C. S. Lewis Pligrimmages and an X-ray

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Oh dear, two days is not enough for Oxford. I think I could spend weeks and weeks here. There’s so much history. In the morning we met outside Blackwell’s bookstore for a literary tour of the college. But first, we went through the bookstore which has the largest number of books for sale in one room anywhere—over half a million books in one room. See what I mean? I could spend three days in there alone, at a minimum. The literary tour was fascinating—we saw the houses where C. S. Lewis and Tolkien lived when they were first writing their books, the library used to film the interiors of the Hogwarts library, and some very impressive architecture which I have now forgotten all the details of.

One warning about Oxford: don’t step on the grass. I found out the hard way that people in Oxford are very sensitive about their grass when I stepped out onto a lawn to get a better angle for a shot of Tolkien’s office window. I was instantly corrected by our guide who told me that they would throw us out if we stepped on the grass. Apparently only the dons are allowed to walk on the grass by some strange tradition . . . .

After the literary tour, we went back to Blackwell’s where I was tempted by many, many books, but finally got pulled in to buying a two volume collection of C. S. Lewis essays for 20 pounds. It was the most I could restrain myself to—though I’ve added several books to my reading list as a result of the bookstore, hang it all. I then wandered to the basement of the natural history museum across the street where they have a preserved chalkboard written on by Einstein! Yay! Literary and scientific pilgrimages! And I could even understand a little of what he was calculating.

My explorations of Oxford were at this point rudely interrupted by an appointment at a hospital (of which there are 15 in Oxford) to get my broken arm x-rayed so my doctor in the states can tell me whether I’ve healed. Besides standing for five seconds in front of a door that turned out to be a glass panel, the x-ray went off without a hitch, though I won’t find out about my arm until it gets to my doctor. I really hope they can email the images instead of sending them via CD.

I returned to Oxford to explore Magdalen College (which I found out is pronounced ‘maudlin’ rather than ‘madalen’ which is how I’ve always said it). I spent a lovely hour along Addison’s Walk—the place where Tolkien finally converted C. S. Lewis back to Christianity—a very peaceful green place by the gorgeous Magdalen bridge. After walking the forest path which surrounds a field of wildflowers, I went back to the campus and tried to get into a room labeled “Oscar Wilde Room,” but it was locked.

We were scheduled to have dinner on our own today, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go: the Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings met on Tuesday mornings in the Rabbit Room to discuss their writing. A whole bunch of us piled in the pub and have a lovely time freaking out about the memorabilia on the walls and reading from the works of Lewis and Tolkien, with some random Lewis Carroll thrown in because Kate had purchased it earlier in the day at Blackwell’s. It’s a wonderful little pub—all dark brown paneling, with some really excellent food. And we met a man from Utah as we were ordering, who gave us 10 pounds for no reasons. We used it to buy some divine chocolate cake which disappeared in about 90 seconds. It was a nearly perfect day at Oxford—I only wish we could stay longer! I didn’t get to do half of what I wanted to do, so many scientist’s houses and Harry Potter film sights went unvisited. Guess I’ll have to go back some other time. :D

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