Today is my last visit to Oxford, and I want to just wander about the town, to see what I might see. Here, at the Ghost Forest at the Museum of Natural Science, I spend time with some rainforest tree roots and meet a new Russian friend.
I am closing the doors on the United Kingdom this week, and it's time to say good-bye to Oxford.
Some of the dozens of college have closed doors, but over the past few years I have been inside several and I have always been made to feel welcome
This door is in the main hall of the Sheldonian Theatre, which has not been open the past three times I have visited. Today I take my time for a relaxed visit and for a climb to the top to take in the views of Oxford.
I will also open the door to St Michael at the Northgate and climb to the tower to see its views. This door was the entry to the cell in the Bocardo Prison (nearby) where the three Oxford Martyrs were held whilst being interrogated by Oxford clerics before being burned at the stake in 1555, just outside the city wall, as heretics.
Details of the Sheldonian Theatre, used for Oxford University degree ceremonies.
The Sheldonian was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built in 1669.
Up through the cupola into the lantern of the Sheldonian Theatre, added in 1838.
Shots from the Lantern of the cupola of the Sheldonian Theatre.
Details on the Museum of the History of Science.
A view of the dome of Radcliffe Camera, on nearby Radcliffe Square.
The famous Blackwell Book Shop in Oxford, where I can find almost any book I am looking for.
Street scenes: Holywell Street; below, a cottage on Parks Road.
The gates of Trinity College.
Above is a carved medallion above Rhodes House, below.
I found the Oxford University Museum of Natural History when I looked up the street and decided to check out the giant tree roots I assumed had been uprooted in a storm! Hah! Instead I found a fascinating display in the forecourt, entitled GHOST FOREST, by the sculptor and artist Angela Palmer. She collected the massive stumps from Ghana from a commercially logged primary rainforest.
The installation was first shown in Trafalgar Square and then was moved to Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference.
The museum building itself is described on the museum website as Oxford's "finest example of neo-Gothic architecture, and indeed one of the most perfect in the country."
On her website, the artist's statement about this project includes her intention that she wanted "to highlight the alarming depletion of the world's natural resources, and in particular the continuing rate of deforestation. . . . I embarked on what turned into a massive logistical nightmare--to bring a series of rainforest tree stumps to Europe and present them as a 'ghost forest' --using the negative space created by the missing trunks as a metaphor for climate change, the absence representing the removal of the world's 'lungs' through continued deforestation."
Palmer also wrote that "In Oxford, it is 150 years since the 'Great Debate' took place in the Museum of Natural History between Darwin's 'bulldog', Thomas Huxley, and the then Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, over the theory of evolution. Today the museum houses over 5.7 million specimens which are used by scientists worldwide providing evidence on subjects of particular relevance today, such as climate change, the effects of deforestation, biodiversity loss, evolution and extinction."
Palmer explains that "seven indigenous species are represented in the Ghost Forest installation:-- Denya, Dahuma, Danta, Hyedua, Mahogany, Wawa, and three varieties of Celtis--all with a rich and varied ecology and all with equally diverse uses of man."
"Like all art, Ghost Forest can be appreciated or interpreted in many ways and on many levels – no response is right or wrong. Many observers will see the stumps as beautiful sculptural objects; others will perhaps see the installation as a scene of devastation – perhaps evoking Paul Nash’s rendering of the stark landscape of the First World War where only the splintered tree stumps remain in the devastated land. Others may see the tree stumps posited in the no-man’s land between the past and the future – the past representing the life and growth of these trees, their potential, and what they provided biologically for the planet; while the future may signal, for some, an imperilled world, as the consequences of deforestation continues apace – another ‘New World’. For others the installation may represent an overt piece of political activism – a call to arms. I am equally comfortable with all responses. Many thinkers maintain that all art is political; politics touches all aspects of our lives. Life is about politics. And art is about communication, often transmitting unpalatable truths. As one artist commented: ‘I don’t think artists can avoid being political. Artists are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine. When we stop singing, it’s a sure sign of repressive times ahead.’" (Angela Palmer)
The Museum contains many exhibits from the world of natural science, and the curators clearly display the collection from various points of view, including the literary, as with the extinct flightless Dodo, immortalized by one of Oxford's most famous authors, Lewis Carroll.
Some displays are meant for handling--or at least running one's hands over--such as this gazillion-year-old ammonite.
My guide book refers to Oxfordshire dinosaurs, but I suspect some of the dinos on display are from elsewhere. Where is Ross Gelder when one of his "friends" really wants to hear about dinosaurs?
My son has followed in his grandmother's footsteps and is becoming an experienced and knowledgeable rock collector back home. He would have found these mineral displays fascinating too.
This orbicular granite is quite amazing, as is the pyrite, below.
I saw a brown hare like this one recently near Fringford, but it was much livelier than this model. There were dozens of animals preserved with taxidermy. Back home in the university where I studied are my grandfather's trophy animals from India; unfortunately, he shot more beautiful animals than hares, including tigers. They are packed away because part of the preservation process at the time included the use of arsenic.
One of the most satisfying books I have recently read (and reviewed) was Tracey Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures. Based on the adventures of Mary Anning and the Philpot sisters and the discovery of fossils at Lyme Regis, the novel explores the difficulty that the men of science had in the 1800s in recognizing the accomplishments of women. The sketch is one of Mary's.
I was gratified to find an excellent exhibit about Mary Anning, one of Chevalier's "remarkable creatures."
The sketch is from a presentation about the first icthyosaur discovered by the unschooled Anning. It was published in 1814 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
". . . the tide warns me I must leave of scribilling." (Mary Anning in a letter to J. S. Miller, Curator of the Bristol Institution in January 1830)
Many exhibits are too fragile to touch, but this one invites the visitor to feel the softness of the fur of this Shetland Pony, Mandy, who died in North Yorkshire in the 1980s of natural causes.
Another exhibit is of the many "creatures" that Lewis Carroll used in the Alice in Wonderland stories, including the Rabbit.
"Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life, it was all ridges and furrows: the croquet balls were all live hedgehogs and the mallets live flamingoes."
As for the tortise, "'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily."
A "stuffed" hedgehog of the type used as a croquet ball in Wonderland.
Skeletons of an Asian elephant, front, and African elephant, rear. At home I have the foot of a rogue elephant from India, shot by my grandfather in 1912 when asked to do so by local authorities because it was menacing the villagers.
A skeleton of a giraffe.
A rather cute little chimp. (I once started a group called GACC--Grandfathers Against Cruelty to Chimps--after reading about what happens to tame chimps after "retirement." Of course, if convenient, I could say that GACC stood for Grandfathers Against Cruelty to Children.)
The Museum design brings plenty of light into the building.
Inside the Pitt Rivers Museum, with its amazing ethnographic displays, mostly of African and Far Eastern cultures, and also exhibits collected by Captain Cook.
In the University Museum some exhibits are dedicated to Evolution. Apparently, beavers evolved, too! I couldn't quite figure out Eve in this context.
The University Museum on Parks Road is close to St Giles, so I crossed over to see the church and the Old Parsonage, below, now a hotel.
Church of St Giles in the early 19th century. The church dates back to 1086, and was located outside the city walls, common for churches dedicated to the patron saint of beggars and outcasts.
The cemetery of St Giles.
St Giles War Memorial.
St John's College on St Giles, dating from 1437.
Some of the iconic phone booths still stand around the UK.
It's funny how reviews are: one said that St Giles was the best cafe they had ever visited; another said it was "awful" and couldn't be recommended. I didn't take the risk, and instead found a Greek panini in a shop on the High Street. (I know. I know. Panini's are Italian.)
This St Giles pub belongs to St Johns College, which purchased it in 2003 from University College which had owned it since the 17th century as part of its endowment. The Rabbit Room is where the Inklings writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis met and discussed their manuscripts regularly.
The name comes from at least 1684 and is thought to be derived from the Earl of Derby's crest, relating to a legend about a high-born baby found in an eagle's nest. Its most common nickname is "Bird & Baby."
The College also owns The Lamb & Flag pub across St Giles Road. (The profits are used for PhD. scholarships.) This pub is associated with the Inspector Morse television series, and some believe that Thomas Hardy wrote most of his novel, Jude the Obscure here.
St Michael at the Northgate is the oldest building in Oxford, and was built by at least 1040. The tower is Saxon in origin. I decided to climb to the top for the views of the town.
The bells inside St Michael's Tower.
Looking down on St Michael's Street, towards New Inn Street and next, down on Cornmarket.
Looking down on Ship Street.
St Michael's is now Oxford's "City Church," a designation that implies that the Mayor and the Corporation of Oxford will worship here--probably a traditional formality. The artist/designer William Blake and his wife Jane Burden were married here. John Wesley preached here in 1726. The pulpit is still in use.
There are always street performers on Cornmarket Street. This harpist is raising money for a music school in Paraguay.
Typical view of Oxford's High Street, minus the wall-to-wall buses.
The Oxford University Examinations Schools, this view off the High Street on Merton. "The Schools" as it is called, is where students write their university exams. It was built by Thomas Jackson between 1876 and 1881. On previous visits, I saw celebrating students streaming out these doors having completed their exams.
The "wing" of the Examinations Schools that fronts on the High Street.
Part of Magdalen College, facing the High Street. This college has been called the most beautiful, and I concur, having visited the campus several times.
One of the college cottages at one end of Dead Man's Walk.
James Sadler was England's first balloonist. His balloon ascended from Christ Church Meadow in October 1784, rose 3,600 feet and landed six miles away in Woodeaton. (This plaque is on the wall of the Dead Man's Walk, opposite the Christ Church Meadows.)
I followed Dead Man's Walk, the old path that Jewish funerals followed from the synagogue to the Jewish Cemetery, which is now the Botanic Gardens. A security man told me he believed it was because Jewish funerals were not permitted to walk inside the walls of the city.
Dead Man's Walk passes behind Merton College and leads to the Meadow Building.
Buildings of Merton College.
The Oxford Fields, Merton College on the left, Magdalen's bell tower at the end.
A view of Christ Church, from the Oxford Fields.
The Christ Church Meadow Building, under major restoration.
Opposite the Meadow Building is the Christ Church Meadows. A film set has been created at the edge, for a movie shoot that starts tomorrow. (The security guard was either unaware of what it was, or not telling.)
One of the most common signs in Oxford is this one. I found it amusing because one needs to reach a foot into the shrubbery to even find the wrought-iron fence.
This is the final gate closing on me as I shut the door on my numerous visits to Oxford, a town I have enjoyed now over three years and one well worth visiting, especially if there is time to wander the back alleys and the less touristy areas. I chatted about Oxford to a British couple (who took my photo atop St Michael's tower) and they regretted they had only a couple of days to see the town and felt it was not nearly enough time.
Even periodic visits over three years aren't not been enough time!
