Inklingy (and not-so-Inklingy) Oxford Scavenger Hunt

Itinerary

Visit the gardens at Wadham College

While you’re there, read Lewis’s “Meditation in a Toolshed.” In 1924, Lewis read Samuel Alexander’s Space, Time, and Deity in these gardens and was very impressed. He recorded in his diary that he was “greatly interested by [Alexander’s] truthful antithesis of enjoyment and contemplation” – a pair of ideas that would prove to be central to Lewis’s mature thinking. In Surprised by Joy (1955), he referred to this distinction as “an indispensable tool of thought.” (In “Meditation in a Toolshed” (1945), Lewis explains the distinction in terms of “looking at” and “looking along.”)

Owen Barfield was an undergraduate at Wadham and is said to have danced ballet in the garden. You are not required to dance, but you should think about it.

Lord David Cecil, a lesser-known Inkling, was a Fellow of Wadham from 1924—30.

Visit the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Find a seat and read Lewis’s “The Weight of Glory,” which was first presented as a sermon in this church on 8 June 1941.

Visit Holywell Cemetery

Find the grave of Charles Williams. Read Tolkien's poem about Williams, pages xiii-xiv of Essays Presented to Charles Williams, and Lewis's poem "To Charles Williams."

Two other Inklings are buried in this cemetery: Hugo Dyson and Austin Farrer.

Stop by these colleges with connections to the Inklings:

Many of these charge admission fees, but they are usually quite modest; do consider paying the £3 or so and exploring the grounds. It’s unlikely you’ll regret it.

Balliol College (Colin Hardie was an undergraduate here)
Exeter College (J. R. R. Tolkien, Hugo Dyson, and Nevill Coghill were undergraduates here; Coghill later became a Fellow)
New College (Lord David Cecil was a Fellow; Christopher Tolkien was a Lecturer and Tutor)
Pembroke College (Tolkien’s first teaching position at Oxford was here)
Somerville College (Dorothy Sayers was an undergraduate here)
Trinity College (the Tolkien boys were undergraduates here; Austin Farrer was chaplain)
University College (C. S. Lewis was an undergraduate here)

Stop by the following pubs and restaurants with connections to the Inklings:

At one of these establishments, read Lewis’s poem, “The Last of the Wine” (ideally, but not necessarily, out loud and at a table).

The Eagle and Child (sadly, not currently open, but a mandatory visit for any C. S. Lewis fan)
The Eastgate Hotel (the first time Joy Davidman came to Oxford, this is where she and Jack met)
The King’s Arms
The Lamb and Flag
The White Horse

Find these residences:

1 Brewer Street, where Dorothy Sayers was born
3 Manor Road, where the Tolkiens lived after WWII (1947-50)
12 Holywell Street, where Hugo Dyson lived from 1947-52
99 Holywell Street, where the Tolkiens lived from 1950-53
1 Pusey Street, where the Tolkiens lived from 1918-20 (Ron was working for the Oxford English Dictionary at this time; he joined the English faculty at Leeds University in 1920 and came back to Oxford as professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1925)
the house where Tolkien lived from 1926-30 until he and Edith decided they needed more space: 22 Northmoor Road
the house where Tolkien lived from 1930-47 (and wrote most of LOTR): 20 Northmoor Road
28 Warneford Road, where Lewis lived with the Moores from July 1921 through July 1922, and from September 1922 through April 1923. This encompasses the horrible time in February and March 1923 when Janie Moore’s brother, “the Doc” (and his wife Mary, whom Lewis described as an abysmal guest (AMR, 205)) was going mad.

Dip your toe in the water at Parson’s Pleasure. Consider bringing along a picnic lunch.

Find/visit/attend the following (some of which are literary, none of which are explicitly Inklingy, and all of which are worthwhile) :

Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral (see our itinerary for days and times)
the Botanic Gardens (note that these gardens are an important location in Philip Pullman’s intentionally anti-Narnian His Dark Materials series)
a depiction of the Nativity at the Ashmolean Museum
an Alice in Wonderland-themed gift shoppe (hint: Lewis Carroll matriculated at Christ Church College)
Folly Bridge; the tale that became Alice was first told on a boat trip that began here
an antique shop
Carfax Tower; climb to the top for a view that rivals the one from University Church
a used bookstore
Blackwell’s Bookshop
the dodo at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
the Bear Inn (est. 1242; Oxford’s oldest surviving pub – don’t miss the tie collection)
The Head of the River, a nice pub right on the Thames
the Turf Tavern (visited in fiction by Endeavour Morse of Inspector Morse and Charles Ryder of Brideshead Revisited, and in fact by U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton – there’s a rumor that this is the very place where he famously did not inhale)
the Victoria Arms, north of Oxford on the east bank of the Cherwell – a good excuse for a lovely walk (or punting trip)

Enjoy a proper afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea is available in many locations, of course; the Grand Café is a good choice for ambiance, if you can get a table, and the Randolph Hotel cannot be beaten for over-the-top extravagance, but really: it’s hard to go wrong.

Eat something you've never eaten before.

Explore Catholic Oxford via the following sites:

Oxford University has been around since 1096, and since the Act of Supremacy didn’t take place until 1534, it’s not an exaggeration to say that it was a Catholic institution for well over four centuries. (Note as well that every church building constructed prior to 1534 was, eo ipso, originally Catholic.) Even in the wake of the Reformation, Oxford remained arguably the center–excuse me: the centre–of Christianity in the English-speaking world. The sites below are of particular interest from a Catholic point of view. Follow the hyperlinks for more information.

Blackfriars Hall (on St. Giles, north of the Ashmolean and south of Pusey Street)
Martyrs memorials: to Catholics killed by Protestants (100 Holywell Street), Protestants killed by Catholics (the Martyrs’ Memorial on St. Giles, the Martyrs’ Cross on Broad Street and the nearby inscription on the wall of Balliol College), and both (inside University Church of St. Mary the Virgin)
The Oxford Oratory (25 Woodstock Road)
Pusey House (St. Giles & Pusey Street)
St. Michael at the North Gate, the oldest building in Oxford
Trinity College (also listed above as an Inklings site), founded as a Catholic college after the Reformation, and where St. John Henry Newman studied as an undergraduate
The following colleges predate the Reformation; they are listed in order of founding:
- University College, 1249
- Balliol College, 1263
- Merton College, 1264
- Exeter College, 1314
- Oriel College, 1326 (Newman was a fellow and chaplain here prior to his conversion to Catholicism)
- The Queen’s College, 1341
- New College, 1379
- Lincoln College, 1427
- All Souls College, 1438
- Magdalen College, 1458
- Brasenose College, 1509
- Corpus Christi College, 1517

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse