No flames in the library

  From Dreaming Spies: The Library’s policy [was] enshrined in the oath’s second declaration: item neque ignem nec flammam in bibliothecam inlaturum vel in ea accensurum; “not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame.” ….I had to agree, that when it came to Duke Humfrey’s library, a tinder- dry piece…

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Oxford views

From Dreaming Spies: And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening. In the middle of the nineteenth century, poet Matthew Arnold visited a friend who lived in a tiny village on a hill three miles from Oxford. Boar’s Hill pastoral poem Thyrsis describes the view from a small…

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The Oxford Prison

From Dreaming Spies: …the dank and draughty confines of His Majesty’s Prison, Oxford, a part of the castle complex dating back to the eleventh century. The Empress Matilda had escaped over the frozen Thames, but then, she had a great deal of help from within. A map of the castle, from Wikipedia. (In fact, Mary…

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The Bodleian

From Dreaming Spies: The Bodleian Library is one of the glories of the Western world— although, if the world (and the University) was a fair place, the institution would be called the “Ball Library,” after the wealthy widow Thomas Bodley had married. It was Ann Ball’s money (inherited from a trader in pilchards) that restored…

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Henry V, in…Japan?

From Dreaming Spies: That every wretch, pining and pale before, Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks; A largess universal, like the sun His liberal eye doth give to every one, Thawing cold fear . . . A little touch of Harry in the night. At the early stages of a book, a writer plays…

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The art of the kimono

From Dreaming Spies: There are many, many layers covering a Japanese woman, which goes far to explain the lack of heat in the houses. I doubt many women here managed without assistance, but I did not even try, merely stood with my arms out and let the maid push me around and bundle me like…

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The traditional ryokan

From Dreaming Spies: Fortunately, Miss Sato’s lectures had prepared me for the accommodations: stark expanse of pristine straw mats, one wall of wooden cupboards, a niche holding a narrow vase with a single branch of cherry blossoms, and a low wooden table with round silk cushions tucked under three of its sides. Travelling to Japan…

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The Bear

From Dreaming Spies: And that is where the bears discovered us…. Yes, bears. In Japan. And not just in 1924 Japan, but 2012. At any rate, there is a sign, with a warning about bears on the Nakasendo trail—where Russell and Holmes walked 91 years ago. * * 9 days until Dreaming Spies! Other posts about writing…

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Frank Lloyd Wright in Tokyo

From Dreaming Spies: The compound was built from an unlikely mix of yellowish brick and rugged lava-stone slabs of a peculiarly greenish tint, combining the roof-line of a Japanese farm house with a right-angle Illinois sensibility and the brutality of a Mayan temple. Over this uneasy mix lay a heavy dusting of Moorish detail, apparent…

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A Folding Book

From Dreaming Spies: A folding book of illustrated poems, some eight inches tall and three and a half wide, with a slip-case to hold it. When stretched out, it forms a panorama of the very road you travelled along to get here: the Kisokaido. The poems are by Bashō. The illustrations are by Hokusai, under…

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