Visit to a "New" College

10:00am - This morning's Tolkien seminar was held at New College, formally titled the "New" College of St. Mary and dating back to1379. Oriel College is also technically called the College of St. Mary, so the founders of the later, second college added the "New" designator and the name stuck.  (For the record Oriel takes its common name from a popular oriel window in one of its original buildings.)

New College offers a very good example of the old defensive walls which surround many of the colleges.  In the medieval period and even later, the citizens of Oxford had terrible relations with the various colleges in the city.  Many factors were at play, but then as today, the disparity between the commoner townsfolk and the aristocratic students was one contributing factor.  Due to the very real potential for riots and other violent acts, the richer colleges erected strong walls to shut out the townspeople.  These walls create quite enclosed spaces for the students but also play havoc with traffic flow.  Vehicle and foot traffic must often go several blocks out of the way to manuver around the various colleges.  My German cinema tutor Dr. Kiss is a resident of New College and her rooms are located just outside the south wall along the winding New College Lane. 

New College Chapel (from Wikipedia.com - image in public domain)

New College Chapel - interior

12:30pm - We scattered to the four winds: lunch followed by an afternoon in various libraries.  Most everyone has met with their tutors this week and been assigned a lengthy first essay. Dr. Snyder dismissed us with words of encouragement:

"Be Concise. To the point. 

Say something original. 

And say it beautifully." 

12:45pm - Attended another lunch at Trinity College as a guest.  Meals are billed to student accounts, so Maddy paid for my lunch with the understanding that we would return the favor with an invitation to dine at Christ Church. Trinity College's dining hall is about half the size of that at Christ Church. The decor is more spartan as well with wood paneling painted up to look like marble.  The usual obligatory obligatory portraits of college founders. The food, however, was not lacking.  Chicken Tikka Marsala,Turkey Escallop with Ratatouille, cakes, fruits, and a few other items. My meal cost about £4 altogether.


Afterwards, I elected to drop by Christ Church to pick up my electronic key fob from the porter's office, look up some of my reading list at the library, and attempt to make some headway in that department.  Maddy is taking a tutorial on dystopian literature and was looking for a quiet place to read, so after a quick stop at Blackwell's Bookshop for a copy of Ayn Rand's "Anthem", we walked to over to the Christ Church together. I offered her the quick tour of the facilities and we managed to visit the cathedral gift shop, the first time it's been open since I've arrived.  Lots of generic Oxford, Harry Potter, and Olympics items but only a coffee mug or two for Christ Church itself. The shop does sell some sort of college-branded beer, but I just can't bring myself to purchase beer from a cathedral gift shop.  Afterwards, we walked to the JCR and read for a few hours.