Goodbye to London

While our students spent their last two nights in London at the Holland Park YHA, Kristine and I each got a room in the tiny Russell Court Hotel nearby (the perks of age!). Neither of us was enthusiastic about bunking with the students, and there were no private rooms.

Sunday was my last day in the Mitcham Ward primary.

Sister Fran (Mary Frances Kakurungu) herding kids at the Mitchum Primary

The woman in blue is the primary president, Sister Fran (Mary Frances Kakurungu). She was amazingly capable and dedicated. But she could really use some teachers and some counselors who come every week! I was very fond of the kids, but I have to admit that after eight weeks of being primary teacher, primary chorister, and on-call disciplinarian I was exhausted. It feels downright luxurious to have a calling where I teach just once a month.

Sunday night I attended a free concert at Royal Albert Hall--the first ever free performance in the PROMS series. Apparently, the tickets "sold out" within half an hour of them being posted last May, so I felt lucky to get one. (I called up Sunday morning, and they said there had been one return, in the top circle.  I took it.) Here's a blurry picture of the inside of the concert hall:

The PROMS at Royal Albert Hall

Those are not blue spaceships. They are sound baffles. The national youth orchestra and national youth chorus performed a lovely piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a premiere performance of a strange modern composition, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony--the whole thing. (It took over an hour for just that one number.)

Royal Albert Hall is located just opposite Hyde Park, which was fairly close to my hotel, so I walked there and back along Kensington High Street. That gave me a good view of Queen Victoria's monument to her beloved husband, the Albert Memorial:

Albert Memorial, Hyde Park

Monday, after doing some errands (collecting the key deposit from the YHA, returning the key to our flat that I neglected to turn in the previous Tuesday, and buying two cases of Maoams for Wendy), I decided to visit the legal district of London, where its barristers have trained, lodged, and practiced law for hundreds of years. Every barrister in England and Wales must be a member of one of the four historic Inns of Court--Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple, all of which date back to the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The Inner and Middle Temples are both liberties, meaning that they are independent of the jurisdiction of the city of London--essentially self-governing entities within the city.

I visited the chapel of Lincoln's Inn, then found my way to the Temple Church, which has stood on the same site since 1185. Looks pretty good, huh? It has actually been destroyed and rebuilt several times, most recently in World War II. But it has retained its original round shape.

The Temple Church

Next time I lead a study abroad in London, I will definitely bring students to see this building, which now advertises itself as "the Mother Church of the Common Law." It began as a church belonging to the Knights Templar (hence, the "Temple" in the title). That order was dissolved in 1312 and the property passed to the Knights Hospitaller, who leased it to the Inner and Middle Temple Inns of Court. Early in the seventeenth century, King James I gave permanent title to these Inns of Court, on condition that they maintain the Temple Church. I assume that the Temple Church is associated with the Common Law because of its connection to these Inns of Court and with a succession of people who played key roles in the defense of the rights of Englishmen. For instance, William Marshall, second Earl of Pembroke, is buried in the church. 

Effigy of William Marshal, Temple Church

He was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to make sure King John kept the promises he had made (under duress) in the Magna Carta. Sir Edward Coke was also a member of the Inner Temple, and he was the force behind Parliament's Petition of Right to King Charles I, which demanded that he respect Magna Carta by stopping his illegal practice of extracting forced loans from English citizens and governing without the advice of Parliament.

On Monday night I attended my fourth concert at St. Martin's in the Fields. I had enjoyed the St. Martin's Voices performance of "The Messiah" so much the previous week. They were scheduled to sing again, this time selections from Mozart, so I went. 

I got there early, bought some dinner and ate in Trafalgar Square. It's always buzzing with people, and it is nice to see all the statuary and monumental buildings against the sky. There is a relatively new installation there which I doubt many of you have seen. 

Trafalgar Square

It's a giant, electric-blue chicken.

The concert was, again, lovely. I will really miss sitting in that church regularly and hearing glorious music. 

St. Martin's in the Fields, twilight

I took a photo of the sculpture in front of the entrance. All of my students who saw it said, "Eeew!" I think that's because they've never given birth and think umbilical cords are gross. But I thought it was beautiful.

Sculpture, St. Martin's in the Fields

All around the base is this scripture from John 1:1, 14: "In the beginning was the Word . . . . And the Word was made flesh, and lived among us."  

I packed up the next morning and--this time--treated myself to a ride on Heathrow Express rather than drag my bags through the underground.  

It's good to be home with my husband and kids (near and far), and my extended family and friends, and my own house and yard with fresh tomatoes in it. But there are many things I will miss about this summer in London:

Having so much low-stress, uninterrupted time with Mike
The ready availability of outstanding theater and music
Really good (if somewhat pricey) public transportation
Having such a great group of students to work with
Getting a crash course in English history (you always learn the most when you have to teach!)
The lovely English countryside
The fabulous (and free!) London museums

I definitely want to go back soon.

Week 7 in London, part 2

We spent two short days in the Lake District.  Actually, two nights and one full day--that must be why it felt so short . . .  The central focus of our stay there was an educational experience with the Wordsworth Foundation in Grasmere. We split our students into two groups of fifteen.  I was in the first group, which had dinner in Dove Cottage the night we arrived. Dove Cottage is the place where Wordsworth lived with his sister Dorothy before he married, and in the early years of his marriage (until three children made the lodgings too tight and they moved elsewhere).  

Wordsworth's Cottage, from the back

That's coal smoke coming out of the chimney--the same fuel they used in the nineteenth century. I can imagine that, if every chimney was putting it out, it would get pretty gray.  

For dinner, we toasted bread right over the coals, and then spread it with a bunch of delicious things: fresh fish paste (sounds awful, but it was really good), black currant jam, and a chutney with walnuts and something else.  

Making toast at Wordsworth's Cottage

There were also several delicious salads, homemade lemonade and ginger beer, and dark ginger nuts (a biscuit, or cookie) that we spread with lemon curd and raspberry jam. The creator of all these delights was the woman with the toast, in the picture above, using recipes from her mother's days in the WI. That stands for the Women's Institute, a WWII-era women's club which specialized, she said, in "jam and Jerusalem" (the English national hymn).

We got a guided tour of Dove Cottage the next morning, then went over to the education building, where we had a three-hour class on Wordsworth, using first editions and original manuscripts of his poetry. The students seemed to enjoy it. I certainly did. One of the best teaching ideas (which I think I'll steal from him) was to make a high-quality photocopy of a manuscript letter, fold it as it originally would have been folded, and then let the students unfold it, examine it, transcribe it, and compare it to later published versions of Wordsworth's poetry. It conveys something of the flavor of archival research and discovery.

Wordsworth workshop, Grasmere

Witty sweet shop, Grasmere

Then we hiked the six miles back to Ambleside, where our youth hostel was. I don't know how YHA got this particular property, but it was right on the lake.  

View from Youth Hostel, Ambleside

View from Youth Hostel, Ambleside, in the morning

Our hike back to Ambleside from Grasmere took us along the "corpse road." Apparently, Ambleside was once too small to have a church, so when someone died you had to carry the coffin six miles from there to the church in Grasmere. We passed a large, flat stone, about knee high, that was labeled a "coffin stone." You could set the coffin down there and rest a while, then continue on up the road.

Hiking the Corpse Road, Ambleside

The scenery all over the lake district was just stunning. Apparently, it's even better in the autumn, as that is what all the postcards depicted.

Hiking near Ambleside, Lake District

Lake District view

Another stunning view in the Lake District

And another

About halfway to Ambleside, we reached Rydal Mount, Wordsworth's final home (purchased after he had become wealthy and well known). It was located next to Rydal Hall, a lovely manor house with a garden open to visitors--so we visited! 

Rydal Mount

This view seemed familiar to me. Was it the house used in the new "Emma" with Romola Garai? 

Rydal Mount gardens

Rydal Mount gardens from below

The last bit of our hike took us around the far side of Ambleside, through flatter country next to a stream.  

Bridge along our hiking route

We took advantage of some stepping stones for a group picture.

Group picture: sedate

Group picture: silly

The students didn't want to leave the Lake District, and neither did I. Next time (I'm already thinking "next time,") we'll try to stay longer.  

We left early Friday morning to drive to York, watching the last two parts of "North and South" on the way. Our first stop in York was the Merchant Adventurers' Hall, built in the 1300s and still in use (though mostly for ceremonial and charitable rather than commercial purposes). In the medieval era, members of a guild exercised a monopoly on whatever good they produced. Only they could manufacture and market it, and they kept prices high by restricting competition from non-guild members. This guildhall, for "merchant adventurers," focused on international trade, selling England's wool to other countries and importing their goods for sale.  

The Guildhall, York

You can't see it in this picture, but there are steps up to the street on the other side of the lawn. The medieval street level, preserved here, is about a meter below the modern one. 

The Guildhall, York, interior

Most of the timber is original. Can you tell?

Next, we went to the Jorvik Viking Centre. I had heard there was a Viking museum in York, and it looked pretty cool on the web. Actually, it was pretty cheesy. They loaded you into Lagoon-like cars that carried you "back in time" to the Viking Era and wound you through several streets with animatronic figures speaking a Nordic dialect, with the sounds and smells (?!) of Jorvik (York) filling the air. After getting off the cars, however, we did get to go through a couple of rooms with very interesting artifacts and some resident archaeologists to answer questions.  

Here's a skeleton of a young Viking man, unearthed in the York area.

I was fascinated by the teeth of the young Viking man.  They are so straight, as if he'd had a good orthodontist. Of course, he died young, before he could wear them down or lose them (other than the front one, which I'll bet was lost after he died), but in their original shape you couldn't ask for a better set of chops. It's rare to find anyone today who has such good teeth naturally. I'd love to hear a good explanation: Survival of the fittest? Genetic homogeneity?

We all did some walking around York, in groups or alone, that evening. I walked the mile or two from our hostel into York, passing a sign for Hudson House on the way. (The McKays continue to be well represented in northern England).

Hudson House, York

The central part of York is still surrounded by a largely intact medieval wall.

Medieval wall, York

And parts of its medieval castle are still standing as well.

Medieval castle, York

The next morning we visited York Minster, the largest cathedral in Northern Europe. I think our students were all cathedralled out by that time.  I never got my fill of them.) It was our very last stop on our very last group excursion, and they were ready to go home. Here's the cathedral from the front.

York Cathedral

York Cathedral, side view

Like most of the cathedrals we visited, this one was being remodeled (hence the scaffolding on the first picture). It is a constant process, and York Minster had two large displays on the interior of the cathedral focusing on the stained glass and masonry restoration work. I poked my camera inside a chained link fence to take this shot of the mason's yard. The interior display pointed out that cathedral restoration has kept this ancient craft alive. Stone masons are serving apprenticeships and advancing through the ranks to master mason by working full-time on this and other cathedrals. And many cathedrals have mason's lofts--rooms full of the templates masons have used for hundreds of years to create and recreate their intricate carvings.

York Cathedral masonry workshop

Some of the cathedrals we saw, including this one, had a nice mix of ancient artwork and modern. This, for example, is the right hand side of a modern work called "the semaphore saints."  I need Clint to interpret their message.*

Semaphore saints, York Cathedral

Semaphore Saints, York Cathedral, right side

In the cathedral yard was a statue of the Roman emperor Constantine, who halted the persecution of Christianity and is known as the first Christian Roman emperor. Constantine was in Britain campaigning against the Picts when he was proclaimed emperor, supposedly near the spot where this statue now stands.

Statue of Constantine, York Cathedral

Just a couple of weeks before our visit, York Minster opened a new museum in the undercroft (below the ground level) showcasing the past history of the cathedral. York, called Eboracum in Latin, was the capital of the northern part of the Roman empire, and ruins of some of the principal Roman buildings are underneath the cathedral. A number of years ago, the cathedral caught on fire. The firefighters informed the dean that, while they would be able to put out the fire, the building would undoubtedly collapse from the weight of the water being poured into it. Well, it didn't collapse, and during the clean-up and reconstruction, they found out why: There was an ancient Roman drain beneath the foundation that sluiced the water away as fast as it was poured in. You can see the drain (a channel about a foot wide) in the undercroft museum. York rebuilt and strengthened the cathedral's foundation a generation ago, but they decided to keep the Roman drain, just in case.

York is famous for several other things, including this street called "The Shambles," which is supposed to be the model for Diagon Alley.

The Shambles, York

It is also famous for chocolate. Our youth hostel in York had a big mural all about the history of chocolate in York (which I wish I had photographed!) According to the mural, Rowntree's confectionary company, founded in York in 1862, was the model for Wonka Chocolate in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (Cadbury's was the model for Slugworth's Chocolate.) The mural said that Rowntree's provided 15,000 chocolate bars for the filming of the first Willie Wonka movie. The hostel also had a plaque commemorating Joseph Rowntree, an original owner of the company. He was a tremendous philanthropist and all-around good guy (a fitting model for Willie Wonka). Rowntree's, now owned and operated by Nestle, originated the Kit-Kat bar and Smarties (two of my favorites). Mike and I discovered mint Kit-Kats in Ireland, which are really, really good. (Kit-Kats in the UK are made with sugar, rather than corn syrup, and they definitely taste better.) For my last lunch in York, I ate at The Cocoa House, where everything has chocolate in it. I had butternut squash soup with chocolate and a chocolate ice cream cone with chocolate sprinkles. Mmmmm.

The Cocoa House (see menu), York

We finished our York visit around noon and headed back to London. We stopped first at the London Centre so everyone could pick up their suitcases we had stashed there. (We had checked out of our flats at the beginning of the north trip). Then we took the students to their London hostel in Holland Park and Kristine and I checked into our little hotel nearby.

I'll tell you about my last few days in one last post.

*With some help from Clint and this pdf:http://www.yorkminster.org/geisha/assets/files/semaphore-saints.pdf
I was able to decipher the message.  Try it yourself before you read the message at the bottom. One warning: I think the artist misinterpreted one letter, the fourth one on the left side, and the first one on the right side. If you figure out all the other letters, you should be able to guess it.

Week 7 in London

Our last full week in London was mostly not in London: We did our second road trip, this time to the north. I took myself to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields the night before for a concert--an abridged version of Handel's Messiah. The choir had only ten singers, all current or former "scholars" of St. Martin's--students selected to study and perform at the church for a year. They took turns singing the solos. The program was absolutely stunning, particularly the soprano solo, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth." The soloist's name was Laurel Neighbour. Watch for her.

We boarded a bus at 7 AM the next morning and drove for three hours to Blist's Hill, a living history village of 19th century English industrial life. It is very big, with buildings imported from throughout England (like This is the Place), and people were costumed inside and outside the buildings. 

Blist's Hill bobby and dog

The town also had a pottery factory, a large forge, and one of the first functioning steam engines in England, still running.

Blist's Hill steam engine

Kristine and I spent quite a while chatting with the engineer, a local volunteer who told us about his time living in Canada and helping out with an LDS scout troop. Around noon, the bake shop opened and began selling its fresh-baked wares--bread, scones, and biscuits. A huge crowd--probably a fourth of the people visiting the village and nearly all of our students--followed their noses and lined up to get some for themselves.

I liked this sign, just across the road from the bakery at Blist's Hill.

And this is the first time I've seen a church named for this particular saint.  Been moonlighting, Chad?

The whole village was very well done, not too commercial, and not too crowded. I'd love to have spent more time there.

Our next stop was Longton, to see the Gladstone Pottery Museum, a working historical pottery, complete with coal-fired bottle ovens (although they now use electric ovens because of air quality regulations):

Gladstone Pottery Museum, Longton

Inside the kiln, Gladstone Pottery Museum

Our guide gave us a fascinating overview of the history of the place and took us to see artisans at work. Here is the flower maker. She rolls out each petal of a ceramic flower by hand, pinches them together, and sets them to dry before firing. She worked for fifteen years in a commercial pottery doing "piece work," where she was paid per flower. She could do one in just a couple of minutes--while narrating the process!

Flower maker at Gladstone Pottery Museum

Flowers before painting

Once the flowers (and pots and other items) are fired, they are glazed and fired again.  

Painter at Gladstone Pottery Museum

Painter with gilded teacup, Gladstone Pottery Museum

The painter gilds the cups by putting them on a spinning disk, centering them, and then oh-so-carefully holding the brush to the rotating cup. The container of powder used to create the gold paint costs about 300 pounds. In the factory, it had to be locked up after use, and painters had to turn out their pockets to prove that they weren't trying to carry any of the powder away with them.

This was another place I wish I could have spent much more time at. They had an entire exhibit on the history of ceramic toilets that I went through at a run. It looked really interesting (I think)!

Our final stop was Chorley, the actual town where the Preston Temple is located. We had tickets to see the first ever English LDS Church History pageant on the temple grounds. I was surprised to see that it was indoors. The organizers asked for the church to fund an enormous tent because of frequent rain. We heard that the Salt Lake visitor responding to the funding request was inclined to turn it down, but the day he visited he got caught in a torrential downpour and changed his mind.

No rain the night we were there. We walked the mile from our hotel to the temple grounds at sunset, with some lovely views on the way:

Chorley, site of Preston Temple, at dusk

I admit that pageants are not my favorite art form, but this one was very well done--and short to boot! (just one and a half hours). I had given a fireside on LDS British Church History, so much of this was familiar to students. 

LDS British History Pageant, Chorley, summer 2013. This is a crossing-the-ocean scene. All the action took place on the lower level.  Above, but still in costume, was the choir, which was excellent.

The following morning we went to the temple where most of our students did baptisms; Kristine and I and our older student, Teresa, did a regular session (and got to see the new film, which I thought was beautifully done).

Preston Temple

We had quite a long drive from Chorley to the Lake District, along narrow, twisting roads that required us to go slowly. We showed "North and South" along the way. Some students slept through it, and others (the ones with good taste, obviously) became devoted fans.

We planned our route to pass through Downham, on the urging of Mike Malmborg, Herman, and Wendy. Downham is one of the places where Heber C. Kimball and Joseph Fielding had remarkable success on their first mission to England in 1837. Here's what Heber wrote about the experience:

"I went through the streets of that town feeling as I never before felt in my life. My hair would rise on my head as I walked through the streets, and I did not then know what was the matter with me. I pulled off my hat, and felt that I wanted to pull off my shoes, and I did not know what to think of it. When I returned [to America], I mentioned the circumstance to Brother Joseph, who said, 'some of the old Prophets travelled and dedicated that land, and their blessing fell upon you.'"

The town certainly is lovely. It is owned by the Asshton family, which has held the land since the 1500s. The current Asshton owner has decided to keep the town in an unchanged nineteenth-century-like appearance: no overhead power lines, no TV antennas. As a result, the town has been used for filming a number of TV series and movies.

Downham, England

Pendle Hill (translation: Hill hill) is famous for the Pendle Witch trials of 1612 and for the visit of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, in 1652. Fox recalled in his autobiography:

"As we travelled, we came near a very great hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it; which I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I was come to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered."

Our group, with Pendle Hill in the background

Here's a very pretty tree in Downham, next to the churchyard.

It was a quick stop, but refreshing. From there it was nearly three more hours to Grasmere in the Lake District, home of Wordsworth's Dove Cottage, which I'll tell about in the next post.