Christ Church, Part V

Class continues to be engaging and stimulating. Today we took a new approach to character description that moves beyond, "He was a tall dark stranger," to highly metaphorical speech. It took some getting used to. Once I got the hang of it, I liked it. Here's one of mine: "He is a moss-coated stone lodged deep in the mud, a cymbal sounding off beat and out of time." The idea is to show your readers qualities of characters using multi-sensory metaphors rather than telling them informational details about a character.

In the afternoon, I took a bus to nearby Broughton Castle in Banbury, Oxfordshire -- about an hour north of Oxford. The house is a medieval manor house, later transformed into a Tudor mansion. The house is surrounded by a wide moat and parkland. One of the house's early owners, a baron, witnessed King John's signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. The house is also historically significant as a parliamentary rallying place in the 17th century. There are numerous impressive portraits of Oliver Cromwell in the house, which was besieged by the royalists during the English Civil War. The house's walled garden, The Ladies Garden, a full acre in size, is filled with sculpted boxwoods, old rose varieties, herbaceous borders and shrubs. By the way, Lord and Lady Saye and Sele still reside in the house. Today's weather was remarkable -- bright blue sky, billowy white clouds, brilliant sunshine.

This evening I attended Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral. Very high, very formal and very moving. I had never heard four-part choral music sung quite so exquisitely, reverently, and joyfully. The setting, a 14th century cathedral, probably contributed to the worship service's effect on me. The prayers for peace were particularly moving.

Dinner followed worship which, in Anglican fashion I suspect, was followed by a Scottish whisky tasting led by the Steward of Christ Church. I learned a great deal. One of the things that I learned is that whisky is okay, but I couldn't make a habit of it. The gentleman I sat beside, director of the Christ Church Choir, is originally from Scotland. He chided me for not finishing each and every sample as he most certainly did. Doing so would have involved downing no less that eight or more ounces of whisky, which would have been far beyond my tolerance.

That's it for the moment. Peace.