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| This is the morning sunlight hitting Christ Church Cathedral. I took this picture from my dorm room. A rooster was crowing in the background. |
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| This is the door to my dorm. |
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| The facade of my dorm. This is also the places where classes are held. In some cases, class is held within the apartment of your professor. Our professor lives off campus, so we have class in a room set aside specifically for teaching. |
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| Fountain with a statue of Mercury in the center of Tom Quad. Beneath the lily pads are koi fish given as a gift from the Empress of Japan. |
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| The grass is quite well-manicured here. |
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| Tom Tower with the bell Great Tom inside |
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| Through that open doorway is the entrance to our Dining Hall |
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| The Master's Garden. This is a private garden for Christ Church students during the school year. |
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| This tree was the inspiration for the tree in Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky." I have included the poem at the end of this blog entry. |
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| The tree is over 400 years old. |
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| Alice Liddel's parents (Alice's father was the dean of Christ Church and Alice was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's stories) are buried in the grave on the front right with the cross. |
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| Charles I was a very short man, and he had this little door put in so that he could take a shortcut to visit his wife where she was staying at Merton College. |
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| Christ Church Library is behind this wall. Lewis Carroll had an office through the window on the upper left, and he could see Alice and her siblings playing below. Their cat would often climb the chestnut tree on the right hand side and would have to be rescued. As the custodians came up to get the cat, the cat would climb higher and higher. Carroll felt as if the cat were smiling, and the cat ultimately became the "Cheshire Cat" of the Alice in Wonderland story. |
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| The "custodians." I like the contrast of the bowler hats with the walkie talkies. |
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| Our tour guide, James Beattie |
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| Can you find the toilet in this piece of stained glass? Sir Thomas Crapper had recently invented it, and they decided it was a new technology worth including in this memorial to the local patron saint. |
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| Looking down the aisle at Christ Church Cathedral |
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| They found that dozens of women and children were buried in this courtyard after a plague outbreak. Today an olive tree and lavendar grow. |
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| Formal place settings at "High Table" in the dining hall |
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| Looking back down the hall from High Table |
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| The ceiling of the Tudor Dining Hall; commissioned by Henry VIII |
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| In the dining hall. It was too high up to get a clear shot, but worth seeing! |
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| The Buttery is right outside the Dining Hall and is the campus bar with limited hours. |
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
from Through the Looking Glass
Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought–
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came wiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
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