the rest of Wednesday...

Okay I finished up most of my work at the Public Records Office in Kew. I noticed that there were several letters right in a row in the printed edition of Elizabeth's collected works that I had not seen. They all said Lambeth Palace library. Well I had just kind of dismissed that, because I am sure as you know, Lambeth Palace is the London home for the Archbishop of Canterbury. If that does not mean anything to you, he is the head bishop of the Church of England. A very bright guy too. I figured it would be impossible to get access to that library. But I thought I would look on their website and see if they let people in. And they do.

So I hopped my train back to London and showed up on the doorstep of this place.



It's right by the Thames river. I then went to this door.



rang the door bell and they let me in. I showed them my credentials. I have two letters of introduction one from Milligan and one from UT telling about my research and soon there I was in the reading room looking at 16th century letters of Elizabeth I. OH MY GOSH.

The very cool thing is that this is the library for the whole Church of England and they had a private prayer book of Elizabeth I that was printed in 1569 which I got to look at. Here's one of the first pages.



IT was something she composed for her own private devotion and included prayers in English, Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek. I am going back tomorrow to look at it more closely. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this stuff. It is kind of like you walking into the National Archives in Washington DC and asking and getting to see the original Declaration of Independence.

Plus the Lambeth library is smaller, they get you your manuscripts in like 5 minutes, compared to 70 at the british library, and they have a place for you to have tea or coffee and relax. It was so exciting. Plus when I got back to the room I had an email from the Journal of British Studies, it is the most prestigous journal for British studies there is, published by the University of Chicago..well they asked me to review a book for them for their Fall issue. I had my name on a list ages ago but finally they found something. This is another big deal. Not trying to brag but I am excited. It is getting published in one of the premier scholarly journals. Plus I get the book I review for free. AWESOME>

But I am still ready to come home. If you know the song CC RIder start playing it at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday because that's when my plane lands and Ted has definitely left the building...Cheers and thank you very much...