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Archive texts:
History of Photography


The Pencil of Nature (1844-46)

by William Henry Fox Talbot

Part IV (cont.): PLATE XVIII. GATE OF CHRISTCHURCH


THE principal gate of Christchurch College in the University of Oxford.

On the right of the picture are seen the buildings of Pembroke College in shade.

Those who have visited Oxford and Cambridge in vacation time in the summer must have been struck with the silence and tranquility which pervade those venerable abodes of learning.

Those ancient courts and quadrangles and cloisters look so beautiful so tranquil and so solemn at the close of a summer's evening, that the spectator almost thinks he gazes upon a city of former ages, deserted, but not in ruins: abandoned by man, but spared by Time. No other cities is Great Britain awake feelings at all similar. In other towns you hear at all times the busy hum of passing crowds, intent on traffic or pleasure -- but Oxford in the summer season seems the dwelling of the Genius of Repose.


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