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ADVENTURE OF THE MONTH —
JANUARY, 2007
Home At First
Goes Back to School— |
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— PART II — |
Years ago we first visited Oxford, England, with a guide book in hand. Very
nice. Last year, we returned to Oxford bearing only our
literary guides: “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Lord of the Rings”, “The
Chronicles of Narnia”, and, especially, this poem we first read in college in
Pennsylvania:
How changed is here each spot man makes or fills!
In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same;
Tonight from Oxford up your pathway strays!
Runs it not here, the track by Childsworth Farm,
Past the high wood,
to where the elm tree crowns
The hill behind whose ridge the sunset flames?
The signal elm, that looks on Ilsley Downs,
The Vale, the three lone weirs, the youthful Thames?—
This winter-eve is warm,
Humid the air! Leafless, yet soft as spring,
The tender purple spray on copse and briers!
And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening,
Lovely all times she lies, lovely tonight!
—from Thyrsis by Matthew Arnold
In my own university
days I saw the endless hills of Central Pennsylvania in Arnold’s poem. The
farms, rural pathways, the stands of woodland, and the sunset ridgelines all had
their local corollaries. My river vale was the broad swath of the wide West
Branch of the Susquehanna, and the two Hinkseys were West Lawn and College Park,
their heights overlooking the dreaming spires of Bucknell and Lewisburg. I
shelved these images from English lit for the next thirty years. In recent years
I’ve come to know Oxford on the edge of England’s Cotswolds region. My travels
there have dusted off Arnold’s old Victorian poetic imagery, and returned me to
the richly innocent excesses of the university experience with their unrealistic
priorities, pace, and expectations. These, I’ve concluded, are the metaphorical
associations of Arnold’s dreaming spires of Oxford.
Many, many valid reasons exist to see Oxford
with a guided tour. And, the quality of the professional guides available
ensures the visitor’s education and entertainment. No tour, however, permits the
magic of Oxford to overwhelm you. Tours minimize serendipity in order to
maximize efficiency. And the proper discovery of Oxford requires serendipity.
I’ll let Arnold’s poem be my tour guide.
In
Part I we decoded the directions Matthew Arnold
hid in his poem, "Thyrsis", and approached Oxford's dreaming spires from the
southwest, arriving at the southern entrance to the city, Folly Bridge. In Part
II we shall begin our wanderings among the dreaming spires. (Follow our path on
our
Map of Oxford.)
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— PART II —
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From
Folly Bridge
(map point A),
St. Aldate’s street leads past the medieval walls of Christ Church
College and the Museum of Oxford into town, Carfax, the square at the
intersection of the town’s principal streets (map
point B). Climbing the 99
steps of a former church tower (the church disappeared 110 years ago)
now called Carfax Tower (open daily from 10AM; entrance fee about £2)
gives you a bird’s eye overview of Oxford. High Street leads east from
here into the principal university part of town and the River Cherwell.
Across Carfax from St. Aldate’s, Cornmarket leads north from Carfax into
the principal shopping district of Oxford. Queen Street leads west past
more shopping and Oxford Castle to another crossing of the River Isis
and Oxford’s busy railway station.
Many of the colleges at Oxford are clustered in the eastern half
of the town. Their buildings tend to share that |
CARFAX TOWER |
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fanciful, ornate, medieval
Gothic architecture most closely associated with just three places in
England: Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Houses of Parliament at the
Palace of Westminster. (The oldest part of the Palace of Westminster
still standing, Westminster Hall, was built in 1097. Oxford University
traces its beginnings to 1096.) The colleges line the broad streets and
the narrow alleys of eastern Oxford, forming canyons of golden stone
decorated with gargoyles, buttresses, archways, columns, towers, and,
pointing everywhere heavenward, spires of all sizes and designs.
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For native English speakers, to visit Oxford is to arrive at one’s alma mater
ultimatum, the source of higher learning for the Anglo centric world. The
university is an amalgam of some 39 quasi-independent colleges that have
attained membership at Oxford at various times since the university began
shortly after the 11th century Norman Conquest of England. Although
Oxford University enrolls more than 30,000 students, each student must belong to
a specific Oxford College. Although Oxford is ranked among the top 10
universities in the world, some of its 39 colleges are more prestigious than
others with prominent names all their own: Christ Church, Merton, Magdalen
(pronounced “Maudlin”), Balliol (Matthew Arnold’s undergraduate college),
Brasenose, New, Oriel (where Matthew Arnold was a Fellow on the governing
board), Queen’s, Trinity, and University Colleges all carry a panache that comes
from their early founding date, their famous alumni, and/or their association
with a prestigious college at that other great British university, Cambridge,
itself probably a spin-off from the older Oxford. The average size of Oxford
colleges is fewer than 500 undergraduates. Each college has its own residence
buildings, traditions, scarf colors, and sports and social organizations. Some
colleges culture fierce rivalries with other Oxford colleges. College loyalties
are legendary at Oxford, to this day creating good-old-boy networks that pervade
British society.
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THE
BEAR, MEDIEVAL INN HIDDEN AMONG THE ALLEYS BETWEEN CHRIST CHURCH
AND MERTON COLLEGES. |
From Carfax, we walked east on the south side of High Street for 1 block
to Alfred Street. A right turn on Alfred Street leads into the gothic
walled alleys bordering Christ Church College. At the next intersection
(map point C),
with Blue Boar Street, is the oldest pub in Oxford,
The Bear (1242).
Once a coaching inn, The Bear no longer sees much street traffic along
its narrow, walled approaches. It seems like The Bear should be too
hidden to be popular, but such is not the case in central Oxford where
auto traffic is discouraged and pedestrians and cyclists rule. The
Bear’s medieval building is part of the fascination. Its small, dark,
lattice-windowed, low-ceilinged rooms could serve as a set for a remake
of “Robin Hood”. Its elaborate collection of swatches of school ties
(4,500+ specimens thus far) decorates the old, irregular walls of the
pub. Since the 1950s patrons have proffered their colorful tie cuttings
in exchange for a pint of beer or one of The Bear’s several delightful
real ales pumped up to the bar from
cellar-caved-casks. The bar food's fine at The Bea, too, and not badly
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priced—students, even at
Oxford, are not the most well to do of restaurant customers. (Warning to
smokaphobic Americans: The Bear, like many pub/restaurants throughout
Britain, is struggling to give up its centuries-entrenched smoking
habit. The pub maintains both smoking and non-smoking rooms, but in such
a confined space that it’s impossible to completely avoid the
traditional old pub smokiness. Unlike the now smoke-free Irish (who
would have thought it?) the Brits are having a tough time quitting.
Expect inadequate compromise solutions in pubs and restaurants until the
Brits finally go cold turkey in the next few years. |
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CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL SERVES AS THE CATHEDRAL FOR OXFORD CITY. |
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After a solid (and
partially liquid) lunch at The Bear, we headed east on Bear Lane.
Sequestered to our right, protected by brick walls, iron gates, and
uniformed guards from curious visitors like us, are the buildings of
Christ Church
College (map point
D), including the 12th
century cathedral, the spire of which could still be seen, if not
approached without official permission and the paying of an entrance
fee. Inside the walls cloistered Christ Church College has educated
Einstein, John Wesley, William Penn, W. H.
Auden, Christopher Wren, Lewis Carroll, Gladstone, and even (by
fictitious use of Christ Church as a film location) Harry Potter.
(Entrance to Christ Church College and Cathedral is on St. Aldate’s
south of Carfax; Open: Mo-Sa 9AM-5PM and Su 1-5PM; Admission: about
£5/adults, £4/students). |
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THE
PLAYING FIELDS BEHIND MERTON COLLEGE
INVITE STROLLING, BUT NOT FAR FROM HERE ROGER
BANNISTER BROKE THE 4-MINUTE MILE BARRIER. |
Bearing right on
King Edward Street led us into Oriel Square, by Oriel and Corpus Christi
Colleges. We turned left between these two and headed east along Merton
Street past 13th century Merton College, one of Oxford’s four
original colleges. Following Merton Street leads quickly back to High
Street, a good choice if, lacking time, you want to dive into Oxford’s
old city. But we prefer to turn right at
Merton
College and take Magpie Lane south into the playing fields |
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behind the college. Here we turn left (east) and walk
along northern gates of the expansive green soccer and rugby fields. We
tread where we imagine illustrious Merton graduates and teachers walked:
theologian John Wycliffe, politician/write Richard Steele, Lord Randolph
Churchill (Winston’s famous father), Sir Roger Bannister (who first
broke the 4-minute mile on a nearby Oxford track), Nobel prize winning
poet T. S. Eliot, Kris Kristofferson (yes, the
country singer was here on a Rhodes scholarship), Howard K. Smith
(ABC-TV anchor), and the writer J.R.R. Tolkien (author of the “Lord of
the Rings”). Only the occasional runner or pair of scholars deep in
conversation interrupts the quiet of this lane. Illuminated to the north
is a dense picket fence of spires (map
point E). At the eastern
end of the playing fields, turn left to follow Rose Lane north to High
Street. |
If you find the Rose Lane gates left open
you can enter Oxford’s modest yet comprehensive (8,000+ species)
Botanic Garden
(map point F).
Otherwise, enter the Botanic Garden at its main north gate on High Street. Its
plants, trees and flowers—both familiar and exotic—invite a leisurely half hour,
and promise a few surprises in Oxford’s most peaceful corner. The gardens open
at 9AM and close in the late afternoon. Admission is £2.70/adult,
£2/seniors/students (children free) payable at the High Street gate March
through October. The gardens are open November through February, too, but the
gates are not staffed, and admission is by donation.
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Across High Street
from the Botanic Garden is Magdalen College (map
point G), the several
spires of its gothic tower being the highest in Oxford. Magdalen College
borders the River Cherwell, the traditional eastern limit of the city of
Oxford. Magdalen appears the essence of the sequestered medieval
college, walled on three sides and moated by the Cherwell on its eastern
flank. For this reason, if you wish to visit an Oxford college, pay the
admission (£3/adults; £2 for seniors, students and/or
children) to get inside Magdalen’s walls (Open: daily except
Christmas week from 1PM to dusk and from 12-6PM in summer months). A
pamphlet guide comes with entry to the college
grounds and several school buildings. Light |
OXFORD'S BOTANICAL GARDEN
PROVIDES A TRANQUIL REFUGE FROM
THE TOWN'S BUSY HIGH STREET. THE SPIRES IN THE BACKGROUND ARE
THOSE OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE TOWER. |
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meals and snacks
(including afternoon tea) are served at Magdalen’s Old Kitchen on summer
afternoons (12:30-5:30PM daily). Be sure to see the college’s medieval
tower, chapel, library, student dining hall, and bar, all dating from
Tudor times. Explore the college’s considerable grounds, too, with the
large Deer Park, and, perhaps especially, Addison’s Walk, which traces
the east bank of the River Cherwell—part scholar’s path, part lover’s
lane, and easily the dreamiest byway found among Oxford’s dreaming
spires. Named after the 17th century Magdalen alumnus who
enjoyed walking its length, Addison’s Walk commemorates Joseph Addison,
influential political writer and playwright of early 18th
century England. Addison is just one of several notable alumni
associated with Magdalen College: including Nobel prize winners in
medicine, chemistry, physics, and literature, the major writers C. S.
Lewis and Oscar Wilde, the late actor/pianist Dudley Moore, and two U.S.
Supreme Court Justices: David Souter and Stephen Breyer. If Magdalen
College is in many ways a microcosm of Oxford University, it remains an
incomplete synecdoche. Oxford offers much more worthy of exploration. |
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Cross Magdalen’s grounds and exit north onto St. Cross Road. (If you do
not go into Magdalen College, follow Longwell Street north from High
Street. Then turn north on St. Cross Road.) Follow St. Cross Road on its
quiet route north past Linacre College, behind the University Science
Area (group of buildings immediately to the west), along several sports
grounds and into the large University Park. Watch for cricket being
practiced or played at the cricket grounds in the park
(map point H).
Emerge at the SW corner of the park on Parks Road diagonally across from
Keble College (map point
I), its telltale red brick
and white stone façade combining Byzantine elements with gothic arches,
buttresses and spires in a style called Victorian gothic. |
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THE VICTORIAN GOTHIC
STYLE OF KEBLE COLLEGE
Walk one block south on Parks Road, then turn left (east) onto
South Parks Road. After another block turn right (south) onto Mansfield
Road. Pass Mansfield and Harris Manchester Colleges (map
point J), which, although
among the youngest and smallest of Oxford colleges (gaining Oxford
college status in 1995 and 1996, respectively), occupy buildings of
traditional Oxford architecture with spires of their own. Mansfield Road
ends at a T-intersection with Holywell Street by
New College, which is
one of the oldest of Oxford colleges, dating from 1379
(map point K).
Its dreaming spires have witnessed six and a half centuries of students,
including several recent ones of note: perennial British minority
politician Tony Benn, Nobel literary laureate novelist John Galsworthy
(“The Forsyte Saga”), quintessential foppish, charming English actor
Hugh Grant, and American poet Robert Penn Warren. Most recently,
however, New College has featured close associations with two major
characters of British fiction, as it has appeared as a location for
James Bond’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) and “Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire” (2004). |
HARRIS MANCHESTER
COLLEGE LIBRARY. AT
OXFORD EVEN THIS
NEWEST (1996) AND
SMALLEST OF COLLEGES
BOASTS AN EXTENSIVE
LIBRARY (70,000
VOLUMES) AND TRADITIONAL, IVORY
TOWER ARCHITECTURE. |
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THE
HERTFORD BRIDGE,
MOST COMMONLY CALLED
THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS,
CONNECTS THE OLD AND NEW QUADS OF HERTFORD COLLEGE. SEEN UNDER THE ARCH
IS CHRISTOPHER WREN'S SHELDONIAN THEATRE, 250
YEARS OLDER THAN THE BRIDGE. |
From New College head
west on Holywell Street one block to Catte Street. Turn left on Catte
Street and enter the domain of Hertford College, one of the first Oxford
schools, dating from 1282. Hertford is the virtual center of old Oxford,
in the midst of iconic Oxford landmarks: the Bridge of Sighs, the
Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian Library, and the University Church St.
Mary’s. The Bridge of Sighs (map
point L) connects two
parts of Hertford College across New College Lane. The bridge does look
like a famous bridge across a Venice canal, but Venice’s Rialto Bridge
not its Bridge of Sighs. Hertford’s Bridge of Sighs may look old, but is
practically new, dating from 1914, too recent to have been known by many
of Hertford’s incandescent alumni, including medieval poet John Donne,
late medieval political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and Irish satirist
Jonathan Swift. One well-known Hertford alum who did know (and likely
run under) the Bridge of Sighs, was Byron (“Whizzer”) White, 20th
century U.S. football legend and late Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court. |
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Hidden between
Hertford and New Colleges and reachable only via the narrowest of
passageways is another Oxford landmark, the Turf Tavern
(map point M).
A haunt of Oxford academics for centuries (roots to the 14th
century), the Turf Tavern’s low ceilings and warren of small rooms are
inappropriate for today’s tall students who descend there in great
numbers once classes are over. If you’re there during the summer break
or in mid-afternoons during the school year, you’ll find the Turf Tavern
a civilized, atmospheric place to enjoy good bar food or a snack along
with a pint from its considerable selection of real ales pulled by hand
from the ancient cellar. If you do visit the Turf Tavern, you will be
following the wobbly footsteps of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas who was known
to enjoy a regular pint there when he briefly lived at Magdalen College
at Oxford in the late 1940’s. |
OXFORD'S TURF TAVERN BOASTS 11
REAL ALES OFFERED DAILY — BUT
DON'T ARRIVE LATE OR EXPECT TO
FIND THE SELECTION DEPLETED. THE
TURF TAVERN CLAIMS TO BE OXFORD'S OLDEST PUB AND ITS BEST, BUT CAN
ONLY SAY WITH CERTAINTY THAT
IT IS OXFORD'S MOST DIFFICULT TO
FIND PUB. BUT ONCE FOUND, THE
WAY TO THE TURF TAVERN WILL
NOT QUICKLY BE FORGOTTEN. |
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