Day 10 – Oxford

Our group was very excited to visit Oxford, city of dreaming spires, and we were pleased that Dr. Davies, USM’s Head of British Studies, was joining us again. He led us to Marble Arch where we could catch the Oxford coach because it has a stop much closer to the center of town than the train. When we arrived, there was time to walk around before our first appointment.

Vaulted ceiling at the Bodleian

Green Emeralds for the King: A Civil War Story by Constance Savery

Title: Emeralds for the King (American title)
Author: Constance Savery
Illustrator: Victor Dowling
Publication: Longmans, Green & Co., hardcover, 1945
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: 17th century England

Description: Austin “Tosty” Farringdon, barely 13, is woken one night and told he can serve his king by finding lost treasure at his deceased father’s home, Yanburgh Manor.

England 2018, Day 6

On Wednesday, we headed to a fashionable part of London - Mayfair! My mother wanted to visit the house where composer George Frideric Handel had lived - now a museum housing both German-born Handel and Seattle-born rock star Jimi Hendrix memorabilia!  We have a particular interest in the former because my grandfather was a Handel scholar, author of a book on Handel that is still in print. The museum was small but charming: we enjoyed a young musician playing the harpsichord while singing Bach in German (he said he'd get to Handel if I was patient), and I learned a little about Jimi Hendrix also!  Most of all, it was exciting to think of Handel working on Messiah in this very house (and I was amazed to learn he had completed it in about three weeks), using this very bookcase.

Handel's bookcase

Before leaving Mayfair, I also poked my head into nearby Claridge's Hotel which made me feel like the royalty and celebrities who often stay there. Perhaps one sign of a five star hotel (not to mention L500/night) is that they made me feel welcome even in jeans and sneakers (if it weren't always cold and rainy I might have looked less disheveled). The hostess at the restaurant urged me to bring my mother in for a coffee but there wasn't time.

Interior of St. George's, Hanover Square

My big miscalculation of this trip (at least so far) was looking on my phone at the distance between Brook Street and the Churchill War Rooms and deciding it was close enough to walk. It took us nearly an hour and half to get there and then there was an enormous line! Nicky had warned us the night before to buy tickets online but the website was uncooperative. It turned out that the tickets were sold out and a sympathetic guard said we might get in but it could be one hour or four! We were cold and disgruntled, so walked another 20 minutes before we found a Pret a Manger, where we partook of hot chocolate, tea, and cookies, which restored our good humor. The walk had been interesting, after all, and among other things we had visited St. George's, Hanover Square, the society church that makes appearances in Georgette Heyer's and others' books. We also walked by the shop (showroom?) of Jenny Packham, the British fashion designer patronized by the Duchess of Cambridge. As my guilty pleasure is WhatKateWore.com this delighted me.

Jenny Packham, clothing designer to the stars

I had read about a fabulous exhibit about Charles I, King and Collector at the Royal Academy, so although we hated to walk another meter, we girded our loans and hustled over to Burlington House on Piccadilly. The queue there was almost as bad as the one we had left behind but fortunately they sold us tickets for 3:30 and we only had to wait patiently for 20 minutes or so to enter. The exhibit had brought the treasures of Charles I from all over the world for the first time since, presumably, he was chased out of town by those vile Roundheads. It consisted of paintings, sculpture, miniatures (by Nicholas Hilliard!), tapestries, medallions and more, dazzlingly displayed in many rooms. The most impressive paintings were by Anthony Van Dyck, who came to England and essentially became the court painter, painting many portraits of Charles and his family. Each room was extremely crowded because the exhibit is closing on April 15th and people were trying to catch it. It was worth elbowing our way through to see such exceptional works.

I really wanted the exhibition poster but was not sure I could get it home intact

By 5:15, however, we were not just tired of the crowds but also eager to see the real reason for our trip, my eldest niece, who is studying in London this semester. We had arranged to meet her at Zizzi on the Strand (a chain but the food was wonderful), so we hurried through the rush hour commuters and a kind manager at the restaurant found us a table although we did not have a reservation. It was great to see my niece and hear about her adventures! She is studying theatre and after dinner we went to see a new play, Quiz, which had just opened and was cleverly staged and great fun. 

Church count: one
Miles walked: 5.0

England 2018, Day 3

Entrance of OLEM

We spent the night in Cambridge and breakfasted before walking to Mass at the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs, a Roman Catholic church located in southeast Cambridge not far from the university. It is a large Gothic Revival church built between 1885 and 1890, fairly dark and dreary (although the morning rain didn't help).   However, as my mother wrote her thesis on the English Catholic Martyrs, I knew she would be excited to visit it.  Also, coincidentally, a book I reviewed recently, Look for Her by Emily Winslow, took place in this Cambridge and the main character attended a funeral at this very church.   I was tempted to tell the priest about this but separately my mother and I had asked him for more information on our favorite martyrs (Edmund Campion and Nicholas Owen; i.e., were they recognized anywhere in the church with plaques or stained glass) so did not want to overwhelm him with info.   The priest, who was very nice Benedictine, did not know much about his martyrs.  The deacon who was quite full of himself said he didn't remember. 

Approaching Ely Cathedral

The construction of the church in the 19th century has a story behind it that sounds like a historical romance: the local priest organizing land and fundraising was assisted by the Duke of Norfolk (a prominent Catholic peer since the 16th century despite Henry VIII's threats) but more money was needed or the church would not get built!   To the rescue, in 1884, came a retired ballerina who had married the richest banker in England with £70,000 of her fortune (an enormous amount in those days) to support the construction.  We also read that the local Protestants loudly opposed the construction of a Catholic church.  My mother posed for a rare picture in front of the church.

Bishop Peter Gunning, 1675-84; imprisoned for his loyalty to Charles I

Next, we headed to the train station to visit Ely, a historic city with a beautiful cathedral about 14 miles northeast of Cambridge.  Etheldreda, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman (later sainted for her piety, etc.), founded an abbey in 693, which was destroyed by the Vikings several hundred years later, but rebuilt periodically from 970 to 1375, with contributions from the Normans (more or less helpful) and Tudors (unhelpful - Henry VIII and his henchmen took it from the Catholic church in 1539 when he imposed the Protestant Church on his country).  Henry's new bishop zealously destroyed the stained glass and much of the sculpture, and any Anglo-Saxon items remaining (a German tourist came into the cathedral just after I arrived, asking if there were any St. Etheldreda relics in existence to venerate but the answer was no). Further repressions took place when Oliver Cromwell ruled England.   However, after Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, it was safe to have beautiful churches again.   In the 19th century the Victorians undertook a massive restoration, resulting in the beauty we saw today.   And considering it was a gray and rainy day, it is even more amazing how the stained glass electrifies the interior of the church while from the outside the cathedral and grounds are also impressive - built onto a slight hill which my mother said was unusual for such a flat part of the country.  The church is huge: 537 feet in length (a football field is 300) with a west tower that is 215 feet high and turrets that are 120 feet high.

Listening to Evensong

After several hours exploring the cathedral, which had a great app we downloaded and free Wi-Fi to facilitate use, we braved the rain to check out the nearby High Street (the exact length of the nave of the church) and ate at the Almonry (indifferent roast beef sandwiches and Victoria sponge cake but the hot tea and picturesque setting were very appealing).   We also stopped a lovely bookstore, Topping and Company, which is hosting Robert Goddard in May.  I would have bought his new hardcover except did not want to carry it.  Had it already been signed, it would have been very hard to resist as I have been a fan since my first weeks at Bantam Doubleday Dell in 1989, when I picked up a Transworld paperback of Past Caring.  We bought a couple paperbacks for the nieces and nephews instead.

Then we laboriously made our way back to Cambridge (bus) and then London (train), and after a mishap with Uber landed happily at the Arosfa Hotel.  Our room is beyond tiny but well situated and very secure.  It even overlooks Waterstones!   Why does my mother keep saying I don't need any more books?

From 83 Gower Street

Book count: three
Cathedral count: one
Church count: one
Miles walked: 3.6