To kiss and tell

That's what is carved on the stone on top of the stack in front—an odd sentiment for a cemetery, I think.

What's almost as odd are those leaning crosses. At first I assumed they had been mounted on monuments and had fallen, and someone had propped them up, but there's nowhere to mount them on those stones. So I am assuming this is deliberate, and as those stone stacks don't have any names and don't appear to be headstones or monuments, maybe the crosses have some other purpose or meaning?

I found a lot of information about this cemetery online; in the 1840's the churchyards in Oxford were full, and, like Highgate Cemetery in London, Holywell was one of several new cemeteries that were built to meet the demand. It was opened in 1848 on land donated by Merton. But I can't find any mention of these stones with the leaning crosses. I'll find someone to ask when I'm back there next summer (going back is the plan, anyway.)

Mysteries of Mob Quad

At first glance, this picture probably looks like something you get when you press the shutter by accident. But I took it on purpose, standing outside my room in Mob Quad, looking down the stairs at the door that leads out to the quad.

But it's the other door that interests me, the one in the wall over the staircase. Like, what the hell?

I never found anyone I could ask about why that door is there. The doorknob looks modern, so I am assuming that it is—somehow—used for something. The best theory I can come up with is that they have some kind of ramp they can extend from the door to the top of the stairs where I was standing and use that to move furniture or maybe trolleys of books for the library. Or just hoist them up with a rope. (Mob Quad buildings do not of course have elevators.)

(While I'm on the subject of Mob Quad, I must admit that every time I talk or write about it, the theme from the TV show The Mod Squad starts playing in my head.)

Newport Tower, close up

Enigmatic, maybe not. But it is an odd thing to see among all the colonial buildings.