LOREAT FMAGDALENA MICHAELMAS 2008 CELEBRATING 550 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE:1458–2008 Y in the Meadow A new sculpture to mark the 550th Anniversary of the College at Willow Meadow provides the setting for anB impressive new art work by Mark Wallinger (right) that was commissioned to celebrate the College’s 550th Anniversary. Two years in development, the sculpture Y was unveiled on St. Mary Magdalen’s Day, 22nd July 2008. The artist says of his work: “The bifurcating forks or tines of Y are like the branches of the College’s ancestral tree or the antlers of the College deer. The repeated figure references divining rods, typically cut from the trees found in Bat Willow Meadow, and the structure echoes the Gothic tracery which is present within the architecture of the College”. Mark Wallinger is best known for Ecce Homo, his life-sized sculpture of Jesus Christ that in- augurated the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 1999, and State Britain, his re-creation of Brian Haw’s protest display outside parliament, which won the Turner Prize in 2007. The commission has been supported by Arts Council England and the Henry Moore Foundation, with the generous assistance of Magalen member Roger Kay (1977) and his wife Izabella. Photograph: Sam Frost; Artist photograph: Marilyn Bowler Coming soon – a new History of Magdalen College And a special offer for members of Magdalen The most important book to emerge from Magdalen history, and it is fair to say College’s flourishing publishing programme is a new his- that this is the first time that tory of the College, edited by Magdalen’s senior histori- history has been comprehen- an, Laurence Brockliss. After many years’ work, he and sively related. Brockliss’ his team of Magdalen authors—including Emily book is a big improvement on Cockayne, Matthew d'Ancona, Robin Darwall-Smith, the only other history of the Christine Ferdinand, Gerald Harriss, Andrew Hegarty, College ever written, H.A. Photograph: John Gibbons Studios Julian Lock, David Skinner, and Lucy Wooding—have Wilson’s Magdalen College, President Routh produced a meticulously researched and very readable published in 1899, and reprinted in 1998 when there was account of Magdalen College from its foundation in 1458 no obvious successor. The differences are immediately to the early twenty-first century. evident: the new history has more than three times the Magdalen has a long, complicated, and fascinating text of the nineteenth-century volume, and many more continued on p2 FLOREAT MAGDALENA • MICHAELMAS 2008 1 The President’s Garden Heather Clary describes the art and joy of creating a new garden at Magdalen ne of the things that makes y challenge in creating a new garden planting in 2006 of shrubs, bulbs, herbaceous OMagdalen such a special place is its Mwas to keep the stage used by the plants and roses. Many of the roses which are grounds and gardens. As a keen gardener I College’s theatrical group The Magdalen now flourishing have names which relate to am always eager to get my hands dirty so I Players without its imposing on the garden the College such as Falstaff (Fastolf), Gallica was fortunate that the President’s Garden for the rest of the year. As many gardeners officinalis (the red rose of Lancaster), Alba had potential for improvement, having been before me, I have been inspired by Gertrude Maxima (the white rose of York), Mary cleared of a number of old conifers just Jekyll both in her use of shape and form, and Magdalene (with the Cambridge spelling) and before we arrived three years ago. Winchester Cathedral, the closest link in Working with the Head Gardener, Claire the world of roses to the College’s Shepherd, and her team, I have had a founder, William Waynflete. The garden most enjoyable time creating and would not be complete without the maintaining a newly planted garden. flower most associated with Magdalen, the Lilium longiflorum. Not only are lilies he earliest references to a represented on a rose arbour specially TPresident’s Garden occur on commissioned for the Garden, but the Ralph Agas’ map (c.1578). This shows real plants are now growing successfully an extensive Garden that included in pots having so far escaped the orchards and a fish pond lying to the ravages of the larvae of the dreaded north of the Lodgings, reaching scarlet lily beetle. across what is now New Building and Photograph: The Great Tower seen from the President’s Garden. I wanted the garden to be especially into the Grove deer park. Records R. Fenton (mid-19th century) attractive at the beginning of summer suggest that this garden was well and also in the early autumn to coincide used by the first married President of with Gaudies, performances of plays and the College, Laurence Humphrey garden parties. This seems to have worked (1561-1589), his wife and their 12 well, so that this year’s staging of Wilde’s offspring. When construction of the An Ideal Husband not only had a highly New Building began in 1733 the scented, mauve backdrop of Wisteria President’s Garden was lost and for sinensis in its prime but the footlights the next 90 years, no records of a were complemented by the first flowering President’s Garden exist. of the yellow iris Golden Planet. In the 1820s, President Routh took advantage of the demolition of most hanks to Claire Shepherd and her of Magdalen Hall to include a large Tteam, the garden is beginning to part of the site in the creation of a Photograph:The Great Tower seen from the President’s Garden, July 2008. mature. The odd straying frisbee flying new President’s Garden. Ordnance Heather Clary over the wall (often followed by an survey maps of 1880 show that it covered particularly in her use of colour. I wanted undergraduate who thinks he or she has not most of what is now St Swithun’s Quad. there to be a lot of scent, places to sit and been spotted) has fortunately failed to have Here was situated a very large walled generally a softer shape to what was the same damaging impact as the fox that vegetable garden, a vinery and three essentially a rectangle of grass. slept on the euphorbia for several nights this other glasshouses, as well as numerous spring or the birds that decided to remove all flower beds intersected by winding paths. ith the assistance of the Magdalen the buds from the dianthus. It was during President Bulley’s time in Wgarden team and equipped with ropes, This year the smaller walled section of the the 1880s that the garden was reduced to cans of spray paint and spades, we marked out President’s Garden will be redesigned. I look the size it is today to allow for the and re-shaped the borders, created new forward to inviting you to see the results in building of St. Swithun’s Quad. flower beds and began the first set of new the years to come. Heather Clary continued from p1 illustrations, including hundreds in black- tion on the College’s finances, the chang- it widely accessible, especially to mem- and-white and dozens in colour, as well ing character of its membership, its polit- bers past and present. Therefore as maps and graphs. Wilson’s book ical fortunes and misfortunes, the devel- Magdalen has subsidized a discounted, stopped with the new statutes in 1857; opment of Magdalen music, and the pre-publication price for members only. more than half of Brockliss’ is devoted to growth of an important academic library. the period 1860–2005, so it will include The main narrative is supported by a Until 15th September members can order the very first account of the College’s glossary, appendices, and a detailed copies of the book at a special 50% recent past. Magdalen’s extensive index. discounted pre-publication price of £45. archives and numerous other sources The College is enthusiastically commit- Email: [email protected] have been mined for accurate informa- ted to the project, and wants to make or tel: +44 (0) 1865 276052 2 FLOREAT MAGDALENA • MICHAELMAS 2008 The 550th Anniversary Garden Party on Saturday 28th June was attended by over 2,600 fellows, students, members and their guests. New Building’s Lawn provid- ed the perfect venue for a giant tea party where friends and families relaxed and chatted in the summer sunshine. Jugglers and clowns delighted a large audience of children and their parents on St Swithun’s Lawn. The programme also included Photograph: Tom Wild Photograph: Tom chauffered punts, tower climbs, organ recitals and an exhibition of the College’s treasures, including the original A Wilde Affair Foundation Charter of the College. As the afternoon drew to a close, the choir sang at Magdalen in Cloisters and at 6.00 pm the bells of the Great Tower chimed out a joyful Quarter his year, the Magdalen Players’ traditional Peel to mark the conclusion of a highly Tsummer garden show was Oscar Wilde’s successful and very memorable glitzy, scandal-filled classic, An Ideal Anniversary Garden Party. Husband. In the beautiful surroundings of the President’s Garden (and with considerable help from probably the best week of weather ever recorded in May), the Irish playwright’s tale of what-goes-around- comes-around was received enthusiastically by night after night of sell-out audiences. The play’s humour is memorably droll, and Wilde is at his epigrammatic best in the exchanges between devil-may-care socialite Lord Goring and his weary butler Phipps: Lord Goring [taking out old buttonhole]: You see, Phipps, fashion is what one wears oneself.