Oxford Saturday

My week at school was pretty much of a bust because of the snow. Even my placement didn’t happen because the horsehair shipment got delayed by the weather. But on Saturday we went to Oxford, and the weather was good enough to take pictures and have a lovely afternoon. So I’ll write about that.

Our first stop, after dropping off my fiddle at a violin shop to have some work done, was at the covered market, a sea of exotic fruits and vegetables and animals from the sea and woods (almost) ready for cooking. To a Vermonter, it’s a riot of delectables. I guess that’s a new word, but it’s accurate. It’s an incredibly picturesque town, but real and alive, and bustling. We ate lunch at the Turf Tavern, an ancient pub with the usual low ceilings and beams, accessible only by following your nose through a series of tiny alleys, and no signs anywhere. Even without any signs, it was crammed.

Much of Oxford is 500 years old, including the Bodleian Library, started 500 years ago by Sir Thomas Bodley, who built it for “the republic of scholars.” I believe it is the first library in Britain. The oldest part of it is the lecture hall, pictured here, and it has the most extraordinary ceiling, and I believe it, too, is a first: the first vaulted ceiling without internal supports, thanks to a complex system of carved pieces, whose angles deliver the pressure so evenly and perfectly to the walls that it supports a floor above. Above it are the stacks, two rooms 400 and 500 years old, of unspeakable beauty and aura. No picture taking is allowed, so I’ll have to describe them. The volumes are ancient leather books, many in Greek and Latin. The ceilings are all vaulted woodwork, with carvings and brightly painted panels, very large and Elizabethan. However, the library is very much in use. Students were coming and going. As a U.K. student, I could get permission to use the library, but I would have to have a very particular reason, and get a letter from my faculty explaining why I needed access. It was tempting to change my major to be allowed to use the library!

They have a Gutenburg Bible, and a volume of Shakespeare’s works, the first publication of his plays in one volume, if I remember correctly. The guide said that when the library acquired it, the volume was already a hundred years after Shakespeare wrote, and was much used and dog-eared. There are even elbow marks. They were able to deduce, from the wear on the pages, which were the most read plays, and the most read scenes from each play. The top five plays were, fifth: Macbeth. Fourth: Henry IV, part one. Third: The Tempest. Second: Julius Caesar. At the top, the most read play: Romeo and Juliet. And the most read scene? The balcony scene!

When we came out of the Bodleian , we heard a most wonderful sound of singing and an orchestra. It was coming from the Sheldonian Theatre, pictured here, and we discovered that that very evening was to be a concert, including the Mozart Requiem, one of my all-time favourite pieces. So we had dinner at another pub and joined the line at seven o’clock. There were about 200 singers, full orchestra, and four soloists, and the chorus had come together just that day for the only rehearsal. The hall is round, with padded bench seating going up in many tiers, with gilt ornamental work everywhere. The concert was excellent and the Mozart more than fulfilled what one needed it to be. The Lachrymosa movement, predictably, made me cry. What a bit of luck, to stumble onto a concert like that! We can’t wait for our next trip, and Oxford is only 20 miles away from Lane End.