Don’t Wander Off! 7/16 Part Two

After lunch, we met up at the New College Library, which might be the most beautiful libraries I’ve ever seen. It started as the chapel of a church, and so it has these vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows that just amaze you. A chapel of books? Now that’s a religion I can get behind. The oak furniture in the library was shaped out of the old pews when the 1850s church was converted into the library in the 1930s.

Under the chapel room, there were an additional five floors, and the whole collection had over a quarter of a million books. When we ventured down into the stacks, we got that same intoxicating leather aroma that demonstrated how old the collection is (in my notes I wrote that the smell was “delicious”). Between that smell and the chapel reading room, it might be the perfect library to work in. The collection contained a large pamphlet collection from the 18^th and 19^th century, in addition to a room that holds a collection of Bibles. It’s fitting that the primary readers in the library are divinity students. The funding for the library comes from both the university and the churches of Scotland.

We were allowed in the Special Collections Reading Room, a small area of the main reading room sealed off with glass walls to prevent anyone from accidentally damaging or carrying off one of the books. There we got to see some of the prizes of the collection, Calvin’s Defension Orthodoxae from 1554.

When we finished at the New College Library, I had trouble leaving, because I was still enamored with the beautiful reading room.

 

When I got back to Dalkeith, I decided to go for a walk on the grounds. I wanted to find the ancient oaks, which are among some of the oldest in the country. With a bit of direction from a couple of my classmates, I set off on the path along the creek. The walk was gorgeous, as I walked under the trees along the river. But as I kept walking, I found myself routinely wondering if I was possibly no longer on the path, because it dwindled from a respectable walking path to not more than a deer path. Every time I was about to turn back, I would find a sign or a bit of fence, which told me I was still on a walking path. I did eventually find the oaks, and then I figured I was on a looping path, so I’d take it around, rather than doubling back to the house, which was a mistake. The woods were magical, but I also didn’t see another person in them, and it was getting later than I’d expected to be out on my ramble.

I found some pretty cool places, like a one that looked like it was straight out of The Fellowship of the Ring, when the hobbits hide from the Ringwraiths. I also found the remains of a bridge over the creek that was down to just the foundation pillar on either side. I immediately did the stupidest thing possible and leaned out over the remains of the bridge to take a picture. Yeah, not so bright. After crossing the creek on the proper, still functional bridge, I figured I couldn’t be too far from the house, and then I saw the cows for the first time. Over the course of the next hour, as I walked and walked along that path, I’d see those cows several more times. Finally, right when I thought I’d figured out where I was, I came upon signs on the path that warned walkers not to head that way. And then I panicked. Because I was well and truly lost. I called Allison  on my cellphone (I’m still not sure what I expected her to do about it), and she thankfully told me that she’d seen the signs the day before and that I should ignore them. Following her advice I actually came back to the house within five minutes. Yes, I’m that person that gets lost five minutes away from home.

I would have loved spending more time at Dalkeith, stumbling on cool places and getting well and truly lost in the woods, but I had to leave the next day. I’m fiercely jealous of the University of Wisconsin students that call it home for entire semesters.