Lady Margaret Hall. Founded in 1878 to accommodate women desiring to study at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall was named after Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII and a patron of learning. Its buildings range from the original grey brick villa built in 1879 (extended in 1881) to a neo-Georgian block by Raymond Firth, constructed 1963–6. Gardens stretch east to the Cherwell. During Tolkien’s day Lady Margaret Hall was one of five women’s colleges in Oxford (men began to be admitted in 1979), and according to his daughter Priscilla, an undergraduate there between 1948 and 1951, ‘probably the one he knew best’ (‘Memories of J.R.R. Tolkien in His Centenary Year’, The Brown Book (December 1992), p. 12).
Lamb and Flag. A public house at 12 St Giles’, almost opposite the Eagle and Child, opened towards the end of the seventeenth century. Some of the original building survives. When the Eagle and Child was modernized in 1962 and its inner parlour opened to the public, the Inklings met instead in the Lamb and Flag.
Magdalen College. The college of St Mary Magdalen, founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, is one of the wealthiest and most spacious colleges in Oxford. Its original quadrangle was built in 1474–80, its landmark tower in 1492–1505. To the north is the New Building of 1733, largely designed by Edward Holdsworth; behind it is Magdalen Grove, a deer park. South-east of New Building a bridge leads over the River Cherwell to a meadow enclosed by a path called Addison’s Walk. (A photograph of Addison’s Walk is reproduced in The Inklings, p. 4b.)
As an undergraduate Tolkien attended lectures and classes given by *Sir Walter Raleigh at Magdalen. During the First World War part of the College was commandeered; for a short time in spring 1915 G.B. Smith was billeted there with the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry.
C.S. Lewis became a fellow of Magdalen in 1925: he occupied rooms no. 3 on staircase 3 of New Buildings. On 19 September 1931 Tolkien dined with Lewis and *Hugo Dyson at Magdalen, then strolled along Addison’s Walk and through Magdalen Grove discussing myth, a conversation which led to C.S. Lewis accepting Christianity. On 22 November 1931 Lewis wrote to his brother that it had become a regular custom for Tolkien to call on him at Magdalen on Monday mornings ‘and drink a glass. This is one of the pleasantest spots of the week. Sometimes we talk English school politics; sometimes we criticise one another’s poems: other days we drift into theology or “the state of the nation” …’ (Letters of C.S. Lewis (rev. edn. 1988), p. 292). When Charles Williams came to Oxford in September 1939 he often joined Lewis and Tolkien at Magdalen, and the three would read their works aloud. Lewis recalled the occasion when Williams read the first chapters of his Figure of Arthur: ‘Picture to yourself, then, an upstairs sitting-room with windows looking north into the “grove” of Magdalen College on a sunshiny Monday Morning in vacation at about ten o’clock. The Professor [Tolkien] and I, both on the chesterfield, lit our pipes and stretched out our legs. Williams in the arm-chair opposite to us threw his cigarette into the grate … and began …’ (Charles Williams, Arthurian Torso [1948], p. 2).
From some time in the 1930s the Inklings met in the same sitting-room after dinner on Thursday evenings, often not leaving until at least midnight. Humphrey Carpenter has described the room (The Inklings, pp. 128–9) as shabby and in need of cleaning; but there Tolkien, and later his son *Christopher, read aloud much of *The Lord of the Rings as it was written, and in turn heard the other Inklings read their works. In addition to C.S. Lewis, Inklings who were Fellows of Magdalen were *Adam Fox, *C.E. Stevens, *Colin Hardie, and *J.A.W. Bennett. During the Second World War part of Magdalen was again commandeered by the military: on that occasion *James Dundas-Grant, commanding the Oxford University Naval Division, resided there and became an Inkling. Two other friends of Tolkien associated with Magdalen were *George S. Gordon, president of the College from 1928 to 1942, and *C.T. Onions, fellow and librarian.
Tolkien attended several meetings of the Early English Text Society (*Societies and clubs) committee or council at Magdalen between 1945 and 1963. At the end of August 1950 he was present at the Conference of University Professors of English held at Magdalen which led to the formation of the International Association of University Professors of English.
Merton College. Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Chancellor of England and later Bishop of Rochester. Its statutes are the oldest in Oxford. It is bounded on the north by Merton Street and on the south originally by the city wall, now by Merton Field and Christ Church Meadow. Many of its medieval buildings survive, alongside later construction and renovation. Its thirteenth-century Hall was rebuilt by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1874.
When Tolkien was elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945 he also became a fellow of Merton College, which had endowed the chair in 1885. Tolkien felt more comfortable at Merton than he had at Pembroke College: Merton gave him spacious rooms in which he could receive postgraduate students and entertain friends, and in which until his retirement he kept most of his library. He was scheduled to give seminars and classes at Merton from Trinity Term 1947 to Hilary Term 1951, and morning lectures there in Michaelmas Term 1957. On occasion he stayed overnight in college, while his wife Edith was on holiday or in hospital. From at least autumn 1947 he hosted meetings of the Inklings at Merton, sharing that duty with C.S. Lewis at Magdalen College. He also invited friends to dine with him at Merton: on one such occasion, Warren Lewis recalled in his diary, ‘as I waited for him in his room, I was struck by the absolute silence of Merton compared with the perpetual hum that floats in through Magdalen windows. We dined in common room [term was not yet in session] by candle light a party of seven …. A good dinner, and a glass of better port than Magdalen gives one’ (22 August 1946, Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois).
Tolkien described his first impressions of Merton to his son *Christopher in letters written on 11 October and 22 October 1945:
I was duly admitted yesterday at 10 a.m. and then had to endure the most formidable College Meeting I have ever seen – went on till 1.30 p.m. without cessation and then broke up in disorder. The Warden talked almost unceasingly. I lunched in Merton and made a few arrangements, putting my name down at the Estates Bursary on the housing list; and getting a Master Key to all gates and doors. It is incredible belonging to a real college (and a very large and wealthy one) …. I walked round this afternoon with [*Hugo] Dyson who was duly elected yesterday, and is now ensconced in the rooms I hoped for, looking out over the meadows! [Letters, p. 116]
I dined for the first time at Merton high table on Thursday, and found it very agreeable; though odd. For fuel-economy the common room is not heated, and the dons meet and chat amiably on the dais, until someone thinks there are enough there for grace to be said. After that they sit and dine, and have their port, and coffee, and smoke and evening newspapers all at high table in a manner that if agreeably informal is rather shocking to one trained in the severer ceremonies and strict precedence of mediaeval Pembroke. [Letters, pp. 116–17]
He was allotted new rooms, part of set 6, staircase 4, in the Fellows Quadrangle on 24 June 1947, overlooking Christchurch Meadow, and moved to even better rooms in May 1954.
Tolkien and his wife lived successively in two houses owned by Merton College, at 3 Manor Road and 99 Holywell Street, after they could no longer afford to stay at 20 Northmoor