Dodgson Woz Here

I like Guildford.

I'm surprised to find I like it so much.

The town centre is positioned on a hill with views out over other hills- much like Oldham, where I lived for so many years- the differences being that Guildford has better architecture and the Surrey hills are friendlier than the Pennines.

I knew about the cathedral- which is modern and looks like a biscuit factory from the outside but is rather imposing on the inside- but was surprised to find there's also a castle. And quite a substantial one at that: a big, foursquare Norman keep.

I was also surprised to find that it's a Lewis Carroll pilgrimage site. The Reverend Mr Dodgson used to visit Guildford to stay with his sisters, preached in its churches, died there- and wound up being buried in its cemetery. The castle precincts contain a little nook they call the Alice Garden which has a statue of Alice going through the Looking Glass.

The statue is splendidly weird. It's the work of Jeanne Argent- who was commissioned to make it while still a student at the Guilford Adult Education Unit.

Carpenter And Abbot Woz Here As Well

Another notable Guildfordian is the writer and activist Edward Carpenter- who worked for almost every progressive cause you care to name- including socialism, vegetarianism, Vedic philosophy and gay rights- and for a generation or two influenced almost every progressive thinker you care to name. He has been called the English Tolstoy- and if he is now rather less well known it's because he failed to anchored himself in the canon by producing a War and Peace or an Anna Karenina. If we absolutely have to have statues of famous persons then Carpenter is a famous person of whom we absolutely ought to have statues. He is buried in the same cemetery as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson- and next time we go anywhere near Guildford I mean to make a visit to both their graves...

Yet another notable Guildfordian is George Abbot- who was archbishop of Canterbury under James I and Charles I. History records him as a man of narrow Calvinist principles- who stuck to them even if it meant displeasing the reigning monarch. Until Robert Runcie came along he was believed to be the only archbishop of Canterbury who ever had committed homicide. In George's case- unlike Robert's (where the killings were done in wartime)- the act was accidental; he was out hunting deer (was that really a Calvinist thing to do?), shot at one with his crossbow and hit a keeper instead- an event which plunged him into what we would now call a fit of depression that lasted years. His lasting fame rests on his having supervised and contributed to the Authorised Version (King James Version) of the New Testament- which means that most of us are familiar with his work without knowing that it's his. His statue stands on a plinth at the top of Guildford High Street, from whence he presides over the Saturday night revels at the very historic-looking Three Pigeons across the road

It's nice to see that someone has thought of him when they were getting in a round.

What's your tipple, George?

Sherris sack.

Sorry, don't think they do that any more. Here, have a nice glass of Chardonnay.