CHRIST CHURCH (3) "TOM" TOWER


"Those twins of learning, which he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford, one of which fell with him;
The other, though unfinished, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue."
SHAKESPEARE, /Henry VIII/.

Oxford is described by Matthew Amold as,

"Beautiful city, with her dreaming spires,"

yet it is for her towers, especially, that she is famous. Glorious as
St. Mary's is, it certainly does not surpass Magdalen Tower; and it
may well be doubted whether the genius of Wren has not excelled both
Magdalen and St. Mary's in "Tom" Tower. Gothic purists, of course, do
not like it. There is a well-authenticated story of a really great
architect who, in the early days of the twentieth century, was asked
to submit a scheme for its repair; after long delay he sent in a plan
for an entirely new tower on correct Gothic lines, because (as he
wrote) no one would wish to preserve "so anomalous a structure" as
Tom Tower. The world, however, does not agree with the minute
critics; it is easy to find fault with the details of "Tom," but in
proportion, in dignity, in suitability to his position, the greatest
qualities that can be required in any building, "Tom" is pre-eminent.
This is the more to be wondered at, as the tower was erected a
century and a half after the great gateway which it crowns.