Christ Church Cathedral

The Cathedral was once the college chapel, but in 1546 was designated by Henry VIII as the cathedral of the new diocese of Oxford as well.

There is of course, much to see here, but for the Alice Trail there are just two important sights. In the Latin Chapel in the stained glass scenes of the St Frideswide window (designed by Edward Burne-Jones in 1858) in the panel (top far right) is the Binsey Treacle Well.

The well was a place of pilgrimage in the middle ages for people who wished to be restored to health. (The Alice Trail leads us there later.) In the meantime note that Burne-Jones got the signpost wrong — both Oxford and Binsey are in the same direction from the well.

The other sight is a sad one. In 1876 Edith Liddell became engaged to Aubrey Harcourt, the heir to Nuneham Park where the girls had played on the river hank on picnics with Dodgson. Within days of the announcement she died in great agony of peritonitis.

To the right of the altar is the Edith Liddell memorial window also designed by Burne-Jones (in 1877) and made by William Morris. The face of St Catherine, the central figure, is said to resemble Edith, and she lies, near her parents, in the family vault in a private garden behind this window.

As part of his renovations the Dean had set about the neglected interior of the cathedral in the 1860s and 1870s. The belfry tower at the east end of the hall is part of his works. Charles Dodgson had many words to say about a wooden belfry which was constructed for the Cathedral in 1872. Here are just a few of them:

The Belfry of Christ Church, Oxford

A monograph by D.C.L.

The monograph included comments on the etymological significance of the new belfry, on its origin, on the chief architectural merit and the other architectural merit, on how to obtain the best view and so on, and ends with a Shakespearean drama, including these lines:

Five fathoms square the Belfry frowns;

All its sides of timber made;

Painted all in grays and browns;

Nothing of it that will fade

Christ Church may admire the change –

Oxford thinks it sad and strange.

Beauty’s dead! Let’s ring her knell.

Hark! now I hear them — ding-dong bell.

The wooden belfry was soon surrounded by carved masonry. However it is this sort of comment which makes one understand how a mathematics don, Charles Dodgson, might easily have become persona non grata at the Deanery — it seems as likely an explanation as any suggestion of over-friendliness with the Deanery daughters…

The Great Hall

In the south-east corner of Tom Quad a wonderful staircase with a 17th century fan vaulted ceiling mounts to the Great Hall which was built to the order of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529. It must have well satisfied his wish ‘to build a hall to excel not only all the colleges of students but also all the palaces of princes.’

In the Great Hall, which is sometimes laid out for dinner when you visit, the A.A.M. told Isa he had dined ‘several times (about 8,000 limes, perhaps’. Around the walls hang portraits of the mighty and famous who were once at Christ Church. They include John Wesley, William Gladstone, William Penn, John Locke, Dean Liddell himself (the last portrait on the left-hand wall, at the bottom) and, just to the right of the door as you enter, a charming portrait of Charles Dodgson (1832-1898) painted by Herkomer from a photograph after his death.

Isa Bowman described him in the late 1880s:

“When I knew him his hair was a silver-grey, rather longer than it was the fashion to wear and his eyes were a deep blue.”

In these grand surroundings Dodgson once gave a magic lantern show to the children of the college servants at a Christmas party.

Look at the fireplace and their brass firedogs. Do they seem familiar? Compare them with the telescoped Alice with ‘an immense length of neck which seemed to rise like a stalk’.

Look too for the window above the left fireplace. On the lower windows are a number of characters from the books executed in the style of Tcnniel. In the upper lights on the left pane is Alice Liddell and Alice in Wonderland, and in the right pane is Charles Dodgson and the Dodo (the character Dodgson chose for himself).

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 739