"i wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember"
I arrived at the Oxford station mid afternoon to discover something quite helpful: the YHA is right next to the station! Of course, that meant train noise at night, but by that point of the trip I was pretty resilient when it came to noise at night and open windows. haha. It also meant that finding/getting to the YHA was quite simple. The Oxford YHA was quite nice, as well (though some kitchen items, like the electric kettle, did need some cleaning.). After checking in and getting some necessary banking done to prepare for London, I went out to find the city center and the information office. Oxford is a very busy, very pretty, very college town. I believe I mentioned in the Leicester post how I was surprised at how it didn't feel like a college town. Oxford definitely does. Now, don't get me wrong, it feels very Ivy League, but it is definitely a town dominated by the presence of the university. This is too be expected based on the history of influence and autonomy that Oxford had on the area, its economy, and its politics. At any rate, I wandered about a bit, acquired a map and some pamphlets, found a grocery, and eventually headed back to the hostel in time to make some food, have a cup of tea, and catch the World Cup game. Since the nice television is in the lobby, there were a number of people (quite diverse people, actually) watching the game. Before bed that night, I took out my map of Oxford and plotted the next day's course. My goal, as mentioned in my last journal was to photograph as many of Oxford's colleges as I could. Ambitious, I know.
The next morning, after some breakfast, I headed off. I really did quite well in my goal. Of the 38 colleges, I managed to photograph 22 : Worcester, St. Cross, St. John's, Kent, Wadham, New, Magdalen, Queen's, All Souls, Hertford, University, Oriel, Merton, Brasenose, Lincoln, Exeter, Jesus, Corpus Christi, Christ Church, Penbroke, Trinity, and Balliol. I thought that was pretty good for one day, especially since I also managed the Museum of Oxford and the Ashmolean. :-P My walk through the Oxford colleges was incredible lovely. I felt like such a tourist as I pursued my way through the city taking pictures of a large number of its buildings. Ah well. It was totally worth it. haha. What I found quite interesting was the variety of architecture and facade in Oxford. Granted, the city has been around as a university center for close to 1000 years (yes, you read that correctly--It was already well established as a prominent learning center in England in 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.); nevertheless, the architecture does speak to multiple periods of scholastic growth, likely a significant point in Oxford's favor as an institution. That periodic growth allowed Oxford's reputation and clout to solidify with the growth rather than catching up to it. The other thing I noticed favorably was the vast amount of green space there is within Oxford. It's generally good for the psyche for a university to have readily available green spaces. Some of these were well-maintained grass plots, but a couple were honest-to-goodness meadows complete with waist-high long grass. (Brief interlude: in general, English parks are much, much more sculpted and manicured than American ones. I was surprised how happy it made me when I found a park that hadn't had the grass mowed in a while. haha) Amongst the various colleges, there are several buildings of note that I also took the time to photograph, good little tourist that I am. Three of these are in the same block (convenient, to be sure): the Clarendon Building, the Sheldonian Theatre, and the Bodleian Library. Unfortunately, I did not make it into any of these three buildings; however, I do know some interesting tidbits about them. The Clarendon House was the home of Oxford University Press until around 1830. It was also the home to the University police station/jail for several years. Now it is a part of the Bodleian Library. The Sheldonian Theatre is the first building designed by Sir Christopher Wren (later to design the more famous St. Paul Cathedral). It was designed to and continues to be the primary meeting and ceremony venue for the University of Oxford. The final and largest of the three buildings is the Bodleian Library. This library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, the second largest in Britain, and serves the same purpose as the US Library of Congress: a depository for every book copyrighted in England. Another architectural singularity is in the next block: the Radcliffe Camera. The Camera is the main reading room for the Bodleian Library, holds around 600,000 volumes on its own, and is not open for public viewing. I was sad. I moved on through the colleges to find Magdalen College, most likely known to my readers as the college where C.S. Lewis taught Literature. (He took his degrees at University College, Oxford. Interestingly, he also taught at Magdalen College, Cambridge.)
At some point amongst all this, I found my way to the Museum of Oxford, located in a corner of the Town Hall. This was a really thorough yet not overwhelming look at the life of Oxford. Certainly the University plays a significant role. In fact, I doubt even the history of a university like Harvard and it's relationship to the town would come remotely close to demonstrating this history. The interesting thing is that the city existed for well over 100 years before any part of the University was formally established. Once the University moved beyond the schooling of the abbeys (the Blackfriars being the most famous of those orders prominent in established the scholastic side of Oxford), the students and faculty of the schools were largely autonomous as the University (as all medieval universities were wont to be) was set up as a completely separate governmental entity from the town proper. This led to various and sundry conflicts (the most brutal of which occurred in 1355), and eventually to the loss of student autonomy in University dealings. By the age of the Reformation, most universities were overseen by some form of governing body outside of the University itself. Nevertheless, the power and autonomy seen by Oxford University during the Middle Ages left a lasting impact. Oxford University was built significantly on its charter from the monarchy, it gained power through its high numbers of aristocratic students throughout its history, and continues to wield significant clout via its reputation and heritage of important students. Oxford University has another claim to historical fame: During the English Civil War, Charles I established himself there and from thence directed his campaigns. Eventually, of course, he surrendered and was subsequently booted forcefully from this life. In an odd twist, the Museum of Oxford has a death mask of Oliver Cromwell. It was moderately creepy. Anyway. Since that time, things about Oxford that are famous include Lewis Carroll (we all know who he was), William Morris, the creator of the Morris Motor Company, and Oscar Wilde (also well known to my readers, I'm sure). The YHA had a large collection of posters, etc., noting all the famous people who had attended or lived in/near Oxford. I did not write them all down so that I could pass them on. You'll have to do your own research. :-P
Eventually, I found my way to Oxford Castle Unlocked! which despite it's ridiculous name is a really good tour of Oxford Castle. It's one of the only guided tours I went on during my entire trip, and it was worth it. Oxford Castle was actually a prison for the vast majority of its existence, but the original tower/castle/fort is Saxon in date. Climbing up the tower is an experience as the steps are narrow and not at all uniform. The view, however, is absolutely worth it. If nothing else, touring the Oxford Castle points out how inhumane prisons were for a very long time and how disadvantaged women were in the criminal justice system. The tour also enables you to see a padded room and try on a replica Victorian prison uniform. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Back on the street, I decided to head over to the Ashmolean. A part of the University, the Ashmolean has an astonishingly good collection covering a wide range of eras. I particularly enjoyed their Egyptian and Islamic collections. As often happens, I was a terrible manager of my time, though, and ended up being forced to leave without having seen the upper two floors. Someday I'll manage to divide my time in a museum in a more profitable way. haha. I just lose track of time.... I spent my final night in Oxford double-checking my banking, purchasing my ticket to London, and, of course, watching a World Cup match. :-P I also had the pleasure of watching a group of American 6th graders forge friendships with a group of French 6th graders. The important part of this meeting was that none of the French kids spoke more than a sentence or so of English, and none of the American spoke more French than they had on a handy-dandy conversational print-out that one girl had acquired. It was insanely delightful to watch them. If I could have, I would have filmed it. haha. Finally, I had some tea and retreated to my room. I worked on packing up my stuff while having a lovely conversation with my roommates and then, it was off to sleep. London in the morning!
Fun fact: The Bridge of Sighs in Oxford is patterned after the bridge of the same name in Venice, Italy.
Fun fact number 2: Christ Church college still follows the medieval practice of eating at long tables in a dining hall. Its dining hall was used as Hogwart's dining hall in the Harry Potter films.
Fun fact number 3: The title comes from this Yeates quotation--“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all . . . like an opera.”