Christ Church College Dining Hall. Inspiration for Hogwart’s Dining Hall. More from Harry Potter at this college in Oxford to come. Alice in Wonderland was inspired at this college, too.
Today was an easier walking day. We spent part of the afternoon watching the live coverage of the Queen’s journey from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. So moving. Still adjusting to this time zone. It seems to be harder now that we are older.
Tomorrow is our day tour in the Cotswolds.
Cheers!
‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.’
This is a post from my archives from 2014.
Our tour guide in Oxford, July of 2014, said that there are stories about this door being an inspiration to C.S. Lewis on the writing of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as he was housed behind this door from time to time.
and just to the right of this doorway was this…
…the lamp post that served as the model in the story.
Good story if it’s true and you can see the inspirations are there. The Chronicles of Narnia are a favorite of mine.
There is so much great history to hear about and see in Oxford. We are already talking about spending at least a couple days in this city the next time we visit Jolly Old England.
Back to the present. Not just a couple more days but our apartment is booked for 9 days!
This fence with “Head” posts is in Oxford England close to the Bodlein and and next to the Sheldonian Theater and Old Ashmolean. Each post has a different head.
Last night while Dear and I watched an episode of Inspector Morse they drove on the street next to this fence. I enjoy seeing places we have walked when we watch shows like Morse, Inspector Lewis, or Lord Peter Whimsy series from Dorothy Sayers mysteries.
I didn’t have a lot of time to research why there are heads on each of these posts and information about them isn’t an easy click away.
During our 2022 visit to Oxford we do intend to take in the Sheldonian and a few museums, too. I found this Youtube description and some history of the Sheldonian.
This is my last archive post of Oxford. The days are ticking down for our trip in September.
St Mary’s stands in the physical centre of the old walled City, and the university grew up around it. In medieval times scholars lived in houses with their teachers and the university had no buildings of its own, so it adopted St Mary’s as its centre. The church continued as a parish church, but by the early 13th century it had become the seat of university government, academic disputation, and the awarding of degrees.
The Oxford Martyrs ~Each of the three anglican bishops, Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer, who were burnt at the stake in Oxford during the reign of the Roman Catholic queen, ‘Bloody Mary’, underwent part of his trial in St Mary’s. Their principal crime was not to believe the doctrine of transsubstantiation, although Cranmer, as Henry VIII’s Archbishop, had also played a crucial role in the downfall of Queen Mary’s mother, Catherine of Aragon.
This bit of history at St Mary’s really was interesting to me to read…
John Wesley, founder of Methodism, often attended the University Sermon in his Oxford days, and subsequently, as a Fellow of Lincoln College, preached some of his most stirring sermons before the University here – notably the famous sermon the ‘Almost Christian’ in 1741. In 1744, again in St Mary’s, he denounced the laxity and sloth of the senior members of the University. He was never asked to preach here again. ‘I have preached, I suppose,’ I wrote, ‘the last time in St Mary’s. Be it so. I am now clear of the blood of these men. I have fully delivered my soul.’
While traveling I never have the time to thoroughly study the history of the places we visit. In preparing my posts for my blog, after the fact, I learn so much more information and history and I find out all the things I missed while visiting these amazing places. That’s why I always am ready for another trip to see the things I missed. There’s only so much my brain can absorb in a short visit.For our daughter Katie’s high school graduation, Dear and I took her to Great Britain in April of 2004. Katie is a reader, a learner, a writer, a poet and an artist. We asked her what she’d want to see and she came up with the brilliant idea of following some of her favorite authors and characters around the Isle! This is a photo log of our trip that we can highly recommend to all lovers of Hobbits, Inklings, Literary Giants, 19th Century England, Harry Potter, and wacky Holy Grail enthusiasts! For my flashbacks I’m going to cover less ground in each post. This first post will be our Oxford experience with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien on our radar. The photos on this trip were taken the old fashioned way with a camera that was still using film!
The Eagle and Child (The Bird and Baby) Oxford
We set out from our first B & B base in Cheltenham to tour Oxford. We were still getting over our jet lag just arriving the day before. We found a park and ride outside of Oxford and rode a bus into town. Our first stop was The Eagle and Child (The Bird and the Baby) where the Inklings would meet and discuss their current writings, thoughts, etc.
The pictures on the wall are of C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and other Inklings, plus letters, etc. We had a bite to eat and a pint was raised to toast our respected authors! “It comes in pints?”
Addison’s Walk
Dear and Katie on Addison’s Walk. This walkway is on the grounds of Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin) where Tolkien and Lewis would walk and have long conversations, after which C. S. Lewis converted to Christianity. We found it, walked it and reflected on the beauty and wonder of it all!
This next photo shows a spot on the walkway that we took a photo from different directions in 2004 and in 2014.
And here’s one of the beautiful courtyards that we took photos of both of these years.
We saw the iconic phone booth on the grounds of Magdalen, too.
Walking from Magdalen College back to the center of town we saw other familiar sites, too.
The Bridge of Sighs
Radcliffe Camera
In 2004 when we came across Logic Lane Katie insisted that we take a photo of her dad under the sign. In 2014 we came upon Logic Lane again so I had to take another photo.
We walked about to find this address where Tolkien lived at 21 Merton St. after his wife died in 1971.
Katie would not let us leave Oxford till we found Tolkien’s grave. This was no small feat! Here we are at Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford at the graveside where he and his wife are buried. His son is buried here, also. Katie left a note in Elvish, (yes, she learned to write and speak Tolkien’s Elvish).
EDITH MARY TOLKIEN
LUTHIEN
1889 – 1971
JOHN RONALD
REUEL TOLKIEN
BEREN
1892 – 1973
Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford
We headed back to our B & B in Cheltenham to rest up for our next days adventure around the Cotswolds in search of Hobbits.
The thing about film photography is that we didn’t know if the photos we took even turned out well till we were home and had the film developed. Aren’t you happy we have digital cameras now? You can see if you chopped someone’s head off or missed the top of a beautiful cathedral etc. These photos that I took with film in 2004 were scanned and uploaded onto my computer and in a lot of cases lightened up and sharpened and sometimes cropped.
Now we await our time in Oxford in 2022. We still do not cling too tightly to this trip as we know anything can change on the world landscape in a day. Trusting God if we go or if we can’t go.
The 15th Century Cloisters construction commenced in 1474 which makes this medieval square of stone among the oldest parts of Magdalen.
Balancing on the buttresses that jut from the Cloister walls are the figures later known as ‘hieroglyphics’, the ‘GARGELS”, Magdalen’s very own gargoyles. Some are biblical, some heraldic, all symbolic. Since they entered the College in 1508-9 they have been keeping their emblematic eyes on the comings and goings in the Cloisters and the quad.
Wanted to let you all see that we did “keep off the grass”.
From the Cloisters we headed out to Addison’s walk and the New Building following the footsteps of Tolkien and Lewis along one of the paths that leads to the famous meetings of the “Inklings”.
Back to the present day Saturday August 6, 2022. This evening we are hosting a raclette meal for 6 in our home. We offered the meal as an auction item for our Church Missionary fundraiser back in May. Hopefully I’ll remember to take photos of the event.
We visited Magdalen College with our daughter Katie in 2004 and we were happy to re-visit the buildings and grounds this past July. What drew us to this college in 2004 was the information we read about Tolkien and C.S. Lewis enjoying walks and theological discussions here and along Addison’s Walk. We wanted to walk along that path, too.
Magdalen College was founded just outside Oxford’s City walls in 1458 by William Waynflete.
The chapel was begun in May 1474. The remarkable West Window of the Antechapel is a dramatic depiction of the Apocalypse and the judgement of souls. This vision was cast in 1637 but has been subjected to subsequent restorations, the re-glazing in 1859-1861 leaving the windows as they appear today.
Above the stalls hangs Giampetrino’s remarkable 15th copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, on permanent loan from the Royal Academy. In view of the bad condition of the original fresco in Milan, (which I had the privilege of seeing in March of 2013) Magdalen’s copy on canvas is a piece of increasing historic and artistic significance.
In 1635, the repaving of the Chapel floor in a pattern of black and white marble tiles.
The doors to the main Chapel were locked so I had to get these photos by looking through the glass on the doors. The choir sings from the middle stalls at either side. Towards the end of the 19th century the Choir achieved renown and played a pivotal role in ensuring an unprecedented fondness of carol singing among the general public by the publication of an anthology of carols.
This is the Hall which was built at the founding of the College. The High Table at the far end seats the President, Fellows and formal guests, just as it did in the early 16th century when it welcomed King James I. Oscar Wilde was a former member of Magdalen.
This post is getting long so I will do another post with photos from the Cloisters and some outdoor spaces.
This September 2022 we are going to be in Oxford during an ‘Open Day’ for the Oxford Colleges. We aren’t sure what that means but we hope it means we can walk onto any of the colleges without a fee and that we can see inside some quads and buildings we haven’t been able to see in prior trips. Time will tell if that is the case.
Back to the present day which is Friday August 5th. We are having a slight relief with our heat dipping into the 80’s for a couple of days and then it will spike up again reaching the 100’s again next Tuesday. It has been nice to start the mornings off in the 50’s instead of the 60’s. Have a great weekend everyone!
This is a post from my archives from July of 2014. We traveled by train to Oxford from the Cotswolds leaving our rental car behind which is a very good idea when visiting Oxford.
You can read about the history of Trinity College by clicking here. After our walking tour of Oxford on our 6th day in England Dear and I enjoyed some lunch and then walked about on our own. We visited two more of the University of Oxford Colleges, Trinity and Magdalen. We had to pay a small entrance fee to walk about these colleges.
The Chapel was consecrated in 1694 and was hailed by contemporaries as the most magnificent Chapel in the University. Its dynamic integration of architecture, sculpture and painting is unrivalled amongst surviving ecclesiastical interiors in England.
Deposition of Christ ~ (copy after Andrea del Sarto) by Gaetano Cannicci, 1870.
We were in Oxford the summer of 1974 briefly on our way to Blenheim Palace with our Singing group before we were married. If my memory serves me correctly it was in Oxford that I purchased the tea set for the Teapot I bought in Canterbury in 1973 on our singing group tour (Royal Albert, Moss Rose). In 2004 on a Literary trip to celebrate our daughter’s graduation from high school we visited Oxford for a day. We parked in a park and ride outside of town and took a bus to the city center and set out to find all the places that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were known for. We had lunch at the Eagle and Child. We spent some time at Magdalene College and walked the path where Lewis and Tolkien walked. After getting back to our car we ventured off to Wolvercote to try and find the cemetery where Tolkien is buried. With our daughter’s determination we finally did find it and found his gravesite.
Back to July 2022 here in the States. We hope on our journey this September to attend Evensong at Trinity and at Magdalene colleges. Since our time in Oxford will be extended from just several hours to many days we hope to enjoy more leisurely visits to much of Oxford that we didn’t have time to see in 2014. We’ve also been researching churches in the area to attend on the Sunday we are there.
Our internet these days is painfully slow. Uploading anything new is a huge challenge. In the meantime, I’m revisiting my posts from our July 2014 trip to England and specifically our day in Oxford. Remembering and making notes on what to see if we can indeed travel in September.
On Wednesday July 9th (Day 6 of our England Trip) we boarded a train in Moreton in Marsh to Oxford for the day. We found free parking on the street close to the station. The train ride was a short 37 minutes. Since parking in Oxford is a challenge and you are advised to use park and rides on the outskirts of town we thought a train ride close to the center of town was the best option for us.
We opted to go to the visitor center and sign up for a walking tour. There were a few other tour options but they seemed a little too hawkish for our taste.
We only visited one of the colleges with the tour guide. The oldest Oxford college continuously on one site, co-founded by a woman, Balliol is home to young people from many different backgrounds who have come to study with world-class academics.
Each of the Oxford Colleges to my understanding have their own chapel, dining hall, libraries, and dormitories.
Some inside views of the William Butterfield chapel.
These are the outside views of the chapel designed by William Butterfield in 1857.
This was the dining hall for the college.
Oxford is a very bicycle friendly town and on our walk around town it seemed we were more in danger from being hit by a bike than a car.
Because of the way this chap was dressed our tour guide said that he’d be sitting for exams. The white bow tie was significant as to what exams he’d be sitting for. There are dress codes that are still observed for taking exams and other ceremonies, too.
After Balliol our tour guide showed us some other major sites in Oxford that I will post about soon. When our tour was over Dear and I spent some time at Trinity College and Magdalen College before we met up with a couple we met on the tour from Vancouver Island at the Oldest Pub in Oxford.
So happy to report that we have one more side of the shop siding installed. Two more sides to go before Winter sets in. We are expecting some snow tonight and time will tell just how much falls. For now my vehicle is enjoying the covering of the shop. We are so thankful for this progress on the shop!
Did you know that Wal-Mart is staggering their Black Friday savings every week. When I was there on Monday I found a lot of fun savings in the aisles. Fun toys for $5 and $10 dollars. Nice Hotel quality towels for $5. I’m happy to say I restrained myself from buying too much!
The University of Washington in Seattle was established in 1861. The gargoyles I zoomed in on are located on buildings in the Liberal Arts Quadrangle, commonly known as the Quad.
While we were admiring the Cherry blossoms and the Magnolia blossoms at the University of Washington I enjoyed zooming in to get a closer look at the gargoyles on the different buildings on the quad. I also took some close ups of the School of Art and Music buildings.
Gargoyles are figures often carved into the architecture of old churches, usually in the form of a grotesque animal or human. Many times gargoyles in Gothic churches were attached to the gutter system of the roof, with the mouth of the gargoyle acting as a spout for rainwater, helping keep the masonry from being destroyed.
The University of Washington is a real treasure for the state and city of Seattle. We have two graduates of the University in our family and one more who will graduate in 2018.
Enjoying lots of cuddle time with our new granddaughter. We had an exciting wind and thunderstorm event today. Haven’t had time to upload new photos but will soon. Saturday we are headed to a junk show. We have some items we are on the lookout for. I’ll let you know how it goes. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and we enter Holy Week. I’m so glad Jesus came to earth to save us. Have a wonderful weekend.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 