(Distance walked twenty miles.)

[Illustration:  MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL, OXFORD.]

Sunday, November 5th.

I was roused in good time this morning by my brother knocking at my door and wishing me many happy returns of my birthday, consequently we were able to go out in the town before breakfast and see how Oxford looked in the daylight.  As we walked through the principal streets we were astonished at the number of towers and spires on the churches and colleges, which appeared in every direction, and the number of trees and gardens which surrounded them.  We saw the Martyrs’ Memorial, which we must have passed as we entered the city the previous night, an elaborate and ornate structure, fully seventy feet high, with a cross at the summit.  The monument had been erected at a cost of L5,000, to the memory of Bishops Ridley and Latimer, who were burnt to death near the spot, October 16th, 1555, and of Archbishop Cranmer, who followed them on March 21st, 1556; their statues in Caen stone filled three of the niches.  The memorial was decorated after the manner of the Eleanor Crosses erected by King Edward I in memory of his wife, the Queen Eleanor, and the inscription on the base was as follows: 

To the Glory of God and in grateful commemoration of His servants—­Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, prelates of the Church of England; who near this spot yielded their bodies to be burned, bearing witness to the sacred truths which they had affirmed and maintained against the errors of the Church of Rome, and rejoicing that to them it was given not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake.  This monument was erected by public subscription in the year of our Lord God MDCCCXLI.

Ridley and Latimer were burned together on the slope of the city near Balliol College, where stakes had been placed to receive them.  On the day of their execution they were brought from their prison and compelled to listen to a sermon full of reproaches and uncharitable insinuations from the preacher, Dr. Smith, who took his text from the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians:  “If I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it availeth me nothing.”

[Illustration:  OXFORD’S TOWERS.  “We were astonished at the number of towers and spires on the churches and colleges which appeared in every direction, and the number of trees and gardens which were around them.”]

Each of the bishops expressed a desire to reply to the sermon, but neither of them was allowed to do so, and they were led to the place of execution.  Ridley was told that if he would recant, his life would be spared, but he replied, “So long as the breath is in my body I will never deny my Lord Christ and His known truth.  God’s will be done in me.”