Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday 2 May 2015

Congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses


I wish through this post to convey my congratulations and good wishes to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and to their daughter upon her birth this morning.

I heard the news at midday at the conclusion of a talk at the Oxford Oratory parish centre when one of those who had been there checked the news on her mobile phone and told us there was a new Princess.

I called into the church to light a candle to Our Lady for the royal baby, and as went in the Provost was running the Union flag up on the flagpole over the entrance archway in celebration.

During the afternoon in the bar of the Oxford Union a friend and I drank the health of the new Princess.

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