Fighting a cold took up much of my weekend. We did, however, get out to the Cotswolds on Sunday, with Roots Tours out of Cambridge (consider this a true plug for the company). These 14-person van tours get one into out-of-the-way places of scenic beauty. The Cotswolds are, in fact, a true beauty spot, with the added advantage of being convenient to London and Oxford. Though the hills rise only about 3000 feet above sea level, the effect is still startling when one sees signs for 17 percent grades on paved roads. Even so, we saw many touring bicyclists on our route.
Trout streams, old mills (above), Upper and Lower Slaughter (which is actually derived from the term "Sloe Tree," not the term for butchery), the highest point in the Cottswolds, and the spa town of Cheltenham. It was a great day.
Yesterday, we had the annual chance to get our hands on (literally) items from Saint Catharine's collection of rare books. My personal favorite is a 1625 copy of Samuel Purchas's Pilgrimes, a collection of travel narratives. But I also like the Ptolemaic atlas from 1511 and the Mercator atlas from 1623 (yes, I know he was dead by then, but I mean his maps). This is always a highlight of Cambridge, and a unique opportunity that Paul Hartle has arranged for us. There's no other library or museum in the U.S. or U.K. where we could do the same.
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