A University a Thousand Years Old.—Woodstock.—Fair Rosamond.—Old Ballad.—The Head of Brass that Spoke.
BEAUTIFUL! beautiful!” exclaimed Wyllys Wynn, as the city of Oxford appeared in view. “It looks like a city of churches.”
“It is indeed a city of institutions,” said Master Lewis.
“It is a very old city, is it not?” asked Wyllys.
“It is said to have been the residence of Alfred the Great, and of King Canute. The University of Oxford was, according to tradition, founded by Alfred the Great.”
“If it be so, what a monument the good king left behind him! It was this king, was it not, whose mother offered a beautiful manuscript to the one of her four sons who would first learn to repeat it from memory? Alfred, although he was a mere child and could not read, induced an instructor to teach him the manuscript, and so secured the prize.”
ALFRED AND HIS MOTHER.
“This was the king,” said Tommy Toby, “who, when flying from the Danes in disguise, was left by a rustic’s wife to watch some cakes that were baking by the fire.”