Writes of Passage

University Church
High Street
Oxford OX1 4BJ
United Kingdom

5 visits – meals and tea/coffee – at this lovely cafe during my 3-day research at Bodleian library – just enjoy it that much. Convenience plays a role too. It’s inside the Oxford Uni  first congregation house dating back to 1320. Comfortable inside and outside; yummy food and drinks; cheerful staff. Delicious bread; beef stew is tender and flavorful. Salmon (Lox) is fresh. Decent utensils.

The only complain is, too large a portion – have they been Americanized? Ha ha ha. On Yelp

Feeling sad to have to leave … wondering if I gaze longer at Radcliffe Camera, can I finish my books sooner?

Camera, meaning “room” in Latin; local people colloquially call it Rad Cam or The Camera, is a very striking building in Oxford. One of the reasons I enjoyed Vaults is to sit out and marvel at this picturesque wonder.

And the surroundings

@ Broad St, Oxford, OX1 3BG, UK

It is directly cross street from Weston library, on the corner of Broad St. and Catte St. The building was funded by the commercially successful book written by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-74) – History of the Great Rebellion, his account of English civil war.

Father Couplet bought a Chinese convert Michael Shen Fuzong (Shen Fu-tsung or Fo Cum) to Paris in 1684. Shen made his way to England in March 1687, dined with the Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, ¹ son of Edward Hyde. He spent the summer at Bodleian Library in Oxford  Oxford, helping librarian Thomas Hyde to catalog and translate Chinese books and materials.

The front building in this photo is the Old Indian Institute Building Catte St and Holywell St., now used by the Oxford Martin School and a small part of the History Faculty which occupied the building from 1968-2005. A corner of Clarendon Building is on the right hand side. I took this photo on the steps of the Weston Library.

¹ The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art by Michael Sullivan, 1973