A few friends and I wanted Oxford sweatshirts (I mean, who wouldn't love some Oxford
swag?), so we went in a few Oxford shops along the main drag. We were overall
unimpressed with our findings. We are mostly all in textiles, so we are very picky about what we wear (which can be very inconvenient at times). However, we did find one shirt that we all agreed was an unsuccessful textile; I thought I would show it here as "what not to do". Not only do the enlarged O and D make the wording look odd, but they are a very odd design choice in that they highlight a certain area of the body that is usually not highlighted in such a way. Additionally, the word "University" is above "Oxford", so one would read it as University Oxford rather than Oxford University. This is just overall a bad shirt.
Saturday was Alice's Day, which I was really excited for. That was one of the things I had researched before going on this trip, and I knew I wanted to experience it. Basically, it's like a festival, or at least a compilation of activities surrounding Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. There were a lot of
fun-looking activities all over Oxford, so I grabbed a few friends and we went exploring. There were a lot of costumed people around, running activities and such. I saw an Alice and a Queen of Hearts. Their costumes actually looked pretty nice, with petticoats and aprons in front. I personally did not dress up, though I did wear some white paper rabbit ears.
The main activity we did was tour Christ Church Library. They had a lot of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland related things, like really old versions of the book, and original
drawings of Alice by Lewis Caroll. The library itself was absolutely gorgeous. We got to see the "Special Collections" section, which is where they kept some of the groupings of books that were donated in one large chunk by people when the library was being built. There were books all the way up the wall, and a balcony halfway up, providing access to even
more books. It smelled exactly how you would imagine a really old library steeped in history would smell. I could totally see myself curling up with a good, and super-old, book in the corner someone and reading the afternoon away. There was also a newer section of the library (this time with a balcony wrapping around the entire room and into another room - but we weren't allowed to go up on it!!!), so of course we explored that too. I just love libraries.
I found a hidden treasure in the library. It was a big red hat (which you probably can't tell from the picture, but I really tried), designed lie a cardinal's galore. It was owned by a bunch of different people, including Horace Walpole, Thomas Wolsey (and so it was stored in the Royal Wardrobe and temporarily lost for a little while), Bishop Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Gilbert Burnet's son, Bishop Gilbert Burnet's son's housekeeper, Countess of Albermarle's butler, and the Countess of Albermarle's butler's mistress. It was bought by
Charles Kean, who was a big actor for Shakespeare. Yes, the man, the myth, the legend: Shakespeare. This man didn't just act in Shakespearean plays, he worked with Shakespeare! It was eventually bought by Christ Church in 1898, and has been in this odd little box since then. I mean, it's a pretty nice hat. It's a shame it's turning to dust in a box, instead of on someone's head.
My friends were all excited because apparently parts of the Christ Church Library were used in the filming of some of the Harry Potter movies (I think they said there was a snow scene, and also the Great Hall scenes). I honestly don't like Harry Potter (a blasphemous opinion, I know), so I couldn't care less. I'm glad they were excited, though!