The Glory, the Glory!

Happy day! I took to London once again this afternoon, and squeezed in a quick visit to the British Library. For starters it wasn't the glorious, ancient structure I'd expected, but rather a semi-ugly totally dated (opinion) brick building circa 1998 (see here). Nothing brawny like the British Museum, that seems to ooze BAM! I was kind of put off by the BL, until I remembered "it's what's on the inside that counts." (Cue cheesy music.) Much roaming and question-asking finally brought me to the only relevant room in the building, a small space housing a decent collection of significant something-or-others. The majority of these documents were absolutely insignificant to me, though there was a handful I thoroughly enjoyed: Original Beatles' lyrics scribbled on envelopes, paper, napkins, and what have you; the Lindisfarne Gospels; a draft of a Sylvia Plath poem (who I discovered has beautiful penmanship); Captain James Cook's journal (who has some of the most beautiful penmanship I've ever seen); Lewis Carroll's journal; and manuscripts from Bach, Mozart, and Handel's 'Messiah', even Beethoven's tuning fork. A special room housed an original copy of the Magna Carta, which seemed familiar to me. I quickly realized that I had seen another copy of it during a visit to Salisbury a few weeks ago (there are four copies still around).

I met up with a friend for a late dinner, and arrived back in Oxford at an early 0200 after saying goodbye to London for good. In all I've visited five times, so it's not sad to go. I feel that I accomplished most everything I wanted to in the city — for now, at least.

I've just one lecture left, exams on Wednesday, followed by a farewell dinner in the evening. Then Thursday morning…I leave for Paris! Paris!

Until then — it's beautiful here, and I plan to sprawl out in the park tomorrow and eat coconut ice cream. Ahh, the glory of it all!

Love each and every one of you.

xo
jc

P.S. - Sorry for all of the Wiki links...