Hogwart's Great Hall

The Great Hall in Harry Potter's school at Hogwarts School of Wizardry is actually the Great Hall at Christ Church College. The name "Christ Church College" is considered technically incorrect because it ignores the fact that it's also a cathedral. It's the only college in the world that's also a cathedral. 

The planning and building of Christ Church was started in 1525 by Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII (he showed up a lot in the TV mini-series The Tudors). In 1529 Wolsey fell out of favor. With the construction three-quarters complete, it sat unfinished. It was finished and refounded in 1532 as King Henry VIII's College. Then refounded again by King Henry VIII in 1546 as Christ Church (after he broke with the Church of Rome and acquired great wealth through the dissolution of monasteries in England). I guess that means the monasteries meant to do good, and they ended up doing great.

The visitors entrance where lots of Harry Potter fans gather for a tour. 

Maria in The Hall where Harry Potter and his schoolmates were served their meals. Well, actually, the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies was inspired by this Hall and built as a movie set on an indoor sound stage. The current students of Christ Church had just finished lunch, and the staff was still putting things in order. 

The High Table is in the background, at the end of the room. It's where the faculty, special guests, and high-ranking wizards sit during meals. The faculty wears their graduation gowns. It's more prestigious to wear your MA graduation gown than your PhD gown (if your MA degree is from Oxford) because Oxford awarded MAs long before they awarded PhDs. Robin got to sit at the High Table at Regent's College when she was a guest of Lynn's. She also sat at the High Table of Merton College the couple of times she took a summer course there. During the Merton summer classes, a different student is invited to eat at the High Table for each meal.

A monument in the Christ Church Chapel. I've included it as one of many reasons I don't work in marble. It's just too darn difficult to adjust fonts, point sizes, and margins later. 

Harry Potter fans (or maybe King Henry VIII groupies) check out the main courtyard. 

It looks so... 16th century.

I'd love to see these vines in Spring or Summer.

A tenor rehearses in the chapel. Great acoustics. Sounded very 16th century.

The bell in the tower (Great Tom) is rung every night at 9 p.m. 101 times for the original 100 scholars of the school and one other scholar added in 1664. Originally this was done at midnight to signal the midnight closing of all college gates throughout Oxford. Since it took 20 minutes to ring the bell 101 times, the Christ Church gates weren't closed until 12:20. Even though the ringing has been moved to 9:30 p.m., Christ Church retains the tradition of keeping their gates open until 12:20.

Dinner at The Eagle and Child

The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford is famous for being the hangout of The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and other noteworthy writers and scholars of their day. They referred to the pub as The Bird and Baby. This place has been in business since 1650. That sounds pretty old, but not as old as The Turf Tavern or The Bear (more on them later).

After spending the day strolling around Oxford, we walked to Regent's Park College to meet our friend Lynn, who teaches there, and her son James. They also have tickets for the Hamlet production at Blackwell Bookshop later in the evening. It's just a short walk from Regent's College to The Eagle and Child.

The Eagle and Child is a long, narrow pub that goes back, room after room. The food was great. I had Haddock Fishcakes and chips. It was fabulous. Also Scottish cider and hot mulled wine. 

James and Lynn chat outside the Bird and Baby.

As we walked to Blackwell Bookshop, we passed a large monument to three martyrs, named Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. They were two archbishops and one bishop who became protestant and were condemned by Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) to be burned alive. About a block away, in the middle of the street and just a few doors from Blackwell Bookshop, are the stones where, in 1555, Latimer and Ridley were burned while Cranmer was forced to watch. He recanted to avoid this fate, but Queen Mary didn't believe he was sincere and he was burned anyway, which made him repudiate his recantation. Bloody Mary was responsible for 300 people being burned alive. 

After this, Hamlet is almost a romantic comedy. 

What a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that I, in a fiction, in a dream of passion, have been strolling around ye olde Oxford among scholars and ancient universities?

If I sound strange, it's because we not only spent Monday in Oxford, we also attended a performance of Hamlet Monday night at Blackwell Bookshop, after a delicious dinner with Oxford friend Lynn, her son James, and our roommate Maria, at the Eagle & Child pub. 

Blackwell Bookshop is in the heart of Oxford. In more ways than one.

The stage was set up in the basement room of the store. After the store closes, chairs will be set up in the raised area where Robin is walking.

We found one of our new books on the shelf at Blackwell. I'm wishing now that we had taken the time to write it in iambic pentameter. 

The director welcomed us and told us this is experimental theater and to expect anything. He said "I'm the director, but before the night is over you'll probably ask yourself 'What did he direct?’" He noted that the actors had not even had any rehearsals, then called upon two actors who know the role of Hamlet. Each actor picked an audience member as their "champion." The two champions played a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine which actor would get the part of Hamlet. This process was repeated for all of the main parts, then the play began.

People were asked to bring props of any kind. Actors would occasionally grab props from the audience and work them into the scene. For example, for the sword fight scene between Hamlet and Laertes at the end of the play, there were no sword props. Each of the actors did have a glove, however. They fought and struggled to put a glove on each other's hand. So weird. But creative. During the graveyard scene Hamlet speaks to a teapot lid instead of Yorick's skull. Well, we didn't come here to see just any ordinary production, now did we? 

The actors take their bows and applaud the audience. The groundling area around the stage was for audience and players.

All the actors were great, especially Hamlet, the bald guy on the right.

As we left Blackwell's bookshop for the bus stop that would get us back to Uxbridge, I noticed this chalk art on the sidewalk. 

As we left, Hamlet's words echoed inside my head: "The cat will mew and dog will have his day." I don't know what that means, or how it applies to this blog, but I'm just a rogue and peasant slave. Maybe you can figure it out.

Heading Back From Oxford

Great day in Oxford. IPhone running on battery fumes. On the Oxford Tube bus.

Trip to Oxford Tomorrow

Tomorrow Robin, Maria, and I (not Wally because he's in London tomorrow working as an extra on a movie set) take a bus to Oxford, about an hour away. Not just "a bus," but a very nice bus with free Wi-Fi. 

Robin will show us around and point out some of the points of interest she knows. At 5 pm we plan to meet our friend Lynn at Regents College where she teaches, then go to dinner. Regents College is a Baptist school.  

In case you didn't know, Oxford is not one big school, but is made up of 38 different colleges. "College town" is pretty much an understatement when you're referring to Oxford. As early as 1096 university teaching was going on here, but they suspect it was actually a little earlier, around 915.  

After dinner we have tickets to attend a production of Hamlet at Blackwell Bookshop, a large and famous bookstore for Oxford students. Robin says a stage is placed on top of the bookstore tables and the audience watches from the book stacks area on the second floor. The actors draw the part they will play that evening from a hat just before the play begins. Sounds interesting. Everyone in the audience is asked to bring a prop of some sort. I don't have a clue what that's about, but hey, it's Oxford, for God's sake. It must be cool. 

Twelve saints have graduated from Oxford. And that's not even counting the saints that flunked out or got kicked out. Definitely an extraordinary place.

Blackwell Bookshop in Oxford.

Why Drawing In Class Is Bad

Sketch Booked

Another sketchbook page from one of Robin's lectures.

Robin's lecture was about the rules to follow when writing a scholarly paper. I listened, and it was very interesting, but the odds of me attempting anything scholarly anytime soon are so slim that I decided I might as well try to bring back some grade school memories of drawing in class... while I listened, of course.