This was our last group tour, but it won't be my last blog post.
England has an interesting legal system. Working solicitors and barristers need to belong to one of the "4 Inns of Court". There are a series of filters lawyers must go through in order to belong to one of these Inns: 12 qualifying dinners, a "call to the bar", receive pupillage (which only 30% of them do), and then one has to be placed "in chambers". Phew!
Each Inn has its own library. Middle Temple Law Library has a legal obligation to take care of the "new" Temple Church, in exchange for land. This is the same church I wrote about during our Kings College library tour. Interesting how it keeps popping up.
Middle Temple Law Library was first established in 1641, when Robert Ashley donated his private collection of roughly 3,700 books. Later in that year, the library was temporarily shut down because of the civil unrest and its doors were reopened in 1680. The library contains roughly 50,000 items and one quarter of a million volumes of work. Middle Temple Library specializes in American Law as well as legal issues pertaining to the EU. The library's special collection is subjects of maritime, arbitration and sports law.
The photos in this blog include two globes. The world globe is from the mid 16th century when the British Empire had updated geographical information. I smiled when I heard this point because it tied into the information gained during our private tour at the Royal Geographic Society. The other globe is a celestial globe from the 16th century. I have never seen one before and it fascinated me.
After we left the library, we weaved our way through the beautiful rooms filled with rich wood, lush carpets and fine furniture and we entered the "Queen's Room". From there, we walked through the hallways covered in coat of arms, to the "Treasury of the Inn", the largest double hammer hall known in England. This room witnessed the first recorded historical performance of the "Twelfth Night" and I am sure, a lot of delicious meals.
I am very grateful the head librarian reached out to Dr. Welsh a few years ago, when the librarian heard about the British Studies Program. The head librarian is originally from Canada, Montreal to be precise and she has worked her way through the ranks to head librarian. It was very cool to see a person in my field, from the same country, do so well. In hindsight, I should have asked her if her office had the plaque, "Keeper of the Library".
After we finished our tour, we were free to explore the area. The head librarian recommended the SIr John Sloan museum, if we wanted to do something different and I was all over it. But first lunch! We had lunch across the street of Middle Temple Lane at the Old Bank of England. It was very beautiful inside. I had to chuckle though because we were dining in an area that once had a tunnel beneath used for criminal activity between a butcher shop and a bakery.
