A Lovely Walk in the Country

Well, Friday is a no-class day--for everyone! The students are off to London and elsewhere on the first of their 13 three-day weekends. Many of them went on their own rather than with the college tour, so they seem to be a seasoned bunch of travellers already.

It was absolutely gorgeous here today, so I set forth to visit The Dirty Duck, aka The Rutland Arms, a pub some five miles distant from the manor. How did I get there, I hear you cry? I walked. A mile or so out the lane to the entrance of the manor, across the road and down The Drift to the old Grantham Canal, a 33-mile waterway built in 1797 to carry goods between Grantham and Nottingham. Abandoned in the 1936, it lay derelict for almost 50 years before restoration work began in the 1980s. Today, major stretches of the canal have been restored and the tow path doubles as a cycle path (not psycho path, mind you) as part of the National Cycling Network.

I entered the canal path at the Harlaxton Drift bridge and began walking west toward Woolsthorpe.

Cast iron markers at every quarter mile measure the distance to the River Trent

This gives you an idea of the beauty of the pathway. I had beautiful weather as well, 60 degrees and blue skies.

This is the bridle footbridge that carries the public walkway across the canal and toward Denton.

Some of the locals. A swan pair. Don't know if you can see that the one in the rear has one foot tucked up by its tail out of the water and is propelling itself with just one leg.

More locals. Bees swarming a flower that looks to me like a cluster version of a Queen Anne's Lace.

The first of three locks that step down the water level at Woolsthorpe. They are no longer operable.

And at the end of the rainbow, the Rutland Arms, aka, the Dirty Duck where I had a pint and a lovely ham ploughman's lunch. then it was back the five miles to the Manor and nice siesta.

All in all a very successful day.

First English Weather Day

Well, finally had a good English weather day. Cloudy at first, drizzle in the morning, fullblown rain backed by a stiff wind through lunch and early afternoon, more drizzle, and now beaming sunshine and blue skies towards evening.

British culture lecture this morning was excellent and covered a great deal of ground in just an hour. Best bit a cartoon of Alfred the Great uniting the Anglo-Saxons--group of warriors sitting around a table and Alfred says, "Right, hands up, who loathes the Welsh." I had just been talking about what a "nation" is with one of my classes yesterday and used Renan's definition that it is a group of people who share a common misunderstanding of their past and a hatred of their neighbors. Now, we'll see how many made the connection tomorrow!

First Day of Class


For two of my classes, I have six in World Civ (two engineers, a biologist, an English major, Psyc major, and an archeology major) and four in 19th century (two History majors, one English, and one Physics). What a treat. We meet in the "Drawing Room"

How's that for a cozy atmosphere, yet equipped with all the latest stuff.

For my third class, Origins, I have only two students and we meet in the Jesuit Conference Room. "How did the Jesuits get into it," I hear you cry. Well, they bought the place after WWII  before the University of Evansville was able to acquire it for their program in the early 70's

So far, no one has run screaming from the room, although yesterday I did thing one student was going to fall asleep. Ah, just like home!

Making us feel welcome

The good parishioners of St. Mary and Peter in Harlaxton village prepared a welcoming service for us this morning. The church building dates from the 13th century with a major addition in the 15th century.

 

 

About 30 of the students and a number of faculty attended the service. The accompanist provided a selection of American tunes as a prelude including patriotic and spiritual offerings, as well as the Largo from the New World Symphony, a lovely touch.

 

 



The stained glass at the east end of the nave above the altar. The chap with the white moustache is explaining the history of the church.

 

 The nave looking west showing the choir screen.

The baptismal font

More pics from our opening convocation.

Thanks to the work of one of my colleages,  Dr. Kay Gandy of Western Kentucky University, here are some additional shots of the Convocation this morning.

Lining up in the Senior Common Room

The Procession

The Piper

Opening convocation
Just returned from the formal convocation replete with piper and procession. It was very comforting to a Bethanian. Made me feel right at home--even down to the three raps of the Marshal's staff and the announcement to be upstanding! Below is a picture of the faculty gathering in the Senior Common Room prior to the service. In the center is Dr. Gordon Kingsley, Principal of Harlaxton College, who gave the address using David Mallet's Garden Song as his text. I used to sing that song with a friend back in grad school.

Didn't get any pics of the service itself. Trust me, it was very lovely.

Drop/Add is this afternoon from 1:30-2:00 p.m.! Imagine if we did that at Bethany. Just hope the poor chap in my Origins class doesn't find out he's the ONLY one in the class. Fortunately, there are others who have only one student in a class as well, so it isn't just I--at least I hope!

Welcome Bloggers:

OK, I know I said I would post on Aug. 22, but thanks to UselessAir, it was nearly Aug. 23 before I got to Harlaxton (not quite, actually). Flight out of Philly was delayed 2 1/2 hours, so missed the coach sent from the college to collect us. Always the calm one when Plan A didn't work--just ask my wife--I went to the bus station in Heathrow, booked a coach to Victoria Station and then from there a relaxing 3 1/2 hour ride up the A1--the old High Road to Scotland from the days of the 18th century.

Arrived at the Manor around 8 that evening.What can I say? It is like something out of Disneyland. A great 153-room country house and grounds that has to be experienced to truly appreciate. Every nook and cranny of the place holds a new gem. Spread over four main floors, there are great meeting halls and the Cedar Staircase, smaller rooms for seminar classes, the Refectory for meals, Library, commons rooms, suites for visiting faculty, including three who have brought children with them as well. A magical setting which the picture below, taken on my walk this morning, does not do justice.

Yesterday was spent in workshops with both the visiting faculty and the permanent faculty and staff. Sort of getting to know you kind of stuff. There is an engineering professor teaching math courses, a nursing professor who is Skyping her course back to her home institution in conjunction with nursing students at nearby Nottingham University, a business prof who is going to take his students (and yours truly) to the very heart of the pork pie industry in nearby Mowbry, an Education professor who has arranged for 15 hours of observation for the students in local schools, etc., etc., and so forth.

The students arrive today in three waves beginning around noon. Tomorrow morning is the opening convocation in the "Great Hall", complete with piper and academic procession--makes a Bethanian feel right at home.

Oh, went into town yesterday on the campus shuttle which leaves from Pegasus Courtyard. Walked out to wait for it and saw this

 

 

You WWII fans will note that this is the symbol for the British 1st Airborne Division which had its headquarters in this house during the war. The division was all but destroyed at Arnhem in September 1944 when they were dropped into Holland, one bridge too far, as the tip of Operation Market Garden. My uncle, Carl Kappel, was in the American 82nd Airborne and knew some of the officers in the 1st, including John Frost, whose battalion made it to the north end of the bridge across the Rhine in Arnhem, but was surrounded and overwhelmed. Carl's company took part in the river assault at Nijmegen just to the south in a last desparate attempt to reach Frost and his men. It's a small world!

 

Anyway, I will be posting irregularly from here on for the next couple of months. A disclaimer. All opinions expressed on this blog are my own and not those of the Bethany College--although they would be smart to endorse them wholeheartedly if they knew what was good for them. If anyone finds something I post objectionable, I am prepared to deny, under oath if necessary (ala Tom Lehrer), that I had anything to do with it.

 

Cheers.

Fellow Bethanians and Friends of the College

Today marks the inaugural installment of an occasional blog posting which will chronicle my experiences as a Visiting Professor at Harlaxton College in Lincolnshire, England, the British campus of the University of Evansville. Bethany College participates as a partner school with the Harlaxton program which allows Bethany students to attend the program for a semester and also offers the opportunity for Bethany faculty members to apply for a position as a visiting professor.

The purpose of the blog (and I confess I have never had a blog before) is twofold. First, to encourage Bethany students to avail themselves of the wonderful opportunities available in the Harlaxton program through a firsthand account of the activities both on the campus of Harlaxton Manor  and the frequent field trip opportunities to sites throughout the British Isles and even to the continent. And, second, to try to give the reader a sense of what it is like to participate in such a wonderful program. For an idea of what that will entail, check out the Harlaxton website at http://www.harlaxton.ac.uk/about_us/index.cfm.

I will be posting irregularly throughout the fall semester, including pix if I can figure out how to upload them to the Blog. Many thanks to Mrs. Rebecca Rose for her help in getting me up to speed in this medium. Remember that I am nearly 60 years old and a firm believer that the computer will be the death of Western Civilization, but I am prepared to hold my terror in check for the duration of the term in order to use this means of communication with the Bethany community.

My next post will be upon my arrival at Harlaxton on Aug 22, 2012.