Visiting the Shadowlands

Yesterday's trip to Oxford was great.  Freezing, but great.  We left the Pickwick at 9 am on a large coach bus and headed toward Oxford.  The whole ride, the scenery was snow-covered and gorgeous.  Our first destination was the Kilns, C. S. Lewis' home from 1930 to 1963.  It was magical for me.  Our tour guide took us first to the library (which was not originally a part of the house when Lewis lived there; it was a shed) and began telling us about Lewis' life and his time at the Kilns.  The house has been refurbished to match photographs of what it looked like when Lewis lived there; in the 70s a couple had bought the house and put in the generic decorations of the times... shag carpets, yellow linoleum floors, the works. All of that hot mess had to be restored to Lewis' tattered, magical home.

Apparently when Lewis lived there, there were not only filled bookshelves in every room, but also stacks of books all over the house.  Lewis, having a photographic memory, would bring students into his house and ask them to pick any book they wished off the shelf and start reading.  He would then pick up where they started reading and finish the page (or chapter) from memory.  Amazing.  After talking about the Inkling's life for quite a while, we toured the rest of the house, journeying through Warnie Lewis' bedroom and study (where a married couple currently reside; scholars actually trade out and live in this house periodically while doing research on Lewis and Tolkien), through the Common Room, Dining Room, and kitchen, up through Lewis' study and room.  Outside the house is a nature reserve and a pond where Lewis apparently used to swim frequently.  I can absolutely see how Lewis was inspired to write Narnia there; the house is so quiet and reserved.

Oddly enough, though, my fondest moments there were hearing the stories of Joy Gresham, Lewis' great friend and later his wife.  She just seems like she was so sassy with a fiery spirit, and I really admire that in a woman of that time period.  She was an impressionable woman who was apparently an amazing author herself, which I can attest to after reading Lewis' Till We Have Faces, my favorite work of his so far, and one that Joy almost co-wrote (because she revised it so heavily).  The writing is vastly different and more skillful than Lewis' previous works. I just love that she impressed herself upon Lewis and impacted his life like she did.

We then departed the Kilns and went to central Oxford for lunch and our tour of the town.  Most of our crowd headed off to The Eagle and Child, so naturally we (Lydia, Caitlyn, Megan, Kirby, Mary, Jase, and I) headed off in the opposite direction and found a small pub called the Crown. It had reasonable prices; I ended up getting tomato basil soup and some onion rings (because why not??), while Jase got the British dish of gammon and eggs.  (He's kind of loving it here, and he's actually much more adventurous than I am!). We finished lunch and headed off to take our tour!

The tour of Oxford, while I enjoyed seeing all the colleges and churches, was freezing.  I, stupidly enough, only wore one layer on my legs and it was below freezing outside.  This was a two-hour outside tour.  I won't lie; I love the town so much, but I just barely got through this tour, and I was unbelievably glad when it was over! Haha.  On the bus ride home, I read through plenty of Out of The Silent Planet, and I just felt much more connected to Ransom's character.  No joke, I am looking into that program where scholars live at the Kilns.  Guys. This could be a thing. How amazing would it be to live in C. S. Lewis' house??!

Regardless of the cold, I just loved yesterday's trip.