Joining Procedures

Every student here has to go through "joining procedures" when they first get to Harlaxton. This is where the College staff make copies of their passports, return travel itineraries, and other documents. All of this has to be kept on file in case British Immigration officers show up to double check the status of everyone here. Several faculty members volunteered to help Ed, the new Dean of Students, get through all 142 students quickly. Two and a half hours later, we were done.

Dr. Barbara Presnall, a political scientist, and I made an efficient team but this gave me a much greater appreciation for the registrar's staff back at Marian!

Around the Manor

So, some friends wanted more pictures of various architectural features of the house so here is a small sample. The first two are close ups of the ceilings in my room. Nothing too grand as the others on this floor have gilding, dark wood details, etc. but this is not too bad to wake up to every morning.

Below these are two pictures of the ceiling detail above the grand staircase. Again, just a tad over the top wouldn't you say? Those plaster tassels you see actually move (we touched them thinking they were fixed) and quickly decided not to touch them again. Once again, this is a foot, maybe two above your head when you are at the top of the staircase. Oy!

The fifth photo is the chandelier in the Great Hall of the Manor. I took this last night just to give you a sense of this but was too far away to get a really good shot.

The picture of what appears to be harps inlaid in the floor is exactly that. This is the original floor at the foot of the staircase. It came from a ancient Roman villa. (At least Gregory Gregory had some taste in choosing this feature for the house). The conservationists here are much dismayed however that this is still on the floor with all the foot traffic.

The gigantic fireplace you see is in the newly renovated Gatehouse of the manor that was opened this year for use by faculty on sabbatical for short term stays. The workman didn't know the whole thing was there as it had been walled up. It is probably close to 6' deep. In the cellars, the Gatehouse has its "copper" where water was heated in a large copper basin over a fire for the laundry.

The last picture is of the entrance to the carriage house for the Manor. This too has been renovated and turned into rooms for students and also for married faculty with kids as they are more like flats with kitchens. There are plenty more things to see but I'll save them for another time.

Pomp and Circumstance

This was a weekend of welcome and of getting to know the full Harlaxton community better as the result of several key ceremonies that went on. Yesterday morning, the entire student body of 142 was gathered in the Long Gallery of the house for the Principal's Convocation Exordium and address. There was a grand procession of the faculty in their robes, the Vicar from St. Mary and St. Peter, Harlaxton, the Principal of the College, and the Dean led by a piper in full regalia and a drummer into the hall. The Dean introduced the faculty and the the Prinicipal gave his first formal address to the students at Harlaxton. It was quite something though the British faculty tended to roll their eyes at this effort to evoke the historical (but increasingly rare) traditions of Oxford and Cambridge. For the students, I suspect it was an impressive show, and for the faculty, it did make one feel a sense of pride in the work we came to do here. In the afternoon, most of the students and faculty grabbed the coaches for Grantham to see our first open market day. People sold all kinds of things here but interspersed with scarfs, small electrical appliances, and other sundries, were the farmers stalls. Once again, the tiniest, sweetest strawberries were on offer for L1.00 (about $1.63). There were lovely scones and baked goods, meat pies, and local honey and jams. It was almost too much to take in. We were all very hungry since we skipped the manor lunch (hot dogs!) and opted to find something in Grantham. The Relax Inn fish and chips shop was just the ticket serving lovely fried cod and haddock with wonderful chips wrapped in white blotter paper. It was cheap and delicious but we decided we'd only be able to stop there once a month or else we'd end up weighing a ton.

The evening back at the Manor was another bit of ceremony with a full introduction (our degrees, positions back home, scholarly work, etc.) of the faculty members at a formal reception at which the men were all in ties and coats and the women in black cocktail dresses. We were again in robes and introduced one by one before the piper returned to lead us all to a formal dinner. It was a lovely evening for everyone. The students naturally escaped as soon as possible to continue to explore the various ales at the local pub while the faculty adjourned to the Senior Common Room again for more cheese, wine, scotch, and lively conversation until midnight. I think getting back to the routines of teaching will be a good thing for everyone after all this.

Pictures to go with the last post

Sorry, here are the pictures to go with the last post. I can't quite figure out how to "place" them in appropriate places in the text yet but I'll keep trying.

The first picture is the view back to the manor from one of the lanes. The second looks out over the manor canal. The next picture is of the Harlaxton village church, St. Mary and St. Peter's. The lovely cows greeted us as we went through a gate onto a public footpath. The final picture shows you where we were trying to get to but never could find our way out of that damned pasture! We walked the entire perimeter and never could get out. We even wandered into someone's back yard since there looked like a path but no luck. No wonder Halaxton village got cut in the first round in this year's "Best Village" contest in part due to the fact that the hedgerows are not kept trimmed up around the public footpaths. Imagine my surprise!

Out and about before the students arrive

Yesterday (Thursday), the faculty enjoyed a free afternoon to wander through Grantham, the historic market town about four miles away. After asking the advice of the locals, I went straight for Hallem's, a small deli/specialty food market that offered a nice range of local cheeses, olives, and other tasty treats (The cheeses we settled on were a Lincoln Imp, an organic cheddar, and a very unusual local blue who's name I forgot to write down so I need to go back and find that out). There was a green grocer, near the town's main church, St Wulfstan's, who had the most amazing blackberries (1 qt for a Pound) and tiny sweet strawberries (1 pt for a Pound)! The wine mechant, Bottom's Up, was just down a little further (next to the saddlery shop) where a lovely 1999 LBV Warre's Port and some Hendrick's Gin (naturally) were all collected as provisions for the Senior Common Room where the faculty gather in the evenings (see the picture). A local university professor died 25+ years ago and donated his book collection to Harlaxton and now other visiting professors have added to it. The collection varies from education to philosophy to music along with contemporary fiction and travel books that are all for our private use. It is a lovely room...Maybe I should note that the younger members of the faculty decided not to wait for the evening and enjoyed drinks and nibbles out on the south terrace of the manor before dinner.

On to Friday...

Okay, this is it! The first (of three!) coaches packed with students is due in from Heathrow by 1 today so I figured that this was the last chance to enjoy some peace and quiet on a walk about. At 6:30 am this morning, the sky was so blue and there was a cool breeze blowing that I had to get out in it. I walked the mile-long drive up to the main road then followed a bike path about a mile toward the nearby town of Denton until I figured out that there were public footpaths that would take me across fields rather than have to walk alongside the traffic on the A607 to Melton Mowbray (noted as a high-risk road due to 26 casualties in the month of July alone!)

I made it back to the manor in time for a hearty breakfast only to turn around two h0urs later and back out with one of the history professors who wanted to go for a walk through fields. These are the fields and local animal life in the pictures. By the time Beth and I got back to the manor, there was a big storm brewing and thankfully a kind workman who was working on restoring the gatehouse, gave us a lift back up to the manor just as the rain came down in buckets. (See the next post for the pictures.)

The students are now wandering around the house like lost sheep as we all were at first. It is nice to know which staircase takes you back to your room and which unlabeled door leads wherever else you need to go. This is much like Gosford Park for those of you who have seen that film. It is no wonder those visiting servants would get a bit confused and end up in the wrong places.

The other exciting news of the day was that I now have a contact for riding here in Lincolnshire; in a small village on the other side of Grantham, called Hough on the Hill (don't say it...). The Headmaster's administrative assistant and her husband used to have quite a few horses and they know anyone who is anyone in the local horse world. She also used to ride her hunt horses in the trial point-to-point chase that is required to make sure they are fit to hunt the territory. As it turns out, the Belvoir Hunt is one of the top hunts in all of England so if I get to hunt with them, it will be quite something. Ann's excellent advice was that I should 1) hunt with someone who is willing to go with me and 2) only plan to hunt on a Tuesday meet when the "farmer fraternity" go out for a more friendly and less "hell-bent on speed" Saturday meet. Tuesday meets here for my hunt friends information typcially bring out about 50 people but Saturday meets can have as many as 200, most of whom, in Ann's words, are from London and don't know what they are doing. I think a Tuesday sounds great...it only requires me to go out at 4 am! We'll see!

First Days

Greetings friends. It has been a bit of a whirlwind three days getting adjusted to the new life in Britain. Travel went without incident and I even managed to get into London an hour early thanks, I think, to Hurricane Bill giving the plane some extra tailwind. I had a lovely quiet two days with friends Michael and Todd, at their flat just north of Camden Town. Yesterday I made my pilgrimage to Fortnum and Mason's for provisions of tea, snacks, and other things to keep on hand for those quiet cocktails in the room before dinner. Last night, we went to a wonderful new French Bistro near Euston Station called Somers Town Coffeehouse. The food was lovely. I had razor clams and other shellfish gratin followed by roast guinea fowl on boulangere potatoes with a port wine sauce!

It was up early and on to Harlaxton today. It's been a bit rainy and blustery with the remains of the hurricane but we did see some sun too. Harlaxton is every bit as breathtaking as the pictures on the website and I will be adding some in the next few days. For now, I've put a few more pics of my room (my mantle now has pictures of home,my riding helmet and gloves, and fresh roses left by the headmaster and his wife). The other picture is the view from my room out the front of the manor gates. Tomorrow we get down to business with getting ready for the students to arrive and classes to begin on Monday. I'll be telling you more about life here as it unfolds but for now let me say how impressed I am with the way the staff are going out of their way to make us feel welcome. It does begin to feel like home...if a little over the top! :-)

Here is a preview of my room in Harlaxton manor. I am on the third floor and the windows face out the front of the house. One's only regret is that the fireplace doesn't work, especially on those rainy Lincolnshire autumn days.

My Opening Entry

Greetings. This is my first experience in the blogging world. I will be using this medium to keep friends, family, and colleagues up to date on my experiences at Harlaxton College, the British Campus of the University of Evansville, where I will be in residence this fall term. I leave the States in another week and a half so this is my last chance to get everything in place before I leave. I look forward to sharing this experience with you all and will miss you as well. Cheers.