Oxford part II: Colleges and History

Hello All,

As promised, here is a little bit more about Oxford. Let me give you a brief photo tour of several colleges that I visited (remember that there are 38 colleges making up the university).

My first destination was New College, which is not, in fact, new. The college was formed way back in 1379 in order to educate priests since at the time England was experiencing a rather serious shortage of clergymen as a result of the Black Death. Interestingly, part of the original college charter was to maintain the section of the city wall (imagine a Lego castle wall, but real and 1000 years old) that passes through its campus. To this day, the Lord Mayor of Oxford inspects the wall once every three years. This is the only time students are allowed on the wall, which is otherwise a dismissible offence.

New College has been the home of several recently famous graduates, including Hugh Grant and Kate Beckinsale. The picture below shows the Old Quad. Ironically, considering the school’s religious foundations, Richard Dawkins used to have an office just to the right of where this picture was taken.

The next college we shall visit in this tour is Magdalen. Formed in the 1400’s, this college is loved for its May Morning tradition, when the choir sings from atop the old tower at the break of dawn on May first. Magdalen notables include C.S. Lewis, T.E. Lawrence (aka, Lawrence of Arabia... aka Lawrence the Man), King Edward VIII, and Oscar Wilde. I don’t have a great photo of the college, but it is stunning. Check out the movie Shadowlands (about C.S. Lewis), which was filmed on location.

The gargoyle below is one of a series of statues that line the cloisters of the college chapel. Some people think it was these gargoyles that inspired the stone animals in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. This brings up an interesting point. Oxford is such an incredibly inspiring place that it almost makes the imaginations of its authors seem slightly less incredible. Animals cursed into stone are only a slight leap beyond gargoyles. It’s the same with Tolkien. Middle-earth is really only a slightly exaggerated version of the one he lived in; the Hobbit’s Shire is not all that different than Oxfordshire, the cities in the story are just bigger and more fortified versions of Old Oxford. It’s the same with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.... and the list goes on. I just find that very fascinating.

This bridge is the famous Magdalen Bridge, and it spans the River Isis, which is actually the Thames. The river stretches around the college, enclosing the vegetable-deer sanctuary and Addison’s Walk.

The largest and (arguably) most well known of all the colleges is Christ Church College. You may have seen the college in Brideshead Revisited, or the dining hall in Harry Potter. When the college was founded in 1546, it was given the dual purpose of being both a cathedral and college. Each college has a reputation, and Christ Church has historically been known as a rather aristocratic college, and it has produced 13 Prime Ministers. Other graduates include: John Locke, Christopher Wren, John Ruskin, Lewis Carroll, King Edward VII, John and Charles Wesley, and Albert Einstein.

Every day, Great Tom, the tower in the background of the picture (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) is rung 101 times at 9:05 pm to signal curfew for its original 101 students.

This is the Dining Hall, where creepy portraits stare down at you while you eat...

My laptop is running out of juice, so I need to pick up the pace a bit. The next picture is a door in the Bodleian Library, picked out just for Jonathan. This library is probably one of the most important libraries in the entire world. In addition to the ‘Bod’ each college has its own library; old-fashioned ones with ladders that slide around the room, like in My Fair Lady, just a lot bigger...

This is the Natural History Museum. I included this photo because this is the neo-gothic style that John Ruskin inspired. Just FYI.

These are two other colleges that I can’t place. The whole city is just a maze of this kind of architecture. It’s beautiful.

Well, my battery is about dead and I need to get to bed anyway. I’m terribly sorry that I can’t elaborate more and do a better job. There is so much I haven’t even touched on: Dorothy Sayers, Jonathan Swift, Dr. Suess, Sir Walter Raleigh... and murders, intrigue, adventures, books, traditions, inventions, discoveries... It all happened right here! Oxford is one of those places where the history is so deep and rich that there are books about books about the University’s history! It’s also just shrouded in mystery; there are some statues around town, ancient Saxon kings with swords and crowns, that are so old that nobody can figure out who they are. Crazy. Just crazy.

I guess you’ll just have to come see it for yourself sometime.

Cheers y’all,

Will