The Inklings of Oxford

C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Their Friends

Harry Lee Poe

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780310866350
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literature & the Arts in Christianity

Oxford's fabled streets echo with the names of such key figures in English history as Edmund Halley, John Wycliffe, and John and Charles Wesley. Of more recent times are those of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the other members of the renowned literary circle to which they belonged, the Inklings. What would it be like to walk this medieval city's narrow lanes in the company of such giants of Christian literature, to visit Magdalen College, where Lewis and Tolkien read aloud their works-in-progress to their friends, or the Eagle and Child pub, the Inklings' favorite gathering place? The lavish photography of this book will introduce you to the fascinating world of the Inklings, matching their words to the places where these friends discussed—and argued over—theology, philosophy, ancient Norse myth, and Old Icelandic, while writing stories that were to become classics of the faith. The Inklings of Oxford will deepen your knowledge of and appreciation for this unique set of personalities. The book also features a helpful map section for taking walking tours of Oxford University and its environs.

CHAPTER

ONE

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INTRODUCTION

This book is not an ordinary book. It is both a picture book and a storybook. It tells all about a place and the friends who lived there. What makes the book special, though, is that it is not only about that place and those friends; it is also about you.

Everyone needs a special place all their own, even if they do not own it. Everyone needs friends who are always there, even if they are not there with us. What makes a place special for a person does not depend upon the place, but upon the person. What makes a person special is not so much the person, but the people who think they are special: their friends.

Tourists now eat their lunches in the garden of St. Mary the Virgin Church. (Photo by Ben Dockery)

A person’s high school or college may forever be the most special place because of the friends who made that place special. At an important time in life when people were changing from children into grownups, a few people shared in the amazing transformation. While the places where we live and work do not define us or determine who and what we will become, they do form the context in which we flourish, wither, or merely subsist. The places of our lives either nourish us or drain us. Places do not make us, but they provide the physical space in which we relate to the people who play such an important role, for good or ill, in shaping who we become. The special place of this book is the university and city of Oxford. The special people are a group of friends who lived there and called themselves the Inklings.

Opposite page: Blackwell’s Bookshop, arguably the greatest book store in the world, stands on Broad Street between the White Horse and the King’s Arms where the Inklings often visited during the beer shortages of World War II.

THE CITY OF OXFORD

Oxford has been a remarkable place for a thousand years and has attracted fascinating people for each of those years. Around every corner and along every street, the echoes of its rich history abound. Walk under the Bridge of Sighs opposite the Bodleian Library, look to the left, and there stands the house, with its observation platform on top, where Edmund Halley made his astronomical observations and predicted the return of the comet named for him. Walk from Blackwell’s Bookshop toward the church of St. Mary Magdalen, and in the center of Broad Street, just opposite Balliol College, lies a collection of white cobblestones that form a cross in the street to commemorate the spot where Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Latimer, and Bishop Ridley were burned at the stake for the part they played in the reformation of the Church of England. Remnants of the old city wall still stand along the back side of Merton College, visible from Christ Church Meadow, and within the garden of New College, a reminder that King Charles I sought refuge within this fortified city during the English Civil War.

Undergraduates are still met by the porters in the porter’s lodge of their colleges when they first “go up” to Oxford. (Photo by Ben Dockery)

Above: “Freshers” dressed in “sub-fusk” (black suits, white shirt and tie, short gown, and Oxford cap) prepare to appear before the Vice Chancellor in the Sheldonian Theatre in the ceremony that makes them members of the university. (Photo by Rebecca Whitten Poe)

Opposite page: Down such a hole under a hedge in Christ Church Meadow, Alice followed a white rabbit to Wonderland one fine summer’s day.

The “constabulary” of the university dressed in dark suits and bowler hats keep order on ceremonial occasions. Because of their skill in handling rowdy undergraduates in days gone by, they earned the name “Bull Dogs.” (Photo by Rebecca Whitten Poe)

Jack and Warnie on vacation

(Used by permission of The Marion
E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.)

In this city in the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English and sent out his students, two by two, to preach the gospel. In this city Thomas Goodwin and John Owen, Puritan chaplains to Oliver Cromwell, headed Magdalen and Christ Church colleges during the Commonwealth. In this city George Whitfield, John Wesley, and Charles Wesley founded the Holy Club and began their personal pursuits of God that would blossom as the First Great Awakening.

In this city lived some of the most well-known characters of English literature. From Christ Church Meadow, Alice followed a rabbit down a hole into Wonderland. Along the banks of the Cherwell River, which flows into the Isis at Oxford, lived Ratty, Badger, Mole, and the wonderful Mr. Toad of Toad Hall. In this city, Harriet Vane finally accepted the marriage proposal of Lord Peter Wimsey, and here they married at St. Cross Church. One of Chaucer’s springtime pilgrims to Canterbury set out from Oxford. Here Inspector Morse kept the peace and Bertie Wooster’s cousins Eustice and Claude frittered away their college years.

Oxford is a city that sets its own course, regardless of how the rest of the world goes. The River Thames flows below Oxford and above Oxford, but through the city flows the River Isis. The big bell in Tom Tower of Christ Church College tolls at five minutes past the hour according to Greenwich Mean Time because reason insists that Oxford is five minutes later than Greenwich. Even though Magdalen College pronounces its name Maudlin, St. Mary Magdalen Church pronounces its name the same way it would be pronounced anywhere else in the English-speaking world, except Cambridge of course, which also adds a final “e.”

Oxford belongs to pedestrians, who stroll the narrow alley that leads from the High Street back to the secluded plaza of Oriel and Corpus Christi or the twisting passage that winds around from the Bridge of Sighs past the thirteenth-century Turf Tavern and out to Holywell Street. Pedestrians know the cobblestones that pave the college quads and the round river rocks that pave the yard around the Radcliffe Camera between St. Mary the Virgin Church and the Bodleian Library. Pedestrians notice the displays in the shop windows along the High Street and sculpted heads atop the gateposts outside the Sheldonian Theatre. Pedestrians have the time to glance up at the heads and creatures that ornament the buildings of Magdalen College or to peek in the college gates while passing to catch a glimpse of the inevitable flowers and immaculate green turf that set off the privacy of a college quad. Pedestrians still throng the Cornmarket, now restricted to foot traffic only, where shoppers have gathered since an ox first forded the river.

Above: Keble College where Jack Lewis and Paddy Moore received their training as young officers before going to the front in 1917

Following page: Parson’s Pleasure on the Cherwell River where Jack Lewis and Paddy Moore went with others to swim

The Oxford of pedestrians appears much as it has for centuries. The old bookshops, once as common as undergraduates, have almost all disappeared, replaced by souvenir shops and panini sandwich bars. The new tenants, however, inhabit the same centuries-old buildings, usually owned by one of the colleges, that the former tenants held. To see the real change that has overtaken Oxford, the pedestrian must leave the footpath and take the public transportation to pass the damage inflicted by the prosperity of the twentieth century. Before World War I, none of the damage had yet occurred, unless you believe Victorian architecture constitutes damage, and a reasonable argument could be made along those lines.

The door to Janie Moore’s flat at 58 Windmill Road

Still, after the aesthetic sacrilege that followed World War II, even Victorian architecture has gained a certain charm with the passage of time. The two most colossal relics of that era sit opposite one another on Parks Road, monuments to the complex and diverse opinions held in Oxford. Keble College, with its checkerboard neo-Gothic extravagance, was established in the second half of the nineteenth century as a home for the Oxford Movement, that high-church revival of spirituality within the Church of England that renewed the Christian faith for many in Victorian England. Across the street stands the University Museum, another neo-Gothic pile, constructed as a “cathedral to science,” inspired by the Darwinian notion that God had become an obsolete hypothesis.

Above: Janie Moore’s flat at 58 Windmill Road in Headington. Jack Lewis moved here in June 1921.

Opposite page: Janie Moore lived at 28 Warneford Road when she first moved to Oxford.

Jack Lewis read his winning English essay before the university from the rostrum in the Sheldonian Theatre.

Above: C. S. Lewis with the faculty of Magdalen College, Oxford

(Used by permission of The Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.)

Opposite page: In the graduation ceremony at Oxford University, candidates pass under this doorway of the Divinity School during the robing ceremony.

Everyone who has ever returned to Oxford after visiting her once realizes that they have their favorite spot, their favorite walk, their favorite college, and their favorite view of the dreaming spires. Some take the time to climb the Carfax Tower, the spire of St. Mary the Virgin, or the old Saxon Tower of St. Michael at the North Gate church. Others begin their return visit at the War Memorial Garden by the west gate to Christ Church Meadow in St. Aldate’s Street. The bibliophiles make directly for Blackwell’s Bookshop, arguably the greatest bookstore in the world. The more robust reclaim the town by making the circuit on foot along the Cornmarket to the High Street, walking its length, past University College, Queen’s College, and the Examination Schools, to Magdalen College, and then left along Longwall Street, skirting the remains of the old city wall incorporated into Magdalen, and turning left again at Holywell Street, past New College and the Holywell Music Hall, before opening onto Broad Street where Blackwell’s faces the Clarendon Building, the old home of the university offices, and the Sheldonian Theatre, Sir Christopher Wren’s first important commission and the location for all important university functions. Along the short stretch of Broad Street before reaching the Cornmarket again, the visitor passes Lincoln, Jesus, and Exeter colleges off a street to the left while Trinity and Balliol Colleges face Broad Street on the right. Photographs from a century ago reveal that not much has changed along these streets except the signs, the vehicles, and the clothing fashions.

Janie Moore’s house at 7...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Appendix: Inklings Walking Tours of Oxford
• Notes
• About the Publisher
• Share Your Thoughts