Oxford Reloaded

My program took a trip to Oxford this past weekend, so I decided to upgrade my previous entry with some new pictures for your visualization pleasure.

The first part of our tour was in the the all-research All Souls College, the only one of Oxford's 38 (!) constituent colleges that does not house undergraduates. Instead, researchers are invited to apply to spend time there either as teaching or non-teaching fellows. A member of the University of Iowa College of Law was one of the latter scholars currently in-residence, so he gave us a tour of the college and gave us a lecture on English legal history. Given the familiarity of the architecture, I took the opportunity to be nostalgic about my undergraduate days.

The statue at the end of the hall is of William Blackstone, the 18th-century jurist who wrote the enormously celebrated "Commentaries on the Laws of England" that was highly influential in the young United States. Indeed, the Commentaries were the first methodological treatise on the common law since the Middle Ages, and in layman's terms, no less. Because of the novelty of the Commentaries, they were effectively the first law school supplements in the English-speaking world. (Unsurprisingly, contemporary traditionalists hated it and thought it inimical to proper learning of the common law. Shocking, I know.)

We next had a tour of New College, which is ironically one of the oldest constituent colleges of Oxford. Here you can see a portion of the old city wall of Oxford. Apparently, part of the original arrangement between the city and the university is that the mayor of Oxford must be allowed entry into the college every three years to inspect the wall. The most recent inspection was in 2011, a latest occurrence of a tradition that dates back to 1379. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to inspect it ourselves. Maybe next year.

As I made my way through the same grounds that once housed men like the eminent philosophers A.J. Ayer and H.L.A. Hart, and William Archibald Spooner, inventor of the spoonerism, I could not help but feel a twinge of sadness as well as a somber respect for their memories. Also, I bring up Ayer to mention that he once saved Naomi Campbell from Mike Tyson. At age 77. True story: the details are hilarious, look them up.

The capstone of our tour was a look at the Bodleian Library, the university's main research library, which holds more books that any other library (save the British Library) featured a very impressive courtyard...

... as well as the former entrance to my favorite school of learning.

Alas, so ended the official tour of the esteemed university. However, in a town as ancient as Oxford, there are always discoveries to be made. For example, did you know the oldest pub in Oxord, The Bear, was founded in 1242? In other words, the same location has been fueling camaraderie, debate, and intellectual engagement for nearly 800 years. Not to sound too Hegelian, but when the Weltgeist stares you in the face like that, it might be time to grab a mate, order a pint, and allow yourself to align with the zeitgeist. Which I did.

Cheers.