"Thinking differently" was the photographic theme today as the Incredible/Incredulous Librarians explored London, and some things I saw at one destination got me thinking about things I haven't thought of in ages.  We went to the British Library and I got a Reader's Pass that is good for a whole year!  If you aren't familiar with this library, you could compare it to the Library of Congress.  As in that library, the books cannot be checked out but are brought to you and read in reading rooms, but only if you have the pass.  I felt the way I did when I got my first library card, but this even has my picture on it.

The British Library owns a number of book and manuscript treasures that are so rare and awe-inspiring that I find it difficult even to describe them.  I saw a sketch done by Da Vinci, notes jotted by John Milton, and a letter written by Elizabeth I when she was still a princess,  just to name a few.  There was one item that particularly touched me and evoked a memory.  I was drawn to it and could not move away from the case for a long time.  It was a small prayer book that belonged to Lady Jane Grey.  She inscribed it and gave it to her jailer in the Tower of London as she was being taken to her execution.  She was only 16.

I got a sudden emotional memory of when I first read about Lady Jane.  I was in second grade and I had a teacher who realized that I needed something a bit more challenging for a book report assignment.  She lent me her own book, a biography of the girl who was queen for nine days, after warning me it had a sad ending.  The book touched me, even while it horrified me that someone who did not even want to be queen had to die so that someone else could be.  Jane met her death bravely, and the inscription she wrote to her jailer showed that she appreciated his kindness.  She even wrote that she didn't feel worthy to write in a prayer book, but was doing so out of respect for his request that she sign it. 

I also had a sudden vivid memory of this teacher and appreciated that she had realized I had been reading for more than a couple of years.  Literary London just keeps getting better for me,,,