Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 1

Campion News October 2016

Campion News

The Newsletter of Campion Hall, Oxford University Number 8, Michaelmas Term 2016

T he old Irish greeting, Cead Mile Failte, “a

hundred thousand wel-comes”, was clearly appro-priate at Campion Hall last term, on 13th May, when for the first time the Univer-sity’s newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson FRSE, formally graced the Hall with her company. The oc-casion was a Hall Guest Night, at which those pre-sent included members of the Campion Hall commu-nity and other guests who also hailed from Professor Richardson’s native Ireland. The Vice-Chancellor is shown above in the Hall’s garden, with the Master, the Reverend Dr James Hanvey SJ, on her left, and on her right the other major guest of the evening, His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Conner, the Emeritus Archbish-op of Westminster and an old friend of Campion Hall. Other guests on this distinguished occasion includ-ed the Dean of Christ Church, Martyn Percy, and his wife, Rev. Dr Emma Percy; Revd Professor Michael Mullaney, who is Professor of Canon Law at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth; Professor Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at Hertford College; and Professor Seán McGrail, who is a for-mer Oxford Visiting Professor of Maritime Archae-ology and a one time sabbatarian at Campion Hall. On such social occasions the Vice-Chancellor likes to meet and chat with students and to discuss their work and their research; and her interest was greatly appreciated by those of our graduate and doctoral students whom she met during her memorable visit to the Hall.*

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!

Contents 1 A hundred thousand welcomes!

2 In Memoriam

A forthcoming Campion Lecture

Recent Hall Publications

3 In the News

4 New Senior Members

5 Our Junior Research Fellows

Report

6 Past Masters: Charles Plater

9 Treasures of Campion Hall, 8:

The Garden, a “pied beauty”

12 Supporting Campion Hall

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 2

Campion News October 2016

In Memoriam

We grieve to record the death on 19th August after a short

illness of our Senior Research Fellow in Music,

Rev. T. Frank Kennedy SJ, aged 68. He also held the Canisius Chair in Humanities and Music at Boston College, New England, where he had been Rector of the Jesuit Uni-versity Community. As a musi-cologist T Frank edited, pro-

duced and professionally recorded four baroque op-eras associated with the early Society of Jesus, and was planning to produce one in Oxford. He was re-cently recognized by Boston College for his lifetime of service to music.

“Life is changed, not ended” (vita mutatur, non tollitur)

Preface of the Requiem Mass.*

Forthcoming Campion Lecture Rev Matt Malone SJ is President and Editor in Chief of America Media, which produces the influen-tial weekly Jesuit journal, America, and an alumnus of the Jesuit Heythrop College, University of London. He is the author of Catholiques Sans Etiquette, Paris, Salva-tor Press, 2014, concerning the church and the political. On Tuesday, 1st November, at 7 p.m., he will deliver a Campion Lecture in the Catholic Chaplain-cy to the University, Rose Lane, St Aldate’s. The subject of his lecture, in the light of the forthcoming November 8th American Presidential election, will be “Faith in the Public Square. On Catholic Social Teaching and American Presidential Politics.” *

Congratulations to Rev Dr Joseph A. Munitiz SJ

on his latest book, Ignatian Spir-ituality. A Selection of Continent- al Studies in Translation (The Way). The author was Master of Campion Hall from 1989-98 and subsequently its Librarian and Archivist. Now Emeritus Fellow at the Hall, Dr Munitiz presents here a collection of articles he has translated from Spanish and French, some of which were pre-viously published in The Way.*

Congratulations to Professor Peter Davidson,

Senior Research Fellow and late Professor of Renaissance Studies, Aberdeen University, on the latest publication of his book, The Idea of North. (Reaktion, 2nd ed. 2016). After meditating on Dis-tance and Memory (2013) and

The Last of the Light – on Twi-light (2015), the author returns to contemplating the associations and implications of the idea of the North as a place of disclosure that is both enticing and evocative.*

Congratulations to the Mas-ter, Rev Dr James Hanvey SJ, a member of the University Fac-ulty of Theology and theological consultant for the department of Christian Responsibility and Citi-zenship of the Bishops’ Confer-ence of England &Wales, on the publication of his encyclopaedic article, “Catholic Social Teach-ing”, in The Global History of Catholicism, general editor Eamon Duffy, published by the Lord Brennan Catholic Educa-tional Trust and Rowan Publish-ing, 2016.*

Recent Hall Publications

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 3

Campion News October 2016

A new library acquisition We are delighted to report the appointment of Wilma Minty to the Hall’s Library staff, and to wish her every success in her new post. After graduating from St Andrew's University and do-

ing postgraduate work in Ox-ford, she was appointed to the University’s Theology Faculty Library, and has been more re-cently on the staff of the Bodlei-an Library as its Special Project Librarian and Curator for Spe-cial Events and Public Pro-grammes. At Campion she is engaged in the electronic con-version of the catalogue and ra-tionalisation of the library, and its full integration into the Uni-versity system. Wilma was twice awarded a blue for representing the Uni-versity at squash, and she main-tains her interest in rambling, opera and the activities of the National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society.* Mr Travis Lacouter, from the USA, an alumnus of the Jesuit Holy Cross College in Worces-

ter, Massa-chusetts, has completed his degree of Master of Studies (MSt) at the Hall, and is

beginning to study for his DPhil in Theology, focusing on the role of prayer in theological an-thropology.*

Rev Wilin Buitrago Arias SJ, from Bogota and the Colum-bian Jesuit Province, has completed his language quali-fication in Eng-lish at the Hall, and is now be-

ginning to study for the degree of MPhil in Politics, in Compar-ative Government, aiming later to proceed to the DPhil in Politi-cal Science.*

Rev Vijay d’Souza SJ has been engaged in fieldwork in India collect-ing data for his DPhil on documenting and preserv-ing the Hrus-so Aka lan-guage spoken

in the remote Himalayan foot-hills of NE India. He stayed in villages and recorded stories, conversation, religious ceremo-nies and traditional songs of Hrusso Aka as part of the effort to preserve this fast disappear-ing language. The recorded data will be archived in the well-known lan-guage archive, Endangered Lan-guage Archive (ELAR), Lon-don, from whose programme Vijay had received a grant for his work. Language support ma-terial like textbooks, a diction-ary and story books will be cre-ated using the archived data. Since his return, Vijay has re-ceived Confirmation of his Sta-tus as a DPhil candidate.*

New Arrivals Rev Dr Markus Dreher SJ was

born in Ger-many, and gained his doc-torate in theo-retical physics at the Univer-sity of Kon-stanz, where

he became a teaching assistant. He also published in internation-al scientific periodicals, and made presentations at interna-tional conferences. On becom-ing a Jesuit, he studied Philoso-phy in Munich and Theology in London. In Oxford he plans to begin working on an MSt in the Philosophy of Physics. Markus enjoys walking in the English countryside and be-ing surprised by our weather.*

Rev Christopher Krall SJ, from Wisconsin, USA, graduat-ed from Boston College and the

University of Toronto, with a later Diplo-ma in Lon-ergan Stud-ies, before becoming a Jesuit and receiving his formation at

Boston College. After priestly ordination he worked in the Jes-uit parish in Milwaukee, particu-larly with young adult groups, and his other pastoral activities have ranged from a native Indi-an reservation to the US Mili-tary Services. In Oxford he is taking the MSt in Theology and Science, aiming to explore the dignity and value of the human person in the light of advance-ments in neuroscience. Chris enjoys marathon run-ning, cycling, swimming, squash and tennis.*

In the News

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 4

Campion News October 2016

Revd Canon Professor Graham Ward, Senior Research Fel-low, is Regius Professor of Divinity and head of the Uni-versity’s Facul-ty of Religion.

He writes regularly on the theolo-gy of language, postmodernism, cultural analysis and christology, with a research interest in Chris-tian social ethics, political theory and cultural hermeneutics. He ed-ited the Blackwell companion to postmodern theology, and his lat-est book is How the Light Gets In: Ethical Life I (OUP, 2016).*

Professor Gerard Kilroy, Senior Research Fel-low, is Honor-ary Visiting Professor in the Department of English Lan-guage and Liter-ature in Univer-sity College

London, and a noted Elizabethan historian. He has recently been working on newly discovered manuscript sources to present in his acclaimed study, Edmund Campion. A Scholarly Life (Ashgate 2015), a broader portrait of the Jesuit martyr Edmund Cam-pion as being also a charismatic scholar and teacher. He recently delivered the inaugural annual Campion Lecture at the Hall.*

New Senior Members of the Hall New Senior Research Fellows

Prof Vincent Gillespie, Senior Research Fel-low, is J.R.R. Tolkien Pro-fessor of Eng-lish Literature and Language and Honorary Fellow of St Anne’s Col-

lege. His research considers the broad range of post-conquest writ-ing in England, with particular in-terests in literary theory, religious writing and mystical language. His publications include most recently co-editing A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain (Cambridge, 2014).*

We are delighted to have with us at the Hall dur-ing this term Professor Pe-ter Byrne, who holds the Baum-gartner Chair in Real Proper-ty Law at Georgetown

University, Washington, D.C. His research and teaching are in the areas of Property, Land Plan-ning and Historic Preservation Law. Peter’s favourite recreations are walking, cycling, cooking and listening to classical music and jazz. Later in the autumn he will be joined by his wife, Karen Byr-ne, who is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.*

Brother Thomas A. Dziekan CSC, from Connecticut, has joined us for a sabbatical term after hold-ing several posts in the Congregation

of the Holy Cross, including Pro-vincial of the U.S. Eastern Prov-ince, and Vicar and First Assis-tant of the Congregation. Tom plans to study spirituality in preparation for assignment as Executive Director of the Holy Cross Institute at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.*

Professor Peter McCullough, Senior Re-search Fellow, is Sohmer Fel-low, Tutor in English Litera-ture and Fellow Archivist at Lin-coln College. He teaches Eng-

lish Literature, and supervises re-search on the non-dramatic (and especially the religious) literature of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. As General Editor of the Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne he is currently at work on a 16-volumes edition of Donne’s sermons, including two volumes by himself. He is also engaged by OUP in a biography of Lancelot Andrewes.*

Visiting Scholars

Visiting Research Fellow Dr Michael Fascia, Visiting Research Fellow, is a Professor at the School of Business Management, Edinburgh Napier University, and a visiting faculty member at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. His research covers the development of business efficiency meth-odologies, and at the Hall he will focus on the interface surrounding group dynamics and its effect on organisational efficiency in the NHS.*

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 5

Campion News October 2016

Dr Adam Cribbs : New drugs to target cancer? During the sum-mer our Junior Re-search Fel-low in medical science attended

and spoke at the prestigious 16th International Conference on Im-munology (ICI) held in Mel-bourne, Australia. The Confer-ence is held every three years with the regular participation of 5000 immunologists. To a full lecture hall Adam reported on his recent research identifying some of the potential therapeutic tar-gets in white blood cells called NK cells. These cells are instru-mental in killing cancer cells and also play a significant role in in-flammatory diseases; and the hope is that the new therapeutic targets which Adam has identi-fied can be developed into new drugs to target cancer and auto-immunity. Dr Cribbs’s original presenta-tion was very well received and resulted in his being inundated with questions. He viewed the occasion as an invaluable and privileged opportunity to share the results of his research with his peers, as well as being signifi-cant for his own career as a medi-cal scientist. At whose cost? In addition, preparing his presen-tation helped to bring home to the speaker the importance and sig-nificance of scientific publishing and the problem of its financial structure. The traditional proce-dure is for a scientist wishing to publish their research in a reputa-ble journal to pay a substantial fee of usually between one and

two thousand pounds to the pub- lisher. The latter then makes the piece available, either in printed form or more frequently in pdf form, for which the publisher charges everyone, including the author, a sizeable fee, usually amounting to about £38 per view/download. As Adam comments, ‘Personally, I have had many pa-pers that I have authored but am unable to access online for free’, even although it was he who had originally paid the publisher to make them available, and in spite of the fact that scientific publish-ing is a multimillion pounds busi-ness which is funded through charities and grants from taxes. Moreover, the internet revolution has dramatically reduced publish-ers’ overhead costs. These considerations, taken to-gether, Dr Cribbs judges, under-lie his feeling that having to pay publishers in order to share and also to access socially beneficial research findings is hard to justi-fy ethically. As he concludes, ‘Hiding scientific discoveries be-hind pay walls does not benefit society, it prevents researchers from researching effectively and prevents patients from finding out about their disease, thereby preventing them from making informed decisions regarding their treatment.’ In the circumstances he warmly welcomed the tendency he saw developing at this year’s Confer-ence: ‘the explosion of research being published in open access journals.’ In this way, the author still pays a fee (which could be £3000) to publish their research, but in return this becomes acces-sible to everyone free of charge. Such ‘open access publication’ is hopefully one of many new ways of improving the dissemi-nation of scientific research, as the 2019 ICI in Bejing may show.*

Dr Nela Cicmil: ‘Seeing the World from more than One Per-spective.’ In September our Junior Re-search Fellow in neuroscience was invited to address the Rank Prize Funds Symposium on Op-toelectronics. The symposium was held, as traditionally, at The Wordsworth Hotel, Grasmere, in the Lake District, and thirty sci-entists from across the UK, USA and Europe were invited to pre-sent their cutting-edge research on binocular vision, i.e., seeing with two eyes. a capacity which is fundamental to humans’ vivid sense of 3D depth in the visual world around them. The theme of the symposium also reflected the current diversi-ty of methods and questions in binocular vision research; and Dr

Cicmil pre-sented her recent re-sults trac-ing how binocular visual sig-nals are processed in multiple

brain areas. She showed that ana-lysing the variability, or ‘noise’, in a neuron’s responses to certain binocular visual stimuli is differ-ent in different brain areas and that this can reveal the specific contributions of that neuron to 3D depth perception. Lena found that Grasmere and the surrounding Lake District provided a serene and beautiful backdrop to the Symposium, with the Wordsworth Hotel neigh-bouring the churchyard where Wordsworth is buried. In addi-tion to the full timetable of presentations from professors and more junior academics the con-ference guests enjoyed discussing their work during gourmet meals and rambles across the hills.*

Our Junior Research Fellows Report

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 6

Campion News October 2016

T he civil servant father of Charles Dominic Plater (1875-1921) was received into the Catho-

lic Church at the Birmingham Oratory by Fr John Henry Newman. Charles himself was born in Mortlake and educated at Stonyhurst, where he was strikingly popular with masters and fellow-students alike for his personal magnetism and his regular success in winning school prizes. In his final year he delivered an address at the Stony-hurst centenary dinner as the pu-pils’ representative before going off to become a Jesuit.

After noviceship he interrupted his philosophy course at the end of its second year to proceed to the Jesuit Hall in Oxford in 1900 to read Classics, just when John O’Fallon Pope was appointed the second Master of the Hall in suc-cession to its founding Master, Richard Clarke (see Campion News nos. 4 and 5). Gaining a Second in Mods and then a First in Greats, Plater accompanied his early success and promise in Clas-sics with a lifelong interest in ar-chaeology. However, it was his growing fascination with social issues as these seriously impacted on the material and spiritual lives and prospects of working men and their dependents that began to absorb his interest and became his lifelong concern.

A two-pronged social policy On completing his third year of required Jesuit phil-osophical studies Plater was appointed to teach Classics to his fellow-Jesuits for two years and fol-lowed this by studying theology and being ordained to the priesthood. At the same time he was devoting much of his time – and most of his interest – to mo-tivating and educating working men vulnerable to the power of capitalism to enable them to address in their own right the basic social issues and economic policies which dominated their lives, and to work for that social reform from the grass roots which had been advocated in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII in his first social encyclical Rerum novarum on the Indus-trial Revolution. In this campaign Plater was to adopt a double strategy: first in importance that of strengthening the religious and spiritual motivation of working men by promoting the movement for weekend retreats which he had discovered on the Continent. It was through his successful pioneering

efforts that the retreat movement became such an important apostolate in the British Jesuit Province, with the setting up of several “retreat houses”, now Spirituality Centres, applying the Spiritual Exercis-es of St Ignatius to various human occupations. Following this, Plater’s second strategy was the systematic education of working men through lectures and the setting up of courses and local

groups to study Catholic social principles and practical social issues, including the living wage, housing, and the working conditions of labour. In this way he was campaigning for informed social action not just for, but also by Catholic work-ers. Later this policy was also to be promoted in Plater’s fre-quent writing in the press and was developed under the aegis of the Catholic Social Guild which Plater helped to found in 1909 and to develop on a na-tional scale until, as recently appointed Master of the Hall, he arranged the 1916 annual

CSG conference in Balliol College. All the strenuous implementing of this double strategy exacted its price in overwork and periods of serious physical and mental exhaustion accompa-nied by occasional bouts of depression and listless-ness from which Plater often suffered.

Historic changes in the Hall It was in 1916, in the middle of the First World War, that Plater was appointed the third Master of the private Jesuit Hall in Oxford whose name was duly changed from Pope’s to Plater’s Hall in ac-cordance with then University practice. Shortly af-terwards, however, in May, 1918, the University decreed that all its private halls, each named after its current Master, would thenceforth have the status of being “Permanent Private Halls” (PPHs) with a fixed name, thus happily allowing for Plater’s Hall formally to become Campion Hall, as the Jesuits had always named it among themselves. (See Cam-pion News 3, “Campion Hall: What’s in a Name). The Great War brought a massive change to Oxford’s population, largely through the rush of University undergraduates and fellows to enlist in the forces while this was voluntary, and then through the regular stream of recruits after consc- »

Past Masters: Charles Dominic Plater SJ

Charles Dominic Plater By Harry Herman Salomon

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 7

Campion News October 2016

ription was introduced in 1916. By 1915 the Uni-versity had become a shadow of its former self as the total university population dropped by about two-thirds, and the student population of many col-leges dropped to single figures, resulting in a vestigial academic life which was only slightly alle-viated by the continuing of the women’s colleges, although even here a number of female undergradu-ates took temporary leave to help nurse war casual-ties.

The groves of academe? In contrast, Oxford and its university was turned into a large military camp, with a continual inflow of soldiers billeted in many of the colleges. Many of these men had been wounded and disabled in battle, and places like Examination Schools, Balli-ol, University College and Somerville were con-verted into military hospitals for British and Ger-man casualties, with Somerville’s women under-graduates being lodged in other comparatively emp-ty men’s colleges, and Oriel, Merton and New Col-lege also contributing to the war effort in similar ways. As a well-nigh inevitable consequence of this, Plater was to be found spending hours daily, often with the cooperation of his community, in visiting wounded soldiers (and German prisoners) and car-ing for their spiritual needs: offering his daily Mass each morning in the Examination “Schools”-cum-Base-Hospital in the High, taking convalescents out on expeditions, making his own Hall a home for them, organising short retreats for wounded soldiers and army cadets in a property he got the use of in the nearby village of Begbroke, and in general proving himself what one commentator described as “one of the great spiritual forces of Oxford”. Plater’s six-years career as Master of the Hall, in the sympathetic words of his close Jesuit friend, colleague and posthumous biographer, Cyril Mar-tindale, “though short, was strenuous”. In fact, the dominating interest and concern which continued to possess him was to promote, organise and provide short retreats now for the many war casualties who

were convalescing throughout Oxford. Inevitably Plater’s charges in his Hall, the Jesuit scholastics working for their degrees, might be thought, as Martindale and others hint, to have suffered as a result of his absences and his regular preoccupation with retreat-giving and lecturing, writing and founding “study classes” and “social guilds” up and down the country, as well as caring for the re-covering war wounded in Oxford. Yet it is amply recorded that the Master’s stren-uous campaign for social justice was mainly exer-cised during the lengthy Oxford vacations, and that alongside it he was also thoughtfully devoted to his small community of Scholastics, whom he fully re-spected, to whom he provided free access and with whom he often shared recreation in rowing, swim-ming and picnicking by the river. They in their turn were affectionately united in making allowance for his absences and frequent periods of obvious ex-haustion resulting from his apostolic efforts, and also in conspiring to counter his continual and cheerfully acknowledged absentmindedness. And, of course, his men must have received continual inspiration and encouragement from the powerful example of their Master’s apostolic zeal. During the war years there were nine Jesuit Scholastics studying at Campion Hall during 1914 and 1915, eight during 1916, eight in 1917 and sev-en in 1918. Given the University’s severely attenu-ated student population, especially from 1916 and the introduction of compulsory conscription, it can-not have been comfortable, and could have been embarrassing, for the Jesuits to be pursuing studies at Oxford exempt from conscription due to their status as ministers of religion in training, while many of their contemporaries were fighting and dy-ing in the trenches. Yet they should have been con-soled to be aware that many fellow-Jesuit priests, their training completed, were willingly enlisting as chaplains to the armed forces, numbering seven in 1914, thirty-two in 1915, forty-eight in 1916, and no fewer than seventy in 1917 and seventy-nine in 1918, before dropping to single figures again once the war ended.»

Oxford University in World War I

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 8

Campion News October 2016

The Plater Hall Community in 1916, numbering eight Scholastics, with the Master (with dog) in the front row, centre. On his right is the senior Jesu-it, Fr Joe Rickaby, who acquired an Oxford BSc while Spiritual Director at the Hall and regular lecturer in the University Catholic Chaplaincy, a pro-vision required by the Catholic hierar-chy in permitting Catholics to study at Oxford. On Plater’s left is the later celebrated Master and British Provin-cial, Martin C. D’Arcy. Ted Helsham, in the back row, second from the left, became a highly popular and revered Provincial.

Worked to death Plater’s energetic and almost incessant activity re-sulted in his having occasionally to take a pre-scribed rest from his exhausting programme, as in Ireland after a heart attack, and finally in Malta. Even here he was irrepressible and at the age of 45 at the height of his fame he succumbed in January 1921 in Malta to a sudden cerebral haemorrhage as he was leaving the hospital ward of some sick sail-ors he had been visiting.

Historical significance It is clear that Charles Plater’s time spent in Oxford as Master of what became Campion Hall occupied only a small part of his Jesuit apostolic activities; and he is much better recalled today, and more publicly valued, for his pioneering influence in de-veloping the workers’ retreat movement and the Catholic Social Guild. Yet his mastership involved a number of developments which have historical significance. It was during his time that the University legis-lated to enable Plater’s Hall to be permanently renamed Campi-on Hall (see page six). Then, as their religious and academic superior, Plater made a signifi-cant contribution to the academic and spiritual for-mation of the

Jesuit scholastics who passed through his hands, some of whom later achieved considerable promi-nence and influence in the Order (see above). And in his growing international reputation for popular-ising retreats for working men and their systematic education in the active pursuit of Catholic social justice he contributed a reflected reputation to Campion Hall; while his assiduous pastoral care of the continual stream of war casualties in Oxford made a powerful impression on city and university alike, creating a reputation and name for him which again redounded on the Jesuit Hall. It was entirely appropriate that after Plater’s death the Catholic Social Guild opened a Catholic Workers’ College in Oxford in his honour, and lat-er named it Plater College in his memory. The Col-lege continued in existence for forty years until 2005, when falling recruitment and changing stand-ards led to its closure.*

Plater’s Hall, later Campion Hall, 11-13 St Giles, by The Lamb and Flag3

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 9

Campion News October 2016

T he garden of Campion Hall is much older than the Hall itself, going back to

the seventeenth century when it belonged to Micklem Hall. Then it was the home of the last of a succession of brewers which later served as a lodging house for Christ Church undergraduates and, during the First World War, for Somerville College women stu-dents (see page seven).

Tranquil and dignified When Sir Edwin Lutyens OM was commis-sioned to design and build the new Jesuit hall in Brewer Street, and was planning to clear the site, he was requested by the re-cently formed Oxford Preservation Trust to retain part of Micklem Hall and its garden, and he duly incorporated in his design much of the ancient Hall at the top of its garden, which included the original stone fountain (right). In fact, given the narrow restricted site with which he had to work, he must have welcomed preserving the old garden, to help him, as one commentator observed, “turn his little patch of ground into something tranquil and full of dignity”.

One of the Somerville undergraduates mentioned above, Vera Britten, wrote later in her Testament of Youth that she did not much care for the house in which she was lodged, but she did appreciate how “the garden, with its heavy, drooping trees, at least promised a refuge”. In WWI days, then, the Mick-lem Hall garden seems to have been quite mature; but Lutyens may have decided to replant it. His ear-ly sketches of the new hall and its garden confirm his meticulous, if not obsessive, attention to de-

tail in showing his plan to adorn the garden with an apple tree, a pear tree, a chestnut tree, and two ibex trees. Yet, in living memory the centre of Campion Hall’s garden had become dominated by a large spreading holm oak which literally overshadowed all that lay below and around it (see page twelve). When this became fatally diseased, permission was successfully sought to fell it, with what is acknowl-edged to be a pleasantly lightening effect on the gar-den as a whole. As years go by, compensation will no doubt be forthcoming from the new willow-»

Treasures of Campion Hall, 8: The Garden – a “pied beauty”

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 10

Campion News October 2016

leafed pear tree which will give a spreading shade in the new sec-tion of the garden over the old city wall.

“Pied beauty” The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, gave the title Pied Beauty to his poem of thanksgiv-ing for “dappled things” – God’s colourful creatures that “he fa-thers-forth whose beauty is past change”. As one observes Cam-pion Hall’s garden through the seasons, with its colourful suc-cession of blossoms and foliage continuously pleasing to the eye, under the discerning care of the RHS-experienced Judith Baker (right), then “pied beauty” seems no bad description for the Hall’s garden, especially since, in Jesuit fashion, and as Hopkins would surely approve, it is designed not just to provide delight to its viewers, but also to give glory to God. »

Judith Baker with her cherished wisteria

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 11

Campion News October 2016

Campion News, Michaelmas Term 2016 page 12

Campion News October 2016

Campion Hall is a ministry of the Jesuits in Britain as a registered charity, number 230165 (Trustees for Roman Catholic Purposes Registered). As a Perma-nent Private Hall of Oxford University, the Hall does not receive any public funding from the Gov-ernment, nor from any other source. It relies totally on private financial support. The Hall warmly welcomes all financial donations from individuals as well as institutions to promote its work. Benefactors can, but need not, specify a purpose for their donation. Financial support can take the form of a one-off donation by cheque or credit card, or by bequest in an individual will, or of a regular donation by banker’s order . Benefactors can, but need not, specify a purpose for their dona-tion. Gift Aid Declaration (for UK benefactors). The value of a gift by a UK taxpayer can be increased by 25% under the Gift Aid scheme. Donors need only state that they wish Campion Hall to treat as Gift Aid donations this and all other donations that they make from the date of their declaration until further notice. On their behalf, Campion Hall then claims

back the tax from Inland Revenue; in other words, it reclaims a further 25p on every £1 that is donated. U.S. benefactors. “Americans for Oxford, Inc. (AFO)”, is the University of Oxford’s primary char-itable organization in North America, and it accepts gifts in support of Oxford and its Colleges and Per-manent Private Halls, including Campion Hall. AFO has been determined by the United States In-ternal Revenue Service to be a tax-exempt public

charity. For information on donating to Campion Hall through AFO see the information and form ac-cessible at <www.northamerica.ox.ac.uk>.*

The celebrated artist Charles Ma-honey (1903-1968), who spent years devotedly painting the set of murals in the Hall’s Lady Chapel (see Campion News, issue 5), once had occasion in the 1950s to dash off a pen-and-ink sketch of Evelyn Waugh as the latter was strolling up a path in the Hall’s garden (left). Waugh was a close friend of the Master, Martin D’Arcy, and a generous benefactor, having donated to the Hall the royalties from his life of Edmund Campion (Cassell 1935), which helped pay for the murals that Mahoney was in the process of painting in the Hall’s Lady Chapel. The sketch, signed by Waugh in the bottom right corner, is reproduced here with kind permission. At the bottom of the drawing is part of a try-out of a detailed sketch of the pediment of the Hall’s ceremonial en-trance from the garden (see page elev-en). Worth noting is the large solitary tree in the garden which eventually be-came so diseased that it had to be re-moved (see page nine).*

Supporting Campion Hall

Campion News is produced termly in

Campion Hall, Brewer St, Oxford OX1 1QS,

and is printed and distributed by

the Holywell Press, Oxford.

It is accessible online at www.campion.ox.ac.uk

Editor Jack Mahoney SJ