To the Librarium!

Well, the Archives were a bust, so today I headed over to the British Library and knew I was finally in the right place. As soon as I walked in the door, I almost sighed with contentment. Right away you’re struck by the massive black book shelves at the center of the building that reaches up to the top levels – this is the enclosed King’s Library that isn’t accessible to the public. Oh well, it looks pretty.

I went to the reader registration room and was struck by the difference between staff at the Library and the Archives; the Archives are rather nazi-esque in their love of power, while the Library staff is kind, warm and very welcoming. The man who registered me and I had a nice conversation about the oddity that are the Québecois when it comes to language protection, and he gave me plenty of directions to the rooms that I would probably be using.

From there, I found a locker for my stuff and took considerably less with me up to the Rare Books and Music Reading Room (though the lady at the security desk just waved me through rather than search every nook and cranny I had in my bag, unlike the lady at the Archives). I found what I wanted, ordered some books for today and tomorrow and then waited my 70 minutes to go claim them. During that time, I was able to check email and facebook (including uploading some pics), unlike at the Archives where the uOttawa website was blocked.

I was only able to get one of the books I requested (the other had apparently been recalled in 2008 but has been lost in the shuffle), but had fun looking forward through a merchant directory for London in 1781. Among interesting entries were ‘ostrich feather maker,’ 12 seperate orange merchants, 2 lime merchants, and almost 50 (each) of sugar distillers and tea merchants. I’ve requested similar lists from earlier years, so I might have an interesting picture to describe in my thesis. After that, it was past 1, so I decided it was time for lunch – being limited in choices, I ate at the Library’s café (holy crap, expensive! But good) and resolved to buy my lunch at the Marks and Spencers at Paddington on my way to the Library to save a few bucks.

After lunch I went to the Asian Reading Room – because I was confused about the on-line ordering system (believe me, that was a running theme for the day, and one I’m going to have to figure out asap) I had to wait another hour for documents to be delivered to me. The letter book I eventually got to look at was that of George Grey (on microfilm - ew) which was an interesting collection of letters Grey sent to friends in India after his return to England. I didn’t look through all 8 meters of it, but the first dozen pages I looked at (and it was hard since it was done in tiny handwriting) included several requests for grocery goods that the author was hoping his friends would send him. Again – very interesting.

A little fed up with the day that had passed, I wanted to take the opportunity to go look at David Strachy’s exhibit on Henry VIII. The exhibit was supposed to be a new look at the man who wasn’t supposed to be king – while the first ¼ of the collection was about Henry’s childhood, the rest was the standard look at the wives, religious upheaval and political dealings. Nothing really new. The collection was interesting in a way because it was made up almost completely of documents, with some paintings and artifacts. And yet, looking at pieces of paper that can’t be read isn’t all the enchanting. There were some interesting documents – a love letter, that the Vatican has just recently admitted to having and released, from Henry to Anne Boleyn that was kept by the Vatican during their divorce proceeding, a psalmster that Henry and Anne were known to pass to one another during religious services with flirtatious notes in the margin (how sacrilegious!), and a letter from Katherine of Aragon to her father begging for money because she was broke and Henry VII would pay for her living expenses (after Arthur’s death). A detailed look at Henry’s childhood, or a different description of what the exhibit was to be, would have been appreciated.

After that, it was 5:30 and I decided to head home. And I caught the rush hour traffic. I had the tail end of it this morning on the way to the library at 9:30, but it was full on tonight. I got lost coming out of the Tube (I took a new exist and took a right instead of a left, like I should of) so went for a walk around the block and got to see what was available food-wise in my neighborhood – some fish and chips, pizza, pubs, and Asian restaurants. Good to know. I ended up having a Marks and Spencer’s prepared meal that I bought yesterday; it was alright, but I was surprised to be able to pronounce and identify all the ingredients it contained – no artificial anything.

Well, I’ll be posting this a day late as I don’t want to go down to the lobby for the wireless. I’ll do it tomorrow from the Library.

Some observations:
-it’s odd that I’m planning on going back to the library tomorrow; I feel like I should be doing something different everyday while here, but I keep reminding myself that I’m here for research first, touristy-time second.
-I’ve never seen so many murses in on area – almost all the men I see on the Tube and streets are dressed in suits and carrying a murse.
-my shower is 3 feet square with no shelves in it. It is a pain in the ass since my soap has to go on the faucets and my shampoo/conditioner on the floor. I regularly knock my elbows when trying to shower.
-the elevators in the building are scary. The ‘big one’ is about a meter across and a meter and a half deep, and shakes horribly when it moves. The ‘small one’ is half the size of that but is a smoother ride. So, fear of death or fear of tight spaces are your choices.
-I’ve been thrown off my game several times as the Brits don’t number their ground floor as 1 – rather, the floor we consider to be the second floor is the first here. It’s really fun at the library where there is a main ground floor and a lower ground floor.
-I’m hoping to be more efficient in my research starting tomorrow, but I think I’ve made a good start and I’m not overly-concerned about a lack of progress.