I almost forgot--I went to the Pepys Library in Magdalene College yesterday. I've been in Magdalene's first court before, and I think I found out where C.S. Lewis's rooms were there, but I've forgotten. Anyhow, it turns out that Pepys was a naval administrator during the Restoration, and his collection includes Hakluyt (both the Principal Navigations (2nd ed.) and the Divers Voyages), as well as Purchas's Pilgrimage and Pilgrimes. But, perhaps more importantly, the library has a manuscript book (illustrated) about the shipwright's art from the mid-16th century. I note that the National Maritime Museum claims not to have any real sense of ship plans from before the mid 1600's, so I wonder if the manuscript contains any important illustrations. If I could get my students into that library, however, we'd have a rich printed manuscript and printed book trove there. I also didn't check to see if Pepys had a de Bry of some type. I'd better look at the catalog.
Last night, the farewell dinner and reception, in the pouring rain. We ended up in the Old Combination Room for the reception before dinner, and in the Senior Combination Room for the dinner itself. The students have been great this year, and the faculty members the most involved in my experience. We just had a couple of issues that just came up last night: one student managed to lose her keys down a grate in the sidewalk, and confronted the porter in tears about it (thinking that she'd have to pay a lot of money to replace it). However, the grate she lost the keys down was actually college property, so the next morning we had one of the maintenance men get it out.
Tonight, The Merry Wives of Windsor, if the weather holds. I don't think I've ever seen a rainier summer here.
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