My Weekend (2): Oxford

As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I used to live in Oxford, and it's always a pleasure to go back there: both for research and non-research purposes.

Yesterday, being Sunday, I was in Oxford for sheer pleasure. It was a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable day -- marred only by delays (in both directions) with the Park and Ride buses. And I bought books in Blackwell's -- about which I will probably blog later.

I'm sorry the image (above) is rather awkward, but I had to struggle to get any picture at all (dodging between shafts of late afternoon sunlight and crowds of tourists). As we were strolling along Cornmarket on our way back to the bus, my companion suddenly spotted a small figure in a niche, high up on a wall at the end of St Michael's Street. We each found it hard to believe that we'd never noticed it before, since we've both known Oxford for many years. But it's well above eye level, and I suppose I'd just never looked up at the right moment.

The image is, of course, of St Michael himself, with sword poised to slay 'that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan' (Revelation 12: 7-9). In the Bible, it's St Michael and his angels who defeat Satan. But that would have made for rather a crowded image.

The Portly Earl

Aka, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. Known to the Bodleian Library -- location of this imposing bronze statue -- as one of its earliest benefactors. Known to early modernists and Shakespeareans as one of the dedicatees of the Shakespeare First Folio. Known to women's writing specialists as the son of Mary, Countess of Pembroke, and the lover of Lady Mary Wroth.

When I lived in Oxford, a certain gentleman of my acquaintance used to make appointments to meet his friends 'at the portly earl'. Usually this worked well, since many of his circle were hardworking postgrads who spent a lot of time in the Bodleian. But one person, knowing the gentleman's other habits, spent an increasingly puzzled hour searching the pubs of Oxford before realising his mistake.

I was in Oxford today on a short research visit. The Bodleian has recently been undergoing extensive renovations (the doors behind the statue, for instance, are new). But the Portly Earl survives it all.