And First He Took Me
To His Own Room In His Own College, Which Was On The Ground Floor,
Very Low And Dark, And Resembled A Cell, At Least As Much As A Place
Of Study.
The name of this college is Corpus Christi.
He next
conducted me to All Souls' College, a very elegant building, in
which the chapel is particularly beautiful. Mr. Maud also showed
me, over the altar here, a fine painting of Mengs, at the sight of
which he showed far more sensibility than I thought him possessed
of. He said that notwithstanding he saw that painting almost daily,
he never saw it without being much affected.
The painting represented Mary Magdalene when she first suddenly sees
Jesus standing before her, and falls at His feet. And in her
countenance pain, joy, grief, in short almost all the strongest of
our passions, are expressed in so masterly a manner, that no man of
true taste was ever tired of contemplating it; the longer it is
looked at the more it is admired. He now also showed me the library
of this college, which is provided with a gallery round the top, and
the whole is most admirably regulated and arranged. Among other
things, I here saw a description of Oxford, with plates to
illustrate it: and I cannot help observing what, though trite, is
true, that all these places look much better, and are far more
beautiful on paper, than they appeared to me to be as I looked at
them where they actually stand.
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