Chris Church Matters TRINITY TERM 2013 ISSUE 31 Editorial Contents Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living. DEAn’S DIARy 1 albert einstein CATHEDRAl nEWS: The Office for the Royal Maundy 2 The idea of service permeates much that appears in this edition of Christ CARDInAl SInS – Notes from the archives 4 Church Matters. Christopher Lewis celebrates his tenth year as Dean this year, and he writes about our Visitor in his Diary. There can surely CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAl CHoIR 6 be nobody in the country who better personifies the ideals of duty and CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAl SCHool 7 service than Queen Elizabeth II: “I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life CHRIST CHURCH CollEGE CHoIR 8 and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.” THE nEWS fRoM EvEREST, 1953 10 Many of our thirteen Prime Ministers whom the Archivist writes about also stressed the ideal. W. E. Gladstone, whom another member JoSEPH BAnkS 12 of the House, Lord (Nigel) Lawson, called “the greatest Chancellor of all EnGRAvED GEMS AnD THE UPPER lIBRARy 14 time”, stated that “selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race” A PRICElESS CollECTIon of THEATRICAl EPHEMERA 16 (and Churchill is alleged to have said “They told me how Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.”) ASSoCIATIon nEWS & EvEnTS 17-27 Service, to the House, is also epitomised by the authors of the next PoETRy 28 two articles, Stephen Darlington and the Cathedral School headmaster, Martin Bruce, as it is by the choristers in the both the Cathedral and the ovAlHoUSE AT 50 30 College choirs. How lucky we are to have so many who are willing to work An ARTIST AT HoME: HECToR MCDonnEll 32 so hard to maintain standards, values and traditions. Other examples of service may be seen in the articles on Jan Morris’ TABloID JUBIlEE 34 efforts to ensure details of the conquest of Everest were received in AlDERnEy’S fInAlE To THE BAyEUx TAPESTRy 36 London in time for the Coronation, in Joseph Bank’s service to bettering SAAkSHAR APPEAl 38 mankind’s knowledge of science, and in the work of Oval House and Saakshar. BookS WITH no EnDInG 39 W. H. Auden claimed: “We are here on earth to do good to others. CHRIST CHURCH DInnER & DRAMA 40 What the others are here for, I don’t know.” It is evident from the pieces written by House Chemists, and the number of Members who came to EvEnTS lISTInGS Inside back cover the lunch to wish Paul Kent well on his 90th birthday and to the dinner to wish Martin Grossel well on his retirement, that along with Richard The Archivist writes: Wayne we have been privileged to have had three tremendous servants The gates which lead to Christ Church, Chemistry and the Tutorial ideal, all believing in and from the Masters’ Garden to the Meadow working for the common good. were commissioned in There are many exciting events in the rest of the year, all listed 1952 using a gift of £500 inside the back cover. Please note them and support them; especially the from Eric Underwood Association dinner and drama in Hall on September 21st. I trust there will (1912). Mr Underwood took a first in medieval be no collapsing staging and deaths this time but it should still be fun. and modern languages And of course, if you miss the House you can always lessen the pain by in 1915, and became a buying one of the last remaining Ingamells’ etchings, details of which are barrister after the War. However, he was also on the back cover. a journalist, writing under the pseudonym Peter Simple, for the Morning Post. Underwood was an active advocate of Anglo-American relations and so the Simon Offen Leia Clancy gates show the arms of Britain and America. The initials Christ Church Association Alumni Relations Officer which are cleverly worked into the design at the top of Vice President and Deputy [email protected] the gate, by the craftsmen of the Rural Industries Bureau, Development Director +44 (0)1865 286 598 are those of Mr Underwood’s family, intertwined with the Tudor rose motif and a cardinal’s hat. Mr Underwood died [email protected] in 1952, soon after making his gift, and so did not see the +44 (0)1865 286 075 gates erected. A small plaque on the Masters’ Garden side of the gates commemorates his generosity. Dean’s Diary ‘The Queen, recognition by being featured in Hello!, stay is marked by the door between Christ Visitor of Christ along with a ball in Monaco and the Church and Corpus Christi, created so Church’; that doings of various famous people whom I that he could visit Henrietta Maria, whose is the principal was not sure I knew about. court was at Merton, without going out toast at festive onto the streets. We now open the door meals and The history of the House is studded with ceremony each year to welcome, although the with other events involving royalty. or to be welcomed by, the Corpus Christi title of Visitor Most prominent is the welcome given to Senior Common Room. We choose a date does not Charles I when he had to leave London as near as possible to the occasion when have practical and lived in the Deanery on and off from the couple met as man and wife: 13th consequences 29th October 1642. There is a reminder June (1625). The wedding had happened these days (as of this fact on the Monarchy Website, no Christopher Lewis previously in France, attended by Dean an authority less, where the Deanery is listed as an Henrietta Maria, but not by Charles. By all to whom to ‘unoccupied royal residence’. accounts, once they got round to meeting, appeal), its symbolic significance is www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalResidences/ they fell in love. That is an unusual considerable. After all, along with Trinity FormerRoyalResidences/istoricresidences. sequence for things, but it seems to have College Cambridge, we were founded aspx worked rather well. in 1546 by the direct fiat of Henry VIII and given generous, largely monastic, That is a somewhat strange description as It is important to be aware of historical endowments all in the nick of time, for we rather thought that the Deanery was detail. When loyal addresses were Henry died in January 1547. occupied; maybe the title implies royal re- presented to the Queen in her Jubilee possession at some future date. Charles’ year, the University of Oxford was one The Queen graciously came to lunch in of the bodies given the privilege, as was 2006 and met a selection of people from K The Queen visiting in 2006 the Greater London Authority. To quote all aspects of the House. As a reminder of KK A portrait of Charles I and Henrietta Maria Oxford’s Public Orator: ‘[the Mayor of an occasion during the reign of Elizabeth by Anthony van Dyck London] stepped forward and assured the I, when a play was put on in Hall (three Queen that London had always people died when some staging been foremost in its loyalty to the collapsed, but she then enjoyed Crown. I’m not sure about that. the plays very much), a little I seem to remember that there Shakespeare was performed was some awkwardness in the using High Table as the stage. 1640’s, and Oxford had to step in’ Someone chose Macbeth. Her (University Gazette 20.6.12 p 603). Majesty said that she enjoyed it House 1 Boris 0. very much. Not all our dealings with royalty And then this April, Her Majesty have been uncomplicated and returned to Christ Church to that is understandable, given give Maundy Money to 87 men major upheavals. John Massey was Dean and 87 women, watched over by 174 under James II; at the time of the ‘Glorious companions. It was a splendid event Revolution’ Massey made his escape which gave immense pleasure to people out the Deanery drawing room window from all over the counties of Berkshire, before dawn on 30th November 1688, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire – disguised himself as a trooper and fled the diocese of Oxford - not to mention to France. Later, Dean Francis Atterbury everyone involved from the home team, was banished for being a Jacobite plotter. who were amply thanked for all the work Since then, life has been more peaceful. which was necessary behind the scenes Neither fleeings nor banishments; by meeting and talking to the Queen. relations with our Visitor have been as The event reached the zenith of social happy as they are today. n 1 Cathedral News The Office for the Royal Maundy Sarah Foot Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and a Canon of Christ Church On Thursday of Holy Week, Her Majesty the sung at the ceremony, which hence acquired the Queen visited Christ Church to distribute the name of mandatum, and so (via Anglo-Norman Royal Maundy. In making these symbolic gifts of and Old French, mandé) Maundy. As early as the alms to local pensioners on Maundy Thursday fourth century the washing of each year, Her Majesty continues an ancient feet was re-enacted, as well as tradition which it has its origins in Christ’s the commemoration of Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. institution of the Eucharist, in the Church’s liturgy for the day Although the practice is probably much older, before Good Friday.