Oxford

A few months ago, I found an original copy of a book about Oxford published in 1903.  I knew I had to buy it after reading this opening passage by Edward Thomas:

"Passing rapidly through London, with its roar of causes that have been won, and the suburbs, where they have no causes, and skirting the willowy Thames,--glassy or silver, or with engrailed grey waves--and brown ploughlands, elm-guarded, solitary, I approached Oxford.  Nuneham woods made one great shadow on the land, one great shadow on the Thames.  According to an old custom, it rained.  But rain takes nothing from Oxford save a few nice foot passengers.  It transmutes the Franciscan habit of the city to a more Dominican cast; and if the foil of sky be faintly lighted, the rain becomes a visible beatitude" (3).

The subtle dig on the suburbs, the vivid description of the Thames, the comment about the "old custom" of rain...I'd like to think that Edward Thomas and I would have been friends.