In Oxford Again! Can Anything Be more Exhilarating?

 In Oxford Again! Can Anything Be more Exhilarating?

Oxford,

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

    Sharing a bathroom with Amy means taking turns using it and I was the first to do so as I awoke at 5.00 am, as usual, blogged, fooled around a bit on my phone (editing, sending pix to family and friends) and eventually actually got into the hotel bathroom for a shower. It was 6.45 am when I woke Amy up (Boy, can she sleep?!--I am so envious) and slipped out to have my breakfast in Thyme Restaurant downstairs. It was a croissant with butter this morning, followed by another Full English and a mug of decaff coffee. 

Getting to Arnold's 'City of Dreaming Spires':

    By 7.30am, I was up in our hotel room again to find that Amy was almost ready to leave. By the time we did leave, it was about 7.45 am. We walked briskly to Holborn Tube station (where Amy needed an Oyster top-up as she seemed to have run out) and off we went on the Piccadilly Line to Green Park--we changed there to the Victoria Line and got off at bustling Victoria station (one stop ahead). Office-goers had already started to throng the station (although, I have to say, folks are still WFH, post-Covid, and the rush hour is still far more peaceful than it was when I worked in London and the Tubes were packed to capacity).

    We found out that our Oxford Tube coach would leave from Elizabeth Bridge opposition the Coach station in 20 minutes. With time to kill and the weather chilly and slightly damp today, I suggested we shelter in the Coach Station where Amy picked up coffee and a croissant. She is not much of a brekkie-eater but a big coffee-guzzler...

    Our coach did arrive in 20 minutes, we boarded it, bought tickets on the coach (16 pounds return with an open ticket we could use for the return journey up to three months from now). Gosh! Policies have certainly changed with Covid. In the past, you needed to book online or tell the driver exactly when you'd be returning--there was no such thing as an open ticket.

    Needless to say, we took our seats upstairs, front and center, and with traffic crawling all around us (Don't ever think that Bombay is the only place in the world with traffic issues!), we inched out of London. The delays gave me an opportunity to get a bunch of pictures en route and as the landmarks appeared below me, I clicked--Victoria, Wellington's Arch, Apsley House (No. 1 London, home of the Duke of Wellington), Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Holland Park...until we reached Shepherd's Bush and I stopped clicking. We chatted again for another half hour after which both of us became heavy-lidded and fell asleep. I awoke at Hillingdon and was grateful to find that the drizzle had subsided. Excitement filled me as we approached St. Clements and I shook Amy awake just as we steered around the bend that takes us up the High Street past welcoming Magdalen Tower into the university town of Oxford.

     Two minutes later, we were alighting on The High and, if you can even believe this, as soon as we got off, we were in a shop, attracted by the gorgeous merchandise in the window. Ten minutes later, I left with two fabulous pairs of ear-rings and an amusing sign for my bar at home! Not much of a shopper usually, I was amazed at how delighted the act of shopping made me. Online shopping can NEVER have the same thrill as actually being surrounded by beautiful things in a real softly-scented shop with a cheerful seller and the possibility of walking off, right them and there, with all the little baubles money can buy! No wonder not even Covid could make an online shopper of me...and if Covid did not, I'm pretty sure nothing ever will...

On A Walking Tour of Oxford--An Introduction to the Architecture via Queens Lane:     

    And so our walking tour began. As always, I started on Queens Lane which was just filled with the soft shades of mauve and the soft scent of spring flowers as wisteria and lilac followed us at every turn tumbling from the college walls. We skimmed past St. Edmund's Hall College, taking pictures of every quad, while all the time I kept Amy informed of those little details that her eye should not miss. This lane offers the best visual introduction to the Gothic grandeur of the town as Matthew Arnold's "City of Dreaming Spires" reveals itself, in gradual stages, at every turn. We saw the tops of All Soul's College and passed by New College and turned a bend to stop at the Turf Tavern where we found the little medieval pub, Oxford's oldest, in which Bill Clinton used to hang out to smoke pot without inhaling! Needless to say, I began commenting on Inspector Morse (who drank here) at this point, but also introduced Amy to Jane Burden, Pre-Raphaelite Muse, whose humble home stood in this narrow alley until she was plucked from obscurity by William Morris who married her and introduced her to his pals, Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who immortalized her in paint. Not surprizingly, there is a huge mural of Jane inside the Turf.

    Then, on we went, under the Bridge of Sighs to see the Sheldonian Theatre ahead of us. But we made a right towards the former Indian Institute (now St. Martin's School) to admire the decorative details on the exterior--cow, lion, tiger, elephant--India's reputed fauna! We paused to look at Holywell House, the music concert hall that belongs to Wadham College before we took Parks Road, went past Trinity College and took pictures for my friend Tunku, who graduated from Trinity, before arriving at Rhodes House. Sir Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker's building, complete with Neo-Classical rotunda, was a delight to survey, as the rain had stopped and the chestnut trees that surrounded it with their flowering candle-like blooms, made the scene picture-perfect.

Skimming Through Twin Museums--Natural History and Pitt-Rivers:

    Next stop was, of course, the twin museums for we were at the point where the Museum of Natural History loomed before us. We did the highlights, of course--the chief of which was the case holding the Dodo, the extinct bird that pen-named Lewis Carol made into an episodic highlight of his Alice Through the Looking Glass. He loved the Dodo so much because his own personal stammer often made him say his own name as Charles Do-do-Dodgson! There was a special exhibition in the main area of the museum (whose design with its mix of Victorian elaboration and Gothic grandeur, I have always loved)  which caused the skeletal remains of so many creatures (including the dinosaurs) to be sidelined. 

    We then entered the Pitt-Rivers Museum at the back and Amy was simply blown away (as any first-time visitor is) by the absolute volume of the minutea collected by this single cultural anthropologist who bequeathed his entire collection (that runs into many hundreds of thousands of items) to Oxford University that had to build a separate building to house it all! Sadly, its biggest highlight--the Shrunken Heads--which I have taken countless visitors to marvel at--are no longer on display. Politically correct-activists have questioned the ethics of putting human remains on display--it is seen as disrespectful to the dead. The museum has succumbed to their objections by removing from the floor its most popular items--that's how powerful the politically-correct lobby has grown!     

Keble College and its Magnificent Chapel:

       With  Victorian Keble College in front of us, with its striking red brick facade with white brick highlights--such a departure from the honey-toned Cotswold stone of the other colleges--there was nothing to do but enter to see its sunken Quad. We obtained permission from the kind porters at the Porter's Lodge to enter the college as we were keen to see the Chapel, reputedly one of the most beautiful and unusual in Oxford. For the next ten minutes, we were surrounded by the elaboration of Victorian architectural design outside and the detail of Byzantine mosaic work inside. There was a singing lesson in progress at the altar and we stopped to listen to the soaring voice of an Oxonian undergrad rise to the soaring ceiling. Indeed, the mosaic work flows from floor to ceiling and is simply arresting in its grandeur.

Surveying St. Giles:

    Outside Keble College again, we took Museum Road to get to the intersection where The Eagle and Child Pub (haunt of the Inklings, C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien, alums of Exeter Collegem who nicknamed it The Bird and Baby'!) stood before us, sadly closed (a victim of Covid). Who knows when it will re-open? We took in the War Memorial to the right of us as we made our way down St. Giles to get to the Martyrs Memorial where we stopped for a history lesson on the burning at the stake of Archbishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley by Queen Mary Tudor. A little later, on Broad Street, I would show Amy the exact stop where the horrific burning occurred as the excesses of the post-Protestant Reformation swept over England. Yes, walking through Oxford is like walking through the pages of British History--which always makes it endlessly fascinating for me.

Retail Therapy and A Lunch Break:

    Up The Broad, I could not resist some more retail therapy, this time at the Oxfam store, where I restrained myself from picking up a DVD box set. If it is still there when I return to Oxford, I will have thought about it long enough and it will no longer be an impulse buy! Quite hungry by this time, we passed by Turl Street with intentions of returning to Exeter College after we had eaten a bite of lunch. Lunch was in the lobby cafetaria of the Weston Library where I opted for an absolutely delicious Chicken Luxor Soup with crusty bread and butter and Amy had a cibatta panini with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes.  Post-lunch, we browsed through the tattered tapestry map of Oxfordshire on the wall and went rapidly through an exhibition on Tutankhamun,  then hurried outside in bright sunshine--thankfully, past a crew that was shooting something: whether it was a new TV series called Pack of Lies or a Wheetabix commercial, who knows? It looked like something out of Game of Thrones with knights in full armor and ladies in capes milling around.     

The Norrington Room at Blackwell's Bookstore:

    Although Blackwell's is one of the most popular  book stores in Oxford and among the best-known in the world, few people know about the marvelous Norrington Room located in the back of the store. Once you locate the secret staircase running down to the basement, you will find yourself in a rabbit hole as you go deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth for at least five levels down until you are below Trinity College which is said to be above those several hundred thousands of books. Amy was quite fascinated by it all and might have wanted to spend more time there, were it not for the fact that we still had a lot of ground to cover. 

    We passed by The White Horse tavern as I wanted to show Amy another one of Inspector Morse's habitual watering holes; but it would be closed until 3.00 pm. Of course, we would be far from this point by that time on the clock. 

On to the Museum of Science:

    Instead we hurried off across the road to The Museum of Science where the biggest attraction is the blackboard that carries the actual handwritten mathematical scribbles of the one and only Albert Einstein, Father of Relativity. The story goes that the blackboard was preserved after he had written a problem on it, even as the possibility that it might have been wiped off right after Einstein gave his invited lecture at Oxford, is not lost on the vast number of scientists who come in to pay respects.

Discovering Oxford's Main Buildings:

    It was only left, at this point, to cross on to the Clarendon Building and point out the sculpture of Sir Christopher Wren as he gazes it wonder, as it were, at the cupola of the Sheldonian Theatre that he himself designed. Next, we crossed the quad and entered into the courtyard of the Bodleian Library, named after Thomas Bodley, a well-known courtier knight, in his time--the 1500s. I pointed out the sculpture of the Duke of Pembroke, the statue of James I in whose reign the tall columns sporting Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns were set with the Classical style of column right at the top. We popped in quickly to see the gift shop and followed a group as they entered the Divinity School with its ornate stone hanging pendants. By this time were were very tired indeed, it was almost 2.10 and we realized that permitted visits into the various Oxford Colleges could begin. So, of course, I took Amy to my own college, Exeter College, which is usually only open from 2-5 pm for visitors (and only the front quad). But as an alumnus of the college, I was allowed access to all parts of it and was Amy lucky or what??

Visiting Exeter College:

    After taking in the ivy-covered buildings of the main Quad, we started off in the Chapel, George Gilbert Scott's masterpiece (he is also the designer of the Rajabai Clock Tower building of the library at Bombay University's Fort campus). Inside, I pointed out to Amy the fabulous tapestry entitled 'The Adoration of the Magi' based on a painting by Edward Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris in his tapestry manufacturing works--they were, of course, very close friends (together with Rosetti) and formed the group known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They had met at Exeter College as undergrads and remained close friends their entire lives.  Over the years, I have visited their amazing homes (in Walthamstow which was Morris' childhood home, Red House in Beckingsdale which they shared for many years and then Kelmscott Manor in Lechlade in the Cotsworlds which I hope to visit again, this time with Llew, in a few days' time). Like the members of the other literary and artistic circle whose work I closely follow (the Bloomsbury Group), they decorated each others' homes within an inch of their lives! Here, in Exeter, the curtains flanking the incredible mosaics around the altar are William Morris' designs--my Covid mask is created out of the same William Morris fabric!--and everywhere you turn, you see elements of their creative lives. As a grad student here, I had attended sung Evensong frequently in this glorious space.

    Next, we walked out on to the quad again and bumped right into an elderly man who was inquiring after a current undergrad with these words, "He died here, right?" She looked blankly at him and blinked. I butted right in, "You're talking about Inspector Morse, right? Yes, he fell down right here--died in the grass on the quad to which Lewis moved him tenderly". The man grinned. "So great to meet a fellow-Morse fan!" he said, and I couldn't have agreed more--for the feeling was mutual. And at the very spot where my favorite British detective of all time, Inspector morse, had died! 

    I then took Amy towards the Quad--the Margary Quadrangle--in which my dorm room was located. Yes, over the years, I have returned to this site of my youthful intellectual endeavors with great enthusiasm and vigor...but in recent years, security fixtures no longer allow us to go up the stairs anymore without key hobs. I also showed Amy the room occupied by my friend Firdaus and the underground room where I have lectured on being invited back by Exeter College--this time as a guest professor! Lovely, lovely memories!

    Next, we walked through the Junior Common Room to get to the Fellows' Garden where so many current students were studying hard in the golden sunshine as finals are not long now. We passed the Library, then climbed the stairs to the fabulous ramparts of the college that allowed us to walk on the college walls and take in the stunning vistas of Radcliff Square with James Gibbs' architectural masterpiece, the Radcliff Camera aka the Rad Cam, the main building of the Bodleian Library and site of many a long hour spent by me pouring over books! It completely dominates the space. We also took in All Souls' College and the spire of the Church of St Mary the Virgin bathed in gorgeous sunlight--for yes, the morning drizzle had given way to a glorious day!     

    Next, we walked down the rampart stairs and made a brief visit into the Dining Hall where we took in the splendid timbered ceiling with its exposed beams, walls filled with oil portraits of erstwhile dons and Masters and the magnificent carved screen--this is the work of craftsmen of the 15th century. Sadly, the Afternoon Tea service has been suspended as the students are currently in residence, but we would return to the campus for sung Evensong. 

Along the High Street:

    Quickly we left the college premises and walked along Turl Street to the High Street where I pointed out Examinations Hall and University College where Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. We entered the Covered Market further up the High so that Amy could admire the wonders of Victorian architecture in a covered market (similar to Crawford Market in Bombay--same era, same style). Through the market we went to arrive on the other side at Carfax and on Cornmarket Lane, we hurried forward towards Beaumont Street to see the Highlights of the Ashmolean Museum before it closed for the day. it was about 4 pm and Amy would have a chance to see its Highlights.

In the Ashmolean Museum:

    I was a bit fatigued by this point, needed the loo and a sit-down. I left Amy with a leaflet in her hand that showed the 10 highlights of the Ashmolean and off she went on her own to find them. I told her not to miss Guy Fawke's Lantern, Powhatan's Mantle, two paintings--Paolo Uccelo's The Hunt and Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire--and of course, the Alfred Jewel which is the single most valuable item owned by the Ashmolean. After using the basement loo, I rode the elevator to the second floor to take in the Pre-Raphaelite gallery that featured works by Rosetti, Burne-Jones, Ford Maddow Brown and William Holman Hunt (all great friends and members of the same artistic circle) before I walked into the gallery with the famous painting by Turner of Oxford's High Street--a brilliant capturing of the ethos and ambience of one of the town's most famous streets that offers views of the facades of its most famous buildings. 

Another Sit-Down and a Treat:

    We were out of the Ashmolean by 5pm--I pointed out the Randolphe Hotel (where Morse often swigged away) and the Oxford Playhouse (where I have attended many a dramatic performance) before we got to Knoops, a new chocolate house located right under the window of my room on Turl Street. Both of us badly needed a drink and I settled for a custom-made milkshake while Amy had a hot chocolate. I had shown her the main sights of this part of the town and needed only to cover the end past St. Aldates. However, just as we were passing the main door of Exeter College, we realized that sung Evensong would be beginning shortly in the Chapel and we decided to join it. For the next half hour, we treated ourselves to the brilliant organ-playing and the brilliant singing of the college choristers in the gorgeous interiors of one of the university's most ornate chapels whose stained glass windows, in the French royaume style, have been directly inspired by those of Sainte Chapelle in Paris.  

Visiting The Bear Pub:

    A good half hour later, after we had rested our feet from all that trudging, we left Turl Street and returned to the High. At Merton Street, we made a left to take a very narrow cobbled alley to arrive at The Bear, Oxford's famous medieval pub where students were once permitted to pay for a drink by leaving behind their school tie! Thus began an enduring tradition! Thousands and thousands of ties, well-marked and dated in fountain pen ink, well displayed in glass cases, line the walls and ceiling of the many tiny little cubby-holes that form this pub. Amy was simply aghast! Today, you cannot pay with a tie, of course, but if you want to see a museum devoted exclusively to ties, this is the place.

St. Aldate's and Christ Church College:

    We walked next along St. Aldate's to Christ Church College where, of course, since Evensong was just ending, we were only permitted to enter the Porter's Lodge and gaze upon Oxford's largest Quad. Built by Cardinal Wolsey in the 1500s, it was taken over by King Henry VIII when Wolsey fell out of favor and was executed. The main fountain with the statue of Hermes is a good sight as are the unfinished cloisters. I told Amy about the legend of the race around the quad at 9.00 pm each night when Old Tom, the bell in Tom Tower above the main entrance of the college, tolls 101 times and students try to run around the Quad once before its last tolling. This was the opening scene of the film Chariots of Fire as the film's protagonists trained in this space, being Christ Church undergrads themselves. This is the only college in the world that can boast a cathedral on its campus, was the refuge for an exiled king (Charles I) and is the location of some of the most well-known scenes of Hogwarts School of Wizardry in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter film series.

    What was left was to enter the beautiful Perennial gardens that lead to the Meadows and the River Isis, but since the gardens are wearing their spring avatar, they are very different from those of the high summer which are lush in their profusion. We peeped over Foley Bridge to take in the sight of Oxford crew men in their boats on the river as the evening's slanting rays gilded the water. 

Strolling Along the Thames to Dinner: 

    At this point, we took the path leading to the banks of the Thames as we were going to be right in time for dinner at the home fo our friends Sue and Tony on Marlborough Street. Instead of walking along the main road towards Grandpont, I suggested we take the river route and, of course, we were treated to bird song, coxes roaring as rowers glided past and the sights of blackberry bushes--not yet in fruit. 

Dinner with Fond Oxford Friends:

    Ten minutes later, we were passing by the homes of novelist Margaret Drabble and Cherry Blair, on the same street, before we were outside our friends' home and getting enveloped in huge bearhugs as I was seeing my friends after ages (three years). We had the best evening as we caught up and they got to know Amy. Before the sun set, we took pictures on their patio that overlooks the vast meadows beyond. Inside, we were treated to cold elderberry drinks and then dinner at the dining table: Tony's amazing leek, blue cheese and walnut quiche (I have taken  this recipe from him and offered it often to friends at dinner parties even at my Bombay flat--and they have all gone bonkers about it), boiled new potatoes and a lovely salad with fresh mixed greens. Dessert was Sue's fabulous sticky toffee pudding drowning in gooey, delicious toffee sauce and the most wonderful vanilla ice-cream. Who knows where time went as we chatted non-stop and laughed through every mouthful. 

Journey Back to Oxford:

    By 9.00 pm, however, as we had such a long way to go to London, we said our goodbyes to our friends. I will be back in a couple of weeks with Llew as we will be staying in this cosy home for a few days when Sue and Tony go off to Cambridge for a bit. But, Sue sweetly accompanied us to the bus-stop and when we discovered that we had a 40 minutes' wait for it, we bid her farewell and walked to Carfax instead. It was chilly and so we escaped into a McDonald's where we used the wifi before hurrying to the coach-stop outside Queens College. Our bus arrived at 9.41pm and up we went only to fall dead asleep even before it quite pulled out of Hidlington! 

    In London, we alighted at Notting Hill and took the Central Line tube to Holborn from where we walked to our hotel. It was close to midnight. It had been an exhausting day and all we could do was peel off our clothes, get into our PJs and and under our duvet. We had walked about 11 miles, as Amy had received the Rochelle Tour. She had seen the highlights of three museums (not just the streets and colleges of the town) and had renewed acquaintance with Oxford (in which she had last been over 40 years ago). As for me, I had relived with nostalgic fondness the happy memories of my own youth in one of my favorite places in the world.

    Until tomorrow, cheerio...