March 20, 2012

This was a day filled with ancient manuscripts and scholarly work.  We got the amazing experience of being able to go into the Wordsworth Trust Library and handle artifacts that are usually kept behind glass in museums.  We passed around first editions of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads (a 1798 edition published in Bristol), several other of Wordsworth’s books, Keat’s 1^st edition book of poems published in 1820, books by Shelly, an 1818 1^st edition version of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Miltion’s Paradise Lost (Wordsworth’s own personal copy), and many other famous works.  It was great to be able to handle these old books, to smell their ancient fumes (books smell the BEST!), and to look at some of the notes Byron and Wordsworth wrote in their copies of their books.  We didn’t have to use gloves or anything to handle them, as the curator told us that when you wear gloves you are harsher with the books, as you can’t directly feel the pages and don’t know how sensitive you’re being with them.

My home for the next 8 hours

                Books were a status symbol and very expensive in Wordsworth’s time because everything had to be made by hand.  One really cool thing I leaned was how books were originally sold – the words were printed on huge sheets of paper that were folded to form the book (customers had to get a knife and cut apart the pages after the purchased the book).  Only the actual pages of the book were sold and then clients would then purchase their own book covers to match their library.

                We also got to read through some of Wordsworth’s letters (some written by him and some written to him) and did some exercises in transcribing them.  It was veeeeery difficult to read some of the letters, especially when they wrote small to try to conserve space (postage was expensive, and it was actually the recipient that had to pay for postage).  We took a look at his notes when he was creating one of his poems and had to try to pick out the parts of the poem he used in the final version.  It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done!  His handwriting was terrible, he had notes written in the margins everywhere, and it was very difficult to follow his chain of thought.  It was an exhausting and frustrating exercise.  Remind me never to be a curator because this is what they do for hours every day.

Basking in the ancient book's glory

In between sessions of studying in the archives (we were in there from 9-5:30) we got tasty little snack breaks and a tour of Dove’s Cottage (which we could now actually see because the sun was out).  The cottage was tiny and had originally been built for and used as a bar.  We wandered out in the gardens for a bit and got a small taste for why Wordsworth made such a point to get out in nature to write his poetry. 

Outside Dove Cottage

Outside Dove Cottage

Outside in Wordsworth's gardens

Overall it was a great day and the experience of a lifetime.  I probably won’t have another chance like that to handle the antiques museums keep behind glass.  The curator was very enthusiastic and loved our interest.  He was a bit anal though, and hovered around us as we turned over letters and handled his beloved books.

This was around hour 6, so forgive the crazy eyes and exhaustion.

After spending over 8 hours hunched over moldy papers we were released into the wild and went to get dinner.  We found a cute little Italian restaurant and discussed lighter topics, such as the ethical difficulties of allowing the public to enjoy and handle historical documents or if they should be completely preserved and locked up.  What can I say?  I guess you can take the girl away from the manuscripts but you can’t really take the manuscripts out of the girl (that is, if she’s spent a whole day with them.  But don’t worry, eventually it wore off).