After a good night’s sleep and breakfast at the hotel we were ready to attack the Museums.
We took the tube to the British Museum. It seems Britain went on a serious collecting spree during the height of it’s empire. Some might say they plundered many ancient sites but nonetheless they have a fabulous collection covering many ancient civilizations. The highlights are the Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles.
The Rosetta Stone was discovered in wall of a fortress in Egypt. After Egypt went into decline many of it’s monuments and temples were torn down and the stones reused for building material. A French soldier from the Napoleonic expedition saw it mortared into the wall and realized it’s importance. The stone was originally a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt shown in 3 languages. Two of the languages were known but the third in hieroglyphics had long since been lost. It still took scholars 25 years to finally decipher the ancient hieroglyphs.
In the early 19th century the 7th Earl of Elgin was appointed ambassador to Turkey which controlled Greece at the time. He supposedly received a permit from the Turkish authorities to remove sculptures and friezes from the Parthenon under the auspices of preserving them. His agents began the process and removed about half of them. There has been much controversy between the Greek and British governments ever since but they remain proudly displayed in the British Museum and you do have to wonder if Elgin had not taken these measures if they would still be around today.
There are also many many artifacts from the ancient middle eastern civilizations of Assyria, Irag, Iran and others. About the time we finished this section of the museum the fire alarms went off and they evacuated the entire building. After waiting outside a few minutes we decided to catch lunch down the street while they sorted things out. About the time we finished lunch they opened up and back in we went.
Later that afternoon we took in the special 800th anniversary of Magna Carta at the British Library. As part of the exhibit they supposedly had the original US Bill of Rights on display. We were a bit skeptical but it looked authentic and wasn’t nearly as protected as it is in our own National Archives. We kind of felt taken because we paid 20 pounds and you go through this long maze and finally get to the Magna Carta at the end only to learn it was heavily damaged by fire a couple of hundred years earlier. It was black and King John’s seal just a blob of wax.
But the highlight of library for us was the Collections room which has an incredible assortment of historic documents and books. Smith’s favorite was Mozart’s diary from the last 8 years of his life. It had the name of each composition and the date and comments and so forth followed by the first few bars of the piece – all in his own hand. There were original scores by Beethoven and Bach including an early draft of Handel’s Messiah. They had 4 or 5 of the Beatles most famous lyrics written on scrap pieces of paper like the backs of Birthday cards and cocktail napkins. Those would have been lost forever if their agent hadn’t retrieved them from trashcans and such. There were many drafts and originals by famous British authors and poets. A Guttengurg bible was also on display along with the Codex Sinaiticus from the 4th century. There was also a letter from Michelangleo to his father reporting he had finished painting a chapel ceiling at the Vatican Palace and that the Pope seemed “very pleased” with it. What a treasure trove of documents! It made up for the Magna Carta.
That night we capped another long day with a bargain dinner at a great little Italian restaurant not far from the hotel. Two Margherita pizza’s and drinks for 13 pounds – maybe the bargain meal of the trip!