BL and the Temple

Monday and today, I went to the British Library; I looked at six manuscripts; I came back.

Amplificatio:
I "commuted" to London so I could look at the manuscripts of Troilus and Criseyde. It only takes about 50 minutes each way on a non-stop train, but it's the forty-minute walk to and from the Cambridge train station in the cold and dark, over the river and through the fen. . .of my!. . .that has tired me out--that and the pint in my hand. You exit (the rather dull) King's Cross Station turn right and walk past the (spectactularly Disney-like) St. Pancras Station, and ecco qui!

The registration for a reader's card is amazingly efficient at the BL--I mean, not more than five minutes, but perhaps that was because I was renewing. I now have about eight new I.D. cards to carry in my wallet.

And, then, really, I just studied the manuscripts. And, yes, I think this is capital "F," capital "U," capital "N."
I finished, or quit, or despaired in fatigue at about 2:30 today. I thought about just coming back to Cambridge early, but decided to try to see the Temple Church. When I asked for directions in the Underground, the teller said "On a DaVinci Code quest, eh?"--curse you Dan Brown!

So I went to the cleverly named "Temple" stop on the Circle Line. The courts and law offices are really quite impressive, but none of the locals seem to know where Temple Church itself is. It's best to just follow the other tourists or, like me, pray to S. Vagans Perditus.