What fools these mortals be!

location: British Library, floor one, next to the King's Library
weather: Fine and sunny, 18 degrees Celsius
mood: cynical and frustrated
food: Pret a Manger Pretzel and Water, some grapes and plums from Abel & Cooke
time on public transport: 25 min, District and Piccadilly lines from Fulham Broadway to King's Cross St Pancras.
artefacts seen: Beowulf manuscript, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Persuasion and Tess of the D'Urbervilles MSS, and the Four Zoas microfilm and published facsimile.
impressions: The British Library is as bloody minded and bureaucratic in person as they are via email. The building is impressive, and so is the permanent exhibitions, but its impossible to find anything in the catalogue.

Having spent the last 4 days examining the microfilm and the Erdman facsimile, all I have managed to ascertain is (1) Blake did illustrate the Zoas, but not fully and (2) The editing and creation of this poem was as incoherent and chaotic as the work itself. I have just applied to see the manuscript itself for the third time, and doubt my chances of them changing their minds this time. It is, however, good to see and use the microfilm, but as the printed facsimile I was using in Canberra carries a better resolution of the whole (but not the marginalia, which is where all this frustration lies), I just want to shake people. There are people with less experience than I handling works far, far older in the Manuscripts room - without gloves (much to my horror), and I'm stuck with the greyscale facsimile. Well, we'll see. I've now had my fill of the British Library for now - I'll be back in my final week here, its on to the British Museum after lunch. It turns out that a number of the Blake collection stayed in the British Museum while it remains on the British Library catalogue. Go figure. I hope they're not as unhelpful over there.

Anyway, some highlights - St Paul's and Westminster (and St Margaret's) I have yet to go inside any of these beautiful pieces of architecture, but I am looking forward to it. I may do the Abbey tomorrow - Chris wants me to wait for him, but he hasn't the time to go during he week.

The Beowulf manuscript (and Shakespeare First Folio [1623]), the Lindisfarne Gospels. If nothing else, seeing the Beowulf manuscript was enough. I could even read the section on display! That was quite something. Quite something indeed.

I'm planning on walking around Lambeth on Sunday - hoping to explore the possibility of Felpham on Saturday as a day trip, but it all depends on the weather right about now. Also want to find Blake's watercolour "The Fall of Man", which is apparently the piece he was working on whilst revising the Zoas... I think it may be on display at the Tate. Either that or in conservation. Actually, I have an appointment to see it at the Tate Collections management centre - if its there, they have yet to confirm.

But now, I need lunch. It's taking me quite a while to get over my jet lag, and I seem particularly wobbly today. will post some photos tonight, hopefully.