The Oxford Times | Limited Edition

Matthew Arnold's life among 'the dreaming spires'

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:56:52 +0000

Isuppose Matthew Arnold, coiner of the phrase “City of Dreaming Spires”, embodies for many of us — who vaguely remember reading bits of him at school — the very essence of Oxford. But some might say that the spirit he affirms is more that of a relatively new Oxford — Victorian, mainly masculine, self confident, empire building — than that conjured up by his other much-quoted description of the place: “Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties.”

Recalling the cult of Bishop Blaze

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:12:10 +0000

February 3 is the feast of Bishop Blaze, the patron saint of woolcombers — and for centuries any woman found using her distaff on that day did so under the threat of having it confiscated and burned.

We're knee-deep in history

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:25:38 +0000

Can any county be as full of the shades of dead writers as Oxfordshire?

High-tech key to secrets of the past

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:09:18 +0000

Anyone with a computer can fly about in time these days like a butterfly in air. For instance, I clicked Listed Buildings in the vicinity of my home the other day — and came across a Royal Palace that had flourished from the time of King John (1167-1216) until as late as 1614, in which Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn, and Edward IV (1442-1483) probably first came across his future bride, Elizabeth Woodville, of which I had never before heard.

Marlborough's brave calm in the face of calamity

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:58:28 +0000

New year 1712 was not a happy one for the great Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), the commander of the allied forces against the French during the War of the Spanish Succession, and heroic victor of such momentous battles as Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. He started the year in real trouble.

Keeping alive ancient customs

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:18:01 +0000

Boars’ heads have been much on my mind, and not only because of that famous one served up at The Queen’s College, Oxford, during December.

Musical thoughts on a winter drive

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:14:38 +0000

Talk about bleak midwinter. Apart from the words of Christina Rosetti’s carol ringing in my head — as they must be for many people this week — I found myself in the middle of the real thing.

The career of Oxford-based Poet Laureate Thomas Warton

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:01:52 +0000

As Poet Laureate to George III, Dr Thomas Warton (1728-1729) had an unusual problem. He earned his bread — and wine too, as it happens — by writing odes to order in praise of his sovereign; then, all of a sudden, his sovereign went stark, staring mad. Luckily for him he was saved from embarrassment when the usual New Year’s Day court ceremonies were cancelled in 1789 — so no ode was needed; and six months later the king appeared to be completely recovered — so Dr Warton wrote a poem for his birthday on June 4 comparing his illness to a brief summer storm and rejoicing at how “the reddening Sun regains his golden sway”. Dr Warton — sometimes called Thomas Warton the younger to distinguish him from his father who, like him, was a Professor of Poetry at Oxford — became Poet Laureate in 1785 in succession to William Whitehead (1715-1785) — who had spent much of his life as a guest of Lord Jersey at Middleton Stoney and whose main claim to fame was his send-up of the job called A Pathetic Apology for all Laureatates, past, present, and to come.

Cowley Road Hospital began as a workhouse

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:30:19 +0000

For much of the past thousand years or so Oxford’s public health and welfare policy has consisted largely of the better off — particularly members of the University — making themselves scarce in times of pestilence and, whenever possible, shifting the poor and infirm into someone else’s parish.

Home of Banbury's scrummy cakes

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:50:00 +0000

They say nostalgia is not what it used to be, but a heavy whiff of the genuine article wafted through my house the other day when I brought back a few local history books.