Saturday morning we woke early enough to pack up and leave our "home" at #10 Canterbury, Oxford at 7:15. We walked downtown and caught the bus to London. We rode the double decker for about an hour and a half and were let off on a bustling sidewalk. We promptly caught a cab and were off for a 10 minute ride to the British Library. We weren't there to get library cards (as Marx and Trotsky did) but to view their treasures. The British Library hosts the original Magna Carta. This document was the first agreement between a king and his subjects wherein a king acknowledged (rather grudgingly) that his subjects had some rights. This Great Charter was the beginning of freedoms and rights for ordinary individuals in England. This document was the beginning of the end of absolute and arbitrary rule by a monarch. It is a crucial document, an idealogical patriarch of sorts, whose descendants include our own Constitution, Bill of Rights and ironically, our Declaration of Independence from England. I stood mere inches away from the very document, complete with the King's seal which are partially responsible for the freedoms that I hold dear. There are many other valuable documents and books and texts which the Library offers for display but none compare to that masterwork.
In the afternoon we walked to the British Museum. If you're unfamiliar with British history you may not know that this tiny island once held control over or strong influence in most of the world's continents. Britian mercilessly pillaged these countries and stocked their castles and museums with artifacts from these unfortunate nations. Consequently, they have some terrific exhibits. I saw the Rosetta Stone. I saw marble carvings of Alexander the Great,
Aphrodite, Socrates. I saw the remnants of a statue of a Grecian king. The crowned head alone is 20 feet tall. I saw mummies and Egyptian sarcophagi. Just like the state fair, where bored workers bread all kinds of bizarre foods and then drop them in the fryer, the Egyptians did the same with mummification, apparently. I saw a mummified babboon, mummified cats, a mummified bull and a mummified eel! The British Museum is staggering in the sheer size and depth of it's collections. I didn't begin to see all that the museum has to offer.That evening, we hopped a train to Dover.
1 comment:
I am reminded of the line from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels when Steve Martin's character is at an art museum..."That is a statue of a naked woman. Now that is something I can appreciate." I always liked that line. It is amazing the difference in their idea of "old stuff" and ours. Their "old stuff" is really, really old!
Sounds like things are picking up from the ornothological highpoint a couple of day's ago. Found any good chicken fried steak yet?
Thanks for the updates. I am anxious to hear about Dover.
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