Travels with Em - "The Stained Glass Window"

I am always moved to wonder at the beauty of stained glass in our churches. Light dances through the colored glass so painstakingly placed in the windows. Inside, the sun streams in to cast fragments of color on calm, sedate rows of pews filled, or waiting to be filled, by worshippers. Outside, a warm glow beckons to us with the promise of hope within.
Most of the windows depict Biblical scenes or saints, but this one in Christ Church Cathedral is a little different. In deference to Oxford's relationship to Lewis Carroll, characters from his books grace the stained glass window. They are found in the corners of the individual panes.

Christ Church is a unique institution, one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford and, at the same time, the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Oxford.

Travels with Em - "The Jabberwocky Tree"

JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Our ElderHostel tour to Oxford focused on literature, including the works of Lewis Carroll. It is said that his poem about the Jabberwocky was inspired by this tree. Such imagination, to turn a twisted tree into a twisted poem. The poem has been called "the greatest nonsensical poem in English." This site gives some insite into the meanings of the poem.