Off to England!: The Kilns

This post is under construction until I can address the details. *12 hour time lapse*

This post is now deemed complete and includes a video at the very end of it for your viewing pleasure. It's a YouTube creation and I can't be sure that I've successfully placed it until I publish the post. I'll keep the fingers crossed.

I confess, that while keeping the blog is time-consuming, the time I spend here is therapeutic for me. I feel connected with you at home and I am simultaneously keeping my pledge to carefully journal this trip...thanks again for coming along and esp. for sharing your comments. If you have specific things you'd like me to cover, by all means, ask. I am more than happy to play historical buff wanna-be or adventurous tourist on your behalf.

Catherine and I are boarding the coach after breakie and setting out across to Cambridge (reportedly two and 1/2 hours away). I thought it appropriate to post our farewell photo to the Oxford dining hall -- a place we've called home for this week. What a week this has been!
We also enjoyed a lovely farewell service in the incredible cathedral of St.Mary's as well...but more about these things later. Catherine hogged the computer all night last night and alas - I am behind! I confess however, that being in bed with a good book wasn't a bad trade-off for a change. Looking forward to walking you through our next medieval city...stay tuned!

I went to the Kilns yesterday.

Sans Catherine who didn't want to sacrifice her concluding session in the Persistence of Vision Session. Whereas my concluding session with Dr.Mark Reynolds in the Christian Apologetics in the Spirit of C.S. Lewis was a wash-out by that point for me. The first class was spell-binding. The second class I simply had a horrible time staying awake, much less focused!

This old bird needs her sleep after all :)

Not only that, I had the chance to hear Reynolds' idol, Richard Swinburne, at the morning plenary session and I kid you not -- if 25% of the people understood a word he said, it would be a generous count. Here's a daunting curriculum vitae if I ever saw one....

Richard Swinburne, perhaps the most significant proponent of argumentative theism today, studied philosophy and theology at Oxford University. After teaching at the University of Hull (1963-72) and the University of Keele (1972-84), he recently assumed the position of Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford University. He was selected to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures in 1982-83 and 1983-84. Among his many books are Space and Time, The Concept of Miracle, The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, Personal Identity, and The Evolution of the Soul.

I'm quite serious about not being able to follow him -- I tried with everything I've got and I kept it up for the entire torturous 40 minute spiel. When the floor was opened for questions, a stream of young philosophy students came to the mike asking equally unintelligible questions. It was then that I threw up the arms of despair, in my mind. I shall bring the CD recording home and you can decide for yourself if it is circumstantial evidence of the impossible to dissect.

It was a 15 minute bus ride from Keble College. I must say, all this bus business is a novelty for one born and raised in the Canadian "country" ....aka uncharted territory for public transit.

The Kilns is the home of Lewis and his brother Warren and also Mrs. Moore and her daughter Maureen. They represent the widowed mom and sister of Paddy Moore - dear friend to Lewis who was killed in action during WWI. Lewis was honouring a pact made with Paddy to care for each others' families in the event of death.

Speaking of the Inklings, perhaps an explanation is in order. Catherine and I started our free Friday afternoon with good 'ol English Pub style Fish and Chips (oh yeah, and a pint too!) in the old haunt of the Inklings....

Here's what I dug up on that:

The Eagle and Child Inn (1650) is one of the most famous meeting places in literary history. Its peculiar name comes from the family of the Earls of Derby who who originally owned it and on whose crest was an eagle and child. The pub sign shows its origins in mythology, with Zeus as an eagle abducting the infant Ganymded. The pub is familiarly known as "the Bird and Baby".

It was here on Tuesday liquid :) lunchtimes that the Inklings met from 1939 to 1962.

The Inklings were comprised of Lewis, his brother Warnie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Hugo Dyson, Owen Barfield and I think one other whose name eludes me. No girls allowed, she sniffs.

The Brits can be a brute sort eh?

Don't forget, girls weren't even allowed to apply at Keble College till the 1970's???

....Don't even go there

Joanne.

Here's the original pub sign which the C.S. Lewis Foundation gratefully rec'd from the proprietor's garage at the time they committed to cleaning up the Kilns and making it a heritage site.

It rests on the wall in the reconstructed library room and its a painting on tin.

His brother Warren did a lot a typing for him -- an understatement
to say the least. After retiring in 1932 to live with his brother in Oxford,
he was one of the founding members of the Inklings, an informal Oxford
literary society. He wrote on French history, and served as his brother's
secretary for the later years of C. S. Lewis's life.

The gardens are well-tended, much as they were during his lifetime.

This intellectual giant had a great fondness for wildlife & the outdoors

When Lewis (the confirmed Bachelor)got married to Joy Davidman, an American divorcee with two boys -- he insisted on reconstructing his favourite childhood spaces...deserted dusty attics one could call his own - private space to draw, read and create!

Lewis wrote many of his books, including the Narnia stories and some works of theology, in his study at the house.
It was here he married the American Joy Davidman in a late flowering romance - commemorated in the play and film Shadowlands. Lewis died in one of the downstairs rooms in 1963.
When Lewis lived in the house it had eight acres of garden. Now it is tucked away amid an estate of executive homes, built on plots sold off by Warnie after his brother's death.
The house is now in rather better shape than in Lewis's day, when friends used to call it The Midden. When Davidman arrived in the 1950s she found the brothers had spent nothing on it for a quarter of a century. It had mould on the walls, wartime blackout curtains still on the windows and decades of cigarette ash trodden into the carpet. She persuaded Lewis to spend money on the property.

The marriage certificate. I think you can see my reflection in the glass.

Well then, I guess now you know I was actually there!

Lewis and Joy met by correspondence first -- she was an acclaimed poet and writer in her own right and came to Oxford to meet Lewis and sit in his lectures.

Watch the movie Shadowlands (with Anthony Hopkins) to get an excellent notion of this romantic story....

I'm beginning to understand the wonder and intrigue of Lewis land. So much of it is wood and walking and talking with friends and thinking....

I should really have been in Diana Glyers' session about Doing what the Inklings did - How God uses small groups to encourage and transform us.
Ah well, there's always next week at Cambridge.

C.S. Lewis and the Heavens - Search for Meaning in the Sky

Sweet.

Formerly, this 9acre property was a brick making factory with two large kilns forging the clay dug from this pond. The regard and care it took to become the wildlife sanctuary it is today certainly found its' beginning with the Lewis family.