The Dreaming Spires

What an extraordinary world we live in where, if you save up some money, you can do something that past generations could only dream of: living and studying (if only for a week) at Christ Church, Oxford. Remember Hardy's Jude, never destined to fulfill his dream. Christ Church has been running Summer Schools for twenty-four years and I'm staggered to hear that one lady has attended all twenty-four events! I was in a minority being a first time participant. Some people stay for two or even three weeks doing different courses. I can see that not everyone in the world is broke yet.

So what did I expect of an Oxford Summer School? I made the mistake of thinking that it may not be too serious: a lecture, lunch, an outing, a film, all pretty relaxed I thought. Wrong.

I arrived on Sunday just before lunch at Tom Gate where everyone who studies at Christ Church likewise arrives. A constant flow of people were being disgorged from taxis and flowing in under the famous Tom Tower, designed by Christopher Wren (think St Paul's Cathedral) that houses the Christ Church bell, Big Tom. A gent in the regulation bowler hat was directing this stream of students to the registration table to collect our name badges (to be worn at all times lest we be mistaken for a common visitor). We were assigned a porter to conduct us to our quarters and lug all our stuff. My porter was a pleasant young chap named Nat (student earning a quid during the hols) who lugged my bike bag and sports bag up the sixty-seven steps to my room on the top floor of Peckwater Quad! He was gasping a bit when he got there, need to work on that aerobic fitness Nat. That goes for me too, I was gasping just carrying the lighter bags.

Peck Quad, as it is known by Ch Ch set, was opened in 1707 and must has housed many subsequently famous persons. Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) and two of his brothers lived in Peck as undergraduates.

My room was huge, probably designed to accommodate two people, and included a large desk, two small sofas, a bar fridge, assorted chests of drawers, a bed, a coffee table, a wash basin and lots of floor space in between. Speaking of the floors, these had developed a decided slope over the last 300 years and books placed carelessly on the desk had a tendency to slip quietly onto the floor.

Lunch was served shortly after arrival and I was disappointed to discover that a section of the ceiling in what we all know as the 'Hogwart's Dining Room', more properly the Hall, had collapsed. Men were busy with scaffolding in the hope of having it propped up by dinner time!

A delightful lunch on a terrace overlooking part of the grounds set the scene for what was to be a week of gourmet meals three times a day. I'm sure the regular students don't enjoy such a cordon bleu menu. The only complaints I heard all week were to do with expanding waistlines.

A free afternoon allowed everyone to settle in. I took the opportunity to unpack my bike and cycle along the Thames (known as the Isis in Oxford circles) to Iffley Lock where narrow boats were coming and going along the river, transferring from one level to the other via the lock.

After dinner in the magnificent Hall (complete with scaffolding), we met our tutor and tutor groups for the first time. The courses on offer were many and varied: Elgar's Music, Stonehenge, the Wars of the Roses, Jane Austen's novels, the Art of Toulouse Lautrec, the Music of the Beetles plus others I can't remember at the moment. The course my group was doing was 'Alice's Adventures in Oxford' and our tutor, Edward Wakeling, is a world expert on all things 'Alice'.

A brief summary for those not familiar with the background of the 'Alice' stories: Alice was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Charles Liddell, and Charles Dodgson was a professor of mathematics at the college. He wrote the the first book, which when published became 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', for Alice Liddell after he and a friend took Alice and her sisters on a boating trip on the Thames when she was about ten years old. He told them the story to entertain them on the long trip for a picnic at Godstow, up river from Oxford. On their return she asked if he would write it down for her, which he eventually did. He worked for several years on the little hand-written and illustrated book he called 'Alice's Adventures Underground' and presented it to Alice. It was to prove a generous gift when later in life Alice sold it for a considerable sum.

Our group when assembled totalled eleven in number and I would say, in terms of nationality, fairly representative of the participants in the 'Oxford Experience', as the summer school is known. There were five Americans (one of them a man), two Germans, one Canadian, one Brit and two Australians (including myself). There were some French in other courses a smattering of Dutch and a very few Asians. Eight out of the eleven in our group were teachers of literature and university professors, one was a retired nurse, one worked in charity administration and then there was me. After we'd all introduced ourselves and been given an outline of the course, our tutor took us down the road to the 'Head of the River' pub where we continued our getting-to-know-you session.

We met for our first lecture on Monday morning at 9.15 and discovered that this was not going to be a doddle. Edward calmly informed us that we would be delivering a seven minute talk on some aspect of Charles Dodgson's life the very next morning! And another one on Friday morning! So, you see, we weren't just swanning around.

Each morning we attended our class, some afternoons we were free to explore the town or work on those research projects. On Tuesday afternoon we had a tour of the 'Alice related' places around Christ Church. The stained glass in the Hall was replaced in the 1930s and one window is devoted to the 'Alice' story: a cameo of the real Alice and one of Charles Dodgson, images of Alice and friends from the book, the Dodo, the March Hare, the Hatter. 

We were privileged to be allowed to visit the Deanery in Tom Quad where Alice and her family lived. The wife of the current Dean welcomed us into her home and garden where we say the ancient chestnut tree that inspired the Cheshire Cat's tree, the door in the garden wall that featured in the book as the door Alice was trying to open with the golden key, and we saw the day nursery, overlooking the clock tower in Tom Quad, where Alice and her sisters had their lessons and played with their toys.

An excursion on Thursday afternoon, in the warm sunny weather we had enjoyed all week, took us to Godstow where the picnickers went on the 4^th July, 1862 and started the 'Alice' phenomenon. From there we moved on to Binsey to the little church of St Margaret of Antioch, an ancient 12th century, Grade 1 listed building. In the churchyard there is a holy well, the mud of which was thought to have healing powers and was the inspiration for the Treacle Well in the 'Alice' story. We gathered on one side the well to perform a little play of the Hatter's Tea Party (another of our tutor's bright ideas). One of the Americans, quite a character, had visited the 'Alice Shop' over the road from Christ Church and bought masks for us. I was to play Alice, she was the Hatter, a young Canadian lass was the March Hare and one of the German women made a perfect Dormouse. Our narrator was an American professor from the South who tries to modify her drawl when away from home!

The rest of the group were the audience and they sat on the grass on the other side of the well and watched us making fools of ourselves in our masks. I discovered that it's quite difficult to read a script through the eye holes of a cardboard mask!

Our evenings included a game of croquet on the Masters' Lawn with a glass of champagne in one hand and a mallet in the other, a puzzles night and two 'Alice related' film nights.

And thus the week passed, full of friendly people, good food and enjoyable study. The formal end to the week was on Friday night when we were treated to a champagne reception on the Cathedral Lawn and a formal four-course dinner in that wonderful Hall, watched over by portraits of Christ Church people dating back to Henry VIII. Truly, a week to remember.