Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Saturday, 25 April 2026

Shakespeare was here


St George’s Day on April 23rd is also, apparently, the date of both Shakespeare’s birth in 1564 and of his death in 1616. He is a writer who, not surprisingly, is still frequently in the news. 

His most recent appearance is in connection with a property he bought in the last years of his life, close to one of the theatres he acted in and wrote for. This had been created in part of the remains of the dissolved monastery of Blackfriars close to the Thames and in the western part of the City of London. The fact of him having a house in the vicinity was known but a recent discovery has revealed a plan of the house and its precise location.

The discovery is set out in a recent BBC News article which can be seen at Shakespeare's 'missing' Blackfriars home mapped with discovery

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