Our first visit today was St.Michael's at the North Gate. This is the oldest building in Oxford. Its tower and some other parts of the church were built before William the Conqueror conquered England (1066) making it about a thousand years old!
The Nave
The lectern
John Wesley preached from this 15th century pulpit on 29th September, 1726, on the occasion of his being elected as a fellow of Lincoln College.
Abraham and Isaac
Melchizedek, High Priest and King of Salem
This 13th century depiction of St.Nicholas and the two windows below are among the oldest in the church.
St.Michael
St.Edmund of Abingdon (c. 1174–1240) (also known as Edmund Rich or St Edmund of Canterbury) was a 13th-century Archbishop of Canterbury
These keys were about 25cm long!
Our climb up the steep spiral staircase in the tower rewarded us with a 360° view of Oxford.
Our second stop was at The Oxford Oratory - Catholic Church of St.Aloysius Gonzaga
A courtyard in Keble College, our 3rd stop for the day.
The Chapel of Keble College was opened in 1876. It was designed by William Butterfield who was also the architect for St.Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne.
The lectern. Aha..so that's where the eagle at Blenheim Palace escaped from!!
The lions at the base of the lectern and of the large candlesticks were really rather cheeky!
It was when I saw the sanctuary that I suspected William Butterfield was the architect.
The sanctuary of St.Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne.
The Chapel has a number of mosaics depicting scenes from the Bible. This one shows the Nativity.
The organ is decorated in a similar way to the organ at St.Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne too.
This famous painting by Holman Hunt, "The Light of the World", hangs in a side chapel at Keble. Copies of this painting can be found in a large number of churches. I had always thought that the painting of this name which is in St.Paul's Cathedral, London, was the original. Some research told me that this was the first version painted by Hunt. The one in the Cathedral (a life-size version) was the second he painted, and there is a third version at Manchester City Art Gallery. The second version was taken on a tour of the Commonwealth in 1905-7. This interesting article about the painting describes the effect it had on the people of Melbourne.
Habakkuk is a book in the Old Testament
Our visit to the Oxford Museum of Natural History was most interesting. One of the things I loved was the building itself. There were thousands of exhibits. The photos below are of a few things that caught my eye.
The Dodo was native to Mauritius but is now extinct.
A Hedgehog
What an amazing spider!
This "microsculpture" is one of a series of images on display. There were about a metre in length. At least 8000 images are used and it takes about three weeks of processing and editing to create each finished product.
This fox is on the "help" desk.
Northern Bottle-Nosed Whale
Each of the columns was made of a different kind of stone.
The Pitt Rivers Museum is connected via a doorway to the Natural History Museum. It displays archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the world and all time periods. We only had twenty minutes to view all this and the two floors above!
Read the label describing the bottle! The guide told us the bottle has never been opened or x-rayed and they have no idea what is inside!
There were several exhibits that could be classified as rather gruesome. One was this actual voodoo doll.
I don't think Satoshi believed me when I told him (somewhat flippantly) that the museum would have shrunken heads but here's the proof!
The Eagle and Child is where Tolkien and C.S.Lewis met with a group of friends called The Inklings. We had hoped to have a quick drink in there but we found that it was very crowded and hot so we left.
Evensong for today was at Christ Church Cathedral. The boys and men of the choir were joined by about twenty children from churches in the diocese who were to be presented with awards from the Royal School of Church Music. The music included the Ayleward responses, the Stanford in C setting of the canticles and the anthem Greater Love Hath No Man by Ireland. The music was performed very well.
But wait, there's more....
We just had time to get around to Exeter College for a concert. The choir sang Mozart's Requiem and there was also his Piano Concerto in D minor. The choir and soloists were excellent, as was the pianist (Cheryl Tan) but the orchestra, particularly the strings, struggled a little. The concert was very well attended and we were lucky to get a seat! It was great to see that the concert was organised by the students of the college and that most of the audience were also students. We both enjoyed it and it only cost us £5 each!
Another huge but wonderful day!!