Oxford Chapter 4

On Monday, our whole group went to Wales to visit Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Castle. Tintern Abbey is considred "one of the most spectacular ruins in the country" (Wikipedia). HA...citing my sources. It was built in 1131 and it was a Cistercian monastery. (One of the two in all of Britain). We went there because it has significance to the Jane Austen class as well as the Romantics course. (Shakespeare people don't care about it...ha). In the 18th century, people started traveling around going to the crazy parts in Britain, because Gothic literature was popular and they liked the danger of ruins. The Jane Austen course is reading "Northanger Abbey" which was about a girl who let her imagination run wild a bit about ruins and gothic stuff. It's not as dangerous now as it would've been in the 1700s, but it was still fabulous. On our way to Tintern Abbey, we stopped at a look-out point that overlooked the Valley of Wye.


I took this picture on the bus on the way to Wales.


The valley of Wye. Wye? I'm not sure

God save the Queen aka Grandmummy.




Tintern Abbey











Picnicking in the grass of Tintern Abbey


The Romantics class was interested in it because they read a poem by William Wordsworth called "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey." We actually trekked 3 miles through Welsh forests to see the spot where he composed the lines. A few of us were complaining that the hike better be worth the view, and it certainly was.

The Welsh forest

A brief clearing in the forest. I really wanted to roll down it, but I think I would've inevitably rolled to my death.

The view:

The Atlantic ocean is o'er yonder




HA...amazing. One of the other signs we saw actually had that image and then below it said "Elderly People"

Chepstow Castle



The river behind the castle...it was a bit muddy
We're not sure what these holes were for...but they made for a nice photo-op

The toilets

They emptied into the river

My favorite view of the Castle...so romantical.





My photo shoot...haha




On Tuesday, it was my Shakespeare professor's daughter's birthday. So most of us went over to their little house and threw her a birthday party. She turned 11. Probably the luckiest 11 year old in the world to have you birthday here.

A cute banner some of the girls made for her

Me, Riou, Laura, and Pete

Riou and me

Mallory, Brittyne, and me