There are nine Muses, at least according to most classical mythology. Sculpted representations of three of them currently occupy the lobby of the Weston Library, while the building across the road has some cosmetic surgery undertaken. I’d like to think I have engaged with eight of them at some point in my life although I must have done something in my karma to upset Terpsichore as she and I have never really got together.
Lately if I am to be found in either Oxford or Kew then I’ve gone back to the archive. These days I much prefer making enquiries of archives than of actual people. I don’t have to go through the university ethical approval procedure, and believe me, that is reason alone.
Besides, if looking back into history, any written record is an insight into the minds of the people who made it and so much more reliable than asking someone what they remember about events some 50 years ago. This document was part of a big file recounting the saga of Tony Thornton and the short-lived St Helena Labour Party (1974-1976) is a fine example of what can happen to you if you piss off the British Government too much (and don’t imagine it’s some anti-left-wing thing: in fact, Mr. Thornton was more like what we would now call a libertarian): here is not the place, but see the entry for Thornton on John Turner’s web site.
I still like visiting the library, whether the one on campus or ‘the library’ as a more generalised phenomenon. The scholarly work, reading, writing, thinking: these are parts of my job I still enjoy.
Sadly there are other parts of the job I no longer enjoy; which is why it is a good thing that I am now off work for 11 days and need not give the place another thought for that time — after typing this and pressing ‘Publish’, anyway.
“Alma Mater” doesn’t seem to get a translation out of Latin to English, it just comes up the same on Google. “The place where one went to university” is the windier but more colloquial version. It’s been a while since I have been back to the campus of the University of Leeds, which guided yr. humble blogger through two, or was it three, degrees (astonishing!) and then five years of employment (staggering!) between 1993 and 2005. And, yes, I put in my time in the rooms behind the doors to the right of this shot. I like the red lines to top right, which contrast the No Smoking sign and is the only reason I might get away with the latter blemish.
Maybe fifteen years ago these were in some kind of alphabetical order and general state of organisation but like molecules in a viscous liquid, they slowly rearranged themselves over time. Returning them to their original state of order has been a days-long job, only finished as I post this (Sunday morning). And it took all that time to find L. A. Confidential (which is what prompted the Sort Out in the first place).
And that reader was me, today. Third and, for now, last day working at the National Archives. What’s in the files and boxes? Well, let me get on with writing the book, and some of it, you will find out.
Time to do some work. I didn’t travel out here only to access this room, but it was certainly a contributing factor. Did you know that when the Royal Navy handed over control of Ascension Island in 1922, the place was in possession of 4½ pounds of Bovril? Now you do.
A place I can still find reason to frequent now and again. There were a few students seen to be doing the same (none of mine, though…).
I am still making my fortnightly Monday visits to the John Rylands Library for my Palaeography (literally, ‘old writing’) course. With two classes after today’s to go, we have reached “Early Modern English Scripts”. I do not know whether this will ever have any impact on my life, but it’s been interesting enough. Manuscript pages should be touched as little as possible, so rather than holding them down by hand, one should use weights, two types of which are seen here. These will be the kind of thing, never seen in other contexts, that some tiny specialist company based in an old mill in Bradford-on-Avon has been manufacturing and selling for a few hundred years.
It’s about time we had some more medieval manuscript and the Siege of Troy certainly gives magnificent illumination. This shot only hints at that excellence but I like the captured enthusiasm of the fellow students. I took plenty of photos of my own, don’t worry.
Being 42 