Recalling Puritans

As a result of burning the candle at both ends for far too long, I have managed to contract strep throat. Knocked me flat. I finally dragged myself to the college nurse, who, in addition to recommending a few over-the-counter medications, strongly encouraged ice cream. She then put me on "telly only" bed rest for the next two days. I thought I would take the opportunity to catch up on the BBC's rendition of Wolf Hall and update this blog.

Thanksgiving

Several of us gathered at another American's flat and had a potluck.

That's one end of the table. I was seated roughly in the middle, but unfortunately the photo of the other end turned out even more blurry.

Watching the Brits' -- and other nationalities' -- reactions to the various foods was entertaining. Green bean casserole, the standard kind with cream of mushroom soup and French onions on top, was a massive hit. The loved green bean casserole. Everyone wanted to write down the recipe and scrape out the dregs in the baking dish. The concept of eating fruit salad with the meal rather than after the meal, on the other hand, completely weirded them out. They couldn't do it. Not a single one. And when I told them my family usually makes marshmallow fruit salad instead of plain fruit salad, they just about lost their stuffing. Finally, when the guy hosting the event stopped everyone's conversations and said that it was time to go around the table and say what each of us was thankful for, the Brits got deer-in-the-headlights looks and one of them exclaimed, "Wait, you actually do that?" Well, yeah. It's Thanks-giving. That's the point: to give thanks for what you have. Even if your family doesn't ritualize it, what you are thankful for ought to be foremost in your mind that day. Sure, it's about food, family, and football, but taking a moment to be thankful is the most important part. And being able to pursue a D.Phil in a subject I love here at Oxford with a loving, encouraging family back home, I have a lot for which to be thankful.

Old Library Open Day

The head librarian at SJC opened up the Old Library and put together a 'winter display' of rare books and materials there to kick off December.


 

This is the Old Library. It was built in 1596-8 and was the first in Oxford to be designed with pew-like seats and desks between the cases. Most of the books were chained to the shelves until the second half of the 18th century to prevent thievery, as books were valuable goods.


Here are a few of the 'winter' books that were on display. They included everything from a medieval Book of Hours to an 18th century book on arctic exploration with engraved pictures of the captain and crew's findings.

Here is a Christmas ghost story written by Robert Louis Stevenson.

This vintage Christmas card from Alec and Merula Guinness 

was sent to the then-president of the college.

I encourage you to read the description for this early 17th century manuscript. Ellie and I tried to convince the MCR (Middle Common Room -- the SJC graduate student body, in charge of, amongst other, more serious things, grad student parties) to bring back the tradition of the Christmas Prince/Princess. That would have been a proper #tbt (Throwback Thursday). Maybe next year!

Since I'm talking about our library, I thought I'd throw in a few other photos of it. This is the Oriel window at the top of the stairs. Directly behind me is the Old Library, and to the left of me is the Laudian Library, where I do a fair amount of studying when I don't want to walk to the Bodleian. 

 The chest belonged to Thomas White, our college's founder. That is one of the most fascinating locking mechanisms I've seen. The object to the left of it is a cannonball. Oxford has always been a Royalist institution. When Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy in the mid-17th century, he laid siege to Oxford, and that cannonball was one of the ones fired through the front door of SJC. The roughly life-size statue of Charles I gracing the front of the outside of the library probably didn't go over well, either.

This is the Laudian Library, where the humanities books are kept. They are doing construction on the far end to make the library wheelchair accessible. As it currently stands, the entrance to the library is up a couple steps and through a door so narrow I have to angle sideways a bit to fit my shoulders through. You've seen my photo on this blog; I'm not a very big person.

The Laudian Library was built in 1631-5, but the bookcases were installed in 1838.

Standing next to the cannonball:

Standing where the guy in the blue shirt was, looking back:

One of the desks, overlooking Canterbury Quad. It's actually quite light in there; the camera makes it look dark but it's really bright and cheery.

The sciences and maths library is on the floor below the Old Library, but as it was built in the 1970s it isn't much to look at. There's a law library somewhere nearby as well.