Winter's Snow Touches "The Kilns," C.S. Lewis' Beloved Home in Oxford, England

Oxford has a way of getting under your skin-I’d been there for Oxbridge 2008, been there years earlier for conferences and such. Churches! Libraries! Bookstores! Spires! But every visit had been characterized by hurrying through Oxford: pushing along the crowded sidewalks, running from one conference session to another, busing en masse to see the sights, all good, so very good, but every trip was a little bit breathless, marked more than anything by being on-the-go.

What might happen if I took a seat and stayed a while?

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give it a try. I am currently on sabbatical from teaching English at Azusa Pacific University in California. Being on sabbatical gave me the flexibility to think about journeying across the sea and making a dream come true. That’s how I came to spend two weeks in February living and working at The Kilns.

It was an amazing visit, and, as it turned out, there was plenty to do. I took a red double-decker bus into the city most days, working in special collections at the Bodleian. Once I took the oath and got my reader’s card, I was granted access to their manuscript collection, including poems and stories handwritten by Lewis and his friend J. R. R. Tolkien. I spent most of my days sitting at a long library table, juggling three different kinds of magnifying glass, studying layers of scribbled pencil marks, deciphering marginal notes, working out the patterns of edits and corrections, and trying to untangle the complicated composing processes of these authors.

Diana Glyer writes in the Common Room at The Kilns

Three manuscript pages in particular posed a problem worthy of Sherlock Holmes: Was that little round burn in the corner of that yellowed paper caused from a bit of ash fallen from Lewis’s cigarette? Or could it have come straight from Tolkien’s pipe?

There were other happy adventures, too. I visited several places beloved by Lewis: the Eagle and Child Pub, the Trout, Addison’s Walk, the Eastgate Hotel. I attended Evensong at Magdalen. I presented a paper about Warren Lewis at the Lewis Society meeting at Pusey House. I had the special joy of connecting with dear friends (Donna, Malcolm, Doug, Walter, Michael, Theresa, Roger) and meeting new ones, too. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: C.S. Lewis Study Centre, Diana Glyer, Donna McDaniel, J.R.R. Tolkien, Malcolm Guite, Michael Ward, Oxford, The Kilns, Walter Hooper

Winter at the Pond of the C.S. Lewis Nature Reserve

News from The Kilns - March 2009

January was certainly a bleak midwinter, with hard frost and bone-chilling cold that transformed the surroundings of the Kilns into Narnia’s winter. While this landscape was very lovely to see through Jack’s bedroom window, even a brief venture out of doors was immediately a reminder of the intense cold, watering the eyes and making our very bones feel brittle. These were the days for sitting by the Aga (a quintessential English kitchen stove) with a bottomless hot beverage, accompanied by captivating books to occupy one’s thoughts or a journal to record experiences of folks changed by Lewis’ words.

January boasted red fox visits and a grand array of English birds and squirrels to the feeders. We also had several American university group tours and ended the month with a daylong seminar for German business students, offering tours, lunch, and an Inklings lecture, followed by a hugely successful writers’ workshop as they composed their own class fairy tale.

With February came a beautiful change: ten days of snow! It was glorious, soft and so very white, with a steady stream of families going to play in the C. S. Lewis Nature Reserve. Children trying to surprise their parents with a good snow ball hit, and dogs pulling sleds. Even the radio announcers mentioned engaging in snowballing with youngsters as they walked to work. There was very little driving (and no trash pick-up) and the vehicles that did venture up Lewis Close all had trouble heading back out. Neighbors were out with shovels and brooms to help move ice and snow. All the tours were delayed as transportation came to a standstill, and one couple journeyed tirelessly from London to Oxford where they purchased boots for the walk up Lewis close. Scholar Diana Glyer’s sabbatical visit also brought Malcolm Guite and Michael Ward for memorable fellowship and inspiring conversation. Diana gave a very well -received lecture for the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society.

March has brought a few small groups, again from American universities, as well as a family from Greece, and a very bright young man with his family from California, who told me about his imaginative writing and drawing. Might we have another good writer in the making? And spring is showing signs of taking over the land; crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths are appearing everywhere you look. Blue skies and big puffy white clouds and trees eager with bud in spite of the brisk cold air-yes, the promise of spring’s longer days and the returning geese have renewed our hope that winter has done its creative work in the soil and in our souls.

Tags: C.S. Lewis Study Centre, The Kilns

A winter scene from the common room window at The Kilns, This is where Lewis' desk sat, one of the locations where Narnia and many of his other books were penned. (photo copyright 2008, Diana Glyer)

Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting our friends and conference faculty members, Malcolm Guite and Diana Glyer, at the C.S. Lewis Study Centre at The Kilns.

After their visit, Diana posted up a few photos of her stay.  Upon seeing the photo of the window behind C.S. Lewis’ desk (reprinted here), Malcolm commented:

Surely one of the most important windows in the world:

“A man that looks on glass
Onit may stay his eye
Or if he pleaseth through it pass
And then the Heavens espy”

(excerpt of George Herbert’s “The Elixir”)

Here’s the full poem:

The Elixir

George Herbert (1593-1633)

TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.

Not rudely, as a beast
To run into an action;
But still to make Thee prepossest
And give it his perfection.

A man that looks on glass
On it may stay his eye,
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.

All may of Thee partake
Nothing can be so mean
Which with his tincture, ‘for Thy sake,’
Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold,
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.

Diana Pavlac Glyer —Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. She has been widely recognized for her work on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings, including contributions to The C.S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia and C.S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy. She is the recipient of the Wade Center’s Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant (1997), APU’s Chase A. Sawtell Inspirational Teaching Award (2002), and the Imperishable Flame Award for Tolkien Scholarship (2007). Her latest book is The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community.

Malcolm Guite — Chaplain and Fellow, Girton College, Cambridge, and teacher of Literature and Pastoral Theology for the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. Trained for the Priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he was ordained in 1990. His doctoral thesis focused on the links between the theology of Lancelot Andrewes and the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Guite is involved with a number of projects linking theology and the arts, and has published poetry, literary criticism and theology in various journals. His book, What do Christians Believe?, was published by Granta in 2006. As founder of the rock band, Mystery Train, Guite writes lyrics and performs on guitar and vocals.

Tags: C.S. Lewis, Narnia, The C.S. Lewis Study Centre, The Kilns