to Athens, as will be
seen, Wood himself appeals, when he would discourse of Oxford. Among
"those things which are required to make a University," he puts down,--

"First, a good and pleasant site, where there is a wholesome and
temperate constitution of the air; composed with waters, springs or
wells, woods and pleasant fields; which being obtained, those
commodities are enough to invite students to stay and abide there. As
the Athenians in ancient times were happy for their conveniences, so
also were the Britons, when by a remnant of the Grecians that came
amongst them, they or their successors selected such a place in Britain
to plant a school or schools therein, which for its pleasant situation
was afterwards called Bellositum or Bellosite, now Oxford, privileged
with all those conveniences before mentioned."

By others the local advantages of that University have been more
philosophically analyzed;--for instance, with a reference to its
position in the middle of southern England; its situation on several
islands in a broad plain, through which many streams flowed; the
surrounding marshes, which, in times when it was needed, protected the
city from invaders; its own strength as a military position; its easy
communication with London, nay with the sea, by means of the Thames;
while the London fortifications hindered pirates from ascending the
stream, which all the time was so ready and convenient for a descent.

Alas! for centuries past that city has lost its prime honour and boast,
as a servant and soldier of the Truth. Once named the second school of
the Church, second only to Paris, the f