"
"It was the English," Kaspar cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they killed each other for
I could not well make out.
But everybody said," quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory."
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin:--
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
We found a very comfortable hotel at Woodstock where we got a splendid
tea, and stayed some time, with an inward desire to stay longer; but we
wanted to reach Oxford that night, and so walked on in the dark and
arrived at the Temperance Hotel there at ten o'clock p.m.
We had seen a few bonfires on our way, but when November 5th happened to
fall on a Sunday, causing the ceremonies of the "glorious fifth" to be
celebrated either a day sooner or a day later, the proceedings
invariably fell flat and lost their eclat; but Oxford was notorious on
Gunpowder Day for a faction fight known as the Gown and the Town fight,
which generally began in front of the church dedicated to St. Mary the
Virgin, and on that day more heads were damaged in the city than on any
other day in the year, the fight always ending in a number of both
parties being taken care of for the night.
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