Eccentric Walk of Oxford

This weekend I went on an Eccentric Walk of Oxford.  This is St. John's college, the only college not established by a person of noble birth or a cleric.  The founder was a tailor. He named the college after St John, the patron saint of tailors.  Interestingly, St. John's is said to be the riches college of the 39 colleges in Oxford.  

This is the court yard of St. John's. It was patterned after an Italian    foundling home.  Tony Blair was a student here and smoked his last cigaret outside the chapel. His wife would only marry him if he quit and he had one last smoke just before the wedding.

This is building that originally housed the Ashmolean Museum. At that time the collection included natural history material such as the last stuffed Dodo bird.  It was burned as trash by a hapless employee.  The basement of the building was the chemistry lab for Oxford colleges from 1635 to 1860.  It has a domed ceiling to contain any explosion that might have taken place. Currently the Museum of the History of Science uses the building. That collection includes a blackboard on which Einstein wrote one of his equations.

This is the Radcliffe Camera (Latin for chamber) where all Oxford students have their orientation and from where they graduate. The building to the left housed the university woman's jail in the 1800s.  The women were, of course, prostitutes who were in the area because the colleges were all male and the faculty was required to be celibate, or at least not married.  The police training manual indicated that one could tell a prostitute because she would be walking alone, after nine in the evening and without a hat.  To which I commented, "So that's why the Queen always wears a hat."  A German who was on the tour commented that it was evident that I was an American, because a Brit would not be so disrespectful as to associate the Queen with prostitution. 

These are the spires of All Souls College, a research college. There are no undergraduates here.  Scholars have research grants for up to five years. T.E. Lawrence wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom while a fellow at this college.  The college is also known for its Mallard Dinner.

There are many other eccentric bits of information about Oxford, but the tour was only five pounds and I am satisfied that I got my money's worth.