British Studies : Day 5

The Bodleian, located in Oxford, was once created for the School of Divinity.  It's style of perpendicular Gothic with high ceilings and sandstone via quarry holds dates of 15 Century, 17th Century, and 18th Century.  The detail was created with hammer and chisel over time.  It has crests in the ceilings as well as pictures of Jesus, Veronica, the Virgin, and others.  There is a door that leads to the theatre, where some degrees are accepted(such as Bill Clinton's due to security issues) built in the 17th Century by none other than Christopher Wren.  In the 18th Century he added the chair of astronomy and created the route for which degrees would be confirmed.  The second room we entered was known for lectures and oral dissertations, complete with debating pulpits.  School was no longer conducted here in the 19th Century.  In the convocation house- a business place for community meetings- John Selden decided there needed to be a wing for books, that storing them underground they were subject to floods and rats.  Books are and were considered to be precious items.  The wood of the room is of the Jacobean style, it is polished every 20 years, and happened to be completed by a local of Oxford.  In it there is also the Vice Chancelor's Throne were councils use to be held weekly for 100 or more people.  The chancelor's election, which was attended by any graduates(and is now moving  online), was held in formal robes at the end of the chancellor's career- also known as life in this case.  Beside this room was the court/case room where one belonging to Oxford could hold a trial without delays, recess, etc.  You wouldn't go to the gallows, but you could be sent to the Tower of London for treason.  

The library here  is worldly re-known.  It is known in size(11 million items of 1 copy each) and age(700 years old).  In the early days, it has seen contributions from New York's Rockefellers.  By 2015 then intend to make an addition, offering a restaurant and tea.  We were not allowed cameras here, for obvious reasons, and were told that the collection contained items such as 67 of 100 Hebrew Incunables, the Macgreggle Gospels, Playboy, the NY Times, and trashy novels.  I think those last three might have been joke items.  Thomas Bodely, whom long ago gave away a First Folio that has now been returned after much fundraising, was important to the library.  Duke Humphrey of Gloucester was as well- giving all of his personal manuscripts to the library project, believing that if he wasn't around to read them someone else should.  It was therefore named after him.  There is an old and a new library here.  The Duke Humphrey library can bet be described as the library from the Harry Potter films- there are restricted sections, studying benches and tables, and chained books as well as tall multi-level shelves.  In early days, the library saw no artificial lighting or heating, being afraid to catch aflame, and the hours of the library were given daily by the librarian.  In 1598 it was empty and by 1602 Bodley restored it.  The ceilings of these rooms contain Hamerbean ceilings, painted wood, and code of arms- such as "the lord is my light" and Thomas Bodely's coat of arms.  The Duke Humphrey library saw to house several royals, such as Charles I and James I(whom both have commemorative statues) and even the librarian was an aristocrat.  The organization here is similar, if not the same, as that of St. Paul's.  The book chains were removed in 19th Century and they library now receives one copy of each book weekly- resulting in two vans full.  

In or around 1610, a man by the name of Dr. John Radcliffe wanted to see a science library built.  This is now a popular reading room.  It's ambulatory is gorgeous, complete with ivory and sea green painting.  Once upon a time, Napoleon ate there and was received at a royal dinner.  Since that time, there has been a similar dinner but the only royal in attendance was Prince Charles(1990).  This was a dinner of donors.  In 1909 the underground was set at a capacity of 80%.  This room has no windows but plenty of book stacks and one area for water or meetings..  It is quite modernized The tunnel connector at the end is magical as well- we ended up in the original building we had walked out of!

Their Magical Books display was amazing.  While we couldn't take photos, I won't easily forget the First Folio Pages of Macbeth, the Tolkien images of Smaug or the Runes, nor the work of Beatrice Potter and JK Rowling in their first editions.  The art/ illustrations spanned 12th Century to 20th Century, Tolkien being of their school as well as CS Lewis.

This made dinner lunch at the Eagle and Child special.

At Christ church I learned much about Lewis Carroll, aka Charles Dodgson, and saw "THE" Great Hall used in the films.  In sum, Alice was based on the Dean of Carroll's time, Dina(her cat)  owuld get lost in a tree that people would have to etch(this became the Cheshire cat.)  The mad Hatter was based on a fabric/fitter shop attendant whom wore a top hat with the receipts of customers ticking out.  And the white rabbit was based on the dean(Alice's father) whom would enter the dinners very late exclaimed, "I'm late, I'm late, sorry I'm late!"  Eventually it all sunk in with him.  Tweedle dee and dum, as well, whom were two chefs boys in the kitchen.  Fun fact: Lewis Carroll was first a mathematician.  Also there is a magic" garden door in the garden.  The last story we were told is of Alice grown up: at one point, Prince Leopold came to visit.  He stayed in a private suite, but dined with Alice's family,  It is thought they fell much in love, but Alice was common and thus went away for a time to smolder the flames.  When she married Hargreaves, she named their son Leopold and when the Prince married he named his daughter Alice.  How mad indeed.

And King's Cross is tomorrow!  I am quite excited about this!  

British Studies: Day 3

Today we visited Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum.  Greenwich, home of things such as the Prime Meridian, Admiral Nelson's office from the the Pirates of the Carribean , and the Cutty Sark- a very large naval ship.

At the Museum, we met Graham Thompson, a librarian to the Caird Library of nine years.  His specialization is for the drawing and prints collections of the library.  In the first part of the trip, we sat upstairs in a class-type room and discussed three specific sets.  The boxes, or "archive journey storage boxes" are large, green(sometimes), and tall.  The first was concerning the armada(both Spanish and British) as well as the Tudor dynasty.  The works were consisting of several hand-written notes, a journal, and several illustrations.  Graham told us that, normally, students would come in and work with the books- handling them is now acceptable, if not preferred- and transcribe one page.  The page, usually, is one that hold a list of crew members or those on board.  The book was belonged to a Tudor, a spy master whom was of Spain.  All of this is negotiable, but extremely interesting.  The second set was a book of naval documents, ship records as well as a medicinal surgeon's book.  This book contained a out of practice methods, like when a man was drowned they would apply tobacco to the tongue to revive him.  Obviously, this isn't done still.  The third box contained pirate tales and illustrations, including that of Blackbeard.

This is the Cutty Sark.  I bought my step dad a book about it.  I don't know much about it.

In the latter half, we toured the Caird Library.  While we waited in the doorway, Graham told us about the bust of James Caird that use to be there and how the library now had plans for capturing more patrons.  To do this, he told us, they would have to paint the stairwell and put up a display(perhaps signs as well) and, more or less, advertise what was available for viewing.  By enticing them, a library that is open six days a week with one late night, they could use the items, the manuscript scanner, the microfilm/fiche, attend a program, or use their display technology- a large-screen search engine.  Today's display was for that of a "ship plans collection," which was only a small part of the whole.

Cataloging, Graham tells us, is a "never ending pushing of a rock up a mountain."  With this way this special collection is organized, it makes sense.  While there are no purple gloves anymore, there are special cooling environments/rooms, rolling racks for storage, and one must remember "format, section in the archive, alphabet, and the number of the item."  From there, there is section 1(or official) section 2(local official(i.e. Devenport Document Cards)) to the lesser of the scale, with section 6 & 7 for single purchase, copy material.  Graham helps update and decide the collection.  His background is that of a naval based child whom majored in art history(focused on photography) only to come back and work with the prints collection of the Museum.  It was a lovely trip with a great tour guide.  I even bought a pocket watch necklace(for 14 pounds) to commemorate the hometown of longitude. 

In the late morning, we hiked(and boy do I mean hiked!) up to the Greenwich Observation Deck.  For the student discount(5 pounds) we got to see many clocks, compasses, and star gazing materials.  The best part of this was at the tail end, at which point it could have been missed, I wandered up some stairs.  I wasn't sure if I was suppose to, but it wasn't roped off nor was anyone guarding it...so then I got to see the 28ft Greenwich Observation telescope, which has seen things like spots on the moon and suns of planets.  Here I took some great photos by lying on the ground and looking up. 

Two places at once!  Cheers!

  I got to ride at the front of a double decker today- only do this once.  About the third time you watch the driver almost plow a car or biker in the wrong lane, or turn a corner too sharply, you forget why you did it in the first place.  Ride in the middle, you see just as much at a much more mild pace.  Like the sweet shoppe I intend to return to tomorrow by St. Paul's.

The reception was great.  The padre of King's College was a sweet man(whom told us the difference between a pastry and a pattsie) and blessed us, as is tradition here.  The food was different- good different- and the wine was divine.  The building is very impressive and, as you can tell by the stone walkways that are worn, very old.  As too seems The Thirsty Bear, a college-type pub with cheap half pints and a great booth for nine+ gals.

And with that, I bid you ado!  Onward to the Barbican tomorrow!  And the sweet shoppe.