Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Here Comes The Bod...



When you think of Oxford, you invariably think of the university, and you know what, having been fortunate enough to live here for the last seven years or so, off the top of my head, I’m afraid to admit that I know very little about the university! Sorry about that. I will try and do a bit of research here though, which I hope my friends in Oxford find interesting in particular, as I’m sure they know as little as I do.

University buildings do dominate the centre of town, and very beautiful they are too. None more so than the Bodleian library, the main research library of the university. The Bod, as locals and students tend to call it, is the second largest library in the country, and has an estimated eighty miles of shelves, so chances are you should be able to find what you’re looking for. For those not so interested in books, just to keep you interested here, the sorting hat scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed here too!

The library is housed in a number of buildings, and its heart you find the beautiful Old Schools Quadrangle, and this fine looking statue of a man holding a scroll, while sporting an excellent beard and moustache combo.

He is William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. Pembroke College, one of the many colleges that form the university, was named in his honour while he was chancellor of the university between 1617 and 1630. He was a notorious womaniser, apparently, which is not surprising given the facial hair and boots on show here.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have no idea why I think this is so funny, but I do.

Thanks for the laughs!

Blue944 said...

B is right this is some funny shit. Great blog theme.

John McClure said...

I too find your shit funny.
So to speak.