Oxford: A Sketch-Book — Story, Setting & Ideas

Sequence as a Stroll

The plate order mimics a pedestrian route through central Oxford. It begins at Christchurch, cuts to Carfax, then threads through Balliol, St John's, Trinity, and Broad Street before reaching the Sheldonian. The Camera appears three times—from Brasenose, All Souls, and as a standalone—underscoring its centrality. Later plates move south: St Aldate's, Folly Bridge, and the Hinksey Path. This progression implies a single afternoon's walk, with the river as a natural terminus.

Framing Devices in the Drawings

Richards repeatedly uses architectural frames: a gateway, a cloister arch, or a tower's edge. 'Outside St John's Gateway' and 'The Porter's Lodge, Trinity' treat thresholds as subjects. 'Magdalen College, Cloisters' and 'Quadrangle in Merton' emphasize enclosed stone courts. Even 'The High, from Top of Magdalen Tower' offers a rooftop vantage. These choices direct the viewer's eye along sightlines, making the built environment feel both intimate and monumental.

Omissions and Silences

Notable absences include the Bodleian's interior (only Duke Humphrey's Library is named), the Bridge of Sighs, and any modern buildings. Richards avoids crowded scenes; no plate shows more than a few figures. The river views—'The River from Folly Bridge' and 'Oxford from the Hinksey Path'—are nearly empty of boats or people. This selectivity suggests a preference for architecture over human activity, aligning with the sketch-book's subtitle as a record of stone and space.

The Role of the List

The plate list, repeated twice in the text, serves as both table of contents and poetic inventory. Its rhythm—'Tom Tower, Christchurch. Carfax. A Corner of Balliol. Outside St John's Gateway'—creates a litany of place-names. The repetition of 'The Camera' and 'St Aldate's' reinforces key sites. This cataloguing mirrors the sketch-book's function: not a narrative but a collection of views, each titled with a location and a framing preposition ('from', 'outside', 'in').

Readers approaching Richards' sketch-book should attend to what is not drawn as much as what is. The absence of interiors, crowds, and modern intrusions reveals a deliberate vision of Oxford as a sequence of stone enclosures. The drawings reward slow looking: note how each plate uses a gateway or tower to anchor the composition. This is a book to be walked through, page by page, as if tracing a route from Tom Tower to the Hinksey Path.

The rain kept the clatter of Oxford off the quad; I just traced Richards’s stonework, watching how he frames a doorway. It made me think of churches as built stories, not just scenery. Later, idly, I picked up Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory A Short History of Their Foundation and a Description of Their Buildings — Text and Context. The same quiet pleasure in learning how a wall remembers its purpose.