July 19: Day Trip to Oxford and the Bodleian Library

We were all so excited to be going back to Oxford! There was so much to see and so many authors connected to the university or city.

We started the day at the Bodleian Library at the University. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ This library was originally a school of divinity and the main hall (used as the infirmary in the Harry Potter movies) was used as the examination room where students would defend their theses. This building, built in the 15th century, was incredibly beautiful and ancient. The Divinity School contains an exquisite ceiling of intricate stone carvings. We then moved through to the Convocation House. Our guide told us that these rooms were also used by Kings and Parliaments during political upheavals in England.

We then traveled across the road to the "new" library built in the 1930's. The collection is housed on floors beneath the surface with a somewhat antiquated system of retrieval. Again, we found that there was no clear system of classification and the library relied on what our guide affectionately referred to as "the troglodytes" to find any requested items. They were the only ones who knew where things were.

We also entered the Radcliffe Camera an 18th century rotunda that now serves as an elegant reading room.

After our tour, we descended on the gift shop, where I "supported" the library with several purchases. My favorite item is cloth wall hanging with the pledge each student is required to memorize and recite in order to get a library card. I'm definitely taking that back to show my students!

We all ended up at Oxford's famous Eagle and Child (The Bird and the Baby) Pub for lunch where the whole group sat together for a meal. This pub is the site of many meetings of the "Inklings"----the group of literary friends that included C. S. Lewis and Tolkien---and the scene of some of their famous debates.

Mike has arranged a tour of C. S. Lewis sites with a local tour guide who had grown up with Lewis' stepson. It was disappointing that there were many sites not really kept up and that we could not tour Lewis' home (it is only available through private bookings), but the highlight was
a visit to Lewis' church and burial site, Holy Trinity Church. We were pleasantly surprised by the Narnia Window, a beautiful etching in glass of Aslan and other characters of Narnia. We each sat in the pew that was used by Lewis and where it is said that he was inspired to write the Screwtape Letters.

I was disappointed to find that Christ's Church College was closing by the time we got there, so I missed my chance to see the Great Hall that is used in the Harry Potter movies. I was also wanting to see the Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) displays and the "Alice Window." Ah well, maybe on my next trip to England....