Travel to Oxford

Today is the second day of my stay in Oxford. 

In fact, it's my second travel because I visited here once when I was in university.

It was one year before I graduated from university that I went to Europe. 

London and Oxford were a few of the destinies in the UK at the time. 

But, like my trip to London last year, this time also I can't remember anything of the past memories. 

Perhaps it's because I did not arrange my itinerary at the time. After taking some photos (actually in Oxford, I didn't even take a picture) while travelling in the UK, I quickly forgot about the journey not long after I returned home. For me as a university student, Britain was neither an interesting nor a beautiful country like France and Switzerland, and more over at the time, I had the friends who kept distracting me from being absorbed in the pure joy of travel in Europe, during which I preferred to spend time on the beach with my friends than walking along the corridors of museums.

This time a lot has changed, compared to my first visit. 

It was summer at the time, but it's winter this time, even the coldest weather this winter, and I came alone. 

The main thing that I had to arrange was not an itinerary but a list of material to consult at the Bodleian libraries, whose name I was not aware of in my first visit. 

After coming out of the reading room of the library in the evening I just stopped by a take-out restaurant where I bought something to eat and walked down the street, passing by fashionable restaurants crowded with chatting and laughing people, up to the cheap hostel where I sleep in a bunk bed.

I think that streets in Britain are crueler for loners, as there are not many street trees. 

 One of the purposes of this travel to Oxford, the Journal of Public Health and Sanitary Review. Benjamin W. Richardson was its founder and editor. Unlike continental countries of the similar period, the medical profession in Britain was not very enthusiastic in public health. This journal was one of the few that were published by doctors during the mid-nineteenth century. 

This journal was another purpose of this travel. It reflects the changing trend within the circle of hydropathy during the late 1860s, but its publication did not last long and ended next year, 1869. The reason for the cessation was that 'the total number of Subscribers is not sufficient to remunerate him (the editor) for the great labour involved in the efficient management of a monthly serial'. 

The advertisement of Lane's book, Hydropathy; or Hygienic Medicine appeared (in the middle of the left column) in the last issue of the above journal. It is quite interesting, given the time gap of 10 years between this issue (1869) and his book (1859). Why did the advertisement of his book appear suddenly 10 years after its publication on the last issue of a journal, on which not even once his name or book had been mentioned before? 

The book that was advertised above. Since it is the second edition, other legal deposit libraries in the UK, except for this library, do not hold this edition. So it is the first time that I've seen the book that my present thesis is largely reliant upon. This encounter reminds me of my Masters dissertation, in which I analysed Chang-seop Son's Superfluous Men (1958). Why at the time did I not think of watching the movie with the same title (released in 1964, directed by Hyeonmock Yoo), which was the cinematised version of the novel? 

The library caution statement that enlists lots of sentences that begin with 'You must' and 'You must not'. 

It is typical of ancient British institutions, which look like they feel proud of their 'strictness'. Such strictness indeed serves quite practical purposes as well, by not only helping to protect their collections, but also, in combination with the multiple steps of entrance to the room and strict admission procedures for readership, by making the users of the library behave politely and responsibly. 

Actually such a principle can be applied to school regulations largely the same way. In Britain, private schools (many of which have very long history and charge expensive tuition fees) unexceptionally still maintain strict regulations, whereas few state schools do that. 

Students may not understand why such ridiculous school regulations remain in the twenty first century. 

 

The weather is so cloudy and there is no 'blue' sky yesterday. Also, I found that many of the old buildings in Oxford are yellowish, while those in St Andrews (and actually in overall Scotland, especially Edinburgh) are dark grey. The color of buildings of a town or a city may also influence the mood of the inhabitants. 

In fact, the grey color of stone and cement is what I missed when I was in South Korea though.