Boars Hill and the writers

After his funeral mass at Boars Hill Carmelite Priory today, Fr John Hughes OCD will be laid to rest in Wolvercote Cemetery.  This is located on the northern Edge of Oxford, and it contains the mortal remains of J R R Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings.  I don’t know whether Tolkien had any connection with the Carmelites, but he was of course a devout Catholic.  Boars Hill itself, a viewing point for the city of Oxford, has an association with poets.  Robert Bridges, a hymn writer like his father, built the house which the Carmelites now occupy, but back in the day Robert Graves, John Masefield, and Edmund Blunden lived on the Hill.  Robert Bridges was in turn a friend of Catholic poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.  It was another poet, Matthew Arnold, who coined the expression ‘the dreaming spires’ to describe the city of Oxford as seen from Boars Hill.    

Intercessions:

Marie, Bernard, Agnes – cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Rosemarie – multiple afflictions

RIP Fr John Hughes OCD – funeral today

RIP Philippa Hodges OCDS – funeral this month