Chapter 23: Thames Valley: Oxford

I take the bus from Bicester Town Centre today by myself for the thirty-minute trip to Oxford. I have wanted to come here since I arrived in England, and now is a convenient time.

Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by the poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. Oxford, after all, is the definitive college town.

I join the Oxford Open Bus Tour to get a feel for the city. Part way, I disembark to visit Christ Church Cathedral. Oxford isn’t big enough for a full bus tour. It is best seen from the streets, college quads, and from a few vantage points in towers that provide panoramic views.

Sitting right in the heart of Oxford but bounded by its Meadow and the Rivers Cherwell and Isis, Christ Church is architecturally stunning. Christopher Wren’s Tom Tower is the college’s most famous feature and an Oxford landmark. Striking additions in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries complete what is not only beautiful for visitors but is, foremost, a place for living and studying.

The Romanesque Christ Church Cathedral. Christ Church was originally founded by Cardinal Wolsey as Cardinal's College in 1524. The college buildings took over the site of St. Frideswide's Monastery, which was suppressed by Wolsey to fund his college.
The monastery dated back to the earliest days of Oxford as a settlement in the 9th Century AD. When Wolsey fell from power in 1529 the College became property of King Henry VIII. Henry re-founded the College in 1546 and appointed the old monastery church as cathedral of the new diocese of Oxford. The new institution of cathedral and university college was named Aedes Christi, which is rendered in English as Christ Church. It is due to its ecclesiastical function that Christ Church's principal, the Dean, is always a clergyman.

Tom Tower, Christ Church. During the English Civil War (1642-1646) King Charles I lived at Christ Church. He held his Parliament in the Great Hall and attended services in the Cathedral. After the war and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the College was rewarded for its loyalty to the House of Stuart by being enabled to raise enough money to complete the main quadrangle.
A former student, Sir Christopher Wren, was commissioned to design a new bell tower in 1682, which houses the bell, Great Tom, from which the tower and the quad get their names. Students enter the college and the cathedral through the gate in Tom Tower.

From Christ Church War Memorial Gardens, looking back up St. Aldates Road. It is through here that visitors enter for a tour of the grounds and the cathedral.
Embedded sword at War Memorial Garden entrance to Christ Church.

Not sure what the building is on St. Aldates, but I like the gate of Christ Church War Memorial Garden against its façade.

"Sebastian lived at Christ Church, high in Meadow Building. He was alone when I came, peeling a plover's egg taken from the large nest of moss in the centre of the table." Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh (1945)

The Meadow Building (known as "Meadows" to undergraduates) looks out onto Christ Church Meadow. It was built in 1863 to the designs of Sir Thomas Deane in the Venetian style (favoured by the famous Christ Church art historian John Ruskin). Single rooms in the Meadow Building look out over either the college or the Christ Church Meadow, although originally, college undergraduates would be given a suite of rooms with views overlooking both sides.

Christ Church Meadow is a famous flood-meadow, and popular walking and picnic spot in Oxford.
Approximately triangular in shape it is bounded by the River Thames (the stretch through Oxford being known as the Isis), the River Cherwell, and Christ Church. It provides access to many of the college boat houses which are on an island at the confluence of the two rivers. The lower sections of the meadow, close to the Thames, are grazed by cattle, while the upper sections have sports fields. This time of year, the cattle have been moved elsewhere. Several football games (or practices) are underway today.

The Peckwater Quadrangle (known as "Peck" to undergraduates) is one of the quadrangles of Christ Church. It is on the site of a medieval inn, which was run by the Peckwater family. The buildings, including the Library, date from the eighteenth century. They are built in the then-fashionable Classical style. First floor rooms in this quad have traditionally been particularly sought after by undergraduate members of the college due to their size, oak panelling and high ceilings.

The Tom Quadrangle. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwig Dodgson 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898) had his rooms in the far right corner, at the ell.

"Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell

And many a lesser bell sound through the room;

And it is All Souls' Night..."

— W B Yeats, All Souls' Night, Oxford (1920)

Charles Lutwig Dodgson went, in January 1851, to Oxford, attending his father's old college, Christ Church. Eventually, his talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he continued to hold for the next twenty-six years. The income was good, but the work bored him. However, despite early unhappiness, Dodgson continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881, and remained in residence there until his death.

In 1856, a new Dean, Henry Liddell, arrived at Christ Church, bringing with him his young family, all of whom would figure largely in Dodgson's life and, over the following years, greatly influence his writing career. Dodgson became close friends with Liddell's wife, Lorina, and their children, particularly the three sisters: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell. He was for many years widely assumed to have derived his own "Alice" from Alice Liddell. This was given some apparent substance by the fact the acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out her name, and that there are many superficial references to her hidden in the text of both books. Dodgson himself, however, repeatedly denied in later life that his "little heroine" was based on any real child, and frequently dedicated his works to girls of his acquaintance, adding their names in acrostic poems at the beginning of the text.
Though information is scarce, he grew into the habit of taking the Liddell children (first the boy, Harry, and later the three girls) on rowing trips to nearby Nuneham Courtenay or Godstow.
It was on one such expedition, on 4 July 1862, that Dodgson invented the outline of the story that eventually became his first and largest commercial success. Having told the story and been begged by Alice Liddell to write it down, Dodgson eventually (after much delay) presented her with a handwritten, illustrated manuscript entitled Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.
The work was finally published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 under the Lewis Carroll pen name, which Dodgson had first used some nine years earlier. The illustrations this time were by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist.
The overwhelming commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life in many ways. The fame of his alter ego "Lewis Carroll" soon spread around the world. He was inundated with fan mail and with sometimes unwanted attention. He also began earning quite substantial sums of money. However, he didn't use this income as a means of abandoning his seemingly disliked post at Christ Church.
In 1872, a sequel — Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There — was published.
In 1876, Dodgson produced his last great work, The Hunting of the Snark, a fantastical "nonsense" poem, exploring the adventures of a bizarre crew of variously inadequate beings, and one beaver, who set off to find the eponymous creature. The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti reputedly became convinced the poem was about him.
In 1856, Dodgson took up the new art form of photography, first under the influence of his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge, and later his Oxford friend Reginald Southey.
He soon excelled at the art and became a well-known gentleman-photographer, and he seems even to have toyed with the idea of making a living out of it in his very early years.
He also found photography to be a useful entrée into higher social circles. During the most productive part of his career, he made portraits of notable sitters such as Ellen Terry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Michael Faraday and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Dodgson abruptly ceased photography in 1880. Over 24 years, he had completely mastered the medium, set up his own studio on the roof of Tom Quad, and created around 3,000 images. Fewer than 1,000 have survived time and deliberate destruction. His reasons for abandoning photography remain uncertain. However, his photography of young girls and his keen interest in Alice Liddell, have been reason enough for some to wrongly accuse him of pedophilia.
In the last fifty years is now considered by many to be one of the very best Victorian photographers.

The Great Hall, where the students eat their meals, with its portrait of Dodgson, the windows commemorating him and characters from Alice. This, also, is the great dinner hall from the first Harry Potter films, scenes from the movie filmed here. Alas, the Hall is closed today! Actually, the Great Hall was replicated in the film studios to create Hogwart's Hall. As Harry and the new first-years enter Hogwarts they are greeted by Professor MacGoonigal. This scene was shot on the 16th century staircase which leads up to the Great Hall. The cloisters in Christ Church were first built 1000 years ago. This ancient vintage made them the ideal setting for various scenes. It is here that Harry is shown the trophy his father won as a seeker in Quidditch.

Alice's Shop, St. Aldates. For an avid collector of Alice collectibles, I had a tough time in here. It was immortalized by Lewis Carroll who used the shop as the inspiration for a whole chapter in the Alice in Wonderland stories, the old sheep shop, in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. It is also the basis of one of Tenniel's illustrations. In real life, it was a little sweet shop just across the road form where the real Alice, Alice Liddell, lived 140 years ago at Christ Church with her father Henry Liddell, who was Dean of the College and Cathedral. It is now one of the most tangible links to the Alice in Wonderland adventures. Today it is packed with gifts, books, memorabilia and art works, all on the Alice in Wonderland theme.

Christ Church Cathedral looking toward the chancel. The nave, quire, main tower and transepts are of the late Norman period. There are architectural features ranging from Norman to the Perpendicular style and a large rose window of the ten-part (i.e. botanical) type.

Rose window and detail of the chancel stone vault, with two of the 12 pendants. The ceiling is made up of intricate star-shaped patterns to create an image of heaven. Beneath is the beautiful altar.

The cathedral was originally the church of St. Frideswide's Priory. The site is claimed to be the location of the abbey and relics of St. Frideswide, the patron saint of Oxford, although this is debatable, according to Wikipedia.

The Shrine and the St. Frideswide Window.

St. Frideswide Window by Edward Burne-Jones 1858.

Detail of St. Frideswide, the Ship of Souls.

Inside Christ Church Cathedral, detail in the quire.

The St. Michael window.

The Morris Window. Designed by Edward Burne-Jones.

Detail of The Becket Window, commemorating his murder.

Looking up & out from the cloisters.

Recently, the Dean dedicated a new work of art in the medieval cloister. It comprises a fountain together with an olive tree, a traditional symbol of peace. The work is by sculptor Gary Breeze from Diss, Norfolk who has been described as one of the most inventive letterers working today. The fountain and the tree together, with their inscriptions, mark the threshold of the cathedral’s sacred space.

The inscription around the olive tree welcomes the 250,000 visitors who come to Christ Church each year with words from the Book of the Revelation (22:2): “The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”. The inscription around the fountain bears the words of Psalm 150, a psalm of praise to God.

It is time to leave Christ Church Cathedral and College today, but I could easily come back for another visit.

The Mitre, on High Street, is where I had lunch. Rooms are used by the students of Lincoln College. The Mitre pub, situated on the corner of High Street and Turl Street, has a long and illustrious history - it was the best known of all the coaching inns in Oxford in the 18th century (as the London stage coaches ran from here) and it has always had a close association with undergraduates. This was reflected upon by a contemporary poet when disaster temporarily overwhelmed his favourite haunt,

Lament, lament, you schollers all

Each weare his blackest gowne,

The Mitre yt held up your wits

Is now itselfe faln downe.

This was occasioned when the College took over the bedrooms of the Mitre hotel in 1969. Currently it provides rooms for nearly 50 students (mainly second years), and is used for bed and breakfast during the Long Vacation in the summer.

I savoured loin of lamb in mint in the restaurant in the Mitre, of the Beefeater chain.

High Street building of Magdalen College. Magdalen College was founded as Magdalen Hall in 1448 by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. It became Magdalen College in 1458. Regarded by some as one of the most beautiful of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, Magdalen is also one of the most visited. It stands next to the River Cherwell and has within its grounds a deer park and Addison's Walk, a famous and beautiful pathway.

The perpendicular gothic tower of Magdalen College. The Great Tower was built between 1492 and 1509, and is an imposing landmark on the eastern approaches to the city centre.

A view of the gothic tower, from the Botanic Gardens.

The old gate of the Oxford University Botanic Gardens, the oldest botanic gardens in Great Britain, and the third oldest scientific garden in the world. It was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 hectares (4½ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.
In 1621, Sir Henry Danvers, the First Earl of Danby, contributed £5,000 to set up a physic garden for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning". He chose this site on the banks of the River Cherwell at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, belonging to Magdalen College. Part of the land had been a Jewish cemetery until the Jews were expelled from Oxford (and the rest of England) in 1290.
The Garden comprises three sections:
1. the Walled Garden, surrounded by the original seventeenth century stonework and home to the Garden's oldest tree;
2. the Glasshouses, which allow the cultivation of plants needing protection from the extremes of British weather; and
3. the area outside the walled area between the Walled Garden and the River Cherwell.

Series of October photos from the Botanic Garden.

J.R.R. Tolkien's favourite tree, in the Botanic Gardens.

Young folk punting on the river.

Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.
– Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889)

Except in the immediate vicinity of Magdalen Bridge, punting in Oxford is a surprisingly quiet and rural experience. Most of the punting is done on the River Cherwell, which flows through Oxford's protected green belt of fields and woods for the last few miles before it joins the Thames just south-east of Christ Church Meadow.

Magdalen Bridge over the River Cherwell. Rows of punts are lined up for punting along the little river.

Just across from the Botanic Gardens is a field full of young footballers.

The original William Morris Garage, which has special meaning for our family because we once owned a number of MG sportscars (which are being made again, somewhere)!
William Morris founded Morris Motors, a company that at one stage made every other car sold in Britain. He also gave more than £30 million to charitable causes, many involved in medical research. He was born in Worcester in 1877 and moved to Oxford with his family when he was three. He left school at 15. A year later he started his own business with £4 capital, making and repairing bicycles at the home of his family, 16 James Street, Oxford. Later he worked with motor cycles, and then as a garage owner, when he started selling, hiring and repairing cars.
He designed his first car, the Bull Nosed Morris, in 1912 at his garage in Longwall Street, Oxford, (above). My grandfather, Dr. Leslie E. Eaton, drove a Morris; my own dad imported an Austin during the 1960s, when our mother bought our first MGB. After marriage, our first car was a 1972 MG.

Between the wars, Morris Motors, with Austin, the Rootes Group and Ford dominated the UK market for popular cars and brought motoring within reach of the man in the street. William Morris had a profound effect on the life of the people of Britain, as well as on Oxford.

The Sheldonian Theatre. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Note the "13 emperors or philosophical heads", no one being sure which. The Sheldonian Theatre was built from 1664 to 1668 based on a design by Christopher Wren. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer.One of the thirteen emperors or philosophers at Sheldonian Theatre, detail.

Entry to Sheldonian Theatre, which seats 1,000 for Oxford University graduations, and other events.

Buildings & details around the Sheldonian.

Part of Hertford College. The college was originally founded as Hart Hall in 1282 by Elias de Hertford. In medieval Oxford, halls were primarily lodging houses for students and resident tutors, and thus did not have the same status as fully fledged colleges. Many of the great minds of the English Renaissance studied at what would eventually become Hertford College including the metaphysical poet John Donne, satirist Jonathan Swift, the political theorist Thomas Hobbes, and the first translator of the Bible into English, William Tyndale. The Hall became Hertford College in 1740. Hertford was one of the first fifteen co-educational colleges in the university.

Hertford Bridge in New College Lane is often referred to as the "Bridge of Sighs" because of its supposed similarity to the famous bridge of the same name in Venice. According to Wikipedia, Hertford Bridge was never intended to be a replica of the Venetian bridge, and indeed it bears a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge in the same city. The bridge links together the Old and New Quadrangles of Hertford College. The bridge, and much of its current architecture, was designed by Sir Thomas Jackson. It was completed in 1914.

The so-called Bridge of Sighs, detail, debatably of the Venetian original, here replicated. Telephoto view of Radcliffe Camera (from Carfax Tower).

Radcliffe Camera from Radcliffe Square. It is now a reading room for the Bodleian Library. The Radcliffe Camera (colloquially, "Rad Cam" or "Radders") was designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. The building was funded by a £40,000 bequest from John Radcliffe, who died in 1714.

Rhodes Building Oriel College. The Rhodes Building, pictured right, was built in 1911 using £100,000 left to the College for that purpose by former student Cecil Rhodes. It became the last building of the Jacobean revival style in Oxford. On the side facing the High Street, there is a statue of Rhodes over the main entrance, with Edward VII and George V beneath.

Oriel College, located in Oriel Square, Oxford, is the fifth oldest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford.

St. Mary's has one of the most beautiful spires in England and an eccentric baroque porch, designed by Nicholas Stone, facing High Street.

Lincoln College Library, once All Saints Church.

The Queen's College, detail. The college was founded during the 14th century by the chaplain of Queen Philippa of Hainault, wife of King Edward III of England; hence its name. It should be noted that whilst the name of Queens' College, Cambridge is plural, the Oxford college is singular, and must be written with the definite article. The magnificent frontage was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, part of a substantial rebuilding in the 18th century during which the impressive library was built. The medieval foundations, however, remain beneath the current eighteenth-century structure. The Queen's is notable for the beautifully clean, classical lines of its buildings, unique among the largely gothic constructions that predominate amongst Oxford colleges.

Rooftop detail, The Queen's College. Notable former students of the college include:
Joseph Addison, co-founder of The Spectator
Rowan Atkinson, actor, known for Blackadder and Mr. Bean
Jeremy Bentham. English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium
Edmund Halley, English astronomer
King Henry V of England
Thomas Middleton, English Jacobean playwright and poet
John Wycliffe, English theologian

Examination Hall. In order to be allowed to enter the exam hall, students must adhere to academic dress. Oxford University enforces the dress code very seriously. This tradition is known as subfusc.

Men must wear:
• Dark Suit—brown does not count
• Black shoes and socks
• White bow tie
• White dress shirt and collar
• Graduate gown
Women:
• Black ribbon tie
• White blouse
• Black skirt or trousers
• Black stockings
• Graduate gown

One father's reply to his son’s complaint about the dress code: "Son, you have to understand the uniform. Football players have a uniform. Cricket players have a uniform. Subfusc is the uniform of a scholar. Son, you are not yet a scholar, and so you don't understand subfusc."

Cornmarket Street, the traditional shopping place.

Bicycles, bicycles, bicycles. Everywhere.

St. Michael at the Northgate in Cornmarket Street.
The tower of St. Michael at the Northgate is Saxon in origin, dating from 1440. The church is so-called because this is the location of the original north gate of Oxford when it was a walled town. The Oxford Martyrs were imprisoned near here before they were burnt at the stake outside the city walls in what is now Broad Street nearby.

The Martyrs' Memorial is an imposing stone monument positioned at the intersection of St Giles', Magdalen Street and Beaumont Street just outside Balliol College. It commemorates the 16th-century "Oxford Martyrs".
Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the monument was completed in 1843 after two years' work, having replaced "a picturesque but tottering old house". The three statues of Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley are by Henry Weekes.
The inscription on the base of the Martyrs' Memorial reads as follows:

"To the Glory of God, and in grateful commemoration of His servants, Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, Prelates of the Church of England, who near this spot yielded their bodies to be burned, bearing witness to the sacred truths which they had affirmed and maintained against the errors of the Church of Rome, and rejoicing that to them it was given not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake; this monument was erected by public subscription in the year of our Lord God, MDCCCXLI".

There is so much to photograph in Oxford. I didn't know where to point my camera. The Museum of Oxford covers the history of the City and University of Oxford. The displays include original artefacts, treasures from Oxford colleges and period room reconstructions, from prehistoric times onwards.
The museum is located in the Town Hall on St. Aldates (at the corner with Blue Boar Street), to the south of Carfax, the centre of Oxford.

Carfax Tower, from the top of which I get excellent views of Oxford. The name "Carfax" derives from the French "carrefour", or "crossroads". The Tower is all that remains of the 13th century St. Martin's Church and is now owned by the Oxford City Council. It is 23 m (74 ft) tall and still contains a ring of six bells, recast from the original five by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1676. These chime the quarter hours and are rung on special occasions.

The spiral metal staircase in the Carfax Tower.

Looking down High Street from Carfax Tower.

The top of Cornmarket Street, at left.

The Covered Market, right, was officially opened in 1774 and is still active today. The Covered Market was started in response to a general wish to clear 'untidy, messy and unsavoury stalls' from the main streets of central Oxford.
John Gwynn, the architect of Magdalen Bridge, drew up the plans and designed the High Street front with its four entrances.

The Radcliffe Observatory & Meteorological Centre. Radcliffe Observatory was founded at Oxford University in 1772. It is known by that name as it was founded by the Radcliffe Trustees, after John Radcliffe. The observatory building commenced to designs by Henry Keene in 1772, was completed in 1794 to the designs of James Wyatt, based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens. The Observatory building is now used as a common room by Green College.

The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) on Beaumont Street, is the world's first university museum. Its first building is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, though there is no good evidence for this claim, and was built in 1678–1683 to house the collection or cabinet of curiosities Elias Ashmole gave Oxford University in 1677.

Crane over the Ashmolean.

Between 2006 and 2009, the museum is in a process of extensive rebuilding and expansion to the designs of architect Rick Mather, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. As a consequence some of the galleries have been closed, though most of the highlights are still on show. The rebuilding will result in five floors instead of three, with a doubling of the display space as well as new conservation studios and an education centre. As of 2007 most of the exterior cleaning of the building to remove soot was completed, and the construction work in the building is well under way.

The main museum contains the original collections of Elias Ashmole and John Tradescant, as well as huge collections of archaeology specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery and English silver. The archaeology department includes the bequest of Arthur Evans and so has an excellent collection of Greek and Minoan pottery.

The Oxford Playhouse is an independent theatre in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum, which was founded as The Red Barn in 1923 by J.B. Fagan. Today it is owned and run by a charitable trust, through a professional management and direction team, as a theatre for the local community. It was closed for a number of years due to lack of funding, but is now refurbished and thriving.
The Oxford Playhouse has close relations with Oxford University and is the home stage of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. The Playhouse also manages on behalf of the University the nearby Burton Taylor Theatre, named in honour of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, a 50-seater studio theatre used for student productions and for rehearsals.
Other well-known actors who have appeared on the stage at the Playhouse include Rowan Atkinson, Ronnie Barker, Dirk Bogarde, Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Dudley Moore and Maggie Smith.

On High Street, above shop level. The architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner wrote in 1974 that "The High Street is one of the world’s great streets. It has everything."

He may have been echoing Thomas Hardy's comment in Jude the Obscure:
"And there's a street in the place — the main street — that ha'n't another like it in the world."

The Saïd Business School, next to the train station. Saïd Business School (SBS) is the business school of Oxford University. Established in 1996, it is one of the world's youngest premiere business schools. In spite of its age, it is consistently ranked as one of the world's top business schools and among Europe's leading business schools.

The new business school building was completed in 2001 with a £23 million benefaction from Syrian arms dealer Wafic Saïd. The building includes an amphitheatre and the Sainsbury Library (of the grocery-store chain), and was designed by Edward Jones and Sir Jeremy Dixon. It was built on the site of Oxford Rewley Road railway station. The opening on 5 November 2001 was accompanied by protests by students mainly because of the controversial nature of Wafic Saïd's donation: (his wealth is partly derived from advising on defense related contracts between the UK and Saudi Arabia.)

Lots of bicycles at the train station. In fact, Oxford does not seem so automobile-focussed as so many other places in the UK.

Some of these older houses on the Banbury Road have been made over as student housing, but I like the atmosphere of Oxford, In fact, it does not feel like a city, but just a big college town.

The Job Centre, Oxford. This is not historically important, nor associated with the colleges, but I actually like the design. Likely the terrible recession facing the UK will not be as bad in Oxford as elsewhere, but even locals will need help looking for work.

A tipsy pub near the Oxford Castle, which I do not have enough time to see today.

St. Aldates Tavern. Apparently, this is not a pub that students frequent, but there are many eating and drinking places to try in Oxford.

Summertown shopping area, detail. Summertown in North Oxford is a suburb of Oxford. The focal part of Summertown is a busy area of shops on both sides of Banbury Road. Summertown is home to much of Oxford's broadcast media. BBC Radio Oxford and the BBC Television's Oxford studios are on Banbury Road. The bus follows the Banbury Road back to Bicester.

In many ways, this telephoto photo represents one of the special things about Oxford which I appreciate so much: the tower represents the beauty and the wonderful architecture of its buildings in a busy—but not crowded—city, but in a very few moments one can be in a completely rural and tranquil rural setting. I think of Halifax for contrast: it is too commercial, too frantic, too full of neon and ugly signs of modernity. I think of Wolfville—my hometown—and while it compare favourably, Wolfville is too small, too limited in its possibilities. I could live in Oxford, and find something to suit my interests at any time.
Of course, I must come back: I should see Oxford Castle; I have to see the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the Ashmolean; I would love to see the Botanic Gardens in full spring or summertime bloom; I need to see the Great Hall in Christ Church; I want to visit the Morris Garage Automobile Museum; I could easily spend a reflective afternoon staring at Tolkien’s favourite tree; maybe I could even go punting on the river.