This weekend we had the pleasure of exploring in Cambridge and hanging out with some great friends and family. This will mostly be a pic post with a little color commentary - just fyi.
Friday I had the privilege of checking out the "Old Library" at John's - my college - which is chockfull of history - not just in the bound-book sense, but in every way - Charles I was one of several monarch's who crossed its hallowed floors. If you aren't a book and/or library aficionado, you'd be well-advised to scroll down, because bibliophiles: this is for you!
After a solid half hour or so of browsing a pretty massive collection, I was intrigued by the iron staircase and decided to ascend....
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's a real, working library, circa 1624 that still operates today. And in case you were curious, the telescope is Sir Hoyle's - a great astrophysicist that wrote a pretty famous paper about the genesis of the elements within stars.
A life mask (not a death mask, so don't freak out) of William Wordsworth, English poet, and revered alum.
There were also ruins from a castle, purportedly built some time in the 1140s
There wasn't much left as far as a really discernible shape goes, but we enjoyed exploring.
Brenda and Bjeorn at the 15th century "rebuild" of a church established in 1138
After refueling, we were ready to take on the cold again and after a very delicious round of doughnuts (courtesy of Bjeorn) we headed in search of a hedge maze Brenda had looked up. We found it, but unfortunately it was still closed for the season, but we met two very nice British people, one that told us a little about the history of the newly revitalized Dutch garden we had wandered through, and another who let us play with her dog.
After a little more wandering in the cold, we ended the day with a wander through the Cambridge Natural History Museum and the Grand Arcade
Then, on Sunday, we were privileged with a visit from Dick and Dorothy, Josh's great-aunt and -uncle who favored us with their company on one of their trips to London's West End. We walked them all around Cambridge, sent them punting, and took them to one of our favorite pubs here, the Eagle. We had a really lovely time and were so grateful that they took time to see us!
This morning we took a wander through another lovely library (at the other college next door) which, unfortunately does not allow any photography whatsoever. We saw all sorts of neat things from their collections though, including the original A.A. Milne manuscript for Winnie-the-Pooh, a beautifully illuminated Qu'ran, and the papers of one of the men who helped discover the technology that became the atom bomb, among other things. It was an absolute joy to have them and to be tourists with them!
All in all, a very full weekend and we are so grateful to be sharing these adventures with friends and family!
Friday I had the privilege of checking out the "Old Library" at John's - my college - which is chockfull of history - not just in the bound-book sense, but in every way - Charles I was one of several monarch's who crossed its hallowed floors. If you aren't a book and/or library aficionado, you'd be well-advised to scroll down, because bibliophiles: this is for you!
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| Ahhh.... Cicero |
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| Shakespeare! All of his works in such beautiful volumes! |
Where I found this marvel, which, with the sunlight streaming through, made me a little misty if I'm honest
I'm a sucker for history. But if this made me misty, then I'm pretty sure I shed a tear when I turned around to see this:
A life mask (not a death mask, so don't freak out) of William Wordsworth, English poet, and revered alum.
Reading chairs, though I doubt they see much use any more.
So many ancient books!
This is a close up of the last photo. Yes, that date does say 1574.
The Bible! Of course, there were a lot of copies, but I especially liked these.
1596.
These were little doors built into the bookcase that had the books listed by shelf - the original library catalogue!
The antiphoner - the largest book owned by the college and one of the oldest. An antiphoner is a liturgical book used by choirs with sung services inscribed in them - this one was probably made this big so the entire choir could sing from it together - a good idea when it was both difficult and expensive to have multiple copies. It is bound in leather and decorated with iron. Probably from the early 16th century or so.
So, some fun facts about the College Library - it is 110 feet long and 30 feet wide and was built in 1624. The fittings consist of 22 tall bookcases with 20 dwarf cases in between they were hand-carved and made of oak by a local carpenter. The small doors containing the "catalogue" detail the contents of each class under subject headings including theology, philosophy, medicine, history, and mathematics. The oldest items in the library are fragments of hieratic papyrus from the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC). The oldest manuscript volume is the Southampton Psalter, a 10th century book of Psalms produced in Ireland. The oldest printed book is a 1466 edition of Cicero's De Oficiis printed in Mainz, Germany by Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer, Gutenberg's financier and foreman (the Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1454/55). And what is arguably the most peculiar holding of the library is part of the lead filling from the skull of a lead-filled skeleton discovered at Newport Pagnell in 1619.
And speaking of libraries, I finished my painting of the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford!
But enough about libraries... On Saturday, Josh and I explored an adorable and very quaint village - Saffron Walden - with our friends, Brenda and Bjeorn. We started off at the market, which had all kinds of amazing things, not least of which was the fishmonger:
The village itself was adorable, with impossibly crooked buildings along the narrow highways and byways
There were also ruins from a castle, purportedly built some time in the 1140s
There wasn't much left as far as a really discernible shape goes, but we enjoyed exploring.
Brenda and Bjeorn at the 15th century "rebuild" of a church established in 1138
After all that ancient history exploration, we were pretty cold, so we headed off to a wonderful cafe I had visited with friend, Hannah. We all had wonderful food and the portions were enormous!
After refueling, we were ready to take on the cold again and after a very delicious round of doughnuts (courtesy of Bjeorn) we headed in search of a hedge maze Brenda had looked up. We found it, but unfortunately it was still closed for the season, but we met two very nice British people, one that told us a little about the history of the newly revitalized Dutch garden we had wandered through, and another who let us play with her dog.
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| There were some really lovely dwarf triple daffodils! |
After a little more wandering in the cold, we ended the day with a wander through the Cambridge Natural History Museum and the Grand Arcade
 |
| Josh, taking in the wildlife |
Then, on Sunday, we were privileged with a visit from Dick and Dorothy, Josh's great-aunt and -uncle who favored us with their company on one of their trips to London's West End. We walked them all around Cambridge, sent them punting, and took them to one of our favorite pubs here, the Eagle. We had a really lovely time and were so grateful that they took time to see us!
This morning we took a wander through another lovely library (at the other college next door) which, unfortunately does not allow any photography whatsoever. We saw all sorts of neat things from their collections though, including the original A.A. Milne manuscript for Winnie-the-Pooh, a beautifully illuminated Qu'ran, and the papers of one of the men who helped discover the technology that became the atom bomb, among other things. It was an absolute joy to have them and to be tourists with them!
All in all, a very full weekend and we are so grateful to be sharing these adventures with friends and family!
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