Divinity and Worship - Updated and Completed

It was an interesting first few days in Oxford with graduations happening.  One way in which that impacted me - other than getting to see all the cool regalia - is that I had an unusual experience touring the Bodleian Library.  Normally a tour consists of the Humphrey Library and the Divinity School, but the Divinity School was being used for students to don their robes for graduation, so only the Humphrey Library was open, but there were no students in it - again, due to graduations.  At first I was bummed that I was going to miss out on part of what I would normally see, but I was told that I could come back the next day with my ticket and say I was back to see the Divinity School which I had missed due to graduation.  This was the best of both worlds, as I ended up with more time in each place and also got to be in the Humphrey Library without our tour group having to work around students.  Both of these places were built in the mid-1400s, and both are directly behind the outer wall you see in the picture above.  The Divinity School, was built first, and when Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester donated his books to the university after his death in 1447, a second floor, the Humphrey Library, was built on top of the Divinity School.   He donated 281 books, which was unbelievably generous given the value of books then.  Prior to this donation, the University of Oxford owned only 20 books.  Pictures were not allowed in the Humphrey Library, which is why I didn't upload any to my previous post, which covers the day I toured it.  But pictures are allowed in the Divinity School, so I took a ton of pictures.  See below!

Beyond the main door in the picture at the top of this post is another door. I'm pretty sure the door pictured here, which opens into the Divinity School, is original to the mid-1400s.  Open the door, and enter into a feast for the eyes!

I find the ceiling spectacular, so I couldn't stop taking pictures of it!  (Me and the other 30 people who were in here.)  If you've seen the Harry Potter films, you may recognize this as the location where the hospital scenes were filmed.  I believe it was also used for a scene in the biopic of C. S. Lewis, Shadowlands.

The door that you can see to the right of the photo above opens out to the Sheldonian Theatre (built by Christopher Wren) where Oxford graduations take place.  The door was put in so students could put on their gowns in here and then process over to the theatre.

I posted a picture last time of graduates leaving the Sheldonian after graduation.  Here are some shots of the exterior of the Divinity School on the side between this and the Sheldonian.

This was on Sunday, May 15.  I had started the day by attending eucharist at Magdalen College Chapel, but I've already put up pictures of that chapel in my previous post, having gone to evensong there the night before.  After the morning service at Magdalen, all were invited to eat in hall, and I took them up on that offer.  It was special to me to get to eat where C. S. Lewis ate on a pretty much daily basis.  I also had a wonderful conversation with a student there.  He was an Oxford student but from a college other than Magdalen.  He's in his third year, a student of economics, and he has made Magdalen his Sunday worship routine.  He shared with me that, early on, he and some of his friends had done an "evensong crawl" to check them all out, and they found Magdalen to have the best choir.  I felt pretty good at having ended up at the best on my first try, given that Oxford University consists of more than 30 colleges.  I believe he said New College was second on his list and that Merton was a "strong third."  Merton is where I was going for evensong Sunday night, so that was good to hear!

Merton College Chapel as seen from the street.

Entering Merton College

Past the porter's lodge, and into Merton College, which was a bit more labyrinthine than Magdalen - or others I'd been in previously, such as Queens or Christ Church.  I was glad for the sign out front!

Still making my way through passages and onward to the chapel - lots of hallways and alcoves to wander through before arrival.

I think I found the chapel  .  .  .  and what a magnificent instrument is contained therein!!

I like to take pictures of all the details so that I can really remember with fulness.  Work on this church began in the 1280s, but there have been renovation and alterations over the centuries, of course, yet this has been a place of worship for over 700 years.  The angel ceiling was unique among chapel ceilings I had seen (though somewhat reminiscent of the small Guardian Angel side chapel in Winchester Cathedral).

The high altar and east window

The vestments worn here were particularly magnificent, and if you've been reading my blog, you know how excited I get about vestments and regalia, but I didn't want to chase him down to get a closer picture!  I thought that would have been pushing it just a bit.

After worship Sunday evening there was fellowship time over refreshments.  At my church I'm used to coffee, cookies, and punch being served. Here they serve a selection of two white wines.  Orange juice is also available.  I did indulge in a lovely Chardonnay, while taking in the organ a bit more closely.  I took the picture below with people in it in order to give an idea of scale.

I really was here for worship, but I did have ulterior motives as well.  I was looking for the grave of mathematician Henry Briggs whom I know to be buried in this chapel.  I also knew that though he was the first Savillian Professor of Geometry and really quite an important figure, that he was also a very humble man and that his stone is very simple, containing only the Latinized version of his name - no dates, no eulogy, nothing but his name.  I was having a very hard time finding it, so when the minister approached me, I asked him about it, and he was very gracious - telling me he remembered having seen it and beginning to look along with me.  When we couldn't find it after a few minutes, he said, "Let me get Stephen.  He'll know where it is."  So he asked, and though Stephen too had to take a few moments, he did know the general area in which to look.  As it turns out, Stephen is a professor of Early Modern History - so that makes sense.

Briggs was an influential professor, but he was a dedicated Puritan who was not interested in riches or fame.  He lived a quiet, studious life.

Here is his simple stone with the Latinized version of his name: Henricus Briggius.

I spent a bit more time exploring the chapel.  

The bell ropes in the picture below caught my attention, as I have never seen such outside of the bell ringing chamber up in the tower, but then I remembered that during the service, when the body of Christ was lifted up, the bell was rung once, and when the blood of Christ was lifted up, a bell was rung once.  I had wondered how ringers in the bell tower could have known how to time is to perfectly.  After seeing this, I am assuming that these two bell ropes are here in the narthex for that purpose.

This was the one service for which I felt distinctly under-dressed - lots of black tie going on here!

I followed a group of students back out the labyrinthine paths.  Partly I felt like I was in a Harry Potter film!  But I also thought that, aside from the backpack above, I could have been experiencing travel back 500 years in time.

I don't know if this post will capture anyone's attention or stand out in any way, especially since it is just detailed pictures of only two places, but for me this was an amazing day.  Worship both at Magdalen and at Merton was profoundly meaningful, and I enjoyed both very much.  Having found the grave of Briggs was a big deal for me - like finding the treasure at the end of a treasure hunt (he had worked closely with John Napier, and there are interesting stories related to their meeting and work).  And getting the Bodleian tour that I did in the way in which I did was pretty special, and I found the Divinity School to be absolutely gorgeous!  I don't know if this post conveys even a token of all that, but I hope it does give at least some small idea.

Oxford - Days 1 and 2 - Triskaidekaphobia and its Cure

On Friday, May 13, 2022 I left Winchester for Oxford - Friday the 13th - and it lived up to its reputation!  It started well enough.  I packed up, checked out, walked back down the high street with its market stalls and even bought some fudge for the train trip.  I arrived at the train station, having bought my tickets a day in advance and having checked all the details - or so I thought.  I arrived only to find that my train had left 2 minutes before my arrival.  And the next train wasn't coming for 2 more hours.  But, I was told by an official that I could use my ticket to board a train that was coming sooner but for which I would have to make some transfers (at Basingstoke and at Reading).  I decided to wait the two hours, knowing how if you don't know exactly what platform to be on and exactly how to get there within the station, and if you're a little slow because you're hauling all your luggage around, you will miss your train.  I really didn't want to take a chance on missing two more trains! Then I rethought my decision and went for it, as it just seemed ridiculous to sit in that little train station for 2 hours when it wasn't strictly necessary.  I'm simply not an experienced train-traveler, and it did end up being rather frantic and tricky, despite having a railway worker on the first leg of the journey who was looking out for me.  Because I had missed my original train and had had to make a decision about an easier journey or an earlier journey, and because I'd walked for 20 minutes hauling my luggage over cobblestones, and because I'd had to make that decision pretty quickly, I wasn't thinking straight, and when the earlier train arrived I started to board as soon as the doors opened.  Well, they're very good here about the whole "letting everyone off the train first" before you board, and the lady coming off looked as me askance, so, realizing my error, I backed off immediately, and she said "thank you" - twice - in a very pointed and sarcastic way.  I wanted to say, "I wasn't being rude; I'm just nervous.  Don't be mad at me."  Alas  .  .  .  no big deal, but I was already so tired and frantic that it nearly made me cry.  I really do hate the travel-between-city days.

I'd had one thought in mind all day, and that was to get to the Eagle and Child for their wonderful Macaroni and Cheese. The Eagle and Child (aka The Bird and Baby) is where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and the other "Inklings" got together for a pint and to discuss their writing.  It's THE place to go in Oxford for any C. S. Lewis fans.  I got there only to find out it was closed.  Permanently.  It's been bought out by a company that is going to turn it into a hotel.  Sacrilege!!

I considered going to the Lamb and Flag across the street from the Eagle and Child, which is where the Inklings met in the early 1960s when the Eagle and Child was undergoing renovations, but that too was closed (temporarily - thankfully!).  Those two options off the menu, I decided to go The Mitre, a place I remember from my time here in 2016, which had a wonderful steak and fries dinner for a very reasonable price.  Guess what?  Closed.  I just decided to go back to my hotel, because I felt like I, personally, was jinxing everything on this Friday the 13th.  I bought some wine and turned on the TV for the first time in 3 weeks!  I don't even remember what I did for dinner; I think I bought a pasta meal at a grocery store and heated it up in the microwave in my hotel room.

Oh, yes, that is what I did.  I just found the picture.

It was kind of cool that there was a quiz show on TV, my thing for sure!  It was also kind of funny to listen in on the British humor used by the host that just wouldn't work in the US.  For instance, one of the items in this category was the eustachian tube, and the host said, "Not to be confused with the Euston Tube Station - very different things."  Yeah, that makes sense if you've used the London underground.  Anyway, the cure for triskaidekaphobia was simply to wait for the 14th and venture out again then.  I just started walking.

And I stumbled across the Ashmolean Museum - cool!

I always seek out game displays when in museums, and they had a couple of them!  The travel backgammon/race game and the chess board above are both mid-1400s.  The display case below is filled with games from India - including circular cards.

A couple of other examples of displays are the following - the funeral pall for King Henry VII - 

 - and ceramics!

Time to head out again - onward and forward to the Natural Science Museum - spectacular displays within a spectacular building!

This museum is one of the places that Lewis Carroll took Alice Liddell (the real Alice) and her sisters.  He was a mathematics professor (real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) at Christ Church Oxford where their father was dean.  Some ideas for the creatures in his Alice books came from this museum.

Each column is made from a different type of stone and is labeled at the base.

Graduations from different colleges at the university were taking place throughout the day, so I saw graduates all over town with their families - and walking toward the Divinity School - and recessing out of the Sheldonian Theatre.  It was pretty festive (lots of regalia!)

I've got this out of order, but that's OK.  On my way between museums, I noticed that the Weston Library (Bodleian) was open.  I wasn't expecting that on a Saturday.  Though I didn't have all my forms with me (letter from HR with proof of faculty status, email confirming sabbatical studies, etc.), I stepped in to inquire about renewing my card.  Since I did have a previously issued card, proof of address, and photo ID - and was able to write a short essay on the spot about why I needed to access rare documents - I was able to get my new card.  WOW!  These Saturday 14th adventures sure worked a lot better than the Friday 13th adventures!

I did a lot of wandering about town and taking pictures of all the cool buildings, but I think I'll hold off with posting those snaps since it would make my already long post far longer.  There are really just two other big items for the day.  As part of my wanderings I went past Magdalen College where C. S. Lewis had spent most of his career.  I wanted to see when it was open to the public and how much it cost to go in; costs to get past the porter's lodge and view the college grounds is usually somewhere between 3 pounds and 12 pounds, depending on the college.  I came across a cool-looking game store on the way, so I had to stop in!

I tore myself away from the gaming world and continued on down the high street.  Magdalen happened to be open then, and was very reasonable, so I got to step into another area of Lewis's life.

Above is a picture from the outside.  You really have to get through the porter's lodge and inside in order to really see the college.  The next two pictures give views of the chapel tower from the cloisters.

This is the hall.  Lewis would have sat at the high table with the other faculty, of course.  I was excited to see it Saturday night.  I was even more excited Sunday morning after worship at the chapel to be invited to come eat lunch here!

I can't currently remember the name of the building below - it's like "New College" or something, because it wasn't built until the 1700s or something like that.  Sorry to not be more specific, but my brain is kind of fried at the moment!  Anyway, this is where Lewis had his rooms.

Below is the view back toward the cloisters from the "new" building.

Where Lewis lived seen from the bridge over the Cherwell that leads to Addison's Walk.

A little boat moored by the "new" building.

Addison's Walk is a place where Lewis and Tolkien (also Dyson) used to walk together.  Conversations along this path contributed powerfully to Lewis's conversion from atheism to Christianity.

I almost missed this plaque with a Lewis poem on it that is about Addison's Walk, but I do try to keep my eyes very open and to look up and down and around, and I saw this kind of tucked away in a bit of a corner.

After my tour of the grounds, I had time for a quick "dinner" of ice-cream and quick rest in Merton Field before evensong began at Magdalen.

Entering chapel -

Choir stalls - 

The east end of the chapel - Jesus carrying his cross -

I won't give the quote, but I have been saddened over the years to know how Lewis felt about hymns.  I love hymns, and I love Lewis.  I had never understood how he could feel the way he did.  But after worshiping here tonight (music list below) and hearing the boys choir and also the accompaniment by "Instruments of Time and Truth" (a world-class period instrument ensemble), I am coming to have more understanding for where Lewis was coming from.  (I still love hymns.)

I didn't really feel like walking further that day, but since I was at this end of town I decided to walk on to South Park to get the view I'd heard of of the "dreaming spires of Oxford."  (This is the view someone coming overland from London in the 16th century would have had - minus the modern housing.)

My feet were very, VERY happy about time here!

And then the walk back - past the Radcliffe Camera and Merton College and Christ Church College and over the bridge over the Thames.