We got home so late from Antony and Cleopatra last night that we had a considerably later start this morning. After a hearty English breakfast here at the hotel, we rode the bus up to the British Library (though I stupidly had us ride a mile too far, instead of getting up at the stop directly at the library steps).
(THIS PARAGRAPH PROBABLY BORING TO ALL BUT FELLOW ENGLISH MAJORS–THE KIDS CAN SKIP) In the treasures room, the music manuscripts were exciting (interesting to note how sloppy some composers were in their notation), and the Magna Carta was cool, and the Gutenburg Bible, and Charlotte Bronte’s draft of Jane Eyre, and Beowulf, etc. Amazing, all lined up in one room. But as I stood in front of Jane Austen’s writing desk and leaned in to read her draft of Persuasion (opened near the end), I absolutely had chills. I just stood there, completely overwhelmed. And then the Library had a special exhibit of WWI items, including Wilfred Owens’ draft of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” with edits by Siegfried Sassoon. It was untitled until Sassoon suggested “Anthem for Dead Youth”, then crossed out Dead and added Doomed. Such a significance choice! And he was the one who suggested “patient” in lieu of Own’s “peaceful” in line 13 (and a couple other suggestions–the word choice was giving him a lot of difficulty). Anyway, it was one of those really amazing, geeky experiences where I felt like I could follow the composition process of a sonnet I’ve studied and taught enough times to feel that I know quite well. Pretty amazing. Other highlights of the exhibit included Arthur Conan Doyle’s letter about his son on the front (claiming he wasn’t worried about death now that he had fully embraced spiritualism) and a handwritten copy of Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier,” copied down for a friend shortly before he died of blood poisoning on his way to Gallipoli. Having just watched “Gallipoli” with Derek a couple weeks ago, it felt extra trite. But we were super excited to get to see the whole exhibit, and we had a quick summer salad and scone snack while gazing at the huge tower of George III’s library through the middle of the Library. Would love to go back. Repeatedly.
Okay, enough literary nerdiness! Next we headed to the British Museum, where we and 5,000 close friends looked at the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles stolen from the Parthenon, lots of cool Egyptian stuff looted from Egypt, and the treasures of the Sutton Hoo burial mound. We also looked at hundreds of pieces of Greek pottery, trying to find the urn that inspired Keats, only to find out from the information desk on the way out that Keats’ grecian urn is currently out on loan.
Below: Ramses. Mariel, this one is for you. Thank you for brightening my life through our favorite family of fictional Egyptologists…it made this room so much more exciting! And I kept thinking, “That idiot Budge. This stuff belongs in Egypt!”
Oops, didn’t get any pictures of the Elgin marbles. They were just as described by some of my favorite Heyer characters: “None of ’em have any heads or hands or feet!”
I liked this boxing story on this pot so much that I took a picture of it. Too bad the glass created a glare. I love how he’s pulling his hand wrapping tight with his teeth as he waits to fight the winner of the current bout. I thought the kids would like this one!
And here’s a mummy, to prove to the kids that we saw some. Can’t wait to study ancient Egypt for history this fall!
After the Museum, we browsed and had tea and cake at the London Review Bookshop, browsed our way down the used bookstores of Charing Cross Road, and scrambled over to St. Paul’s for Evensong, only to discover that I had gotten the time wrong and we’d missed it. I was so mad at myself, but we noticed that there’s a Sunday evening service commemorating WWI (England entered the war 100 years ago this coming Monday), so we’ll go attend that, instead. Sigh. I’m still mad at myself, but not mad enough to skip the real church service we have planned tomorrow morning (at All Soul’s, John Stott’s old church). Anyway, we rode the bus all the way from St Paul’s across town to Chelsea, where we had amazing pizza at a restaurant recommended by a colleague who used to live here.
Note for the kids: Mommy and Daddy had a very unhealthy day of eating: no fruit for breakfast, scones and a tiny salad for tea, tea and cake for another tea, no lunch, then pizza and chocolate souffle for dessert. Ulf! I hope you guys ate healthier food today than we did! Of course, we also walked about 5 miles today, so it kindof evens out.
Two churches, National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery, and our super fancy afternoon tea tomorrow…stay tuned!
Let’s see…
Breakfast: Grandpa’s homemade waffles (with blueberries and strawberries)
Lunch: Culver’s (Janie had a bit of everybody’s, but it turns out she’s a huge corn dog fan). Did include applesauce all around, instead of fries.
Dinner: After a big, late lunch nobody was very hungry for dinner, so we had lunch–sandwiches.
On the whole, not a great day for nutrition. But I think they still edged you out. Bonus: running around the new play structure at the park until they were ready to drop. Well…until G&G were ready to drop.
I’m glad you are enjoying the sights of London after a somewhat disappointing first day there. I wish we could have given you out oyster passes and warned you about the issues with American credit cards. We almost missed a train because we couldn’t use the machines to print our pre purchased tickets. London is really a fabulous city once you get the lay of the land (although I might be a bit bias :).
Or last note, if you have time to squeeze in the WWII museum (“the war museum”) I would recomend it. It is in my grandmother’s old neighborhood and is really a good museum if you are interested in history, and down the street is a beautiful old Catholic Church where my parents and grandparents were married. Something Abbey, sorry unhelpful on the name. It was one of the first Catholic Churches built in England, was bombed and rebuilt after the war, so it has some historical significance. Or disregard this entirely. I also have no idea how long your staying so it may not even be possible. It’s Kennington station on the Northern line on the Tube.