OXFORD FOR OUTSIDERS
'Oxford is on the whole more attractive than Cambridge ... and the traveller is therefore recommended to visit Cambridge first or to omit it altogether if he cannot visit both.
Baed ker's Great Britain (1887)
 Gowns in 1813. From the left: scholar, gentleman-commoner and Bachelor of Arts
Oxford's touristic history began with medieval pilgrims but, unlike many other places, did not end with the destruction of that tradition at the Reformation. The city's geographically central location would always have brought it some passing trafEc, as would the desire of alumni to revisit scenes of youthful endeavour or dissipation. But Oxford's enterprising inhabitants can take much credit for actively promoting its attractions. One Victorian 'booster' boldly proclaimed that a first visit to Oxford was 'A Thing to Remember for Life'A no less. A satire on Oxford guide-books appeared as early as 1760. One of the earliest of that genre, the Microcosmography of J. Earle (died 1665) sketched out a range of 'university types' for the benefit of visitors. The 'Plodding Student', good at logic, hopeless at poetry; the 'Downright Scholler' whose 'mind is somewhat too much taken up with his mind'; die 'Pretender to Learning', a name-dropper of audiors who keeps the same book open on his table for six months at die same page; and the 'Young Gendeman of the University' who 'comes there to wear a gown and to say thereafter that he has been at the University'.
The building of the Sheldonian Theatre and

Ashmolean Museum added two first-class visitor attractions.

Breezy, free-spending Samuel Pepys enjoyed his visit, as did the doughty Celia Fiennes. but hypercritical Zacharias von Uffenbach couldn't wait to get back to London. Another German, C.P. Moritz, arrived much fatigued late at night, having been picked up on the road at Nuneham Courtney by an English clergyman, who introduced him to a midnight drinking session of fellow pastors at the Mitre. The beer flowed until first light when the bemused visitor's new acquaintance abrupdy abandoned him with the announcement 'Damn me, I must read prayers this morning at All Souls'. Moritz was less than exhilarated by his first sight of the much-praised thoroughfares of Oxford which he found 'dingy, dirty and disgusting'.
The advent of die railway introduced a new species of visitor, the day-tripper, who represented a welcome market for Abel Hayward's Penny Guide to Oxford.

 

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The reactions of the enraptured Nathaniel Hawthorne and die reverential Henry James confirmed, however, diat the spirit of pilgrimage was not entirely dead. American awe, however, eroded with the years. In the 1920s a Christ Church porter, personification of collegiate hauteur, was shaken to hear a transadantic voice enquire 'Say, usher, is this a purely literary establishment or can I get a snack here?'. Oxford responded to such vulgarisms characteristically, a pedantic notice in Queen's Lane frostily proclaiming No Chars-a-Banc Allowed Here.
Over die past quarter century attitudes have changed markedly. The university itself backed 'The Oxford Story' 'dark ride'. Specialised tours of the locations associated with the grumpy, beer-swilling genius of Inspector Morse and die very differendy talented Harry Potter became available. The city's highly qualified Blue Badge guides offer others on such diemes as Architecture, 'American Roots', 'Alice', Science, Literature, Ghosts, Gardens and Waterways. Enterprising undergraduates offered dieir services as rickshaw drivers.