January 7, 2011 - Pouring rain this morning, but by afternoon it had cleared a little, so we walked over to the British Library (about a 20 minute walk0, dodging puddles and taxi cabs on the way to see two exhibits - a fantastic one called "Evolving English" and a disappointing one on Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
The Evolving English exhibit was particularly notable for a) the inclusion of actual artifcats including writing - such as a strip of gold with Anglo Saxon writing incised on it, as well as an 11th cenutry copy (hand lettered, of course) of King Alfred's Anglo Saxon Chronicle, and b) video recordings by the linguist David Crystal, reading "Beowulf" and from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." I could listen to him all day and not get bored. The exhibit moved from the earliest beginnings of the English language to current times, including changes evolving ecause of texting and other computer effects.
The Coleridge exhibit was disappointing because I expected it to include the original manuscript of the poem, but it didn't.
We walked home in the near dark, through the puddles...dodging the rain drops this time, making a quick stop by 46 Gordon Square (photo), a home of Virginia Woolf when she was young and later John Maynard Keynes, and stopped at a Waitrose to pick up some things for supper. We didn't want to go out again once retruned to warm, cozy, and dry Thanet!
Two really special things today: Nat's birthday and we learned today that yesterday Chris completed his dissertation defense and is now Dr. Wells!! Congratulations to both of you.
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