Talbot Photo 9(3)

Genre: Fine Arts, Photography of

Plate 18 of a partially bound copy of the fourth installment of 'The Pencil of Nature', published on the 21 June 1845. A view looking along the street towards the gateway and clock tower of Christ Church College. Paper trimmed to size of image.

The text that accompanies the plate reads, '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 the shade. Those who have visited Oxford and Cambridge in vacation time in the summer must have been struck with the silence and tranquillity 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 in 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 on pleasure - but Oxford in the summer season seems the dwelling of the Genius of Repose.'