Ahmed might be the most famous animal in Kenya. He was a forest elephant who lived for 55 years--a good, long life for wild, bull elephant--in the Marsabit National Reserve. Marsabit is famous for its extraordinarily large elephants. Ahmed became a symbol for the people of Kenya after independence from Great Britain, making them aware of the importance of both wildlife and ecotourism for their nation's future. Ahmed has magnificent, ivory tusks, as you can see in the old photo of him in the preserve. The people of Kenya became so concerned for Ahmed because of the danger from ivory poachers that many wrote to their first president, Jomo Kenyatta, asking him to protect Ahmed. President Kenyatta assigned two, full-time game wardens to follow Ahmed day and night to guarantee his safety. Everywhere Ahmed roamed, his two guardian angels watched over him!
When Ahmed died of old age in 1974, a death cast of his body was made and the full-sized replica was made and placed in the Kenya National Museum. That is where the title picture was taken. I am 5 feet 2 inches tall and Ahmed towers over me!
Elephants still roam the Marsabit Reserve, wild and free, along with lions, leopards, buffalo and rhinoceros. There are many such reserves here in Kenya. I am going to one this afternoon for the first time, Nairobi National Park. I don't know whether or not I will see elephants today, but I will certainly see lots of big animals. When I do, I will think of Ahmed and what a gift he was to all of us.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
La Dolce Far Niente
The sweetness of doing nothing. No matter how much I try to emulate this famous Italian saying, I'm just not hard wired for it. Here we are in a gorgeous hotel located on a stunningly lovely bay on a tropical island, surrounded by beauty, and I'm mentally tapping my feet. Despite the heat which gently (or not so gently) urges you to slow down, I want to be up and doing. The Caribbean culture in general, and Martinique in particular, do not really support anything but a leisurely approach to life!
Perhaps that is why I have been unable to settle down to blog any earlier on this trip, which started on the even less touristed island of Guadeloupe. No matter how hard you concentrate, you just can't do a lot of things here. For one thing, everything closes down between 12:00 or 12:30 and 3:00, no matter what the printed tourist information tells you. On Saturday, we took a taxi to the sugar plantation where Josephine Napolean was born and spent the first sixteen years of her life. Posted as opening after the mid-day siesta at 2:00, it actually opened at 3:00. For another, it's simply time-consuming getting from place to place. Traffic is difficult and the roads are slow. Despite our best efforts, we are spending a lot of time spending time.
Now, it is not a tragedy to be forced to watch the rain blow the palms around or to enjoy a leisurely sunset with a cold drink in my hand. This is not a complaining blog--or not too much of one--but it is a self-enlightening one. Not for me the South Pacific atoll or the Caribbean paradise, unless I'm strenuously hunting for a life bird or performing some other Type A activity. For me, la dolceza sta farcendo qualcosa. The sweetness is doing something.
Perhaps that is why I have been unable to settle down to blog any earlier on this trip, which started on the even less touristed island of Guadeloupe. No matter how hard you concentrate, you just can't do a lot of things here. For one thing, everything closes down between 12:00 or 12:30 and 3:00, no matter what the printed tourist information tells you. On Saturday, we took a taxi to the sugar plantation where Josephine Napolean was born and spent the first sixteen years of her life. Posted as opening after the mid-day siesta at 2:00, it actually opened at 3:00. For another, it's simply time-consuming getting from place to place. Traffic is difficult and the roads are slow. Despite our best efforts, we are spending a lot of time spending time.
Now, it is not a tragedy to be forced to watch the rain blow the palms around or to enjoy a leisurely sunset with a cold drink in my hand. This is not a complaining blog--or not too much of one--but it is a self-enlightening one. Not for me the South Pacific atoll or the Caribbean paradise, unless I'm strenuously hunting for a life bird or performing some other Type A activity. For me, la dolceza sta farcendo qualcosa. The sweetness is doing something.
Friday, 18 June 2010
The Tower of London
The first time I came to London, I was an eager, young history student and the city both disappointed and disconcerted me. I longed to step back in time and feel the past all around me. Instead, I was confronted by a pastiche of eras and traditions from pre-Roman to all-too-modern. Bauhaus, post-modernist ice cube, Jacobean and Georgian architecture were jumbled together cheek-by-jowl. I could hardly see Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, for the tatty office buildings around it.
While my views have changed somewhat and I have come to embrace the layers of history that this most fascinating of cities has to offer, the Tower of London does not disappoint the history seeker. Sitting on the banks of the Thames where the eastern edge of the Roman walls of Londinium ended, it is almost a shock to see it's massive, Norman towers--twenty in all--and enormous moat. The original buildings were started in 1086, twenty years after the Norman conquest that displaced the Saxon dynasty. Edward I, the "Longshanks" you might recall from "Braveheart", extended the walls, gatehouses and the moat to its present size. Henry VII added the Tudor buildings lining the green inside the castle. The Tower of London, in fact, is also a compendium of historical times and styles.
What makes the Tower different, however, in spite of the tourists and the gift shops, is that you step into a flowing river of history which continues unbroken from the past. The yeoman warders or Beefeaters who walk you around are there primarily as guards, not guides. The reason they are dressed in their peculiar, red uniforms is that these are what they wore to guard Elizabeth I when she was imprisoned by her sister, Mary I, in the tower. The reason that they are all retired non-commissioned officers is because the Duke of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo who defeated Napolean for good, only wanted trusted men of battle in charge of the ultimate defensive building in London. Wellington had been made Constable of the Tower as a mark of favor and reward for his long and distinguised military and political career. It wasn't a comfortable sinecure, but an important, working position.
The Beefeaters actually live inside the Tower with their families. They have their own doctor and their own, parish church, St. Peter ad Vincula, or St. Peter in Chains. Their children have the right to be baptised and married in that church even after their yeoman warder father passes away, a right that continues for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren in perpetuity, since anyone baptised in St. Peter ad Vincula can be married there as well. This makes the Tower of London the most exclusive village in England with the possible exception of Windsor Castle.
Somehow, it's easier to come close to English history here than just about any place else. You can, for instance, see the carvings in the stone of the Beauchamp tower made by state prisoners to mark their imprisonment with verse or coat of arms or, in the case of Robert Dudley, a later favorite of Elizabeth I, a cunning Latin play on his name and an oak leaf. You can also see Henry VIII's massive armor--he had 54 inch shoulders and a 51 inch waist the last time he managed to struggle into it. You might also talk to Dave, a yeoman warder who guarded Rudolf Hess, a prisoner in the tower after World War II until he was removed to another location. The British army was concerned that his guards disliked him too much and might harm him. Dave, our guide, told us that he believed him to be an unrepentant Nazi to the end. This is history with a vengenance.
My point is that in spite of the moving walkways that take you past the crown jewels in the tower vault, the Tower of London is the real deal. It is as close to living history as we will ever get. Except, of course, for the history that we all live through. Because today's current events are tomorrow's history. Like it or not, we are all living in the Tower of London.
While my views have changed somewhat and I have come to embrace the layers of history that this most fascinating of cities has to offer, the Tower of London does not disappoint the history seeker. Sitting on the banks of the Thames where the eastern edge of the Roman walls of Londinium ended, it is almost a shock to see it's massive, Norman towers--twenty in all--and enormous moat. The original buildings were started in 1086, twenty years after the Norman conquest that displaced the Saxon dynasty. Edward I, the "Longshanks" you might recall from "Braveheart", extended the walls, gatehouses and the moat to its present size. Henry VII added the Tudor buildings lining the green inside the castle. The Tower of London, in fact, is also a compendium of historical times and styles.
What makes the Tower different, however, in spite of the tourists and the gift shops, is that you step into a flowing river of history which continues unbroken from the past. The yeoman warders or Beefeaters who walk you around are there primarily as guards, not guides. The reason they are dressed in their peculiar, red uniforms is that these are what they wore to guard Elizabeth I when she was imprisoned by her sister, Mary I, in the tower. The reason that they are all retired non-commissioned officers is because the Duke of Wellington, the hero of Waterloo who defeated Napolean for good, only wanted trusted men of battle in charge of the ultimate defensive building in London. Wellington had been made Constable of the Tower as a mark of favor and reward for his long and distinguised military and political career. It wasn't a comfortable sinecure, but an important, working position.
The Beefeaters actually live inside the Tower with their families. They have their own doctor and their own, parish church, St. Peter ad Vincula, or St. Peter in Chains. Their children have the right to be baptised and married in that church even after their yeoman warder father passes away, a right that continues for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren in perpetuity, since anyone baptised in St. Peter ad Vincula can be married there as well. This makes the Tower of London the most exclusive village in England with the possible exception of Windsor Castle.
Somehow, it's easier to come close to English history here than just about any place else. You can, for instance, see the carvings in the stone of the Beauchamp tower made by state prisoners to mark their imprisonment with verse or coat of arms or, in the case of Robert Dudley, a later favorite of Elizabeth I, a cunning Latin play on his name and an oak leaf. You can also see Henry VIII's massive armor--he had 54 inch shoulders and a 51 inch waist the last time he managed to struggle into it. You might also talk to Dave, a yeoman warder who guarded Rudolf Hess, a prisoner in the tower after World War II until he was removed to another location. The British army was concerned that his guards disliked him too much and might harm him. Dave, our guide, told us that he believed him to be an unrepentant Nazi to the end. This is history with a vengenance.
My point is that in spite of the moving walkways that take you past the crown jewels in the tower vault, the Tower of London is the real deal. It is as close to living history as we will ever get. Except, of course, for the history that we all live through. Because today's current events are tomorrow's history. Like it or not, we are all living in the Tower of London.
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Jews Court
It is so easy when traveling to fix on the things I see. Sometimes it feels like I am in a travelogue, moving from one amazing sight to the next. Walking up Steep Hill in Lincoln is a bit like that. Whether it is the Cardinal's Hat or Jews House, the Castle or the Cathedral, it's just one early Norman structure after another. From immediately after the Conquest in 1066 to about a hundred years later, the Normans were in a frenzy of building, using the remains of the Roman colony, Lindum Colonia (Lin-coln) as a convenient source of dressed stone to do it. I got so caught up in antiquarian delight that I forgot to think of the town as a place where people once and still live.
On the way down, however, I stopped at the book store now housed in Jews Court, at one time a synagogue before Edward I decided that Jews in England had already loaned him as much money as they possessed and had them expelled. Jews were directly under the king's protection, which made it difficult for them to refuse to finance royal military adventures as long as they had assets. In a neat move that foreshadowed today's financial shenanigans, Edward decreed that all monies owed to the Jews would henceforth be payable to the king. It might be considered as nationalizing the banks, if the concept of a nation, instead of a fief, had actually existed. In one stroke, the king made an entire people redundant. Jews Court stands next to Jews House and until 1290, this was the heart of a small, but important community. Now the two buildings house a restaurant, a used bookstore and the Lincolnshire Historical Society.
I was just looking for a Margery Allingham novel, an obscure and delightful mystery writer from the 40's who can be difficult to find at home. I was successful, but found myself talking with the proprietor about Jews Court and then, without warning, we were deep in an hour-long conversation about Cromwell, intolerance, the American Civil War, the rise and fall of Lincoln as a city, labour politics and primary source material. It was one of those far-ranging discussions where your brain has to skip to keep up with the lightening flashes of connection.
The owner admired Cromwell, a generally unlovable figure, and detested Charles II. "A waste of space," was how he put described that charming and lazy Royal. It wasn't just the rise of Parliamentary authority that he approved. He reminded me that it was Oliver Cromwell who, in spite of his strict Puritanism, allowed a group of Sephardic the Jews to remain in London in 1656 at a time when they would well use a safe haven. We moved on to Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee's fatal military mistakes at that turning point. He did not admire Lee, whom he considered at prig and a traitor to his oath of service to the United States.
Hmm. What about Cromwell's oath to King Charles I as a member of Parliament and outlawing Christmas revels once he became Lord Protector? Traitorous? Priggish? More intense discussion ensued, ending with a recommendation that I read Antonia Frasier's biography of Cromwell, which he conceded was very even-handed for a Catholic. Startled, I said that surely that kind of personal allegiance didn't matter to a modern historian. "Oh, no," he protested. 'You must remember that Lady Antonia was a Pakenham, a famous English Catholic family."
Clearly, I was wandering in unfamiliar forests of social history and personal bias with surprising glens of tolerance. I wondered if the 13th century was contagious. We talked on until closing, shook hands and parted, having exchanged everything except our names. As I walked down Steep Hill, it occurred to me that this is what is missing from history, the complex, emotional quotient. Just like my new acquaintance, Edward Plantagenet, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Stewart and Robert E. Lee all had their individual prejudices and quirks and should be painted, as Cromwell once said, "warts and all." Wherever there are people, there is politics, but also, an internal psychology that both resembles our own and is wildly, almost unintelligibly different.
On the way down, however, I stopped at the book store now housed in Jews Court, at one time a synagogue before Edward I decided that Jews in England had already loaned him as much money as they possessed and had them expelled. Jews were directly under the king's protection, which made it difficult for them to refuse to finance royal military adventures as long as they had assets. In a neat move that foreshadowed today's financial shenanigans, Edward decreed that all monies owed to the Jews would henceforth be payable to the king. It might be considered as nationalizing the banks, if the concept of a nation, instead of a fief, had actually existed. In one stroke, the king made an entire people redundant. Jews Court stands next to Jews House and until 1290, this was the heart of a small, but important community. Now the two buildings house a restaurant, a used bookstore and the Lincolnshire Historical Society.
I was just looking for a Margery Allingham novel, an obscure and delightful mystery writer from the 40's who can be difficult to find at home. I was successful, but found myself talking with the proprietor about Jews Court and then, without warning, we were deep in an hour-long conversation about Cromwell, intolerance, the American Civil War, the rise and fall of Lincoln as a city, labour politics and primary source material. It was one of those far-ranging discussions where your brain has to skip to keep up with the lightening flashes of connection.
The owner admired Cromwell, a generally unlovable figure, and detested Charles II. "A waste of space," was how he put described that charming and lazy Royal. It wasn't just the rise of Parliamentary authority that he approved. He reminded me that it was Oliver Cromwell who, in spite of his strict Puritanism, allowed a group of Sephardic the Jews to remain in London in 1656 at a time when they would well use a safe haven. We moved on to Gettysburg and Robert E. Lee's fatal military mistakes at that turning point. He did not admire Lee, whom he considered at prig and a traitor to his oath of service to the United States.
Hmm. What about Cromwell's oath to King Charles I as a member of Parliament and outlawing Christmas revels once he became Lord Protector? Traitorous? Priggish? More intense discussion ensued, ending with a recommendation that I read Antonia Frasier's biography of Cromwell, which he conceded was very even-handed for a Catholic. Startled, I said that surely that kind of personal allegiance didn't matter to a modern historian. "Oh, no," he protested. 'You must remember that Lady Antonia was a Pakenham, a famous English Catholic family."
Clearly, I was wandering in unfamiliar forests of social history and personal bias with surprising glens of tolerance. I wondered if the 13th century was contagious. We talked on until closing, shook hands and parted, having exchanged everything except our names. As I walked down Steep Hill, it occurred to me that this is what is missing from history, the complex, emotional quotient. Just like my new acquaintance, Edward Plantagenet, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Stewart and Robert E. Lee all had their individual prejudices and quirks and should be painted, as Cromwell once said, "warts and all." Wherever there are people, there is politics, but also, an internal psychology that both resembles our own and is wildly, almost unintelligibly different.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Cuthbert Tunstall
Unlike other Castles, Durham is located directly across from Durham Cathedral, barely a stone's throw across the green. This is because it orginated as the dour fortress of the Prince Bishop of Durham, tasked not only with opiscopal duties, but also the defense of the border against the Scots after the Norman Conquest. William I thought a bishop, dependent on the king for both appointment and succession, would be a safer alternative to a baron to hold this strategic position.
Today, because Durham Castle has become "Castle" College, one of the several colleges of Durham University, you can't just wander about on your own. Instead, a student well-versed in Durhamiana escorts you through the impressive warren of 11th-to-19th century buildings. Our guide had loads of fascinating stories to impart about hidden Norman arches and the Tudor kitchens, but my favorite came at the very last as we rested our weary feet in the chapel.
Hanging descreetly on the wall beside the choir stalls, was a strange portrait of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, who was appointed to office just four years before Henry VIII broke with the pope and made himself the head of the Church of England. In the painting, the bishop holds his hands up awkwardly in front of his chest, just slightly apart. That's because his portrait used to show him holding a rosary.
Turnstall succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Bishop of Durham and undoubtedly did not wish to continue that pattern after Wolsey was arrested for treason. Wolsey died in prison before his trial, but there's little doubt that he would have followed Sir Thomas More--now Saint Thomas More--to the block if he hadn't acquiesced to Henry. The rosary was hastily painted out. Tunstall was long-lived and survived both Henry and his sickly son, Edward VI, into Mary's reign. When Mary returned England to the Catholic fold, Cuthbert Tunstall followed her lead and the rosary was painted back in his portrait.
An octogenarian, Tunstall was still in office when Elizabeth I came to the throne and the country was once more Protestant. His portrait was again adjusted to fit the prevailing mode.
It seemed a bit late for heroism after so much accommodation to the prevailing political winds, but Cuthbert at last made a stand. He refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was imprisoned in Lambeth Palace. Like Wolsey a generation before him, Cuthbert died in captivity at the age of 85.
The interesting thing, however, is that although the rosary was painted in and out with changing fortunes, the hands maintained their stiff, unnatural pose. How easy would it have been to pose them in prayer or fold them diplomatically! Throughout his life, however, the bishop continued to hedge his bets.
It's a measure of how uncertain the times were and how of how hard it is to understand them when we have the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight. After all, we know how the story turned out. It seems unthinkable to us that Elizabeth might have been overturned or that her successor, James I, would have followed Rome. It wasn't clear to Cuthbert Tunstall and many others. This painting with its strange history, made me feel that insecurity.
Today, because Durham Castle has become "Castle" College, one of the several colleges of Durham University, you can't just wander about on your own. Instead, a student well-versed in Durhamiana escorts you through the impressive warren of 11th-to-19th century buildings. Our guide had loads of fascinating stories to impart about hidden Norman arches and the Tudor kitchens, but my favorite came at the very last as we rested our weary feet in the chapel.
Hanging descreetly on the wall beside the choir stalls, was a strange portrait of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, who was appointed to office just four years before Henry VIII broke with the pope and made himself the head of the Church of England. In the painting, the bishop holds his hands up awkwardly in front of his chest, just slightly apart. That's because his portrait used to show him holding a rosary.
Turnstall succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Bishop of Durham and undoubtedly did not wish to continue that pattern after Wolsey was arrested for treason. Wolsey died in prison before his trial, but there's little doubt that he would have followed Sir Thomas More--now Saint Thomas More--to the block if he hadn't acquiesced to Henry. The rosary was hastily painted out. Tunstall was long-lived and survived both Henry and his sickly son, Edward VI, into Mary's reign. When Mary returned England to the Catholic fold, Cuthbert Tunstall followed her lead and the rosary was painted back in his portrait.
An octogenarian, Tunstall was still in office when Elizabeth I came to the throne and the country was once more Protestant. His portrait was again adjusted to fit the prevailing mode.
It seemed a bit late for heroism after so much accommodation to the prevailing political winds, but Cuthbert at last made a stand. He refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was imprisoned in Lambeth Palace. Like Wolsey a generation before him, Cuthbert died in captivity at the age of 85.
The interesting thing, however, is that although the rosary was painted in and out with changing fortunes, the hands maintained their stiff, unnatural pose. How easy would it have been to pose them in prayer or fold them diplomatically! Throughout his life, however, the bishop continued to hedge his bets.
It's a measure of how uncertain the times were and how of how hard it is to understand them when we have the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight. After all, we know how the story turned out. It seems unthinkable to us that Elizabeth might have been overturned or that her successor, James I, would have followed Rome. It wasn't clear to Cuthbert Tunstall and many others. This painting with its strange history, made me feel that insecurity.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Evensong
Durham Cathedral is the church militant and triumphant. Unlike Chartres or Salisbury, which seem about to leap into heaven, Durham shoulders its way upward. With massive pillars in the jagged Norman dog-tooth style supporting the highest cathedral in Christendom, the ceiling almost disappears above you. Imagine sitting in the choir stalls, peering up into the dark shadows while voices, like incense, rise all around you. This is evensong.
When the host of my B&B suggested the service to me, I remembered attending a gorgeous evensong at York Cathedral several years ago with Keith and immediately planned my visit accordingly. It was a surprise, however, when one of the priests invited the half dozen of us huddled below the towering roof to come into the choir and sit in the empty stalls next to the singers. Unlike the well-attended York service, this was suddenly intimate and deeply personal. Only a dozen choir members filed in: a few men, a couple of boys and several girls. But when they started to sing, the sound filled the cathedral vaults.
Almost all of the content comes from biblical text. Originally a combination of Vespers and Compline, most of the service is sung. I was unfamiliar with the sequence, but a summary was conveniently provided for the uninitiated. As an attendee, this leaves you free, for the most part, from response so that you may pray, meditate or, like me, simply float upwards with the song. The power of the music was profound. It echoed through the immense spaces above us and wrapped us in an intertwined web of soprano, baritone, tenor and bass voices.
Walking out into the cloister and then the summer rain afterwards, I had the impression that I was stepping out of a stream of faith that had preceded me by two thousand years and would continue on long after my departure.
When the host of my B&B suggested the service to me, I remembered attending a gorgeous evensong at York Cathedral several years ago with Keith and immediately planned my visit accordingly. It was a surprise, however, when one of the priests invited the half dozen of us huddled below the towering roof to come into the choir and sit in the empty stalls next to the singers. Unlike the well-attended York service, this was suddenly intimate and deeply personal. Only a dozen choir members filed in: a few men, a couple of boys and several girls. But when they started to sing, the sound filled the cathedral vaults.
Almost all of the content comes from biblical text. Originally a combination of Vespers and Compline, most of the service is sung. I was unfamiliar with the sequence, but a summary was conveniently provided for the uninitiated. As an attendee, this leaves you free, for the most part, from response so that you may pray, meditate or, like me, simply float upwards with the song. The power of the music was profound. It echoed through the immense spaces above us and wrapped us in an intertwined web of soprano, baritone, tenor and bass voices.
Walking out into the cloister and then the summer rain afterwards, I had the impression that I was stepping out of a stream of faith that had preceded me by two thousand years and would continue on long after my departure.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
The Omphalos
The British Museum might be my favorite place on the planet. It's certainly my favorite museum. How can you beat a place with so many iconic pieces of human civilization? Want to see a Neanderthal hand axe? A 1.8 million year old pebble tool? How about a winged bull from the Assyrian Palace of Nimrod? Or do you fancy the stunning garnet inlay on a belt buckle from the Sutton Hoo ship burial? It doesn't really matter which you choose, because they are all at the British Museum.
Walking around the BM, as the Brits call it, is like visiting a cross between an exclusive gentlemen's club, a 17th century curio cabinet and an archaeological site. Perhaps because the collection morphed from Sir Hans Sloane's unwieldy 18th century private collection, even the modern bits have an eclectic, Renaissance Man feel to them. This is enhanced by the BM's new, "Hands On" program, where staff members bring out authentic relics which you can handle under their supervision.
Today, I was allowed to hold an 800 year old Viking ivory comb from York. I felt like a guest in Sir Han's house being given one of his latest artifacts. It was smooth and surprisingly heavy. The tines had been set into the frame in sets and then filed individually. I imagined a woman from the Danelaw running it through her thick, blond hair. There were also bone skates and a bit of twisted, silver bracelet with a tiny, dragon finial. It was fascinating to hold such personal history in my hands.
Strolling through the overwhelmng Egyptian sections, I looked on the enormous red, stone head of Amenophis III, once pharoah, and realized that I had first seen it 39 years ago when I was 21 on my first visit to England. It was time travel in every sense of the word.
If the Smithsonian is American's attic, then the British Museum is the Omphalos, the navel of the world where we can speak to the gods and come to understand at least a part of the cosmos.
Walking around the BM, as the Brits call it, is like visiting a cross between an exclusive gentlemen's club, a 17th century curio cabinet and an archaeological site. Perhaps because the collection morphed from Sir Hans Sloane's unwieldy 18th century private collection, even the modern bits have an eclectic, Renaissance Man feel to them. This is enhanced by the BM's new, "Hands On" program, where staff members bring out authentic relics which you can handle under their supervision.
Today, I was allowed to hold an 800 year old Viking ivory comb from York. I felt like a guest in Sir Han's house being given one of his latest artifacts. It was smooth and surprisingly heavy. The tines had been set into the frame in sets and then filed individually. I imagined a woman from the Danelaw running it through her thick, blond hair. There were also bone skates and a bit of twisted, silver bracelet with a tiny, dragon finial. It was fascinating to hold such personal history in my hands.
Strolling through the overwhelmng Egyptian sections, I looked on the enormous red, stone head of Amenophis III, once pharoah, and realized that I had first seen it 39 years ago when I was 21 on my first visit to England. It was time travel in every sense of the word.
If the Smithsonian is American's attic, then the British Museum is the Omphalos, the navel of the world where we can speak to the gods and come to understand at least a part of the cosmos.
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