by C. S. Lewis
14 See Rodney Pasley in the Biographical Appendix.
15 In the Preface to the second edition of Dymer of 1950 Lewis defined ‘Christina Dreams’: ‘In those days the new psychology was just beginning to make itself felt in the circles I most frequented at Oxford. This joined forces with the fact that we felt ourselves (as young men always do) to be escaping from the illusions of adolescence, and as a result we were much exercised about the problem of fantasy or wishful thinking. The ‘Christina Dream’, as we called it (after Christina Pontifex in Butler’s novel), was the hidden enemy whom we were all determined to unmask and defeat . . . By the time I wrote Dymer I had come, under the influence of our common obsession about Christina Dreams, into a state of angry revolt against that spell. I regarded it as the very type of the illusions I was trying to escape from. It must therefore be savagely attacked.’
16 The Rev. Alured George Clarke became the Vicar of All Saints, Highfield, Headington in 1920.
17 See Lily Suffern in the Biographical Appendix.
18 Arthur Stevenson and his two sisters, Sylvia and Sydney, lived on Headington Hill with their mother of whom we hear much in the diary.
19 See Frederick Walker Macran in the Biographical Appendix.
20 This is a term given the fifty years of Greek history between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars (480–430 bc), the period in which Athens realised her greatest literary and artistic eminence.
21 Miss Kathleen Whitty had been Maureen’s music teacher in Bristol before they moved to Oxford in 1917.
22 Leonard Whibley, Political Parties in Athens During the Peloponnesian War (1889).
23 ‘Collections’ is a college examination held at the end or the beginning of every term in Oxford and some other universities.
24 See George Hope Stevenson and Edgar Frederick Carritt in the Biographical Appendix.
25 Henry Pyot Blunt, Basil Platel Wyllie, Edward Fairchild Watling, Philip Overend Simpson, John Eric Montagu, John Maurice Hastings, Edward Felix Gray Haig and Harold Keith Salvesen—all of University College—were reading Greats, except for Salvesen who read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
26 See Leo Baker in the Biographical Appendix.
27 See Owen Barfield in the Biographical Appendix.
28 See Alfred Kenneth Hamilton-Jenkin in the Biographical Appendix.
29 Henry George Ley (1887–1962) was Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral 1909–26, and Precentor and Director of Music at Eton College 1916–45.
30 E. R. Appleton was the editor of The Beacon.
31 See Basil Charles Allchin in the Biographical Appendix.
32 Edward John Wallis was reading Greats at University College and took his BA in 1923.
33 Roy McKay, who read Law at Magdalen and took his BA in 1923.
34 Reginald Walter Macan (1848–1941) was a Fellow and Tutor of History at University College 1884–1906 and Master of the College 1906–23. Something of the ‘modernist essay’ may have gone into his book The Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1877).
35 Herbert David Ziman (1902–83) took a second in Greats and received his BA in 1924. He was leader-writer for The Daily Telegraph 1934–39, and literary editor 1956–68.
36 See William Douglas Robson-Scott in the Biographical Appendix. Lewis and Robson-Scott were both members of a literary society in University College called the Martlets. As Lewis had not been to a meeting in some time, there was a question of whether or not he was still entitled to go.
37 This group contains many of the great men whose books and lectures Lewis had read or heard during his years in Oxford. Cyril Bailey (1871–1957), a well-known teacher of the Classics and notable Oxford personality, was a Fellow of Balliol College; Alexander Dunlop Lindsay (1879–1952) was Fellow and Classical Tutor at Balliol 1906–22, and Master of Balliol 1924–49; Harold Henry Joachim (1868–1938) was Wykeham Professor of Logic 1919–35; Geoffrey William Seymour Curtis read Greats at University College and took a BA in 1925.
38 This was Herbert Henry Asquith (later Earl of Oxford and Asquith, 1852–1928), a statesman who had been Prime Minister 1908–16. Margot Asquith (1864–1945), his second wife, had a magnetic personality which was sometimes a political liability.
39 Sir Hugh Allen (1869–1946) was the Professor of Music at Oxford 1918–46, and obtained the creation of the music faculty.
40 ‘The Oxford Musical Festival ended in a blaze of colour . . . The chief novelty of the Festival, three historical ballets, took place in the Corn Exchange on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The ballets were entitled “A Masque at the Court of Queen Elizabeth”, with music from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, “The Gentleman Dancing Master”, with music by Henry Purcell and “J. S. Bach and Frederick the Great”, set to music taken from the orchestral suites of Bach . . . The Music for the dances was selected from the works of Marchant, Byrd, Robert Johnson, and Giles Faranby, who took the B.Mus. degree at Oxford in 1592. “The Gentleman dancing Master”, arranged by F. R. Harris, is based on Wycherley’s play of the same name . . . The . . . third ballet . . . illustrated a meeting between Frederick and the composer and the festivities given at the Court in Bach’s honour. The several dances were gone through with a joyous abandon that was very inspiring and made a lively finish to a really enjoyable programme.’ The Oxford Times (19 May 1922), p. 8.
41 By Elias Henry Jones (1920).
42 See Sir Walter Raleigh in the Biographical Appendix.
43 See Arthur Blackburne Poynton in the Biographical Appendix.
44 In the letter to his father of 18 May Lewis said: ‘The actual subjects of my own Greats school are a doubtful quantity at the moment: for no one quite knows what place classics and philosophy will hold in the educational world in a year’s time . . . What is wanted everywhere is a man who combines the general qualification which Greats is supposed to give, with the special qualifications of any other subjects. And English Literature is a “rising” subject. Thus if I cd. take a First or even a Second in Greats, and a First next year in English Literature, I should be in a very strong position indeed.’
45 The Master of University College.
46 Mr Tubbs was one of the Masters, and Miss Cowie the Matron, at Cherbourg School, Malvern, when Lewis was a pupil there in 1910–12.
47 By Sir James Barrie (1902).
48 See Cecil Harwood in the Biographical Appendix.
49 See Arthur Spenser Loat Farquharson in the Biographical Appendix.
50 There is a small area just north-east of Magdalen College where two branches of the River Cherwell come together. It is called ‘Mesopotamia’ after the ancient country between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and on one of the branches is a pool reserved for men where the custom is to bathe nude—‘Parson’s Pleasure’.
51 See 3 June 1922.
52 By ‘tea fight’ Lewis meant those occasions in which, just as you are getting to the intersting part of a conversation with someone, all the guests are shuffled about.
53 See Vida Mary Wiblin in the Biographical Appendix.
54 These were some of the other members of the O.T.C. which Lewis came to know when he was billeted in Keble College. He shared a room with Paddy Moore, but the one he admired most was Martin Ashworth Somerville (1898–1918) of King’s College, Cambridge, who served in Egypt and Palestine and died of wounds received in action.
55 See Jane ‘Janie’ McNeill in the Biographical Appendix.
56 Charles Wilfred Mackenzie took his BA in 1922, and John Alexander Currie took a B.Sc. in 1924.
57 This was Edwin Arlington Robinson’s ‘For a Dead Lady’ quoted in Conrad Aiken’s ‘A Letter from America’, The London Mercury, vol. VI (June 1922), pp. 196–98.
58 Carleton Kemp Allen (1887–1966) was Praelector in Jurisprudence at University College 1920–29, Professor of Jurisprudence 1929–31, and Warden of Rhodes House 1931–52.
59 Francis Herbert Bradley (1846–1924).
60 Lewis came up to University College in the Hilary T
erm of 1917 when Butler and Dodds (both Irish) were taking Schools.
Theobald Butler (1894–1976) achieved distinction as a lawyer. He was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1921, became Master of the Bench in 1960.
Eric Robertson Dodds (1893–1979) was Lecturer in Classics at University College, Reading, 1919–24, Professor of Greek in the University of Birmingham 1924–36, and Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford 1936–60.
61 By Robert Browning (1840).
62 ‘Nous n’irons Plus’ is found in The Voice of Cecil Harwood, ed. Owen Barfield (1979).
63 The advertisement appeared in The Oxford Times of 23 June, 30 June and 7 July and reads: ‘Undergraduate, Classical Scholar, First-class in Honour Moderations, University Prizeman will give TUITION, Philosophy, Classics, to Schoolboy or Undergraduate in Oxford, August, September. Highest references—Write, D.3, 183, “Times” Office, Oxford.’
64 William Macbride Childs (1869–1939) was Principal of University College, Reading, 1903–26, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading 1926–29.
William George de Burgh (1866–1943) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading 1907–34.
65 See Eric Beckett in the Biographical Appendix.
66 John Norman Bryson (1896–1976) was also from Northern Ireland. He was a lecturer at Balliol, Merton and Oriel Colleges 1923–40, and Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Balliol 1940–63.
67 Maurice Leonard Jacks (1894–1964) was a Fellow and Dean of Wadham College 1919–22, Headmaster of Mill Hill School 1922–37, and Director of the Department of Education, Oxford University, 1938–57.
68 By Thomas Stewart Omond (1903).
69 John David Mabbott (1898–1988) was Asst. Lecturer in Classics at Reading University 1922, after which he became a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, 1924–63, and then the President of St John’s College 1963–69.
70 Lady Margaret Hall.
71 The Greeves family were Plymouth Brethren.
72 Marianne Cecile Gabrielle Hugon (1881–1952) had been an undergraduate at Somerville College, and in 1923 she became Tutor in French at the Society of Oxford Home-Students (St Anne’s College). She was the author of Social France in the XVII Century (1911).
73 Bernice de Bergerac’s Glorious England (1922) was performed in the Priory gardens of Christ Church on 31 July.
74 Émile Coué (1857–1926), a French chemist, developed a system of psychotherapy by which he claimed that auto-suggestion could be used to cure disease. His formula, which had a wide vogue, was ‘Every day, in every way, I am becoming better and better’.
75 John Linton Myers (1869–1954) of New College was Wykeham Professor of Ancient History 1910–39, and Examiner in Final Classical School 1920–23.
76 Horace William Brindley Joseph (1867–1943) was the Senior Philosophical Tutor of New College 1895–1932.
77 Their intention was to visit Wynyard School, which both had attended and hated about equally. Their story is told in the chapter entitled ‘Concentration Camp’ in Lewis’s Surprised by Joy.
78 A weir divides the upper Cherwell from the lower: near it there is an inclined concrete ramp, furnished with steel rollers, by which device punts and canoes can be landed and hauled up to the upper river.—W.H.L.
79 Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888–1935)—Lawrence of Arabia. He took a BA from Jesus College in 1910 and was made a Fellow of All Souls College in 1919.
80 A colloquial name for the priests of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican monastic order founded in the parish of Cowley, Oxford. They have since moved to London, but after he became a Christian this was where Lewis went for confession.
81 Francis de Zulueta (1878–1958), an academic lawyer, was All Souls reader in Roman Law 1912–17, and Regius Professor of Civil Law 1919–48.
82 Daisy Perrott was Maureen’s godmother.
83 A similar apology for his behaviour to me was made by the Bitch when Andrée called in the morning.—C. S.L.
84 Of the many places that Lewis and the Moores had lived since 1919 the most horrible was a flat over a butcher’s shop in 58 Windmill Road. Mrs John Jeffrey was both butcher and landlady.
85 See Isabella Kelso Ewart and Mary Gundred Ewart under The Ewart Family in the Biographical Appendix.
86 Mrs Mary Gribbon Greeves (1861–1949), originally from Brooklyn, New York, was Arthur Greeves’s mother.
87 See Sir Thomas Herbert Warren in the Biographical Appendix.
88 Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, The Magic Flute: A Fantasia (1920).
89 By Robert Burton (1621).
90 Edward Hyde Clarendon, The True Historical Narrative of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1702–4).
91 John Richard Green, Short History of the English People (1874).
92 See Alexander James Carlyle in the Biographical Appendix.
93 See Robert ‘Rob’ Askins in the Biographical Appendix. Edith ‘Edie’ Askins (1873–1936) was Mrs Moore’s sister, and she lived in Bristol near their brother ‘Rob’.
94 See Henry Habberley Price in the Biographical Appendix.
95 See Frank Percy Wilson in the Biographical Appendix.
96 He was referring to the fact that Lewis planned to read English in nine months.
97 See Edith Elizabeth Wardale in the Biographical Appendix.
98 See Henry Cecil Kennedy Wyld in the Biographical Appendix. The series of lectures Lewis was attending was called ‘Outlines of the History of English’ and they were given every Monday and Tuesday in Michaelmas Term.
99 Percy Simpson (1865–1962) was Librarian of the English School 1914–34, Fellow of Oriel College 1921–36, and the editor of Ben Jonson. His lectures this Michaelmas Term 1922 were on ‘Chaucer’.
100 See Charles Talbut Onions in the Biographical Appendix.
101 ‘Literary Introduction to the Poetry of the Anglo-Saxon Reader’, which lectures were given every Friday during this term.
102 This was Vol. II of The Autobiography of Margot Asquith (1922).
103 Keith Maitland Davie matriculated in 1919 and took a BA in 1922.
104 Audley McKisack matriculated in 1921 and took a BA in Modern History in 1924.
105 John Hill Mackintosh Dawson matriculated in 1921 and took a First in Classics in 1925.
106 Arthur Basil Sutcliff Mort matriculated in 1919, read Modern History, and took a BA in 1923.
107 ‘Middle English Texts.’
108 She probably meant William Bateson (1861–1926) who had been Professor of Biology in Cambridge.
109 A Short History of English (1914).
110 See George Stuart Gordon in the Biographical Appendix.
111 William Hugh Patterson (1835–1918) was an ironmonger in Belfast and a friend of the Lewis family. A liberal curiosity and love of punning caused him to take up intellectual hobbies, and in 1920 he published a volume of poems.
112 Walter de la Mare, The Return (1910), ch. XVI.
113 The Rev. Cyril William Emmet (1875–1923) was Chaplain and Fellow of University College 1920–23.