Oxford: gargoyles and greatness

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We began our day in Oxford at Magdalen College, a gorgeous confection of gargoyles, checkerboard lawns, a river walk with a deer park and reading seats carved out of tree trunks. The gargoyles apparently inspired CS Lewis, who was a fellow here, to create the stone garden in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The chapel is particularly lovely with a quite extraordinary monochromatic stained glass window. We wandered among the other beautiful buildings of Oxford including the Radcliffe Camera and St Mary's. We wanted to tour the Bodleian Library but unfortunately tours were booked out so we just saw the quadrangle and a small but interesting WWI exhibition, which much to Raphael's pleasure include a letter from Bertrand Russell explaining the position of conscientious objectors. From among the smorgasbord of museums, we chose the History of Science Museum, an fascinating collection of scientific instruments from many times and places. Among the exhibits was a blackboard Einstein used when giving a lecture at Oxford and an extraordinary drawing machine called a harmonograph which produces Spirograph-style drawings using wave forms analogous with sound waves (sine waves apparently). There was also a temporary exhibition called 'Geek is Good' which had a good deal of resonance for our party!

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