Wycliffe Hall is a “permanent private hall” in the University of Oxford. A permanent private hall is like a college, in that it provides accommodation and tuition for its students. The difference is that a college is governed by its Master and Fellows, whereas the Hall is governed, at least in part, by the Church of England. It is an Anglican theological college, offering courses in philosophy and theology, and preparing people for ordination into the Church of England. John Wycliffe was a 14th century Bible translator, scholar and churchman.
I stayed there as a bed-and-breakfast guest, and sketched this picture from a bench beneath the branches of the plane tree in the gardens. Breakfast is served in the Talbot Rice Dining Room, shown on the bottom left of the picture. I was waiting for it to open.
The “Talbot Rice Dining Hall” was built in 1980. The “Bulletin of the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries” volume 16 number 2 dated June 2009*, contains a history of Wycliffe Hall, which informs me that this dining hall is named after Mervyn Talbot Rice (1899-1979), a “friend of Wycliffe”.
When they say “friend of Wycliffe”, they must mean a friend of the the Hall, as John Wycliffe died 600 years ago. The Talbot Rice art gallery in Edinburgh is named after David Talbot Rice, one of Mervyn’s sons.
The breakfast room opened, and I took my place at one of the long tables. Behind me, three, or possibly four, men were already engaged in a serious conversation about Middle Eastern politics. Judging by the various accents, at least one of them was American. They took different points of view, and argued from personal experience, with courtesy. At another table, a group of young men and women were working out complicated logistics to do with rowing. Who was to be cox? Who was rowing? When? Where? Another man engaged the member of staff in a lively conversation on management techniques prevalent in a particular football team and how this may or may not affect their chances.
Between them all, I finished my porridge and headed back out to the plane tree to continue my picture.
I’ve sketched at Wycliffe Hall before. Click the image below to go to the post.
*The link to the Bulletin is here. Or if that doesn’t work, the pdf is below. The history of Wycliffe Hall starts on page 19.
Jane Sketching 