This would have been Mom's 94th birthday. Wonder what she would have looked like - what she would have thought of my trip and plans. Imagine she would have looked much like Granny, soft and frail, with piercing blue eyes - well hazel anyway. Wonder at what point her hair would have gone white. And as to my trip, I think she would have been absolutely tickled that I am doing this. She always did support me going off and exploring, especially when it had to do with family things.
After a quite substantial breakfast, I took a walk to the botanical gardens and decided to come back and do the gardens after church tomorrow. I headed went back to the Starbucks to work on emails. Met up with Bevis again about 11 or so. Again we wandered about. Today to see Oxford Castle, climb a tower and see the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum. Bevis is such a nice fellow and soooo generous with his time and interests.
The day was hot as blazes again and when we got to Oxford Castle, we found that it was almost 10 pounds to see the restored prison and to wander about on the Castle Mound in the boiling heat. Neither of us thought that was a great idea. The whole area has been restored and re-developed (Oxford Castle - Unlocked) so it is quite upscale with little boutiques and classy delis and restaurants galore. The tourist brochure says "For the first time in 1000 years, the secrets of Oxford Castle have been Unlocked revealing episodes of VIOLENCE, EXECUTIONS, GREAT ESCAPES, BETRAYAL and even ROMANCE. Walk through these ancient buildings and experience the stories that connect the real people to these extraordinary events. The site has been used as a place of incarceration since 1071, continuing until the closure of HM Prison in 1996.
Apparently among the stories the buildings can tell are: the austere confines of the 18th century Debtors' Tower and Prison D-Wing, and th4e dark atmosphere of the 900 year old underground crypt; marvel at the Mound of the 11th century motte and bailey castle with vaulted well chamber, climb the Saxon St. George's Tower, now open for the first time in its history (what, it was never used before?) and enjoy its stunning 360 degree panoramic views over Oxford. We are encouraged to learn about the real people and events from the site's turbulent past: the first Oxford teachings, the owners, visionaries, activists and inmates. People like the King's Prison keeper in the 1600s who made Oxford prison a terribly feared place; a convicted murderess who became an 18th century celebrity, a public executioner on which the Punch and Judy hangman character was modeled and a woman who survived her own hanging and narrowly escaped being anatomized by an Oxford medical student in 1650. The price of being able to see a bit of history, I guess, is that you have to go through the touristy stuff. It did not appeal today.
After a couple of photos, we carried on to the Saxon Tower at St. Michael at the North Gate, which was a tower neither Bevis nor I had been up before. Very hot outside but nice and cool in the church. It was built during the late Saxon period in about 1040 and is Oxford's oldest building. It was later connected on its west side to the Bocardo Prison above the North Gate. This Prison held the Bishops Latimer, Ridley and Cramner, who were burnt at the stake by Queen Mary for refusing to convert to Catholicism. In a somewhat macabre display, their cell door is found in this Church tower. The North Gate was apparently demolished in 1771 as it 'impeded the flow of traffic'. It is now (still) a very busy area with a performance area, loads of tourists and general traffic confusion. The Treasury, at the first floor level, contains some fine examples of church silver, including a rare Elizabethan chalice of 1562. St. Michal's has the 9th oldest set of Churchwarden's Accounts in the country, dating back to 1404 and a page from 1437 can be seen in the Treasury. The treasury also holds a late 11th early 12th century Sheela-na-gig (this is apparently a quasi-erotic stone carving of a female figure found on Norman churches) and a charter of 1612 bearing the seal of King James I.
St. Michael at the North Gate is mentioned in the Domesday Book and is now the City Church of Oxford. The oldest part of the church dates to the 13th century. The medallions in the window above the altar are the oldest stained glass in Oxford dating to 1290. The font is late 14th century. William Shakespeare stood by it as godparent to the child of a Cornmarket innkeeper. The Lady Chapel has a 15th century window showing Christ crucified against a lily. During the Civil War, Oxford was a Royalist stronghold and it is known that Royalist soldiers were billeted in the church. It must have been about this time that Charles I visited St. Michael/s. John Wesley (a fellow of Lincoln's College) preached the Michaelmas sermon here in 1726. The 15th century pulpit in which he preached is still in use today. William Morris, the designer and writer, was married to his 'Janeuy' (Jane Burden) in the church and a copy of their marriage certificate can be found in the treasury of the Tower. In 1953, the church was virtually destroyed by a fire which started in the organ, but was restored by 1954.
We climbed to the top through the dust and bells and had a marvelous view around Oxford - old buildings and spires: tiny hidden gardens and broad busy streets. Managed to catch a few pictures of Bevis posed fetchingly between two towers on the horizon. He took one of me posing not so fetchingly overlooking the same. On the way down Bevis tried out an old clock mechanism which had struck bells. The display was from about the 1870s. It took a long time to wind itself up and then got tired after about two chimes but was rather interesting.
Once down we toured through the church itself. Very old. Very peaceful. One of the exhibits said "The Sanctuary and Chancel date from the 13th century and, apart from the Tower, are the oldest surviving parts of the Church. The four medallions in the East Window are amongst the oldest stained glass in the country and are the oldest in Oxford (c. 1200). The top panel depicts S. Michael, the centre panel the Virgin and Child, and the left panel depicts St. Nicholas of Myrna who is the patron saint of children, sailors, merchants, and pawnbrokers. The right side panel depicts St. Edmond of Abingdon, the saintly Archbishop of Canterbury, who dies in 1240 AD. The Parclose screen between the Sanctuary and the Lady Chapel, dates from the early 15th century, as do some of the Sedilla (Priests seats) At the entrance to the Sanctuary and Chancel from the Nave, there are two further statues, works of Harold Youngman. On the right is St. George, the Patron Saint of England, and on the left is St. Michael.
The spate of building that took place in the reign of James I included the Schools Tower which completed the Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library. High up in a niche on the Tower is a seated statue of James I surmounted by a canopy bearing the words Beati Pacifici (Blessed are the peacemakers) and situated between two figures representing Religion and Fame. (The Latin inscription is quoted under Bodleian Library above). A few yards further opposite the main entrance to Hertford College is the entrance to Schools Quad, now part of the Bodleian Library but originally built as lecture rooms and libraries. The crests on the entrance doors are of the 20 colleges in existence in 1620 when the Quad was built. Again we could not get into the Bodleian - or into Radcliffe. Appears there are too many grad events going on and parts are closed. Darn it.
We stopped off at a very interesting Museum of the History of Science. The variety of the collection was absolutely amazing. It has about 5 main galleries generally laid out as: Mathematical Instruments, Collectors and Collections, Astronomy, Science in the Laboratory and at Home and - "beneath the basement". In a fairly short space of time I saw many early and rare instruments such as astrolabes of Elizabeth I and Archbishop Laud, an Italian drawing instrument from the early 16th century, an elaborate quadrant, an equatorium for finding the positions of the planets, a 13th century geared calendar within an astrolabe and a variety of sundials and sextants owned by famous people including Cardinal Wolsey. The four main collections were the Orrery Collection, formed around 1700, collections of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Microscopical Society (early 19th century) and that of the founding benefactor of the Museum, Lewis Evans. These collections illustrate some of the reasons why the collections existed and how they shaped our view of the past. These collections contained not only one or two examples of things but hundreds of them.
You went from one case of intricate brass instruments to another. Things large and small: ordinary and fantastical. On display in the astronomical area were: a Newtonian reflecting telescope from the late 1700's, a large panel of the moon dating from the same period, mural quadrants dating from 1600 and 1700, portraits of various astronomers and a very large telescope made in 1742. In the basement there were chemical laboratories, instruments for research and teaching, for medicine and pharmacy, photography and communication. We saw an 18th century lodestone, an apparatus used for making penicillin in early days, a photographic kit of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll and Einstein's blackboard. On a smaller scale were globes, orreries, clocks, and barometers. In addition, there were a variety of up to date databases and online exhibitions. Beneath the basement, which we were not able to go into, they uncovered, in 1999, remarkable evidence of work in an earlier scientific collection (the Ashmolean) including a large collection of chemical vessels and some 3,000 human and animal bones. The space had been used as a dump in the 19th century and all kinds of earthenware vessels, flasks, retorts and crucibles of different shapes and sizes had been discarded from the chemical laboratory, many with residues of experiments. Human bones were also found in the basement area and many showed evidence of dissection and display, such as sawcuts and drilled holes for copper wires. It is known that dissections were carried out in the basement and that the bodies of criminals hanged in Oxford were bought for the purpose. It was all really quite amazing.
After all that, we felt in need of a bit of a sit down and visited a couple of older pubs. I think I had a glass of "Old Hooky" there. I managed to sneak in a picture of one of them when Bevis was out of the room. Apparently it is a great embarrassment to a bartender to have a photo taken of the bar or them tending it. It is like - just a bar.
Then we carried on to the even more amazing Natural History Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Museum was founded in 1884 when General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in the development of archaeology and anthropology, gave his collection to the University of Oxford. His give was made on condition that a museum would be built to house the objects and someone appointed to lecture in anthropology. The collection consists of everyday objects from all over the world and throughout human history. The founding gift contained nearly 20,000 items. They have now grown to around half a million artifacts, including photographs, manuscripts and sound recordings. Travelers, scholars, missionaries and other British people posted abroad collected much of this material. The collections continue to expand through donations, bequests, purchases and objects acquired by staff and students during fieldwork.
The objects are mainly arranged according to how they were made or used rather than by where they come from or how old they are. This unusual layout has its roots in the theories of General Pitt Rivers who wanted his collection to show progression in design and the evolution of human culture from the simple to the complex. The collections are, to say the least - unusual. You get such things as Basketry, rope and String; Building and Housing; Firearms; Ivory, Bone and Horn; Magic, Ritual Religion and Belief; Making Light and Fire; Masks and Performance; Smoking and Stimulants; Treatment of the Dead, etc. So, you have totem poles in one area, clothing, including those made by the Coast Salish, in another. You have shrunken heads and examples of trepanning. Stuff is absolutely everywhere. In cupboards, drawers both small and large, cabinets etc. It is really quite mind blowing. Unfortunately they were closing a half hour earlier than we expected so we just skimmed the surface of it all.
There were columns of different marble from all over the world, intricate ironworks holding it all up in typical Victorian display and statues of famous scientists (did not see Lindley thought did see Linnaea). There were preserved ponies and cheetahs: little stuffed owls and re-creations of dinosaurs. Upstairs were the most unusual displays of living creatures one does not usually see. Stick creatures, centipedes, ants, huge jungle insects that would scare you if you ran into them on the ground. It was amazing and not a little scary. We were eventually kicked out of there and as we went out different doors (due to my visit to the loo) and I found Bevis sprawled out on the ground near the dinosaur prints marching across the lawn (a famous group of ichnites was found in a limestone quarry at Ardley, 20 km Northeast of Oxford, in 1997. They were thought to have been made by Megalosaurus and possibly Cetiosaurus. There are replicas of some of these footprints, set across the front lawn of the museum).
I believe there is also a huge sequoia tree out there as well. Then we walked around the cricket pitches and I took some pictures of the pavilions there. Exhausted we took a final break at a tavern called The Old Tom, which had a lovely outside garden in which I had my dinner. Bevis does not eat dinner apparently. I can not recall what I had (no doubt due to the number of beers I had had that day) but it was quite delicious. It was a most unusual and enjoyable afternoon.
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