The Charm of Oxford

There are many books on Oxford; the justification for this new one is Mr. Blackall's drawings. They will serve by their grace and charm pleasantly to recall to those who know Oxford the scenes they love; they will incite those who do not know Oxford to remedy that defect in their lives.

My own letterpress is only written to accompany the drawings. It is intended to remind Oxford men of the things they know or ought to know; it is intended still more to help those who have not visited Oxford to understand the drawings and to appreciate some of the historical associations of the scenes represented.

I have written quite freely, as this seemed the best way to create the "impression" wished. I have to acknowledge some obligations to Messrs. Seccombe & Scott's /Praise of Oxford/, a book the pages of which an Oxford man can always turn over with pleasure, and to Mr. J. B. Firth's /Minstrelsy of Isis/; it is not his fault that the poetic merit of so much of his collection is poor. Oxford has not on the whole been fortunate in her poets. My own quotations are more often chosen for their local colour than for their poetic merit.

I have unavoidably had to borrow a good deal from my own /Oxford and its Colleges/, but the aim of the two books is very different.

WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD, April 1920.