Tuesday thru Friday evening we went on a field trip with Professor Cooke to search out bits of Morris and Co in and around Oxford. We had to get up ungodly early on the first day and meet our bus outside of Hughes Parry Hall. We were then driven to Kelmscott Manor, the once home of William Morris which has now been made into a sort of museum/memorial to him. There were no tours, and when Prof. Cooke started to improvise one, the mean guide people made him stop. The house itself and the country around it was quite beautiful, though the decoration inside got to be a bit much. My favorite thing was this really amazing writing desk. I got a few things at the shop there, including a set of colored pencils. :)
Next we went to St. John's Church which is a church that was originally built in the 11th century. Currently, the only thing that happens in it is a Christmas Eve service, and it looks to be somewhat neglected.
The next place we went was Buscot Park which was the ideal of a well to do country house vis a vis Jane Austen. Totally could have been Netherfield. The amazing thing was that even though the house itself wasn't all the enourmous, the grounds were extensive. There were wilder areas and more groomed areas, including a beautiful flower garden. There was a door nazi though who would only let so many people into the house at once which was totally bogus. We came there to see this series of Sleeping Beauty paintings that Burne-Jones painted and that got made into almost a mural in one of the rooms there. It was so pretty. Afterwards, everyone got ice cream and I got a ginger beer. In the bus on the way to Oxford, Mercedes got stung by a bee that decided it wanted to hitch a ride.
We finally got to Oxford and all of us were so exhausted, that we didn't really do much between arriving and our dinner in Queen's College. Dinner was a sit-down and be served while wearing smart dress kind of affair. After dinner, we went to a pub that Prof. Cooke took us to. While winding in back alleys to get there, we passed by a plaque that said it was the birthplace of Jane Burden (later to become William Morris' wife). Her birthday is the same as mine!
Our day in Oxford will be my next post. I have lots of pictures up on facebook from this day.
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