The Orchard House, Oxford

I’ll finish my Oxford postings by showing you where we stayed. The Orchard House.
It is a very fine Bed & Breakfast establishment. Everything was done to a very high standard and very artistic. Nothing was spared in making this a very comfortable and appealing place to stay. A nice large en-suite room with every convenience: One could have breakfast in the beautifully furnished and artistic studio. We chose the option of having it brought to our room, with no extra room service cost. Several choices of very fine hot food – all locally grown and organic and home made bread and preserves, plus freshly prepared juices and fruits and home made muesli.

We were supplied with a fan (not a usual option in our climate), umbrellas, bath robes, ear plugs, alarm clock, bottled water, clothes brush, and a library of books and D.V.D.’s., Lloyd Loom table and chairs, a nice settee and a superb modern shower room. If one wanted tea then home made cakes were supplied. In other words 5 star treatment.

The Orchard House was originally an artists house in the early part of the last century, hence the studio. The owner was an artist himself hence the artistic flavour of the place. They also had two of the most adorable pedigree cats that I have ever seen. We would not hesitate to go back.

The Quod Restaurant, Oxford

This is where we ate on one of our days in Oxford. The reason I am posting on this is because I think the art work on the walls is quite unusual. It is an Italian restaurant and the food was good but I couldn’t take my eyes off the walls.

The first one is clever. Viewed as one sitting in an airline seat.

Let's meet for coffee

On the beach




Are we friends

This was a BIG flower display

The University of Oxford's Botanic Gardens

The University of Oxford’s Botanical Gardens was another place of interest that we visited during our recent trip. We found it very peaceful and tranquil.

Set within a garden of beautiful borders and stunning plant collections are seven glasshouses where plants from dry deserts to tropical rainforests can be seen. Alongside a 100 year old cacti and extravagant water lilies grow the plants that give us chocolate, sugar, coconuts, bananas, oranges, medicines and much more. Some of the plants even bite!

The Palm House is packed with tropical fruits and spices. The giant Victoria water lily has leaves big and strong enough to hold a baby. Hope you enjoy the photos.

The Bodleian Library, Oxford.

We were fortunate enough to be able to do an organised tour of the library and School of Divinity. Normally I hate organised tours and prefer to just look myself, but this is not possible in such a place. We were also unable to take photographs inside the library but could take photographs inside the Divinity School and the outside Quadrangle. I have scanned a few inside shots of the library from my book though.

The Bodleian complex houses the library and the School of Divinity. The library was built as a Divinity School in the 15th century. Prior to that the first library was housed in the room above the Old Congregation House and begun in 1320. Divinity was considered the most important science at the time. In fact nobody could have a degree in any subject without passing in Divinity.

We visited Duke Humfrey’s Library. Originally a library of manuscripts only, it had a collection of scholastic and legal texts and a remarkable presentation of the Humanism of the Italian Renaissance. It was restored and brought back to magnificence by Thomas Bodley. Many of the books in this library are chained up as they are so valuable. The library is still used by scholars today, but obviously only with a special pass. I wish I could have taken photographs as it is impossible to explain what it was like. We were not able to get near the books but just looking and sensing the atmosphere was quite something, to me anyhow.

There are 8 million books in the Bodleian Library at present, and this includes the New Bodleian Library which in comparison is a nasty modern building. The oldest manuscript kept here is dated 527 BC. The first printed book is The Life of John the Baptist printed in 1599.

Oxford University examinations first took place in this School of Divinity. It is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The ceiling contains 455 bosses in which religious symbolism appears alongside monograms and shields commemorating benefactors and other persons associated with the building.



The Tower of the Five Orders. This is an impressive tower which today holds the archives of the University. It displays the five classical orders of architecture (starting at the bottom with the most ancient): Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite.

The Statue is of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University and Bodleian benefactor.

Around the quadrangle the doors still have painted over them names of the schools to which they formerly led. They represent the curriculum of the early 17th century. The seven Liberal Arts.
(The Trivium: Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric; and the Quadrivium; Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, Music), the Philosophies, and Languages. Scholars had to study and pass in all of these subjects. No wonder there were some such brilliant minds in those times.

The Great Door (Scanned image)

The Quadrangle

The Proscholium entrance


The Divinity School

Ceiling Bosses

Close-up of a Boss (scanned image)

Duke Humphrey's Library on the upper floor (scanned image)

Chained books (scanned image)

Duke Humphrey's Library (scanned image)

Bronze statue of William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke

Barbara thinking of Logistics

Alan the Philosopher

Visitors shop

All scanned images taken from the Bodleian Library Guide Book

Magdalen College, Oxford

At last I have got around to beginning to finish my Oxford posts. There are another 5 after this one on Magdalen College

The College of St. Mary Magdalen is one of my favourites. The combination of architecture, gardens and history, added to the fact that it borders the River Cherwell, all make it rather attractive to me.

The college was founded in 1458. The Porter’s lodge brings one into St. John’s Quadrangle, named after the hospital of St. John the Baptist, which occupied this site from 1180. The hospital was absorbed into the college and much of it remains, including the Old Kitchen and in the walls along the High Street.

Passing the Chaplain’s Quadrangle, The Great Tower and The Chapel, one comes to the Cloisters and Hall. The Cloisters are very picturesque and I can just see in my mind, scenes from the film, Chariots of Fire. Walking through the bar one comes out onto the riverside and some beautiful gardens.

Magdalen has seven Fellows who have been awarded Nobel Prizes in Medicine, Chemistry, Physics and Literature but the main interest for me is the fact that this was the college of C.S. Lewis. This is just a taste, for as you can imagine there is far too much history and information to go in a blog.

Trinity College, Oxford

Here are some of the pictures I took of Trinity College.

I love the gardens and architecture of all these colleges.

These 3 are of the entrance area

Trinity Chapel with the beautiful ceilings

Many more Oxford posts yet to come