The Beauty of Cambridge
For our final site visit, we boarded a train to Cambridge from nearby Liverpool Street Station and took a bus into the city center. We met our guide, Lauren, who led us on a walking tour of the city. Lauren attended the University of Cambridge and has a background in architecture. The University was founded in 1209 after some Oxford scholars who were fed up with the strife with the townspeople, the so-called "Town & Gown" issues I discussed in my Oxford post, decided to start a new university in Cambridge. Interestingly, "Town & Gown" disputes also took place in Cambridge. Cambridge is made up of 31 colleges and has 110 academic departments.
Lauren led us to such well-known Cambridge sites as Trinity College, King's College & Chapel, the River Cam, the Mathematical Bridge, and Cambridge University Library. I especially enjoyed strolling by the King's College Back Lawn Wildflower Meadow and watching people "punting" the beautiful River Cam with its picturesque bridges.
The highlight of the day in Cambridge took place in the afternoon after one of our classmates had contacted the Sub Librarian for Wren Library, Steven Archer, to ask for a private tour. Miraculously, he had an afternoon slot open up for us. Wren Library was designed by the famous Christopher Wren, who designed St. Paul's Cathedral in London following the Great Fire of 1666. The Wren Library was opened in 1695 as the library for Trinity College, Cambridge. The library houses an impressive collection of rare books and manuscripts such as Shakespeare's First Folio from 1623, a first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and an astronomy book once owned by Isaac Newton, who left his notes on the back pages, which Steven displayed for us to view.
The majority of the items that Steven showed us were rare books, manuscripts, and archival material such as letters, from people such as Albert Einstein and Virginia Wolf, but he informed us that the library houses objects as well. I found the object below fascinating as it was King Henry VIII's comb from the 16th century. It is made of wood and ivory and has one side that is very fine-toothed, which could be assumed to be for combing critters like lice out of the hair. The large rectangular shape was a bit baffling, so Steven demonstrated through the air how a servant would have combed the King's hair.
Steven graciously hosted us for over two hours, well-over the allotted 1.5 hour slot scheduled. We had to rush to catch a bus to the train station and thankfully made it with plenty of time.
And that's a wrap of "Libraries of the UK!" It's been amazing and I've had so many "once in a lifetime" experiences on this study abroad program.
Comments