London's Calling

A few days ago, I received word from UTC that my proposed research trip to Britain in late spring has been approved. I will fly in and out of London, where I will spend some time at the British Library and Dr. Williams' Library. I plan on staying with a friend of mine who attended Regent College with me. He is an interesting person. He earned a degree in law from Oxford University, took a year off to take some classes at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, returned to London to practice law, but then resigned after a year or two. He tried his hand as a self-taught plumber (or "joiner") and now designs websites for a living.

I hope also to do archival work in Bristol and Oxford, and, if I can squeeze it in, Edinburgh. There are some manuscripts and rare books that I want to look at and possibly include in my forthcoming anthology. I'll be traveling at the end of May and into the first two weeks in June. I need to beat the Olympic crowd that is scheduled to arrive in London as early as the end of June. I've been to Oxford, but never had the privilege of researching at the Bodleian Library. There are all kinds of restrictions for graduate students gaining entrance, and so I am hoping that as a professor and F.R.Hist.S. I will have less difficulty this time.

If I can work in a train ride to Edinburgh, I will try and visit the town of Falkirk where my family and I lived during my days as a PhD student. We attended a lovely church there and I would love the chance to worship again with the folks at Falkirk Baptist Church.