Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 20Q7 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/barbaragoestooxfOOburkuoft BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD I BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD BY BARBARA BURKE WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND EDITION ,''i ^i^" \ \ METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published . July igo^ Second Edition . August igoj CONTENTS PAGE PREAMBLE i . FIRST WEEK , 9 SECOND WEEK 89 THIRD WEEK 223 POSTSCRIPT 289 . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS OXFORD, FROM MAGDALEN TOWER . FronHspiece {From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) BROAD STREET .... facingpage 17 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) MESOPOTAMIA ,.38 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) THE CONGREGATION HOUSE . .,62 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) THE CHERWELL 81 (From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) CHRIST CHURCH, FROM CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE ..92 (From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) FROM NEW COLLEGE TOWER . ,.131 (Front a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) THE CASTLE, AND THE CASTLE MILL „ ici (From a Photograph by Mr. H. W. Taunt, Oxford) BATH COURT, HOLYWELL 171 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) THE 'CAMERA' FROM EXETER COLLEGE ,, 175 (From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) THE PATH BY CHILDSWORTH FARM . „ 184 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN 208 (From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii WADHAM COLLEGE—THE GARDEN facing page 227 (From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford) THE FELLOWS' GARDEN, MERTON COL- LEGE 245 {From a Photograph by Mr. Court Cole, Oxford") ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL—THE CHAPEL .,264 {From a Photograph by Mr. H. W. Taunt, Oxford) THE PANELLED ROOM . ..284 {From a Photograph by Mr. W. Wheeler, Oxford) Know you her secret none can utter? Hers of the Book, the tripled crown ? flutter Still on the spire the pigeons ; gown Still by the gateway flits the ; Still on the street, from corbel and gutter, Faces of stone look down. Q., ' Alma Mater,' from The Oxford Magazine PREAMBLE ' Now this much without vanity may be asserted of the subject, that if all persons, both Ladies and Gentle- men, would spend some of their tyme in Journeys to visit their native land, and be curious to Inform them- selves and make observations of the pleasant prospects, good buildings, different products and manufactures of each place, with the variety of sports and recreations they are adapt to, would be a souvereign remedy to cure or preserve ffrom those Epidemick deseases of vapours, should I add Laziness ?— it would also form such an idea of England, add much to its Glory and Esteem in our own minds, and cure the evil itch of overvalueing fforeign parts ; at least ffurnish them with an equivalent to entertain strangers when amongst us, or inform them when abroad of their native Country, which has been often a Reproach to the English, ignorance and being strangers to themselves.' Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle, 1695 BARBARA BURKE TO HER AUNT MRS. CAMILLA OUTHWAITE Ballinacragga, y«/j/ 1900 T^EAR AUNT CAMILLA.— I am --^ off on a little jaunt. I hope that it will not strike you as being too unconventional in character. I want to go somewhere where I know no- body and no one knows that I am a rich person ; it is so dull always to behave as becomes a young lady of for- tune I ; want to taste the joys of a humble but sufficient lodging, and the pleasures of frugal but elegant house- keeping. To do this under ideal condi- tions, and in a manner which should not cause you needless anxiety, has long been ; 4 BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD the object of my secret ambition. Now the time and the place and the suitable companion have all arrived together; me, and Brownie is free to come with we are going to spend some weeks at Va- Oxford in the middle of the Long plan? cation. Isn't it a truly joyful Brownie has been with the Smiths since she ceased to be dear father's secretary she does she is leaving them now, and not take up her new secretaryship until have the autumn. Providence could not provided me with a more suitable com- delightful as she is to me, panion ; wholly and entirely satisfactory as she cannot fail to be a guide to be to you ; old enough and a philosopher, young enough to be a comrade and a friend. We shall take very little money. Brownie because she has so little, I shall be because I have so much. We very saving, and shall make what we PREAMBLE 5 have go as far as possible. We shall be quite sure to meet no one that we know, and we shall have Oxford to ourselves, to examine at our leisure. This will be so much better than forming our first im- pressions of it from a gay visit in term. Don't you remember that Mary told us what a scramble she had when Tom was at Magdalen and she went up for ' Com- mem ' ? She said that she saw nothing properly, she was always so hurried and tired : life seemed to be composed wholly of balls and of young men ; she never felt the spirit of the place at all. Now we are to have, of course, an entirely manless holiday. We are to enter into the spirit of the place, and the spirit will, we hope, enter into us and make us glad. I shall tell no one where I am going, and I shall have no letters forwarded to me. Jenkins and Mrs. O'Hara can manage the house perfectly — 6 BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD well. Do you remember what Aunt Mary's gardener used to say, 'Them as asks no questions don't hear no lies ' ? I will tell Jenkins to say this to any casual inquirers after my whereabouts, though I doubt if his sense of propriety will allow him to do so. You, of course, shall hear the true tale of all our adventures. I will not waste my one talent for picturesque letter- writing by sending my letters broadcast over the Continent after you. I will write a very long and very full diary-letter every day I will write it, and you shall read it when we are together again. I will also send you postcards to say that we live and flourish. Could any niece do more to show her appreciation of a most excellent aunt.-* Good-bye, dearest; do not be anxious about us. Remember that Brownie and I shall have no other use for our intellects than to exercise PREAMBLE 7 them in taking care of ourselves. It is not very flattering to those intellects to suppose them to be unequal to the task. Ever your loving niece, BARBARA BURKE. FIRST WEEK They told me of the August calm Of Oxford in the Long Vacation, How rarely plied th' infrequent tram 'Twixt Cowley and the Railway Station ; How Undergraduates are gone, Or peaks to climb or moors to shoot on ; And now remains but here a Don And there a speculative Teuton. A. G., Verses to Order ; At Mrs. Codlicott's Hope Cottage, Oxford Monday^ July 1900 7^^ ^^^ extremely happy. |, \ A V V We met at Chester on Saturday Sunday we spent in delicious planning to-day we started early and arrived here about three o'clock. You must remember when you read this that we are persons of limited means, and our lodgings are proportionately humble. They were well recommended to Brownie as being clean and comfort- able; to my mind they are perfectly ideal. They are 'licensed lodgings'; that means u 12 BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD that they are let to undergraduates in term time and are duly inspected by the Controller of Licensed Lodging-houses. Our rooms are occupied in term by Enderby of Balliol. Now this is very nice for us, as Enderby 's books and pictures line the walls, and we feel that we shall become cjuite familiar with Enderby 's thoughts and ways. We have a small sitting-room which opens on to the garden. Such a charming garden! Very small but very perfect ; well walled in from the road. Hope Cottage is not called after the virtue : it is dominated by the tall buildings of the Hope Library. Our landlady's name is Mrs. Codlicott ; she is a bland and dignified person. Her small maid is called Zilpah. She has a poodle dog called Lotze and a Persian puss called Hobbes. These names she tells us are bestowed on them by 'some of the gentlemen,'—this seems to be the FIRST WEEK 13 technical term for an undergraduate. We have brought very few books, as we have come to the land where they grow. Do you remember the title of the immortal work that —Brownie and I are some day to compose ' Byways Beyond Baedeker, By Brown and Burke ' ? Perhaps we shall write the opening chapters of it here! We step out of our room upon a very tiny lawn ; it is divided by a hedge of roses from another equally tiny. Had we any fellow lodgers they would be monarchs of their little patch and we should reign alone upon ours. The little Zilpah brought us our tea upon our lawn. She is a very young maid, lately imported from Cornwall. * Yes, m'm, if you do please, m'm ' is her one answer to all our remarks. We thought that it would be a charming plan to spend our first evening at Oxford in walking round 14 BARBARA GOES TO OXFORD the city, following as far as possible the line of the ancient walls.