Oxford

[osprey_archer]

We went to Oxford yesterday, which was splendid. I walked along the Isis, which I wanted to do last time I was in Oxford but didn't have time for, and Caitlin and I had a cream tea (no. of cream teas on trip so far: two), and I purchased Humphrey Carpenter's The Inklings - although sadly after we went to the Eagle and Child, so I did not get to read Caitlin choice excerpts while sitting in the very pub where Tolkien and Lewis once smoked their pipes.

We did meet a very nice group in the Eagle and Child, though, one of whom had brought along a stack of Lewis & Tolkien books and a pipe to take a commemmorative Inklings photo. He lent me his pipe for a photo, which was terribly kind of him.

We went also to the Bodleian, where I found a postcard with the covers of all sorts of different British girls' books from around the turn of the twentieth century. Of course this instantly became the nucleus of a new reading list, and I promptly downloaded piles of Angela Brazil on Kindle.

(I just finished reading Brazil's The Youngest Girl in the Fifth, in which our heroine Gwen is skipped from the Upper Fourth into the Fifth during the middle of term. The middle of the day during the middle of the term, even! I cannot think that the headmistress thought this through; the whole thing seems to have been managed to give Gwen the hardest time possible.)

If there was an exhibition connected to the postcard, I couldn't find it, which was rather vexing. But it occurs to me that it would have been yet more vexing to be surrounded by books that I yearn to read (many of which are not on Kindle, alas) and not be able to touch, and not to have time to read them even if I could.

Then I decided that the best way to get back to the train station was clearly to drag Caitlin along the path alongside the Isis. Suffice it to say that this is probably the least efficient (although most scenic!) method of getting anywhere in Oxford. But we did see some people punting while wearing actual straw boaters!

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ooh, scan the postcard if you get a chance--how wonderful and how perfect for your research.

I know nothing about Angela Brazil--is she from that period? (I laughed at the midterm, midday transfer. It could only have been better timed if it was in the middle of the night!)

You need a widget to put on the bottom of your blog posts while you're in England, to keep track of the cream teas.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh, this entry made me miss Oxford randomly and so much. Not that I ever punted on the Isis, it's so deep. We always went on the Cherwell and took our cream tea along... it must be twenty years since I was last in a punt. :-(

I suppose it must be illegal now to smoke a pipe in the Eagle and Child. Strange thought.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Cream tea in a punt sounds absolutely splendid, on the Isis or the Cherwell or any other river. I'm sorry we didn't see anyone having one!

(Your icon is quite perfect.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I shall! I will probably end up keeping the postcard forever, or at least for a while, in the hopes that I can track down more of the books on it. Possibly an odd way to pick books, but odd ways seem to be the best ways to find obscure old books.

Angela Brazil started writing in the early 1900s and kept going till the 1940s. She's famous for school stories - I ran across her name in my research, although at the time I had to focus on American books.

And I approve of the cream tea widget idea! We will probably have another tomorrow, as it is Caitlin's birthday.

[silverusagi]

I've been to Oxford! We ended up going on a trip when my sister had a three week 'course' there as part of her college, so Oxford was kind of home base because I used her dorm room to dump most of my stuff in so I could go around with a smaller suitcase. We walked around the town, went shopping, went to the Bodleian and to the church whose name I can't remember.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great trip!

[ladyherenya]

I tried to think of a less whinging way of saying "I'm so envious, I want to visit Oxford!" and I couldn't... I'm so envious. It all sounds delightful, including the inefficient method of reaching the train station.

I had to look up what a "cream tea" was - I'm familiar with the concept, but never heard it called that before.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It has been so far! Knock on wood, of course.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I studied abroad in England a few years ago, and it was so much more convenient to have a dorm room as a home base instead of a hostel. Man, all that space!

Oxford is such a beautiful town. It's impossible to get in most of the cottages, but it's so pretty outside it almost doesn't matter.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Maybe someday you will visit Oxford? There's plenty of time in the future.

What other names have you heard for a cream tea?