Austin Favours Grice

Or his play-yard, rather:

"Philosophers in Oxford at that time had no premises of their own; we met, as did other philosophical societies, in various colleges."

"The room I remember best was a shabbily comfortable, leathery, Victorian common room
in the front quad of Balliol, secured for our use by R. M. Hare."

"Less frequently, a rather similar, but smaller and older room next door in
Trinity, arranged by Nowell-Smith."

"At least one term, a cold and hideous lecture room with little desks, also in Balliol."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Occasionally, by arrangement of
Grice, we used

a rather splendid modern room
in St John's,

with a big central table and highly
executive chairs, looking like the
board of a prosperous and soberly
go-ahead commercial company. Officially
anyway this was the room that Austin
favoured."

GJ Warnock, 'Saturday morning meetings', in _Morality and Language_, p.205, previously in _Essays on JL Austin_, Clarendon).

Knowing St. John's by heart, and call me peripatetic, I would rather have strolled in the garden, and off from St. John's directly to the Meadows of Christ Church. With those meadows in existence everything else looks too parochial!