In this massive building on Great Russell Street (the nearest tube station is Holborn), Britain preserves and displays its most awesome State documents and manuscripts: the original Magna Charta, the log-book of Admiral Nelson and his half-finished letter to Lady Hamilton, written just before he died; the first draft of the dreaminspired “Xanadu” by Samuel Coleridge; a deed to William Shakespeare; a host of other papers that will send chills up your spine. And here, too, is kept the plunder of Britain’s Imperial era: the famous Rosetta stone, the smaIl Sphinxes of Egypt, the stunning Elgin Marbles from the front of the Parthenon.
There is no admission charge for any of this, and there are, in addition, free lecture tours conducted twice daily (except Sunday) at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., by two brilliant ex-university dans, who each day deliver a dilferent talk: “English History in the 19th Century,” “the Magna Charta,” “the Boer War.” Don’t miss a visit to the museum, and to start things off, ask the guards to direct you to the “manuscript rooms” and the “EIgin Marbles.” The building is open from 10 to 5, Monday through Saturday, and from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sundays.
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