Oxford Ephemera (ft. authorial anecdotes)

 

“That sweet city with her dreaming spires/ She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.” – Matthew Arnold 

 "The traffic lights winked at the Holywell Corner: Yes; No; Wait. Cat Street was crossed and the shadows of New College walls had swalled them up before she spoke." --Gaudy Night

Hello my peeps! Happy Easter! He is Risen! I just got back from Rome, which I will absolutely be telling you about soon but not yet because I'm currently travelling England with my family and will be for the next week or so, so you're going to have to get written-in-advance Sam this week and next week. #sorrynotsorry. So, because I'm not in a position to write about Rome, we're gonna talk more about Oxford! 

One of the coolest things about Oxford (besides all of the other cool things about Oxford, which is pretty much everything because Oxford y'all) is how connected it is with Alls The Authors. 

Of course, you have the big three: Tolkien (as discussed), Lewis (as will be discussed), and St. John Henry Cardinal Newman (who probably deserves to be discussed). 

But then you also have all the slightly-less-major-but-no-less-interesting ones, everyone from Dorothy Sayers to Evelyn Waugh to Kenneth Grahame and so on and so forth. 

So, what I wanted to do today instead of matching up my Tolkien post with a Lewis post (which will need to wait until I've explored a couple more sites I didn't get to see when I was last in Oxford) is do a post that's about all the little things I saw that are associated with all of the authors who aren't the Big Three (although I may throw Newman in there, because I'm Lame and probably not going to give him a whole post to himself, sorry m'dude. Still pray for me okay please?). 

I'm going to have a great time, and I hope you do, too. ;)

So then, in order of how much I have to say about them, from least to most...because for a few of them I wasn't interested in them enough to do more than note their colleges. XD

Lewis Carroll
Carroll taught at Christ Church, which is one of the more beautiful colleges (I think) with some very unique towers. I like. :)

Oscar Wilde
Okay, I forgot Oscar Wilde was a British author, possibly because the book I read of his most recently was The Canterville Ghost, which is about an American family. But! I have been reminded! And he read Classics at Trinity College, which I definitely saw--it's right next to Balliol and was undergoing renovations when I was there. 

Graham Greene
Only one of my favourite English Catholic authors of all time! (I know that's a long list. But. Gosh, there is really no one like Graham Greene for stories of grace-in-action-on-broken humanity.) He was at Balliol, not unlike Lord Peter Wimsey... but that's a story for later in this post. Balliol is on Magdalen Street, which runs into St. Giles, which happens to be one of my favourite streets in Oxford. 

Evelyn Waugh
I don't know how I forgot, until I started writing this post, that the beginning of Brideshead is set in Oxford! Good thing I'll be going back there again in not too long... Anyway, Waugh himself was at Hertford College, which I saw, although it wasn't especially memorable, but Sebastian was at Christ Church, which, as aforesaid, is one of the most beautiful colleges in Oxford. In my opinion. Although I like All Souls better. And Magdalen. Also Balliol. Why was no one at All Souls? 

Siegfried Sassoon
I was just randomly walking along near the Radcliffe Quarter when I walked by a plaque on the wall of a building which evidently was used as an infirmary during WWII that said something to the effect that Siegfried Sassoon recuperated there after being injured during the war! Which is pretty cool, as Sassoon is one of my favourite war poets. 

Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows is one of my dad's favourite books, and one of the first I remember him reading aloud to me, which means, of course, that I harbour an affection for both it and its author. (It's also just a really good book, what can I say?) So, of course, I stopped off at the St. Cross (aka Holywell) Cemetery (a truly beautiful, quiet, peaceful place) to see his grave, along with those of Hugo Dyson and Charles Williams. It took me a minute to find it, as his son's name is listed first on the gravestone, but I did find it, and said a prayer for his soul. 

Hugo Dyson
Dyson was one of the 'inner circle' (if I may be excused my tongue-in-cheek use of the phrase) of the Inklings, and one of the people who, with Tolkien, convinced Lewis that Christianity is the True Myth, while on a stroll around Addison's Walk. He, like Tolkien, was a Fellow of Merton. However, he ultimately contributed to the Inklings breaking up (at least somewhat) due to his constant and stringent hatred of LOTR. "Not [expletive] ELVES again" was apparently a common phrase when he was present at Inklings meetings where Tolkien had been planning on reading the next segment of LOTR. (Lewis was not impressed.) I found his grave in the Holywell cemetery and prayed for his soul anyway. :)

Charles Williams
Williams was another integral member of the Inklings, and an especially close friend to Lewis, who was devastated at his death. I believe I read in passing that Lewis visited his grave after he died (which definitely makes sense), so standing at his grave myself, I felt like I was in the footsteps of Lewis. Which was pretty dang cool, I think. Williams influenced Lewis's own later writings to a not insignificant degree, especially That Hideous Strength, and at the time, Lewis thought that Williams would be the author whose works were still read after a hundred years. Amusingly, that title belongs more to Lewis himself. On Williams's tomb are inscribed the words "Under The Mercy", which I believe Lewis stole to use in Narnia at one point...

St. John Henry Cardinal Newman
And now we come to the man himself, John Henry Newman. I just read his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, in which he describes his conversion to Catholicism from Anglicanism as a result of his being part of the Oxford Movement, which set the stage very nicely for some Newman Oxford nerdery while I was there.

I didn't know this before reading APVS, he was actually the rector/pastor/whatever the Anglicans call it of the University church. Like, the Anglican church for the whole University, that's right next to the Radcliffe Camera and everything! It's called St. Mary's, and it's very beautiful, at least from the outside (I didn't go in). He was, evidently, sad to give it up when he finally decided that such was the turmoil his heart was in about the Anglican faith that he couldn't in good conscience be shaping the souls of young Anglicans anymore.  

Also, after his conversion to Catholicism, he established the Oratorian Fathers in England (I think? he was at least instrumental), and the fact that there's now an Oxford Oratory made me happy as well. We've come full-circle, folks. 

Dorothy Sayers
Okay, now we get to the super nerdy nerd nerd nerdness. Dorothy Sayers was actually born in Oxford--there's a blue plaque marking the house in which she was born, on one of the side streets near Christchurch. Once she came of age, she attended Somerville College (which I think was the first female college at Oxford?) and studied Medieval French. 

But okay enough about Sayers herself (I mean, never enough because she was a fascinating person, BUT! enough for now) because I want to move onto the real subject of my nerdery, to whit, Lord Peter Wimsey. And Harriet Vane.

I hope it's no secret that I am obsessed with LPW and HV. I enjoy the LPW mysteries in a way I've never been able to enjoy Agatha Christie, because Sayer's detective(s) have their own personalities and growth in a way that Christie's seem not to. (I apparently share this sentiment with Evelyn Waugh, which makes me think I'm in good company.) I waffle about which is my favourite (and I actually haven't read all of them yet--I'm trying to save some to savour later lol) but the two that hold that position most often are The Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night. And while I'm well aware that the mystery itself in TNT is better crafted than that of GN, you really cannot beat GN for character development. And Stuff. ;) 

So, remembering that Gaudy Night is set at Oxford, I decided that it would be one of the two books I took with me for the trip (the other being Surprised by Joy and honestly, a better pair of books to bring to Oxford I cannot conceive). And let me just say it added so much to my enjoyment both of the book and of Oxford to start recognizing the streets and walks she references in the book as the very streets and walks I was walking. 

And on the first night of the trip, before I even started rereading GN, I had a realization. (I don't remember how, exactly, but that's not super relevant). That realization was that the "Placetne, magistra?" incident (being purposely vague to avoid spoilers, you're welcome) takes place in a specific place in Oxford. Hence I could go actually be there. Dude. Bro. How could I not? So, duly the next morning I walked down Broad Street from Balliol (where LPW attended) to the corner of Holywell Street, turned down Catte Street [aka Cat Street], and then turned left under the Bridge of Sighs into New College Lane. It was a brilliant morning, but it was shady between the buildings, and I took a couple of turns down the winding lane before coming to the long straight stretch to the entrance of New College. And there, immediately to my right was The Bridge. The Bridge Under Which The Characters In Question Step and Then Stop During The Incident In Question.

Reader, I was more excited to see This Spot than almost anything else I saw at Oxford, and I'm not even sorry about that. 

It was amazing, and it was actually exactly as I'd imagined it. 

I stood there, envisioning them there together, squealed extremely loudly internally, took several pictures, and then walked on, but came back to that spot several times during the day when I was incidentally on my way somewhere else, and enjoyed it every single time. 

And at this time, you may call me a nerd. *sweeping bow*

But I hope you enjoyed the nerdery, and some more Oxford anecdotes!