TRINITY COLLEGE | Scavenger Hunt with Great-Nieces, April 2019

L to R: Grace, Helen and Alice, with a portion of the
Portrait Gallery of Trinity Alumnae behind them.

OXFORD, April 14, 2019—We are visiting Trinity College with Alice's great-nieces, Grace and Helen.

We organized the visit as a Scavenger Hunt with nine treasures to hunt for and one more for advanced credit. All nine of the main treasures were located and visited.

L to R: Helen and Grace, in front of
the double-headed griffin.

Trinity College is Stop 14 on the Oxford Bus Tour. It is a short walk to Stops 19 and 20 to the west, Stop 8 to the south and stop 13 to the east.

Trinity was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope, who handled the dissolution of the monasteries for Henry VIII and thereby became personally wealthy during that period. 

He also became an adviser to Henry VIII's daughter Mary Tudor, who became Queen Mary I. The tomato-juice drink "Bloody Mary" is named after her, perhaps unjustly since the number of Protestants she executed was a fraction of the Catholics and others who resisted Henry VIII. 

The Trinity College Chapel was the first at Oxford to be designed on pure classical principles. Its design was assisted by Sir Christopher Wren. The tomb of the founder is in the Chapel; Trinity is the only college at Oxford to have its founder buried within.

SCAVENGER HUNT, TRINITY COLLEGE 

[✔️] The Portrait Gallery of Trinity alumnae (see photo at the top of this post).

[✔️] The Two-Headed Griffin (see photo above right). The griffin, also spelled griffon or gryphon, was in ancient times considered to be the guardian of gold and empires. The griffin has the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion — the king of the air atop the king of the jungle.

L to R: Helen and Grace, in
front of the Pig & Whistle.

[✔️]The justly famed Grinling Gibbons carvings, recently restored. Photo to be included...

[✔️] The Stuart gate, which is kept locked until the House of Stuart returns to the throne.

[✔️] The Pig & Whistle, guest room (see photo at left). Note to potential guests: This is emergency accommodation more than a royal suite. You may prefer the Presidential Suite at the Randolph.

[✔️] The Portrait of Pitt the Elder (Lord Chatham), who championed the colonies in their battle with the French in what is called in the United States the "French and Indian War", and made possible the American Revolution. Pitt was a Trinity alumnus.

[✔️] The Portrait of Lord North, who was intransigent in his advocacy, in Parliament and in his recommendations for policy to George III, that the American colonies must pay for British troops in America. Lord North thereby made the American Revolution inevitable. He is one of Trinity's three Prime Ministers, and the least admired. (The third Prime Minister was Lord Wilmington, who gave his name to the capital of Delaware.)

L to R: Helen and Grace in front
of a tribute to Trinity's four bumps
in 2013.

[✔️] The Commemoration of four "bumps" in Eights Week, 2013, by the First VIII (see photo at right). The bumps that year included Trinity neighbor Wadham College and rival Balliol College. A bump means that a boat's prow passed the stern of the boat in front, and they exchange places in the "head of the river" races.

[✔️] The Portrait of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, who with his two sons Cecil (who became the 2nd Lord Baltimore) and Leonard (who became Governor of Maryland) founded the colony of Maryland. The colony was named either after Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, or, more probably, the Virgin Mary. All three Calverts were Trinity alumni.

L to R: George Calvert (1st Lord Baltimore, 
founder of Maryland), Helen.

The photo at left shows Helen in front of the portrait of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore (1579-1632), Secretary of State for England, Founder of the Maryland Colony (later the State), as a haven for Roman Catholics. 

The original portrait was by Daniel Mytens the Elder, circa 1624. The copy was donated to Trinity College by the Society of the Ark and the Dove, by permission of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore. The donation was arranged as the result of a relationship with the Calvert family under Trinity College Presidents Michael Beloff and Sir Ivor Roberts.

Although George Calvert never went to what is now Maryland, he made the voyage to Newfoundland, where the colony was originally going to be settled. His son Leonard became Maryland's first governor, while the other son, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, pleaded the case of the colony in Parliament.

[  ] For extra credit (requires a special advance appointment): The stained-glass window showing the Washington coat of arms inherited and used by George Washington, and incorporated in the flag of Washington, D.C. The window dates back to Durham College, which occupied the Trinity College site before the Reformation.