This is the view of the Carfax Tower ("carfax" = carre-four, i.e. cross-roads) from the corner of High Street and St. Aldate's, at an elevated crest between the rivers at the center of Oxford. (The other two crossing ways are Queen's Street, down which this picture looks, past the tower, and Cornmarket Square, a bit ironic if apt name for what's now a mostly tawdry pedestrian mall). The tower, an early 19th century reproduction of a 14th century original, is all that was left of the former St. Martin's church after the rest was pulled down at the end of the 19th century to widen Queen's Street. Beneath the clock are perched two "quarterboys," sentinels who ring their bells every fifteen minutes, as they gaze (somewhat blankly, it appears from below) over the top of the High Street. 
A quarterboy. He looks chilly, and stoic for that, in the windy damp that reigns here.
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