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OXFORD,

FROM IFLEY.

IFLEY, the beautiful spot from whence this view is taken, is situated on an eminence rising from the Thames, about a mile and an half from Oxford, and commands, as the engraving is intended to display, every towering object in that city. The Castle, St. Peter's and St. Aldate's churches, Tom Tower Christ Church, the Cathedral of that College, All Saints Church, Merton College, St. Mary's Church, Radcliffe Library, All Souls College, and Magdalen Tower, are distinctly marked.

The University of Oxford, whether considered for its edificial magnificence, its great antiquity, the scientific apparatus it possesses, and the application which is and has for ages been made of it for the advancement of every branch of learning and science, is a proud boast of the country which it adorns.

The name of this renowned place has been the source of serious controversy among the etymological antiquaries; some deriving it from Ouseney ford, the ford at or near Ouseney, which is the more obvious derivation; while others contend for Oxenford, or the ford of Oxen. But leaving this question to those who are disposed to attach importance to it, we shall proceed to give a brief account of the place itself,

It will be expected that we should say something of its origin, which by some fanciful writers is thrown back to a period so remote as to render their antiquarian researches not only incredible but ridiculous. It will be sufficient for us, without attempting to trace its earlier history, to state in the year 886 it was the residence of Alfred and his three sons, Edward, Athelward, and Alsward, and that money was coined there called Ocsnafordia. It shared with almost every other part of the kingdom the reverses which followed

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from the unsettled state of its government during the two succeeding centuries. It appears, however, to have been fixed upon as a place of conference between Ethelred and the Danes in the year 1015; and that in seven years afterwards, in 1022, Canute assembled here a council of the nation, when the laws of Edward the Confessor were translated into Latin, and published for the regulation of all the subjects of the kingdom both English and Danes. On the death of the latter monarch in 1036, another great national council was held, and it afterwards became the scene of many important transactions. The Castle was erected by Robert D'Oilie, at the command of William the Conqueror in the year 1071; a work of great strength and considerable extent, as appears by the massy ruins which still remain.

The City, properly so called, was formerly surrounded with a wall and bastions, and is about two miles in circumference. The principal street runs from east to west, the entire length of the town, but under different names: the High Street, beginning at Magdalen Bridge, includes at least two-thirds of the whole: the remainder is called Castle Street. The former, when its length, breadth, and the buildings which form it are brought as it were into one view, may be considered as the finest street in Europe. It is not quite straight, which, by the different scenery its curve affords, increases the beauty and heightens the picturesque effect of the whole.

The principal entrance into this place is over a stone bridge of eleven arches, and five hundred and twenty-six feet in length, stretching over two distinct branches of the Cherwell and the land that divides them. It is a handsome structure, built from a design of Mr. Gwyn, who was a native of the city and architect to the University, which is indebted to him for many judicious alterations and improve

ments.

At the foot of this bridge is Magdalen College, whose lofty tower which is one hundred and fifty feet in height, is a very,

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