Oxford is old.
Really old. There was some form of students and teachers there since the late 11th century. I mean,
seriously. That's about 75 years short of
a millennium of educational history.
You'll have to excuse me.
But
holy shit.
I really do apologize for my lack of eloquence when it comes to really old things. I can't seem to talk when there's just a whole lot of AWE in my brain. Walking around the Oxford University campus was... indescribable. To a lot of people, even my own family, it would be just another historic landmark (or *shudder* just another filming location of Harry Potter). But for me, this trip has been long-anticipated.
Like all medieval universities, Oxford began under the Catholic church (what what!). And like all medieval universities, it was nowhere near as organized as universities are today. There was only one college at the beginning: St. Mary's (now there are 38). Around the 12th century, Oxford saw a dramatic influx of students, because King Henry II banned scholars from studying at the University of Paris. All the English kids came home ("English" being more like "French Norman" at this point in history) and came to Oxford. There was a little scuffle between the university students and some townspeople in 1209, and a few professors left the rough 'n' tumble area of Oxford to go form... what those in Oxford call "the other place".*
The picture above is the ceiling and upper windows of the Divinity school examination room. Yes, this hall was used as the hospital wing for Harry Potter. It was also where students would give/take their oral exams until the 19th century. It's also under... THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.
Where we were forbidden, you guessed it, to take pictures. Sorry! That's what postcards are for. Suffice it to say, the Bodleian was just as cool, if not as dramatic, as the Old Library at Trinity.
The books in the library above actually started to weigh down the building, making the walls of this room bend and buckle outwards. Christopher Wren (later famous architect for St. Paul's) had buttresses built outside to stabilize the building. Another library story involves the son of Henry VIII ordering all Catholic works at the library destroyed because the child king was even more fanatical than his father, but it's just too heartbreaking for me to go there.
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| Unassuming picture, but Oscar Wilde stood here when he was charged with not paying his tailor's bill. |
Lunch was a special treat.
For all you readers not well versed in the lives of the magnificent J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, The Eagle and Child pub (locally nicknamed The Bird and Baby) is where these two great writers met with other intellectuals on a regular basis during their time teaching at Oxford. Along with several of my classmates, I really wanted to make this a stop, since this pub undoubtedly played a role in Lewis' conversion to Christianity. Tolkien was a devout Catholic his whole life, and he was also instrumental in bringing Lewis to the faith. Tolkien was admittedly disappointed that Lewis found his faith in the Church of England rather than the Catholic Church, but I'm sure this grudge has been forgotten in heaven.
Hilarious sidenote: Tolkien lived to see the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and was generally not a fan of the mass in English. His grandson remembers going to mass, and Tolkien "made all the responses very loudly in Latin while the rest of the congregation answered in English." 'Atta boy, Tolkien!
We walked past Magdalene College, where Lewis was a fellow for about 30 years. No walks past Tolkien's college, Pembroke, I'm afraid.
After lunch, we met up with our lovely Oxford guide, Kathy Lemaire (who failed to mention that she's an OBE!). She took us to
The Story Museum, a really exciting blend of children's museum and library. It's still in the works, so if you have a few extra thousand dollars, I'd be happy to help. :-) One of the rooms inside was an AMAZING tea party room ala
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I wish I could talk about Alice and Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson, which I didn't know until recently), but I must admit I've not yet read the book. Carroll/Dodgson was a student and teacher at Christ Church, the largest and best well known college at Oxford, which we made our last stop at Oxford. You may also recognize many views of Christ Church from *sigh* the Harry Potter movies.
The Great Hall was actually modeled on the Christ Church dining hall.
Quidditch, anyone?
After learning that tuition for Oxford is somewhere around $9,000 a year, I'm starting to think I didn't look at my schooling options carefully enough. Hmmm...
*It's Cambridge, FYI.
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