The British Library

One of the great treasures of London is the British Library.  There is so much to see there that it is worth spending the better part of a day if you visit.  Highlights include:

• The Diamond Sutra, the world's earliest dated printed book, printed in 868 during the Tang Dynasty
• The Codex Sinaitius,  the major portion of the world's second-oldest manuscript of the Bible in koine Greek (4th century) and a priceless treasure.
• The Codex Alexandrinus,  an early manuscript of the Bible in koine Greek
• The  Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated Latin Gospel book from Anglo-Saxon Northumbria
• The St. Cuthbert Gospel,  a Northumbrian gospel book with the oldest Western binding, currently on long-term loan and in 2011 the subject of an appeal to purchase
• Two Gutenberg Bibles,   two copies of a Latin Bible printed at Mainz, Germany (1450s)
• Two 1215 copies of Magna Carta
• The sole surviving  manuscript copy of the poem Beowulf 
• The Codex Arundel, one of Leonardo da Vinci's  notebooks.
•  William Tyndale's 1534 English translation New Testament, the personal copy of Ann Boleyn
• Manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll  (given to the British Library by a consortium of American bibliophiles "in recognition of Britain's courage in facing Hitler before America came into the war")
• Captain Cook's journal
• Jane Austen's History of England
• Charlotte Bronte's hand written copy of Jane Eyre
• Original writing of Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolfs and the Beatles
• Several early Qu'rans and other important Asian items.

Bronze sculpture. Inscription reads 'NEWTON' after William Blake by Eduardo Paolozz

Next to the Library is one of the loveliest train stations in London, St. Pancras.  It is the station where you catch the Eurostar train to Paris. I think it is a stunning piece of old and new architecture and is filled with interesting public arts. 

At the south end of the upper level,  there is a 30 feet high bronze statue named The Meeting Place just beneath the station clock. It was designed by British artist Paul Day and is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace.

It has been greatly panned by the critics but it's still interesting to look at.

Which do you like best, British Library or British Museum?

Skyscapes

Sometimes I admire the skyscapes here in Oxfordshire every bit as much as the landscape. 

skyscape
noun

• a view of an expanse of sky:the skyscapes, seen through the skylights, more than make up for it
•  a picture of a skyscape:I’ve been doing skyscapes all day

“Only in a place like this do earth and sky come together in such a way that they bridge into one, and in such a place a person could put up her arms and find herself in heaven.” 
― Laura Pritchett, Sky Bridge: A Novel