I am back where I belong. You did it, my friends: thanks to you, I’m in Gown Town, studying in the Weston Library, around the corner from the “The Gloomy, Doomy Radcliffe”–which inspires in me exactly the opposite of doom and gloom. I’ve just picked up my Bod Card at admissions and am about to get to work.
Yesterday, Sunday, was sheer indulgence and delight. It began with memory and inspiration, as I went to church at St. Ebbe’s, where I worshiped when I studied at Lincoln College 18 years ago. The service and sermon were challenging in just the right ways (the latter made me cry, which seems to be my default setting in church, for various reasons), and it ended with tea being served by ushers! I kid you not: they went around with trays, offering tea with milk in paper cups to all the congregants. That might jest be the most British thing I have ever encountered. 🙂
After church, I walked through a lovely new shopping center, saw the skyline, enjoyed a Christmas village complete with carousel, went to an OxFam thrift store, then spent time at Blackwell’s bookstore. Of course. Alas, they do not stock The Inklings & King Arthur! (That’s because Apocryphile uses print on demand, which does not make for easy return-ability. But you can order it if you ask a bookseller for it specifically. Yes, I checked). There are now 3 Blackwell’s: the original, main shop of Broad Street; a second one kitty-corner across Broad that specializes in Science Fiction and Manga (!), and a trendy gift-shoppy one in the posh Westgate shopping centre. (See how I spelt that word?)
Then I wandered through an outdoor Christmas market that filled up most of Broad Street. There were artisans, food stands, hot yuletide drinks, a Santa, several displaced Victorians, and a Bobby on stilts. The mood was festive and friendly, even more welcoming than the usual scholarly bustle bespeaking incredibly important research and thought going on all the time around one.
Finally, I went on the Ghost Tour of Oxford. This was cheesy but delightful! The fabulous tour guide, Jonathan, is my new best friend. He lived in the US for 15 years, his wife is American, and he wanted to talk to me about American politics. He also wants me to go on his Lewis and Tolkien tour and fact-check it for him. He took my card and gave me a hug at the end. Here’s hoping he gets in touch!
I’d love to help him narrativize his ghost tour and correct a few things. He claimed that Tolkien hated the Radcliffe Camera and based a building in Mordor on it. I looked it up and then told him he was half right: Tolkien did indeed think it was Doomy and Gloomy, but it was the Temple of Armenelos on Numenor that he based on it. Silly Tolkien!
He also said that the Inklings left the Eagle and Child when the Rabbit Room was bulldozed; Jack was heartbroken, and they had to make do with the Lamb and Flag across the street. I was reasonably certain that wasn’t correct, because I ate in the Rabbit Room in 2015. He was so confident, though, that my certainty wavered. I thought they left the Bird & Baby when it ran out of beer during post-war rationing, but he said it was 1955, which was after rationing. Well, I looked it up later, and we were both wrong: they left because a passageway was installed that ran through the Rabbit Room, so they lost their privacy. (You need to pronounce that with a short ‘i’).
And how can I convey the blessing of living in Lewis’s own home? Eating in his kitchen, sitting in his chairs, sleeping in his step-sons’ room, walking in his garden? I hope I shall be able to write him a poem. Meanwhile, I’m basking in the blissful experience of sharing his house with four other Christian women scholars and using it as my base of operations for research and writing in the Bodley.
To which I now turn! Thank you, friends!
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