whoops: insert norfolkiana

That was the week that was. After visiting Cambridge on Tuesday, and Lincoln on Wednesday, we visited Norfolk on Thursday, before jetting off to Dublin on Friday (remind me to look at a calendar before accepting an additional afternoon jaunt; or a whole weekend in Dublin!). So between the entry on Lincoln and that on Dublin add the following.

Norfolk is east of Lincolnshire through the (very flat) Fens. Near Kings Lynn and the Wash is Castle Rising. Castle Rising is

• a small town (why does Jeff's picture look pasted in?) and a borough with a charter--which means it returned MPs (2 Members of Parliament) between the late medieval period and 1832 (and then, like other pocket boroughs, lost representation by the Great Reform Act)
• the home of a Norman keep (note the nice Romanesque [Norman] rounded arch and hatchings).

From there we traveled a small distance to Houghton Hall. Houghton is

• Built in a Palladian style, designed by William Kent, for Sir Robert Walpole
• Basically the hunting lodge for Sir Robert who spent most of his time at No. 10 Downing Street in Westminster (he becoming known as the first Prime Minister, who held power from about 1720 until about 1740)
• photo opportunity for Eastern Illinois University British Rulers and British Ruled group (you'd think I could take the picture in focus)
• great place for croquet.

london week

London Week (times not mentioned are free time for exploring London–you have a 7 day pass for all 6 zones; use it)
1. F 29 June
a. 9 am, coach to London (note checkout of room procedure for Harlaxton)
b. Noonish, Setup/orientation/shopping for rooms in Queen Mary College, Mile End (main campus)
c. 3-4 pm (Orwell and Exam discussion, common room in the student village)
d. 4:15 leave for Covent Garden for “Beat the Clock” special meal at Belgo Central (50 Earlham St., 0207 813-2233)
e. The Scoop at More London, Next to City Hall, Riverside, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2AA Free movie screening Fri: Bollywood comedy-drama 'Monsoon Wedding' (15) (Mira Nair, 2001). The Scoop is the sunken amphitheatre on the south side of the Thames Path next to City Hall near Tower Bridge. There's no need to book but you should be seated by 9.15pm.
2. S 30 June
a. morning, trips to markets (Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane)
b. one group may be touring to Stonehenge (by train to Salisbury, or by bus [cheapest option], then local bus to Stonehenge
c. Noonish, National Portrait Gallery (S or Su)
d. study for final exam
e. graduate research
3. Su 1 July
a. Trips to market (Portobello Road)
b. Weekly blog question-response due Sun
4. M 2 July
a. 9-10am (Orwell, "Lambeth Walk") room 125, the Arts Building
b. Class: 11 am-12:30, Dr. Peter Catterall, Queen Mary College, University of London (his office in the history dept., upstairs in the Arts Building)
c. "Assignments": groups to explore/find specific markers and areas in London report back to the group (join one of the groups below, or construct your own–run it by me for approval first–and feel free to do more than one)
i. Leah, the Geffrye Museum of interiors (Kingsland Road, London, E2 8EA; Tel: 020 7739 9893)
ii. Jeffrey, the Jeffrye Museum (sorry, no, that is a joke), Jeremy Bentham’s Corpse (Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon can be seen 07:30-18:00 Monday to Friday in UCL's South Cloisters)
iii. Matt, Karl Marx’s Grave in Highgate Cemetery (East Cemetery, Entry £2.00, Camera Permit £1.00)
iv. Kelly, Abbey Road Studios (3 Abbey Road | St Johns Wood | London NW8 9AY)
d. graduate research (including Institute of Historical Research)
e. study for final exam
5. T 3 July
a. Class: 9-10 am (final class, Johnny Rotten, Orwell), room 125, the Arts Building
b. 11 am, visit and tour of Houses of Parliament with MP
c. 2* pm-4, tour of West End and the Courts (from Leicester “House,” to the old Royal Stables, to Pall Mall, to St. James Palace, to Buckingham Palace to St. James Gardens, to Whitehall/Downing Street). *about an hour to start after HP visit and time for lunch
d. OR, 2-4*, Tour of City of London (especially Museum of London)
6. W 4 July
a. Class: 9 am-12 noon (EXAM), room 125, the Arts Building
b. 1-3, Tour of South Kensington/Exhibition Road area (especially British Galleries of V & A British Galleries, with guest lecturer, Dr. Angela McShane, V & A Museum/Royal College of Art)
7. Th 5 July
a. 10, Tour of River Thames, Greenwich, and East End (boat trip down Thames from Embankment to Greenwich, Greenwich Observatory, then back via light railway, and London Transport through East End, walk through Smithfield, etc.)
8. F 6 July
a. AA 0067, Departs: Heathrow, 12:15pm (check-in 10:15, leave from Mile End, 8:57am; journey takes 1:26 using tube; alternate journey at 1 hour goes to Paddington to use Heathrow Express from there–the latter is not paid for with your travel card, however)
b. Return to "sweet, home Chicago"
9. Additional note
a. I will have my cell-phone so call in an emergency or if you are lost. We are staying at: Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
i. mobile: (07892) 792 705

blog query week four

Ins and Outs of the down-and-outs in London. Of the vagabonds, tramps, street performers, etc. that George Orwell meets in London, who is the most well off and who is the worst? And what specifically is stated about these two characters that allows you to know this? Are any of these characters members of the working class? (Specific examples please.) Last blog entry

blog query week three

Gradgrind at Bath? Mary Musgrove in Coketown? Take one character from Persuasion and place him or her in Hard Times. Or one from Hard Times and place in Persuasion. How would that person react to the other situation? How would the other characters react to yours? Discuss how your person fits into the other society portrayed generally, but give specifics of setting and at least one quote from your character and suggest how it might affect the other novel. Is it a different time? A different place? A different class?

protestant ascendancy, georgian architecture...., nah, it was a weekend off

Ireland transmetropolitan style (Trinity College playing fields above). Dublin is:

• James Joyce
• Arthur Guinness
• Phil Lynott
• Jonathan Swift
• and
• Mario Queen of the Circus's tribute to Queen! (with his brave sidekick Andrew)

oratore, bellatore, laboratore anyone?

Lincoln is a Norman Castle, which, after various uses housed a prison which for a few, unfortunate years was run according to the silent system. As such, the sectioned off chapel, entering which all inmates wore masks until in there separate box, is the only one still standing. Lincoln is also, of course, a Norman Cathedral. As a display of the new power bases, its situation on a hill in a flat fenland type area was/is superb.

Oh, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.

blog query week two

(posted Monday, due Thursday, by 8 am)

We have discussed Moll (1722) and begun to discuss Anne and the others of Persuasion (1816). In the world of Jane Austen, circa 1800, why do people visit Bath (health, love, society [what does that mean?], finances)? Find two reasons for going to Bath which represent two characters' distinct rationale for visiting or living at Bath. Give a quote each which shows this rationale and discuss. How are these reasons different from or similar to Moll's rationale?

(Rather than retype quotes you may find it easier once you know which quotes you want to go this e-text of Persuasion (html by chapters) or that e-text of Persuasion (all one text file.)

the insider's guide to cantab

Cantabrigiensis. Abbrev. Cantab. Latin for Cambridge. Grantabrygge. Its original name. What college? How to judge? Age? Beauty? Size? Place in the Tompkins Table? Emmanuel College places well in Tompkins (read, top), but is only a medium size or medium age being founded in the mid-16th century. We were able to gain entrance to the Christopher Wren designed 17th-century wing over and in front of his chapel as well as the Fellows Garden because our guide is a Fellow there. Beyond class?

london weekend

This past weekend students were in Grantham, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Paris. I was in London. Sunday early I walked from myGracechurch Street hotel through Leadenhall Market (mostly pubs and boutiques now, but the 19th century fixtures remain) through to Petticoat Lane (active, with many Africans) to Brick Lane (Saturday is more active there, but still lots of stalls and Bangladeshis). Along the way is Hawksmoor's church in Spitalfields (went to the market there too) and almshouses. Towards the end of my East End jaunt saw a Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor circa 1902. Then back across Aldgate and into the City, where I saw Lloyd's Register of Shipping building (the original basis of their shipping empire).

contact info

Just a reminder for your parents (and mine) that my contact information is as follows:

• to June 29:Harlaxton Manor,Grantham, Lincs.,NG32 1AG
• to July 6 by mobile: (07892) 792 705
• or just email
  

blog query week one

(Should be due Sunday, but I just posted it and most of you are on weekend journeys; due Monday evening, 11 June) Does a woman experience the social hierarchy of 18th century England differently from a man? Either give a couple of examples (and explanation) of how women had a different experience of class/status relations from men. Or give a couple of examples (and explanation) of how class/status relations are experienced differently when you are at the bottom of the hierarchy (poor, criminal, etc.) than when you are at the top (gentry, gentlewoman, etc.). Use Defoe's Moll Flanders and Celie Fiennes' travel diary.

Walking the Streets of London (2007)

Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London, written by John Gay in 1716, is a celebration of the metropolis. On Friday evening I walked the streets of London to the Norht and East for a few hours. I walked north, which, as I am in the center of the old city of London, meant going by the bank of england and institute of chartered accountants, and more banks, and bankers and would-be bankers, and would-be future wives of would-be bankers talking loudly and drinking in smart modern outdoor bistros in buildings that probably weren't here five years ago. And on past less smart banks, and office blocks, and would-be office blocks, and companies that did something not to clear but did it all over the world because they had clocks on the wall in a back room telling time all over the world. and then into a pub, small but brash, for half a pint. Then north and east and then east. I must look like I know what I am doing as a car driver asks me which way to Brick Lane, and I say I don't know but I point the general direction and a bicyclist confirms that, so I feel all right. But now we ARE in the east and it is getting quite seedier. I enter Brick Lane but I go on past the Bangladeshi restaurants as I am on a mission to get some chips, and i figure the east end is going to have more chippies than the area around the bank of england! I wanted to loop around, but the train tracks are in the way and, of course, I am literally on the wrong side of the tracks. There are lots of parties on second floors, although that would really be the first floor for Brits. I find a road under the train tracks and then there are council house estates, and I cut through some and some have elaborate iron grills on lower floors which means that Thatcher's privatization of council housing must have taken, but these are all South Asians, with those low white caps they must be Pakistani or Bangladeshi. And then there I walk through a small park with lots of young African men. Now I am in Whitechapel (which is where Jack the Ripper did his business) and I finally find a chippie and buy a saveloy (a rather questionable slightly spicy hotdog) and chips open. And I eat this with a wooden fork while I walk. and I see a statue and start to see if I can read what it is but there are folks dossing down for the night around it and others arguing rather drunkenly so I continue. and then i try to double back or at least get to the river, but forget that this part of the river swings way to the south, so that instead of going back west, I am just going south. And then I look into a window and see people working around a table. It is a maddrassa. I can't see the identifiable buildings of the city any more so I stop someone and ask how to get to the city. And he is very helpful but without a lot of English ("you go and take the step," meaning stairs) and the directions he gives me are great. I want to go back and thank him. The London Docklands Light Railway is fairly new and this took me from Shadwell one stop (but the longest between stops I have ever been on in London) all the way to Bank. Then I walk back past all the beautiful people queuing at velvet ropes for trendy nightspots. As Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: And so to bed.

chatsworth chatter

We came, we walked, we conquered. Bakewell to Chatsworth is a quick trip. By bus. But we walked. And walked. But we made it over the hill and saw Chatsworth in all its glory. Its glory, by the way, is Palladian. More on that style when we reach Houghton. (Palladio, a sixteenth century Italian designed Venetian villas, not in the city, but in the newly conquered back country. His designs were supposedly based on Roman villas of antiquity. They were all the rage when rediscovered in the late-17th and early-18th century.) You will be able to distinguish the style by the end. Think threes. Three bays of three windows (the back is three windows, then five windows, then three, but the symmetry remains). Think a bit classical. Think proportioned. Palladian states that the owner is the rightful owner of the land and will be there a long time. Of course, when it is built it is new. Dress is an argument. Architecture is an argument.

I suppose even chickens are an argument, and they had some odd ones at Chatsworth.

pre-departure query four (on Defoe)

ok you don't really have time for pre-departure question four. i just insist that i receive 3 postings from each of you by the time of the first class on 5 june. readings are below, although you should have already read the first chapters of cannadine and the beginning of defoe.

extra credit: quote a sentence from defoe (within the first approx. 80 pp.) that discusses social relations (class?) and a sentence on what you think it shows.

Readings for British Rulers & British Ruled since 1700

1. David Cannadine, The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain, introduction (by 5 June), ch. 1 on 18th c. (by 6 June), ch. 3 on 19th c. (by 21 June), ch. 4 on 20th c. (by 28 June)
2. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, there are no chapters but from her birth in Newgate Prison, to be taken by gypsies to Colchester, Essex, and then the countryside near Colchester, a perhaps too long part of the book, to London where she meets her gentleman-tradesman (by 5 June), to Oxford, to the Mint (part of London where insolvent debtors hide), to Redriff (Rotherhithe) near London, then to Virginia (York River), before returning to Milford Haven, London again (by 11 June), Bristol, Bath (we will return to this on our Bath week), Gloucester, Reading, Hammersmith, London (Bloomsbury, the Bank), Lancashire (Warrington to Liverpool), Chester (Black Rock), Dunstable (within 30 miles of London), London (St. Jone's near Clerkenwell), to end (by 13 June)
3. Celia Fiennes, “The North Journey and the Tour of Kent (1697),” part (e-Reserves, by 6 June).
4. Bruce Feiler, “Prologue: Coming Up,” part; & “Matriculating: Town and Gown,” part (e-Reserves, by 11 June).
5. Jane Austen, Persuasion (by 18 June)
6. Alexis de Tocqueville, “Journey to England (1835)” (e-Reserves, by 25 June).
7. Charles Dickens, Hard Times (by 25 June)
8. Mass-Observation, “Doing the Lambeth Walk” (e-Reserves, by 28 June).
9. George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, esp. London part (by 28 June)
10. John Lydon, Segments 01-03 from Rotten (e-Reserves, by 4 July).