Day 11: Last Day of Class

I was awakened by the music of the garbage trucks. Since I was up early, I took my recently washed clothes back to the laundry room in the 18th century basement and washed them again without any soap. I had bought detergent from the Porter, which made my clothes smell so artificially chemically floral that I couldn’t stand it.

I stood in the breakfast line, contemplating trying a sausage. People had said they were good, but I just couldn’t do it, they were sitting in a nice layer of fat. I should have since it’s part of the essential British breakfast experience. I still have tomorrow, so maybe I will try again.

I had my egg and my giant croissant and was happy as a clam.

It was a bit sad gathering in our dark warm classroom for the last time. The members of our class are so nice and we have been enjoying each other.

Here is what I learned today:

1. Cattle were small, about 3 feet at the shoulder. The largest and strongest males were castrated so they would get strong for fieldwork. The weaker ones were bred.
2. Ice cream in the late 19th century was called hokey pokey. It was analyzed by a health officer at the time and was said to include yeast, fungus, cotton, bacteria, bugs, hair, and other less salubrious things. Our tutor said cheap ice cream today is made with oil, so we must all stick with the Creamery.

Here is the menu for a middle class family from the late 18th century:

One of the members of our group, Leslie Maitland, lives in the Napa Valley, and has a vineyard with her husband. She brought wine with her and last night served it at a wine tasting. I didn’t attend.

She brought a bottle to class, a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, which she said was fabulous. We all got a glass, I thought it had a lot of tannin in it, but she insisted it was fabulous. It might’ve been. I don’t have a developed palate. It was very nice of her to do this.

They do some thing here which I thought was unusual. People collect £10-20 for a tip/gift for the tutor. Rebecca collected the money and this morning went to the covered market and bought Julia a gift voucher for her favorite butcher and a box of chocolates. We all signed a card. They say voucher here not gift certificate.

She was very touched. She had talked a lot about the butcher because they still had old style meats, and companion foods like the bread pudding she gave us the other day, scotch, eggs, and pork pies.

It was a good idea after all.

Since I went on the trip to Hughenden, I didn’t have the opportunity to see the college kitchen with my tutor and some others in my class. So after lunch, I went down two flights of stairs and stuck my head in. It’s in the original location, and measures 40 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 40 feet high. It’s exactly the same as it was centuries ago, with the addition of modern kitchen appliances, and utensils.

I came back to my wonderful set of rooms with piano and two fireplaces and two chandeliers, and started organizing for packing up. It’s been a very quick week.

We arranged to have afternoon tea with Steph from Bristol. I made a reservation at Quod and we met at the Canterbury Gate at 2:45 to walk to the restaurant. We walked through back streets and it was almost deserted. One block over and you can barely walk on the sidewalk.

Pat chose the full graduation tea which included a glass of champagne, I had the cream tea, two scones with clotted, cream and raspberry jam, and I ordered tea sandwiches à la carte. Steph got the cream tea, she was the most abstemious. I had to get the sandwiches, because when will I have another opportunity? They really are delicious. We all had Darjeeling tea and chatted and laughed for over an hour and a half.

This evening we have a farewell dinner starting with Prosecco in the garden and then our class and tutor will be seated at high table for dinner. Julia told us that we would all be toasting King Charles. Not sure what I’m going to do.

The bells have been peeling for almost half an hour. I wonder what it’s for?

On the way over to dinner, I stopped a porter and asked her about the peeling bells. It wasn’t from Christ Church but Oxford is filled with churches and bells. She said there’s always something going on!
The weather held and we were able to have Prosecco outside with all the members of the program and the tutors. Afterwords we went into Hall and my class and one other class was seated at high table. There were white linens on the table and linen tablecloths. Everything looked very festive. There were multiple wine glasses at every place. White wine, red wine, port, and water.

Dinner was delicious, four courses.

First was ham hock terrine, (I passed), then sea bream with pesto, then chicken with spring peas and corn risotto and asparagus. It was very good! Dessert was ice cream flavored with balsamic vinegar. It wasn’t worth the calories. But what was worth the calories was a strawberry macaron.

We were all sitting at the end of the table, so could speak with one another and with Julia. It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs and conversation. We all wrote down our email addresses, then took a photo and we’ll see if anything sticks. I’ll certainly send Christmas emails!

Time to pack up. Windsor tomorrow.

This was a surprising and lovely week. I’m so glad I came.

Love,
Lynn