The wanderings of a pen and pencil . ith a lusty game at foot-ball, amongst the haycocks in the meadow. The syllabubs in the open air werecharming. The songs of the night were as cheerful as one could desire, andwith a brisk escort of revellers, brimfull of toddy, and sentiment, we returnedto our habitation pro tern, in St. Giless, and dreamed more than we shall tellto any one but the ladies at home. The next day was a dull day in Oxford,and until the noon it seemed likely to be dark and drizzly: until evening wehad no particular plan to consult, so by mutual consent we went side by sideto vag
The wanderings of a pen and pencil . ith a lusty game at foot-ball, amongst the haycocks in the meadow. The syllabubs in the open air werecharming. The songs of the night were as cheerful as one could desire, andwith a brisk escort of revellers, brimfull of toddy, and sentiment, we returnedto our habitation pro tern, in St. Giless, and dreamed more than we shall tellto any one but the ladies at home. The next day was a dull day in Oxford,and until the noon it seemed likely to be dark and drizzly: until evening wehad no particular plan to consult, so by mutual consent we went side by sideto vagabondise in the Hincksey lanes. To arrive at Hincksey you take thewestern road out of Oxford ; and at Botley, where the roads to Whitehamand Cumnov diverge, you keep a brief turning to the left, and then take HINCKSEY. 289 your will between the hedge-rows and the curling streams. We should beregarded as wise owls indeed to offer such instruction to a pundit; forHincksey Ferry House is known afar and wide; and is the Sunday resort of. Hinrkscy IVrry. the middling classes, when the weather is bright, and the days are long andblest with congenial sunshine. Merrily, and with gipsy pace, we wanderedin the flowery track of those rude pathways; and little children, whose lightpresence was every where, at the stiles and by the ditches, and weaving thewater grass beneath the pale willow trees, became our chief amusement, andlisped for us their names, their pastimes, and all their concise and bashfulbiography. One picturesque group, in the nook of an upper path by the way-side,were under thrall of a fierce chubby-cheeked urchin, who, with early exer-cise of human bias, manifested her innate fondness for dominion by perform-ing the schoolmistress, teaching her junior playmates the alphabet frombroken platters and dock-leaves, and such-like material, which, by the potentspell of young imagination, can at once be converted for the nonce intoplates of silver and gold, houses, rich food, and
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Keywords: ., bo, bookauthorcrowquillalfredill, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
