If you've read (or even watched!) The Chronicles of Narnia, then you've surely heard of C.S Lewis. And if you know me, you've probably heard me rant on his book The Four Loves. His other books include The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Problem of Pain. All wonderful and thought-provoking works.
He spent a good portion of his life in Oxford, England where he went to university, became a professor, turned to Christianity, got married, and later passed away and buried.
The city is not very big at all with a population of 150,200. My cousin and I were there for the whole day and pretty much walked through the whole city.
We started out at one end of the city and slowly worked our way down to the other side. On the way, we found two of C.S Lewis's pubs that he would visit with the Inklings.
History 101: The Inklings were an informal literary group in Oxford, England between the early 1930's until late 1949. They would read parts of their writings to get feedback from each other. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was one of the novels read at these meetings. For serious LOTR fans, the LOTR history novel, Sauron Defeated, is based on the Inklings. Famous members included C.S Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, J.A.W Bennett, and Hugo Dyson.
The White Horse and The King's Arms were two pubs that the Inklings would sometimes meet during WWII.
We also passed a place called Turf Tavern, which is in Bath Place.
As the sign says, it's been around since the 17th century. Apparently it's one of the few places that still sells mead. Mead is a British beer created by fermenting honey and water. Unfortunately, I did not get to try one.
We then walked past the house where C.S Lewis spent his very first night in Oxford.
From Lewis's Surprised by Joy
“My first taste of Oxford was comical enough. I had made no arrangements about quarters and, having no more luggage than I could carry in my hand, I sallied out of the railway station on foot to find either a lodging-house or a cheap hotel; all agog for “dreaming spires” and “last enchantments.” My first disappointment at what I saw could be dealt with. Towns always show their worst face to the railway. But as I walked on and on I became more bewildered. Could this succession of mean shops really be Oxford? But I still went on, always expecting the next turn to reveal the beauties, and reflecting that it was a much larger town than I had been led to suppose.
Only when it became obvious that there was very little town left ahead of me, that I was in fact getting to open country, did I turn round and look. There behind me, far away, never more beautiful since, was the fabled cluster of spires and towers. I had come out of the station on the wrong side and been all this time walking into what was even then the mean and sprawling suburb of Botley. I did not see to what extent this little adventure was an allegory of my whole life. I merely walked back to the station, somewhat footsore, took a hansom, and asked to be driven to “some place where I can get rooms for a week, please.”
The method, which I should now think hazardous, was a complete success, and I was soon at tea in comfortable surroundings. The house is still there, the first on the right as you turn into Mansfield Road out of Holywell. I shared the sitting room with another candidate, a man from Cardiff College, which he pronounced to be architecturally superior to anything in Oxford. His learning terrified me, but he was an agreeable man. I have never seen him since.”Hey, cool...Cardiff!
Anyways, we walked farther down where we found Magdalen College.
History 101: Magdalen College (pronounced 'Maudlin') was founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England.This was where C.S Lewis studied here in 1917 before he enlisted in the army for WWI. In 1924, he taught philosophy and in the following year became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford where he served as tutor in English Language and Literature for 29 years.
It's a really lovely place. There are only 400 undergrads at a time at the school, so it's an incredible amount of land for the school.
There's a beautiful quad in the middle of the school.
They have a full grove called Deer Park. It's called Deer Park because, well...because there are deer in the park.
” My big sitting room looks north and from it I can see nothing, not even a gable or a spire, to remind me that I am in town. I look down on a stretch of ground which passes into a grove of immemorial forest trees, at present coloured autumn red. Over it stray deer. They are erratic in their habits. Some mornings when I look out there will be half a dozen chewing the cud just underneath me, and on others there will be none in sight — or a little stag (not much bigger than a calf and looking too slender for the weight of his antlers) standing and sending through the fog that queer little bark which is these beasts’ “moo.” It is a sound that will be as familiar to me as the cough of the cows in the field at home for I hear it day and night."There's also a beautiful path called Addison's Walk that runs beside the Cherwell River.
This is where C.S Lewis started to question Atheism and think more about Christianity
Behind the main building is The New Building, which was built in 1733.” September 1931 He [Hugo Dyson] stayed the night with me in College… Tolkien came too, and did not leave till 3 in the morning… We began (in Addison’s Walk just after dinner) on metaphor and myth – interrupted by a rush of wind which came so suddenly on the still warm evening and sent so many leaves pattering down that we thought it was raining….
We continued on Christianity: a good long satisfying talk in which I learned a lot….
October 1931 Now what Dyson and Tolkien showed me was this: that if I met the idea of sacrifice in a Pagan story I didn’t mind it at all: and again, that if I met the idea of god sacrificing himself to himself…. I liked it very much… provided I met it anywhere except in the Gospels… Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with tremendous difference that it really happened…. Does this amount to a belief in Christianity? At any rate I am now certain (a) that this Christian story is to be approached, in a sense, as I approach the other myths; (b) that it is the most important and full of meaning. I am also nearly sure that it happened…."
“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”
The main building has a chapel that Lewis frequented after he became a Christian.
Afterwards, we made a quick trip through the oldest botanical gardens in Great Britain, built in 1621
And then headed past the Examination Schools where Tolkien and Lewis presented lectures to Oxford students.
We then walked past St. Mary Magdalen’s Church where C.S. Lewis would go for confession. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in, but it must have been lovely.
We finished our trip by visiting the most famous pub of the Inklings.
The Eagle and Child
I can't believe I was there! I've heard of it so many times! It's where Lewis, Tolkien and the other Inklings would meet to discuss their books.
It's a really nice, old-fashioned pub.
I really liked the back door that said "Narnia"
Even if you're not a C.S Lewis fan or Tolkien fan, If you ever get a chance to go to Oxford, go! It's a beautiful city that carries so much charm. It's about as close to travelling back in time as you can get without being a Time Lord.
