Art of the Octangle (9)

After one has completed a whole round around the octangle and gotten back to the starting place, outside the doors of the Great Hall, one can instead take a cobble path inwards in the direction to the Clock Tower, which sits proudly in the center of the octangle. The tower is girded by a walking with interesting sights in each of the four corners. This is the northwestern one:

Here, at the northwest corner of the University's ancient clock tower, the Octangle stretches all around.  A clear cobbled area surrounds the tower, echoing the shape of the courtyard itself, and ancient chestnut trees stand tall near the corners, shading the lawns and the cobbled paths.  Mounted on the tower itself is a life-size statue of a previous Archchancellor caught in the middle of a truly heroic sneeze.  A rose bush grows up around him, shrouding his robed legs in dense foliage.  To the north, a cobbled path leads to the Library building, and another leads west to the Great Hall and points beyond.

The statue of Archchancellor Trimbleworthy can indeed be found inside an alcove of the Tower's wall, and looks like this:

Skurm 'the Gardener' Trimbleworthy was famous for two things - his award-winning rose bushes, and his incredibly mighty allergy to roses.

l roses

The Beauty of Brass Neck rose, named for Archchancellor Trimbleworthy's home village in the Ramtops, grows naturally to approximately the size of an adult dwarf and requires very little pruning.  It has very firm opinions on when it should flower and when it absolutely will not.  At the moment, the stems are covered with a mass of small brass-coloured blooms.