Wadham College, Oxford, 400th Anniversary

Sad to say, I've missed all the splendid events arranged to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Wadham College, Oxford.

From the JCR Group Photograph, Wadham College, Trinity, 1965 

Those who read English at Wadham might choose to dig out some of the bawdy, satirical poetry associated with John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, or with Sir Maurice Bowra.

 There will be an event, "Wadham Poets", on 4 September (Wadham Day), which I would have liked to attend, but it is not to be. On the same day Melvyn Bragg (Lord Bragg) will lead a discussion on "Wadham in Our Time".

Let me make up for my absence by quoting a wonderful verse by Aphra Behn:


Hail Sacred Wadham! whom the Muses Grace,
And from the rest of all the Reverend Pile
Of Noble palaces, design'd thy Space
Where they in soft retreat might dwell,
They blest thy Fabrick, and they said- do Thou
  Our Darling Sons contain;
We Thee our Sacred Nursey ordain,
  They said, and Blest, and it was so..."

 and, from Robert Parson's sermon preached at Rochester's funeral:

"As for his education, it was in Wadham College in Oxford...there it was that he laid a good foundation of learning and study, though he afterwards built upon that foundation hay and stubble."

John Dryden (1683):

"For this in Wadham's peaceful halls reside,
Books be thy pleasure, to do well thy pride -
Quit not for public cares thy college life..."


Peter Levi, from The Hill of Kronos:


"I spent much of my time in museums, teaching myself to draw a few details from Greek vases, teaching my eyes to see them. I remember as a theological student going to see Sir Maurice Bowra in Oxford, when I knew I was destined to teach there. I wanted to know how to behave, what sort of teacher to be. God knows what I wanted. He asked what my main interests were. I said literature, and within literature rather Greek than Latin, though both, and rather poetry than prose, but also Greek vase-painting. It came out in a  sort of stutter. 'I see', he said, 'Pots and poetry. Like me. Pots and poetry. No way to pay and promotion. No way to pay and promotion'.


Eric Korn, a review of 'My Oxford', ed. Anne Thwaite, Robson; from TLS, April I, 1977:

"It is generally agreed that Oxford widens one's horizons, especially if they have been narrowed by spending one's childhood the way one must if one is to have a chance of getting in".