This morning, I went on the Oxford walking tour I had booked. The day was a little overcast, and windy, and cool, but that’s okay. There were also a lot of people in the Oxford gowns, along with well-dressed family members, roving the streets, which made me think there was a graduation ceremony in the offing1. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except that it meant some places were off-limits to us tourists.
But we set off as folks gathered, and saw some very cool things.
Okay. These heads, on the fence surrounding the Sheldonian Theatre, are called the Philosophers. That said, no one seems really sure who or what they represent: philosophers, emperors, the disciples, or what. The fact that they have kind of slack-jawed, gormless expressions, the sarcastic title of Philosophers seems to have stuck. One guide suggested they were models for various styles of ancient Greek scholarly beards.This is a side view of the Sheldonian Theatre. It’s where most of the big ceremonies – like graduations – are held. You can see the rope lines set up to keep the students in line. It was designed by Christopher Wren while he was studying Astronomy at Oxford, and is apparently a masterpiece of criss-crossing beams supporting the ceiling, rather than using columns.This formidable place is the gate of New College, which was the first college designed in a deliberately fortified nature, and with an eye to economy of placement of facilities within. I found it very interesting for two main reasons: first, Archibald Spooner, who gave the English language the word “spoonerism,” was Warden here once upon a time. Second, it’s a beautiful illustration of how the colleges are each little self-contained worlds. This is the outside……and this is the inside. The college quad is large, open, and beautiful. Past the quad, though the archway at the back……is the cloister. One of the scenes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was shot here.It’s the scene where Draco Malfoy is mocking Harry from up in the tree, and then gets turned into a ferret by Mad-Eye Moody. This is an ilex, an evergreen oak variety. It’s not used to the cooler climate here in Oxford, and so has leached all the nutrients from the soil around it, leaving a large dead space.Also within the imposing walls of New College is a beautiful garden. I don’t know what’s up those stairs – visitors are not allowed on the grass. I don’t blame them, but I am curious.
The stark contrast between the forbidding exteriors of the colleges and the sumptuous, well-groomed interiors really struck me. More than most universities I’ve seen, it was a profound delineation between the closed, pampered collegiate life, and the rougher, more earthly life in the real world.
Not that I consider academic life to necessarily be the ivory tower that this sort of display makes me think of. It’s more that, looking at this, I understand where that sort of idea comes from.
Anyway. We left New College, and headed back to a couple of other stops. The crowds prevented some of the pictures I took to be much good.
This is the Radcliff Camera. It was built by a disciple of Christopher Wren, and presents a couple of tributes to him. First of all, the dome is a replica (much smaller, of course) of the dome of St. Paul’s in London, which was designed by Wren. Second, the circumference is identical to the circumference of Stonehenge, which was first scientifically measured and mapped by Christopher Wren.This is inside the square of the old Bodleian Library. It’s a huge square, designed based on biblical accounts of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.Surrounding the inner square of the Bodleian are these doors, each labeled with the subject that used to be stored in that area.
After the tour, I stuck my head in a couple of pubs, looking to find some lunch, but they were all packed solid with graduation celebrants. So, I wandered down the street to the Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Honestly, I wasn’t too interested in the Natural History Museum, but you need to go through it to get to the Pitt Rivers Museum. Still, there were some cool things in the Natural History Museum. For example:
An iguanodon skeleton.A t-rex skeleton. This one looms really nicely.Lots and lots of other skeletons.
Through the back of the gallery is the Pitt Rivers Museum.
This is not like a modern museum. It’s arranged like the Victorian-era museum it actually is. What does that mean? It means that it’s full of whatever caught the attention of the founder, arranged in categories that are not necessarily scientific or even useful.For example, there’s a section of animal figures in art.Another section of metal locks and keys.A set of Haida totem poles.Some skulls that had been taken as trophies by those who slew them in battle.Hairpins from all over the world and throughout history.
But this was the thing that totally blew my mind and convinced me of the basic surrealism of the world.
Shields from New Guinea tribesmen painted with the image of the comic book character the Phantom.
So, here’s how those came about. Apparently, the hill tribes of the interior of Papua New Guinea made these big war shields. They painted them with images of ancestors and helpful spirits, binding the power of those things to aid them in war. When they started running into Europeans armed with firearms, the shields turned out to be less than useful in combat.
But they got their hands on some Phantom comic books. The idea of the Phantom – The Man Who Cannot Die, The Ghost Who Walks – as a defender of a native people against pirates and other exploiters resonated with them. They started to paint the Phantom on their shields to invoke his power, though they became items of ritual and ceremony rather than war against the Europeans.
That just made my day.
After that, I managed to have lunch in The King’s Arms, a pub that may2 have hosted the first performance of Hamlet outside of London. Shakespeare himself, while he was with The King’s Men, may have drunk there when he was in Oxford, which was not uncommon.
It was a good chicken and bacon pie, and a nice pint of cider.
Then I wandered a bit, feeling a little tired, and found the Oxford Martyrs’ Monument.
This is the monument to the bishops and archbishop who were burned at the stake, and the other martyrs to religious war in Oxford.
I was tired, then, and saw that I was right near a movie theatre, so I went and saw Avengers: The Age of Ultron again. Then, back to the hotel to do up this long post and plan for tomorrow.
I’m planning to head out to Milton Keynes tomorrow and see the Bletchley Park museum. Just as well, because apparently there’s a fun run going on in Oxford tomorrow, and it’ll shut down a few things. Then, on Monday, I’m going to hit the rest of the things I want to see here.
Oxford is awesome.
Turns out there were at least two: one for Trinity College, and one for Wadham College. [↩]
