I'm a big C.S. Lewis fan, so it's pretty bad that it took me almost two years of living in Oxford to do the proper pilgrimage. But we finally did so yesterday, with a visit to his parish church, a revisit to his grave with better cameras, and a stop at his house.
1. Holy Trinity Church
Our first stop was Holy Trinity Church in Headington, a village that is now an eastern suburb of Oxford. The church looks old but is quite new by English standards: built 1849. It is normally locked, but thankfully they have just started opening from 2-5pm on summer weekends.
Near the "Lewis pew" is the Narnia Window (above), which was added in 1991 as a memorial to two children of the parish who sadly died young. It features Aslan the Lion and lots of other characters and scenes from the Narnia books.
Apparently he and Warnie always arrived early for 8am communion, then left early before the service was over. Lewis didn't like sermons, church music, or small talk.
One popular anecdote is that every time the Lewis brothers would leave early, the door would slam loudly behind them. Finally the churchwarden decided to line the door jamb with rubber to muffle the sound. So the next time they left, it closed quietly behind them. But then when the rest of the congregation went to leave, the door wouldn't open! Someone had to climb outside through an old back door, walk around to the front and shove it open with great effort. They took the rubber off again, and had to go back to the slamming.
2. Lewis' Grave
Next we headed out to the churchyard to photograph Lewis' grave again, since our first visit was spontaneous and we only had a cell phone camera with us.
The epitaph was written by his brother Warnie, who then was buried with him a few years later.
I just recently learned the meaning of the phrase "Men must endure their going hence" - it is from "King Lear" and was on the Lewis family's Shakespeare calendar the day their beloved mother died. She died of cancer when Lewis was only 10, and the traumatic experience was part of why he became an atheist at an early age.
3. The Kilns
Our final stop for the day was the Kilns, C.S. Lewis' home from 1929 to 1963. He lived here with his brother Warnie, an older woman named Mrs. Moore, who was the mother of Lewis' college roommate that had died in World War II, and Mrs. Moore's daughter Maureen. Later, long after Mrs. Moore's death and as seen in the movie Shadowlands, Lewis' wife Joy moved in with them for the last few years of her life.
It was here at the Kilns that Lewis wrote all the Narnia books as well as his other classics. The two windows in the above photo are his study (left) and bedroom (right). The house plays a significant role in the stories as well - in real life, a few children who were evacuated from London during the WWII bombing came to stay at the Kilns.
