Thursday morning in Oxford was one of the moments during our journey that I was looking forward to the most - the C.S. Lewis Tour. We started by waiting for our tour to start outside the Randolph Hotel (the designated meeting place). For those of you who have seen the movie Shadowlands, the Randolph Hotel was used in the scene where C.S. Lewis first meets Joy. I also found out from our tour guide that Laval University (of Quebec) granted Lewis an honorary degree, the ceremony of which took place in the Randolph. Though a little late, eventually our guide Ron Brind showed up, along with a group of Americans who came in from London that morning just for the tour. Ron is an interesting chap, and is well suited to leading this tour because he grew up near the Kilns, the 9 acre wooded area that was Lewis’ home for most of his adult life. As a boy Ron would go up to the house at the Kilns and ask Jack (the name by which everyone knew C.S. Lewis) if he could go fishing or hunting on his land. Later when Joy and her two boys moved into the Kilns Ron became a friend with one of Lewis’ stepsons, Doug… and the two of them would get into mischief together. So Ron had first hand knowledge of C.S. Lewis, and being a native of Oxford was able to point out many interesting things, and fill us in on some of the unique customs and traditions of that college city.We started by going around some of the places right in Oxford that had a Lewis connection, most significantly Magdalen College where Jack taught for many years. Lewis was never granted a professorship at Oxford, some say due to jealousy about his fame, and others because of his noticeable Christian faith, or others suggest a combination of the two. Whatever the reason Lewis ended his teaching years at Cambridge because that institution offered him a professorship (even though he taught a Cambridge he still maintained his home at the Kilns). This slighting of Lewis was a common theme throughout the tour, as Ron told us that in Oxford you find little mention or recognition of C.S. Lewis (other than at the Eagle and Child Pub - more on that later), no plaques or statues, no official recognition or honouring of this significant author. This is something that Ron Brind is fighting a one-man crusade to rectify. It was only through Ron’s persistence that a plaque was placed on the house at the Kilns acknowledging it as the former home of C.S. Lewis.
Outside of Oxford proper, in an area known as Headington Quarry, at the local parish church, known as Holy Trinity Church, our guide told us that this was the only place we would find souvenirs that related to C.S. Lewis. This church was the home parish for Jack Lewis and his brother Warnie, the place where the Lewis brothers attended worship regularly for years. I bought the souvenir cup and a few greeting cards that featured the Narnia Window installed in this church. It is also in this church’s graveyard that C.S. Lewis’ grave can be found (though not in great condition - another thing that bothered Ron). It was something special to sit in the very pew where Lewis would sit, Sunday after Sunday. (The picture is of Beth sitting in C.S. Lewis' usual spot in Holy Trinity Church).
It was here, at Holy Trinity Church, that I was suddenly, deeply and unexpectedly moved - I know not exactly why. I found myself in tears as I thought about C.S. Lewis, and all he has meant for my faith journey. I might have expected to have a sense of awe at being at the Kilns - Lewis‘ home, or amazement at being in Oxford - Lewis‘ academic home, but it was at his spiritual home that the intensity of the whole experience hit me… being in the place where Lewis prayed, listened to sermons (even preached a few), sang hymns and communed was, in the end, the most significant of all. I was grateful that our guide gave us plenty of time for pictures, or to look around, or in this case to simply sit in the pews in quiet reflection.
The tour stopped at a number of places, including one of the houses J.R.R. Tolkien lived in (which was also in Headington Quarry). The last big stop was at the Kilns. The house at the Kilns was smaller than I expected, but the grounds were larger than I imagined. Wandering around in the woods by Lewis’ house one could easily imagine themselves to be in Narnia! The Kilns is currently owned by a C.S. Lewis Foundation, based in California, and it is they who grant tours of the building - we were fortunate to be there on a day when we could tour the house. We saw Jack’s bedroom and study, the kitchen and common room, all done up in the manner they would have been in the 40s and 50s. In the Dining Room was the original typewriter of Warnie Lewis. This was significant because it was Warnie who typed up all of Jack’s manuscripts (Jack didn’t type himself - he wrote everything out in long hand). So on this very typewriter displayed in the Dining Room at the Kilns was typed the manuscripts for the Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Surprised By Joy, Mere Christianity and many other classics.
The tour ended up at the Eagle and Child Pub (back in Oxford). This was where C.S. Lewis with a number of his literary friends, known as the Inklings, would gather weekly. This group included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. Beth and I could have stayed with the tour group and had a meal there but I had a Doctor’s appointment to keep so we decided to say farewell to the group and planned to come back another time to have a meal.
You might wonder why I went to the Doctor, well… in the morning, while having my shower, I discovered some kind of bug attached to my arm. I tried getting it off but its head was burrowed into my skin. It didn’t look like a tick, but having been warned about Tick-borne Encephalitis in certain regions in Europe we thought I had better be safe than sorry. When I got in to see the Doctor he didn’t even think it was a bug at first, but I assured him I had seen little legs so he looked again and said “Well what do you know!” Some sterilized tweezers later, and the bug was removed - which he assured me wasn’t a tick (rather something more like a kind of flea or small beetle). He told me to take an anti-histamine to take care of the minor swelling, and to come back to him if there were any problems. I can tell you now that nothing came of it, the red swelling went down and all is well. I’m still not sure where I picked up that little guy, perhaps tromping around the estate grounds of Glengorm Castle. Wherever, we have now purchased our own set of tweezers for if we happen to encounter a similar situation later.
Back to the C.S. Lewis Tour… I was looking forward to this part of our trip for a long, long time and it did not disappoint. I feel fortunate to have been guided on our tour by such a knowledgeable and passionate person as Ron Brind. I believe I have a little more insight into the person of Jack Lewis, and perhaps that will enrich my reading of his works, which I am sure to dig into again.
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