Day 31: Dusting Off Old Books

This morning Ethan headed to Kensington for another meeting and I stuck around to plan my visits to Roman sites in London.  I then went to meet with Ethan and take a stroll through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.  As Ethan pointed out, if only we'd had this weather when visiting the palace a few days ago.

The weather was warm, but breezy as we walked around the Round Pond and headed through the gardens.  We followed tree-lined paths to the Long Water, the portion of a serpentine lake in Kensington.

At the end of the Long Water, there is the Italian Garden, consisting of an Italianate building and a terrace with four fountains and flowering ponds.  The garden was a present from Prince Albert to his wife, Queen Victoria.  The walls are decorated with Vs and As.

The garden fell into disrepair and was most recently restored in 1991 and 2011.  Work was done to repair damage to the structure, the stonework, and the ponds themselves.  My favorite addition to the garden was little wooden ramps to ponds to help ducks and ducklings safely get in and out.  The renovation was greatly helped by a grant from Tiffany & Co.

We followed the Serpentine Lake into Hyde Park and watched tourists boating around on the water.  Although I've talked about seeing swans before, Ethan and I were both commenting on the wide variety of birds we've seen in London.  At any one time, in Hyde Park, we could see eight or nine different species of birds.  Many were introduced as gifts or representative specials from around the United Kingdom.

We took the tube from Hyde Park to St. Pancras and King's Cross so we could return to the British Library.  The station was originally slotted for destruction in the 1960s, but was saved and painstakingly restored between 2001 and 2007.  The station now serves domestic trains, but also international ones via the Chunnel.  When we were in the station yesterday we saw trains headed to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

The train station opened in 1868 and around the same time a massive hotel was built as an attachment to the station.  The Midland Grand Hotel had 300 rooms, each with gold leaf decorations and fireplaces, a grand staircase, hydraulic lifts, and many other top of the line features.  The hotel went out of business in 1935 and was used as railway offices.  After the 1980s, when the building failed safety regulations, it was left empty.

In 2011, the building reopened as the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel.  The renovations began in 2004, during the revamp of the train station.  The new hotel contains 244 rooms, 2 restaurants, 2 bars, a health and leisure center, a ball room, 20 meeting and function rooms, and on the upper floors of the original building, 68 apartments.

Ethan and I grabbed lunch and then returned to the British Library.  This time we had collected our proper documents and were able to register to use the reading rooms and collections.  We both looked into manuscripts relating to our research.  I was able to find a 17th century manuscript of Tacitus's De Vita et Moribus Iulii Agricolae, which follows the life of the man credited with Romanizing Britain.

The manuscript was quite simple: no cover, simple paper, and written in a brown ink.  The entirety of the book was copied out on 36 pages, although text was only written on the lefthand side of pages and only on on the left page.  (Please excuse the quality of the next three photos.  I was unable to use my camera in the reading room and my phone's camera has damage to the lens, leaving big black dots in all the images.)

I think this may suggest that the righthand sides of the pages were being reserved for the owner's thoughts and commentary, but I may be wrong.  The manuscript came from a larger collection, referred to as the Trumbull Papers, and I did not learn much about the larger collection.  From what I could tell, the collection held a diverse collection of works and topics, so I'm not sure how Tacitus fit in.

Flipping through the pages, it was entertaining to catch the mistakes the scribe had made in copying out the text.  Words were crossed out, added via carets, and squeezed in when forgotten.  I even found one of the most classic scribal errors, which I believe is called a homeoteleuton.  In the photo below, the word habebatur is crossed out and replaced by the correct word narrabatur.  In the line above the word habebat appears and in the copying process, the scribe certainly skipped back a line and brought the earlier habebat below.  Luckily, the mistake was caught and the meaning of the sentence wasn't changed in a very confusing way.

We didn't have as much time with our manuscripts as we would have liked, as the reading room closed at 5pm, but we left the library happy.  We decided to head to the infamous Fleet Street for some meat pies.  Ethan, who loves Sweeney Todd, had found a pie shop located between the supposed location of Todd's barbershop and Mrs. Lovett's pie shop.  Ethan went for a pie and beer tasting dinner, which came with three of the restaurant's most popular pies and paired them with three different beers.  I had a lamb pie with a red wine, rosemary, and mint sauce and a cider.

Overall, it was a successful day, filled with research, wandering, and good food.

Fun Fact #31: Meat pies have origins 11,500 years ago in the Neolithic Age.  They were introduced to the Mediterranean by the Egyptians and were adapted by the Greeks.  They then reached the British Isles through the Romans.  So the Brits have the Romans to thank for one of their favorite national meals.

On the flip side, they also have the Romans to thank for the introduction of stinging nettles, so it's not all great.

Day 28: Braving the Rain

Ethan and I both purchased London Passes, a tourist pass that gives access to over 60 attractions in and around London.  They can be purchased for multiple days and allow you to go to £90 worth of sights each day.  We bought two-day passes and made a list of our top sights, although some proved too impractical to do within the two-day window.  However, today we tackled the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace, Westminster Abbey, Royal Albert Hall, and Kensington Palace.

We picked up our Passes in Trafalgar Square and, as we headed to our first stop, we stopped into St. Martin-in-the-Fields.  I was very excited to visit the church as it has a very strong music history.  Most notably to me is the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, a conductorless string orchestra.  The group is named for its first performance in the church.  Since then, they have achieved musically and professionally.  You may have heard them without knowing, as they recorded the soundtracks to Amadeus and The English Patient.  I know them from a recording of Mozart's Requiem in D minor that is one of my most listened to pieces of music.  Below is the gorgeous organ in the church.

Ethan and I then headed to the Banqueting Hall.  The Hall was once part of Europe's largest palace complex, larger than Versailles or the Vatican.  The Palace, designed by Inigo Jones, was built for Henry VIII and was constantly expanding; the palace was made up of more than 1,500 rooms.  Sadly, the vast majority of the palace was destroyed in 1698 by a massive fire and only the Banqueting Hall survived.

In 1635, Charles I commissioned Peter Paul Rubens to decorate the massive ceiling of the Banqueting Hall.  The central painting of the nine shows the apotheosis of James I, the father of Charles I.  The paintings focus on the accomplishments of James I and his rule, which Charles had depicted was being full of wisdom and good virtue.  The central painting shows James I being brought to heaven by virtues such as Justice, Faith, Religion, along with the goddess of wisdom, Minerva.  Other paintings show James uniting England and Scotland and allegories for temperance and abundance.  They are massive masterpieces by Rubens and the only ceiling paintings by the artist still in situ.

The Banqueting Hall was used for masques until the Rubens paintings were added.  After that point, the room was used by the kings of England for official purposes, especially the meeting of foreign ambassadors.  The ambassadors would have proceeded towards the king in his throne.

The Banqueting Hall also witnessed the execution of Charles I, who was beheaded just outside the building.  After his fall from power, the building saw use by Oliver Cromwell, was turned into a church for later royals, then a museum, and now stands a historic site and function venue.

On our way to Westminster Abbey, we stopped to see two members of the Blues and Royals monitoring the Horse Guards Parade.  Only the monarch is allowed to drive through the central arch, which leads to the site of the 16th century jousting tiltyard.  The site is used for major events involving the British military, such as the Trooping of the Colour.

There is no photography allowed in Westminster Abbey, so I don't have any pictures to share.  However, Ethan and I got to see the tombs of many British monarchs and notables.  There are far too many to name, but I know Ethan's favorite (even without asking him): the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I.  I think my favorite moment was accidentally coming across the tomb of Muzio Clementi, a renowned pianist and composer who wrote many delightful sonatinas.  Sadly, Westminster is hurt by its status as a tourist destination and it's nearly impossible to really enjoy or experience the Abbey.  Instead, most of the time is spent getting pushed through crowds of visitors with audioguides glued to their ears.  Still beautiful and stunning, but I think I've seen more beautiful churches on this trip.

After lunch, we headed through fairly heavy rain to Royal Albert Hall.  The building is beautiful.  At the time, it had the largest unsupported roof in the world and to this day, the roof is unsupported and has been in place since it was installed.

Sadly, we were not supposed to take pictures for most of the tour (I accidentally took some in an area that I thought was okay, but apparently not).  However, Ethan and I had an hour long, informative tour through the building.  We got to listen to part of a rehearsal for Proms, which is ongoing, see the royal box, and the private room for the royal family.  We also went up into the gallery at the top of the theatre, which gave great views of the orchestra rehearsing and how they've adjusted the ceiling to be more acoustic.  All around, it was a really fascinating tour of a beautiful venue.

From Royal Albert Hall, we went to Kensington Palace, the home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.  The palace has been a residence for British royalty since the 17th century, with its purchase by William III and Mary.  Now the palace is part private residence to the royals and part museum focusing on the history of the royals and their connections to the house.

One exhibit of the palace focuses on the fashion of the royal women, by looking at pieces worn by Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, the Queen's late sister, and Diana, Princess of Wales.  The dress above was worn by Queen Elizabeth in the 1950s on a diplomatic trip.

This Indian inspired gown was worn by Princess Margaret to a fancy dress party in the 1970s.

Diana, Princess of Wales, wore this red dress during a royal tour of Saudi Arabia in 1986.

Other portions of the museum were dedicated to earlier monarchs, especially King George II and Queen Caroline, the ruling royals to live in Kensington Palace.  The house served both public and private functions, all in a wonderfully decadent style worthy of the British royal family.  In one room, used for balls, projectors played dancing men and women against some of the walls.

The King's Gallery had commanding views of Kensington Gardens, but the art might have distracted from the view.  Paintings by the likes of Tintoretto and Vasari covered walls throughout the palace, and the King's gallery had two massive Tintorettos.

The queen's portion of the palace was equally stunning, although in possibly a less grand way.  It felt more homely, if a palace can ever be described in that way.  This makes sense, as the rooms were much more private than those of the kings.  The Queen's Bedroom was the probably the sight of at least the death of two British Queens, Mary and Anne.

The largest portion of the palace is dedicated to the life of Queen Victoria, who was born and grew up in Kensington Palace.  It was even here where she was told she was queen and held her first privy council meeting.  The dress above is from Victoria's early reign, when she had just been happily married and had her first of nine children.

Much of the exhibit is dedicated to the relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Both were accomplished pianists and singers and Albert seemed to enjoy composing a great deal.  He wrote quite a few pieces dedicated to and about Queen Victoria, including the one pictured above.  Victoria loved to hear him sing them to her.

This is a locket, very much in style during Victoria's reign.  It contains photographs of Victoria and Albert and lockets of their hair.  Often the lockets of hair are symbols of mourning, which dominated much of Victoria's life and reign.  Albert died twenty-four years into Victoria's sixty-three year reign and she never recovered.

It is often said that Victoria only wore black after the death of Albert.  Though this is probably not true, almost all depictions of her show here in almost all black attire.  This portrait of Victoria at age 80 shows her still in mourning clothes and looking rather forlorn.  However, it was one of her favorite depictions of herself, stating that the artist had never painted a better portrait of her.

Queen Victoria was interested in arts beyond music.  She started painting when she was young and here are some watercolor sketches of a sunset she painted.  Quite a multitalented queen.

Although we didn't get to meet any royals, Kensington was truly fascinating and beautiful.  Sadly, we got drenched going there and leaving.  As we made our way back to our hotel on the tube, we heard increasing announcements about platforms shutting down due to flooding.  It seems we picked one of the heaviest days of rain London has seen in a while to do lots of sightseeing.  But what a successful day we had!