We did a walking tour of Oxford today. My blisters caused by walking miles in wet socks and shoes at the Open have healed enough that I hardly limped. We stopped by the graveyard where several of the Inklings, including Charles Williams, are buried—as well as Kenneth Grahame (
The Wind in the Willows). Kim, one of the program leaders who has spent every summer at the Kilns since 1993 and oversaw much of the restoration, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the places and moments in CS Lewis' life, and we paused several times to read excerpts from Surprised by Joy that pertained to where we were. The greatest impact was Magdalen (pronounced Mawdlen) College and its grounds and deer park… As we walked down Addison's Walk, Kim read from SBJ the account Lewis wrote about doing the same one evening with Tolkien and another friend, where they shredded the remaining arguments he had against the Christian faith. A couple of days later he would become a believer, while making a trip in the sidecar of Warnie's motorcycle (no comment about what kind of driver Warnie was).
One of the few memorials to Lewis at Magdalen is a simple plaque on the gate of the deer park along Addison's walk with one of his poems on it:
What the Bird Said Early in the Year
I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.
Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year nor want of rain destroy the peas.
This year time’s nature will no more defeat you.
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.
This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well worn track.
This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.
Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick! – the gates are drawn apart.
It is a deeply calming place, with swans and deer and rabbits and the occasional punt floating by…
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