Page 45 - WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE DISCOVERING ENGLAND

number represents the original 100 scholars at the
college’s 1525 founding, plus one added in 1684.
This I had to hear.

Arriving in time for the first toll of the bell, I soon
drifted from the automatic count of every clang,
thinking instead about the secret life behind the
heavy oak doors at the base of Christopher Wren’s
gothic revival bell tower. How many hundreds of
students had passed through that gate? I was awed
by so many years of history and tradition and felt
a touch of envy—did those generations of young
Christ Church scholars have sufficient appreciation
of their privilege and good fortune? Everything
about an Oxford education seemed mystically dis-
tant and wonderful that night as I stood in the cool
air and felt the vibrato of the 101st peal of Great
Tom.

An Oxford Experience for All

I remembered my night outside the doors of Tom
Tower when I learned about “The Oxford Experi-
ence.” This summer school program invites the
world to spend one to six weeks in residence at
Christ Church, studying with a tutor, living in col-
lege rooms and eating three meals a day under the
vaulted ceiling of the great hall (think Harry Potter
and Hogwarts).

There are week-long courses for every interest. In
the summer of 2013, I passed up “The Black Death” Photos courtesy WIKI commons
to enroll in a landscape history course taught by a
well-known scholar and romantically entitled “Par-
adise in an English Garden.” Course content and
instruction were first-rate.

Classes are small and informal and each includes a
Thursday field trip. Suggested readings are sent out
in advance, but no one spends their week at Christ
Church hitting the books. Neither does the experi-
ence include a final examination. During the week,
tours of the college and the town of Oxford are of-
fered, along with various evening events.

One of the biggest surprises for me was the qual-
ity and quantity of food served in the college hall.
Every meal offered a variety of choices and the fruit
and vegetables were wonderfully fresh. Latin grace
is spoken before dinner and once during the week,
there is an invitation to sit at the high table with
college officials and a selection of tutors.

With a communal morning coffee break and three Left: The Great Hall at Christ Church was used as a model for the dining Hall in Harry
meals a day in the college hall, it is easy to meet Potter movies. Top: Christ Church steeple. Bottom: An engraving of Christ Church, Ox-
other students. There are many Americans, but also
ford, 1742.

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