Chapter 28: Back to Oxford: River, Gardens, Shops & Pubs

Hiyah friends: I am back to creating my blog, Travels with Shep. I thought I'd be clever and break this next chapter, 28 into four parts. But I posted them in the wrong sequence and do not know how to change that. I meant the reader to read Christ Church first, Alice & Harry (Potter) second, Magdalen College third, and Oxford River, Gardens and Pubs last. For the most logical sequencing, look at the archives and read them in the order I recommend. ENJOY.

It is not so crowded as I thought it might be on St George's Day: I see a few people dressed for the occasion, but life seems normal with a few students about, some in gowns and others involved in activities like punting on the Cherwell, which looks to be great fun!

I had read about the Turf Tavern and decided I should find it for tea. It is hidden just off Hopewell Street, down a little alley, Bath Place. The reviewer in The Telegraph provided some information about the pub, which has been here for 600 years. Once famous for cockfighting, it offers three little courtyards in which to enjoy its fine food and wide range of choices, with wonderful names like Titanic Steerage, Springhead Sweet Lips, and others named for the Uffington Horse and the naked Cerne Abbas Giant (carved in the chalk hillside in Wessex.) According to the review, Wessex's Thomas Hardy used the Turf Tavern as his "obscure and low-beamed tavern" in Jude the Obscure.

One can exit the Turf Tavern through St Helen's Passage to New College Lane. There were few students here today, mostly tourists, likely those who had read the review. One could not find this pub easily unless you knew it was hidden back in these alleys.

The food is also excellent. I enjoy a hot Madras curry served with Major Grey Chutney and popodoms. I am not the first well-known guest: others have included Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor, and C S Lewis. Once again I am enthralled with the idea that I am enjoying a meal in the sunshine outside a tavern that has been here, as the review pointed out, since the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

I also go back to the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens, needing a break from narrow streets and crowds of people.

The sign tells me that this English Yew was planted in 1645 at the time of the English Civil War. So once again I am reminded about the different sense of time I find all over Britain when compared to my own town in Nova Scotia. I used to live in an ancient home, an 1830 farmhouse, and my old friend Jack Marriott lived in the oldest building in Kings County: The Planters' Barracks, built about 1778. That's brand new in Oxford terms! I am reminded of a line from Carol Shields' novel, Unless, which I am now reading: "I read recently that an English oak takes three hundred years to grow, then lives for three hundred years, then spends three hundred years dying."

J R R Tolkien's favourite tree, according to the Botanic Gardens' brochure. Tolkien lived in Oxford for many years. He is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery.

Students enjoying a lunch break feeding the ducks in this little stream of the Cherwell, alongside the Botanic Gardens.

Cornmarket Street: a coffee shop and Pret A Manger. It is so incongruous to see medieval or Tudor structures now serving as modern cafes or brand-name shops.

Part of the great Blackwell's Oxford presence. On the left is the science fiction branch of the famous bookstore. Right is the main bookstore. Behind me is their music and dvd division. The number of books on several floors was overwhelming: I found so many books that I wanted to buy that I didn't buy any!

The unkempt graveyard at St Michael at the Northgate, now constantly surrounded by a steady stream of busses arriving at and departing from the city centre.

The Carfax tower is all that remains of the 14-century Church of St Martins demolished in 1896 so that the road could be widened. Carfax was the crossing point of the original north-to-south and east-to-west routes through Oxford and comes from the word from the French quatre voies, or "four ways."

The Martyrs' Monument, across from my bus stop and the Ashmolean Museum. The monument commemorates the three Protestant martyrs, Latimer, Ridley, and Crammer, who were burned at the stake for heresy. Unfortunately, the Ashmolean is closed until November 2009. I had my heart set on seeing their Pre-Raphaelite collection. Instead I settled on a few art prints from the still-open gift shop.

A Town Crier at the end of the High Street, likely involved in some St George's Day celebrations.
St Mary the Virgin Church. Of all the churches I have visited, this was the most musty and cheerless of them all.
But is has quite a high tower, well worth the small fee to climb up for the spectacular views.

Once again, I climb uncounted winding steps to the top, furthering my precognition that sometime on my travels I am going to collaspse at the top of such stairs, creating a major problem for paramedics (or the coroner) to get my carcass back to the ground! I manage to overcome my vertigo and snap a few photos. (I say "snap" only because I have set my digital camera to sound like my old SLR Nikon!)

Here I am vertiginously looking down on the High Street. The space is so small that two people cannot quite pass one another (or can do so only if they want to be quite intimate) so I have to nip into a little indentation in the wall to let the school girls get past me.

Looking down High Street towards Magdalen College.

Looking down on All Souls College Quad. Known formally as All Souls of the Faithful Departed, it was founded about 1443.

The Classical Radcliffe Rotunda (1748) was built in the Baroque style by James Gibbs as a memorial to the physician Dr. John Radcliffe. J R R Tolkien decided that this building, which is part of the Bodleian Library, looks like Sauron's temple to Morgoth on Nümenor. In the Notion Club Papers (published in The Downfall of Sauron: The History of Middle Earth, Volume 9), the characters confuse the two buildings.

Another view of Oxford, eastward, from St Mary the Virgin. There is so much to see in this small city, so many things to do. There are old shops and modern designer-label stores. I have yet to see Oxford Castle, and must return to see the Botanic Gardens in full summer bloom.

Post Script

Soon after this visit to Oxford, we found another wonderful pub, this time in the little village of Hinton-in-the-Hedges. The pub is a Free House, called Crewe Arms, and it is superb!

The service was excellent, the food delicious. I had a lamb steak cooked in thyme with a cranberry sauce; the others enjoyed pork medallions, and chicken in a Stilton sauce. Desserts were apple & rhubarb crumble and treacle pie. We were amused by the arrival of a costume party, led by Sgt. Pepper and his friends in brightly coloured costumes!
The lambs, sheep and geese in the farmer's field across the road from the pub. Below, your satisfied blogger, having enjoyed this repast and wondering where to travel next.