A fine way of encountering Blessed John Henry Newman, as we prepare for his Canonisation, is to revisit the Oxford which formed both Newman the Anglican and Newman the Catholic; Newman the Tractarian controversialist and Newman the venerated Cardinal.
In 1945, Evelyn Waugh looked back to the 1920s and wrote "Oxford -- submerged now and obliterated, irrecoverable as Lyonesse, so quickly have the waters come flooding in -- Oxford, in those days, was still a city of aquatint. In her spacious and quiet streets men walked and talked and spoke as they had done in Newman's day; her autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days ... when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear over her gables and cupolas, exhaled the soft airs of centuries of youth."
But how can you revisit that city, those aquatints, those submerged streets? There are still copies available of a booklet deceptive in its slightness (50 pages) which the admirable Fr Jerome Bertram of the Oratory wrote in 1995 and greatly enlarged in 2010 to celebrate the Beatification. It is called Newman's Oxford and is in stock at the Bookshop attached to St Aloysius' Church in St Giles. With painstaking scholarship, it traces the places the Blessed lived and worked in, and retells anecdotes very worthy of the retelling ... such as the College washerwoman who so memorably impinged upon the installation of Edward Hawkins as Provost of Oriel ...
But stay: I am aware that some of you may be unable to visit Oxford before the Canonisation. Do ot worry. One of the strengths of Fr Jerome's work is that he has hunted down some thirty pictures and engravings of Oxford as she was in Newman's time.
Perusing this slender but exquisite volume, you will visit Oxford -- Newman's Oxgord -- more truly than if you fought your way through the regiments of Oriental touristswho have gridlocked the city once so "branchy between towers; Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded ..."
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was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Since 2011, he has been in full communion with the See of S Peter. The opinions expressed on this Blog are not asserted as being those of the Magisterium of the Church, but as the writer's opinions as a private individual. Nevertheless, the writer strives, hopes, and prays that the views he expresses are conformable with and supportive of the Magisterium. In this blog, the letters PF stand for Pope Francis. On this blog, 'Argumentum ad hominem' refers solely to the Lockean definition, Pressing a man with the consequences of his own concessions'.
... once graced the high altar of the church of Sancta Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill.
Fr John Hunwicke
was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Since 2011, he has been in full communion with the See of S Peter. The opinions expressed on this Blog are not asserted as being those of the Magisterium of the Church, but as the writer's opinions as a private individual. Nevertheless, the writer strives, hopes, and prays that the views he expresses are conformable with and supportive of the Magisterium. In this blog, the letters PF stand for Pope Francis. On this blog, 'Argumentum ad hominem' refers solely to the Lockean definition, Pressing a man with the consequences of his own concessions'.
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... once graced the high altar of the church of Sancta Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill.
3 comments:
How one does remember the greening spires... in those days, to make a photocopy at the Bod. one had first to extract a stamp from a machine at the bottom of the stairs and paste it onto a request slip indicating what pages to photocopy and turn that in with the book (Lobel and Page Oxyr. Pap., say) at a desk where a cheerful young lady would tell one to come back next day at eleven for the copies.
They also had a bot. of blue-black pen ink on a small shelf nailed to the side of a book stack. Do they still?
After a youth of reading tons of English mystery novels set in Oxford, my most visual experience of it was playing a computer game set there. (Gray Matter, one of Jane Jensen's. One of the few games where I actually was interested in making my characters move around a scene and look in different directions.)
I have been watching the 2013 Walking Through History on Amazon Prime, and that is also interesting as being more understandable about the UK as a real place, at ground level, with more weird geography and less stereotypes. I am used to the US and Canada having weird landscapes, but you all have some really strange-looking fields and nature. Pretty, yes, but the land is just so strange. All those high stony ridges that are covered in grass -- green grass, not dry yellow summer grass, or tangled woods.
Of course, most walking trails and bike paths in my area are made on defunct railroad tracks that have been paved, so of course they tend to run through woods, wetlands, fields, more woods, prairie remnants, and along small rivers. And of course, through our gigantic scenic dam system, which is a century old, effective, and passive, and of which we are proud (because not dying in river floods is good, when you have so much flood plain).
Anyway, I guess my point was that it is easy to think one knows a place by proxy, from movies and television, until one sees a fuller depiction, such as by following Google Street View or watching a documentary. Then there is a realization of how much of one's mental picture was totally made up, or was combined with things from more familiar places. There are so many important things that never get mentioned.
Anyway, I think what I like about the Walking Through History show, and other travel shows about walking paths, is that I like to see how things fit together. If you fly out to California or somewhere far away, everything is weird and does not feel real. If you drive or ride hundreds of surface miles to somewhere, you can see the land change as you go, and you feel better about it.
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