British Libary and Museum

STUDENT DIARY TRAVEL ACCOUNTS
Hannah J Morgan
Saturday, January 29, 2000

Our day began at 9:30AM when we left Cambridge, on the coach, to go to London. While on the coach, Dr. Moore gave us the run-down of our day and background information on some of the sites that we were going to see. Our first stop was the British Library; there we met up with Dr. O’Shaughnessy and then walked to the British Museum. We ended our day by attending a performance of Battle Royal, by Nick Stafford, at the National Theatre. We arrived, tired, back in Cambridge at 1:00AM.

The British Library used to be part of the British Museum. The library dates back to the early 18th century and reflects the growing emphasis on the systematic acquisition of knowledge, which characterized the Enlightenment. It is only in recent years that the library was separated from the museum and housed in a new building. The current location of the British Library has a total floor space of approximately 100,000 square meters, making it the largest publicly funded building constructed in the 20th century in the United Kingdom.

The British Library is not a public library, though it is open to the public for viewing of the Exhibition Galleries seven days a week and free of charge. The British Library is a place for scholars to do research and has an unrivalled collection of books, totalling more than 8 million volumes. Also to be found at the British Library are journals, manuscripts, sound recordings, printed music, and maps, for research purposes. Located in The John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library are many rare treasures indeed. The permanent exhibition has rare items from many different themes including, Sacred Texts, Maps, Illuminated Manuscripts, Music, Literature, and Historical Documents. Some of the items to be seen as we looked around the exhibition were: the Codex Sinaiticus (the Bible in Greek) from the 4th century, the Gutenberg Bible (the first major work to be printed in Europe from moveable type) from the 15th century; an original wall-map of the world (the first modern world map) by Gerardus Mercator from the 16th century; the Sherborne Missal (made for the Sherborne Abbey) from the 15th century, the Lindisfarne Gospels (written in honor of God and St. Cuthbert) from the 7th century; the manuscript for ‘Yesterday’ (written in Paul McCartney’s handwriting) from the 1960’s, the autograph composing score of Handel’s Messiah composed in 1741, Beethoven’s tuning fork; Shakespeare’s First Folio (the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays) published in 1623, the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf from the 11th century, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (the original manuscript of Alice in Wonderland) in Lewis Carroll’s writing from the late 19th century; the diary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (Scott and his crew reached the South Pole only to find a Norwegian expedition had been there a month earlier – Scott and his crew never made it back alive) from 1912, one of four surviving copies of the Magna Carta from 1215. It is amazing that one may see these wonderful rare treasures all housed in one building and at no cost!

The British Museum was founded in 1753 and, as stated earlier, used to house the British Library within its 5.4 hectares (approximately 13 ½ acres). The British Museum has six main levels and a number of mezzanines. The collections of objects found in the British Museum number about six and one-half million and are displayed in permanent and temporary exhibition galleries.

The British Museum also does not charge an admission fee, though there may be a charge for temporary exhibitions. Like the British Library, the British Museum is an excellent place for scholars to do research. The world-famous collections of the British Museum include antiquities from all over the world. A few of the items we viewed as a group included: Lindow Man (the oldest human remains in Britain, at least 1700 years old) discovered in 1983 in Lindow Moss peat bog, Cheshire, England; the Elgin Marbles, sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece (removed by Lord Elgin’s agents at the beginning of the 19th century); Sutton Hoo Treasure (discovered in Viking burial mounds not far from Cambridge) from the 7th century; the Rosetta Stone which was found at the mouth of the Nile ("acquired" by the British following their victory in the Napoleanic War and whose discovery made it possible for scholars to decipher ancient hieroglyphics). With the British Museum housing over six and one-half million "treasures," one could not possibly hope to scratch the surface of them in a few hours, much less a few weeks. It was still fantastic to be in rooms with some of the very things we are learning about!

The National Theatre opened its new complex in 1976. The movement for a National Theatre began as early as 1848. The Company was finally founded in 1963. For the 13 years, between 1963 and 1976, the National was based at the Old Vic Theatre awaiting the completion of the new building on the South Bank. There are three theatres housed under one roof at the National Theatre: the Olivier seating 1200, the Lyttelton seating close to 900, and the Cottesloe seating up to 400. The National Theatre overlooks the River Thames. That night, after the performance, we were treated to a wonderful view of the illuminated London skyline!

The play we attended at the National Theatre, in the Lyttelton Theatre, was entitled Nick Stafford's Battle Royal. Battle Royal, which took us through a very interesting chapter of the British monarchy. The play takes us through the lives of George, Prince of Wales (Simon Russell Beale) and his new bride, Princess Caroline of Brunswick (Zoë Wanamaker) from 1795 – 1821. The set and costumes did a wonderful job of drawing us into the period and its events. The play was both humorous and sad. Battle Royal allowed us to "see" a part of history, which is such a valuable way to learn history. The scenes lend us a view of some of the scandals, illicit affairs, and political meddling that had happened during Prince George’s (later George IV's) time. We also see the tragedy of the oppression of Princess Caroline, as women of her time were to be seen and not heard. The irony of George’s attempted dominance over Caroline is that Caroline is viewed, in the end, as a figurehead for anti-monarchists. Battle Royal was a marvellous tale of events in British history which, when "learned" in this manner, mean so much more.

This day spent in London was another day in which we experienced so much it seemed like we were there for much longer than 12 hours! Each new thing we do or see leaves us wanting more. If only there were more time. However, we can look back upon the new things we experienced this day and realize how much we have expanded our horizons, in simply a matter of hours.