March 1-8, 2019  Paul and Molly's Visit

We were delighted to have Paul and Molly visit us here in London.  Molly's mom, Maureen, watched their seven little sweeties while they took a nice break together.  They arrived on Friday, March 1 and Elder Burkinshaw took a long lunch to pick them up from Gatwick Airport.  We participated in an endowment session that evening and then we worked the Saturday early shift while Paul and Molly slept in and did an early afternoon endowment session and a sealing session.  We spent the rest of the next week visiting special sites of interest in the area.  Here are some highlight photos of our visits.

Even though it is the 1st of March, there are flowers popping up everywhere in the grass on the London Temple grounds.

Here is one of the three couples of mallard ducks that live on the London Temple grounds.

Beautiful and colorful daffodils are also brightening the London Temple grounds.

Paul and Molly with the reflecting pool and the London Temple in the background.

Sister Burkinshaw photobombed a picture of Paul and Molly on the east steps of the London Temple.

We had dinner at the Red Barn in nearby Blindley Heath on Saturday evening.

Paul and Molly pose with the animals at the Red Barn.

On Sunday we attended Church meetings at the Hyde Park chapel on Exhibition Road.  This meetinghouse/office building was the vision of and dedicated by President David O. McKay in 1961 and has been headquarters of the London Mission.

Paul and Molly in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of several noteworthy London museums.

Elder Burkinshaw and Paul in front of JWM Turner's painting "Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus Going Off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal (Blue Lights) of Distress."  President Thomas S. Monson titled the painting "To the Rescue" in his memorable talk of the same title in April 2001 General Conference. 

This was the sketchbook of nine-year-old Beatrix Potter, who displays an early interest in designing imaginative scenes featuring animals with a quirky sense of humor.  She would eventually put these talents together in the story of Peter Rabbit..

In England, Christians who chose not to conform to the doctrine, organization or ceremony of the Anglican church became known as Nonconformists or dissenters.  To avoid persecution, many went to the new colonies of North America.  Although Methodists accepted many Anglican teachings, some groups such as Baptists and Presbyterians emphasized freedom of conscience.  Preaching the word of God took precedence over formal worship.  Dissenters however did celebrate communion regularly.  Here is a communion tray which was passed by church deacons to the congregation.  

The London Natural History Museum, built in 1880, is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. The museum is a center of research specializing in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

The main hall of the museum very impressive and provides insight into it's informal name the Cathedral of Nature. 

In this exhibit, the relative size of the blue whale, elephant, rhinoceros and other mammals are illustrated in a very impressive way.

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.  It disappeared so quickly in the 17th century that it has become the poster bird for man-made extinction.

Elder Burkinshaw, Molly and Paul in the main hall of the Museum of Natural History.

The bird exhibit shows the relative size and structure of hundreds of hummingbirds.

Paul and Molly in front of Westminster Abbey before the evening organ recital.  It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs as well as great men of science such as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin as well as William Wilberforce who led the movement to abolish slavery in the United Kingdom.

Sister and Elder Burkinshaw in front of the Eye of London and the London County Hall Marriott where we stayed during our visit to London.

Looking across the Thames River.  Although difficult to read, just left of center is the sign for New Scotland Yard.

From our hotel room, the tower of Big Ben.  Only one clock face is currently visible as the tower is undergoing major refurbishment and will only be completed in 2022.

Paul and Molly in front of the Tower of London.

Molly, Paul and Elder Burkinshaw in front of the entrance to the Crown Jewels exhibit in the Tower of London.

St Edward's Crown, the orb, and the sovereign's sceptres and ring.  These are only a small fraction of the crown jewels of the United Kingdom, this is not our picture as you are not allowed to take photographs of the crown jewels.

One of a series of displays with armor-laden knights and horses in the White Tower with the Tower of London complex.

Paul and Molly in front of the Tower Bridge at the exit of the Tower of London.

Molly, Paul and Sister Burkinshaw in front of the British Museum.

The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek) which were the scripts used in Egypt in 196 BC when the stone was carved. It was discovered in mid-July 1799 by soldiers in Napoleon's invading army at the town of Rashid (Rosetta) Egypt.  Its importance was immediately recognized, but when the French were defeated, it was surrendered to British forces as part of the treaty of Alexandria in 1801.  It entered the British Museum in 1802.  Copies of the Rosetta Stone were circulated internationally to scholars, and within twenty-five years of the Rosetta Stone's discovery, the hieroglyphic script was deciphered.

Many people worked on deciphering hieroglyphs over several hundred years. However, the structure of the script was very difficult to work out.  After years of studying the Rosetta Stone and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing, Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.  He could read both Greek and Coptic and was able to figure out what the seven demotic signs in coptic were. Observing how these signs were used in coptic, he was able to work out what they stood for. He then traced the demotic signs back to hieroglyphic signs.   

Molly and Paul in front of the Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs.  In ancient Assyria, lion-hunting was considered the sport of kings, symbolic of the ruling monarch’s duty to protect and fight for his people. The sculpted reliefs illustrate the sporting exploits of the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) and were created for his palace at Nineveh (in modern-day northern Iraq).  The hunt scenes, full of tension and realism, rank among the finest achievements of Assyrian Art. They depict the release of the lions, the ensuing chase and subsequent killing

Sister Burkinshaw in front of the Parthenon. It was the centerpiece of an ambitious building program on the Acropolis of Athens.  The temple’s great size and lavish use of white marble was intended to show off the city’s power and wealth at the height of its empire.  ]The Parthenon was built nearly 2,500 years ago as a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, then for a thousand years the church of the Virgin Mary of the Athenians, then a mosque, and finally an archaeological ruin. The first major loss occurred around AD 500 when the Parthenon was converted into a church. When the city was under siege by the Venetians in 1687, the Parthenon itself was used as a gunpowder store and a huge explosion blew the roof off and destroyed a large portion of the remaining sculptures. The building has been a ruin ever since.  Between 1801 and 1805 Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, acting with the full knowledge and permission of the Ottoman authorities, removed about half of the remaining sculptures and the fallen ruins and transported them to the British Museum. 

One of hundreds of sculptures from the Parthenon, this is Dionysos, god of wine.  He  reclines on a rock cushioned by a feline animal skin and his missing right hand held a cup.

Molly and Paul in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

"Sunflowers" by Vincent van Gogh in 11988.  Van Gogh associated the color yellow with hope and friendship.  He suggested that this painting expresses 'an idea symbolizing gratitude".  He seems to have been especially pleased with this picture, which he hung in the guest bedroom in anticipation of the arrival of his friend, the artist Paul Gauguin.

"Snow Scene at Argenteuil" by Claude Monet.  The heavy snowfalls during the winter of 1874-5 prompted Monet to paint the landscape around his home in the village of Argenteuil.  It evokes the cold winter atmosphere through a steely palette of blues and grays, and occasionally given depth by sharp accents of color.

"The Thames below Westminster" by Claude Monet.  Monet traveled to London to avoid the Franco-Prussian War.  The grey hazy sky successfully evokes the fogs for which  19th-century London was notorious.  Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament are shown in the background.  On the right, a wooden pier projects from the newly constructed Victoria Embankment.

"At the Theater" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  A young girl and her chaperone are seated in a theater box.  They, not the stage, are the subject of the artist's and the audience's attention.  The bright gold of the box emphasizes their separation from the audience.  It also makes a deliberate contrast with their blue dresses.

Paul and Molly with one of the lions of Trafalgar Square.  Note Molly's Birkenstock bag!

Molly and Paul at Piccadilly Circus where they purchased a variety of souvenirs. The name Piccadilly comes from the tailor shop of Robert Baker who was famous for his  piccadills or collars for shirts.  The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.  Trafalgar Square is the center of London commerce. 

Molly and Paul at the Apollo Victoria Theater where we saw "Wicked."

Sister and Elder Burkinshaw inside the Apollo Victoria Theatre production of "Wicked" the production was wonderful and the two female leads were amazing!!

Paul and Molly with the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs on the English Channel.

Paul and Molly at the gravel beach with the Seven Sisters.

The cliffs off Birling Gap with the Belle Tout Lighthouse in the distance.  The cliffs are continuously eroding and you can see how they flake off into the ocean.

You can see the original foundation for the Belle Tout Lighthouse was nearer to the ocean at one time.  In 1999, due to continuing erosion threatening the future of the building, the lighthouse was moved 56 feet back from the edge of the cliff.

Paul and Molly from Belle Tout Lighthouse looking back at the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs.

Paul and Molly with the Beachy Head Lighthouse out in the Ocean.  The seas were rough and you could feel the sea mist even at the tops of the cliffs.

Sister Burkinshaw with Molly and Paul at Bateman's which was the home of Rudyard Kipling, English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. 

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling at his Bateman's estate.  Kipling was born and raised in India which provided the inspiration for many of his works.  Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature

Rudyard Kipling's Victrola cylinder record player which still works.

Rudyard Kipling sculpture in a tree stump.

Kipling was commissioned to write the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer for the Institute of Canadian Engineers.

Molly and Paul at Bodiam Castle, a 14th-century moated castle built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War. 

King Paul and Queen Molly on their thrones at Bodiam Castle.

Molly and Paul in one of the interior rooms of Bodiam Castle with the stairway on the left and the fireplace on the right.  Unlike many of the castles, this one has been in ruins for hundreds of years and is without a roof.

Paul, Sister Burkinshaw and Molly with Bodiam Castle in the background.

Molly and Paul at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.  Note the red time ball on the tower on the right which has dropped at 1:00pm GMT every day since 1833. 

Paul and Molly straddling the prime meridian which is the East (left side) - West (right side) dividing line for the world.  This is where Greenwich Mean Time began.

Sir John Harrison, inventor of the H4 watch in his hand (he spent over 40 years developing H1, H2, H3 and finally H4), which was sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude by determining solar noon at the location compared to GMT noon. 

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge (formally The Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge) is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and granted a Royal Charter by King Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two 'ancient universities' share many common features and are often referred to jointly as 'Oxbridge'. The history and influence of the University of Cambridge has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.  Current total enrollment is 12,340 undergraduates and 7,610 graduate students with an endowment of £4.9 billion.  Cambridge has produced 118 Nobel Laureates and 15 British Prime Ministers.

We visited Queens College and Kings College which are two of the 31 constituent colleges which comprise the University of Cambridge.

This is the Cavendish Laboratory where in 1897, J. J. Thomson discovered the electron subsequently recognized as the first fundamental particle of physics and the basis of chemical bonding, electronics and computing.

Sister Burkinshaw in the entry courtyard to Queens' College, University of Cambridge.  Queens' College was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou and refounded in 1465 by the rival queen Elizabeth Woodville. This dual foundation is reflected in its orthography: Queens' and not Queen's, One of 31 colleges, Queens College established in 1448 currently has ~500 undergraduate and ~500 graduate students.

Entrance to the inner courtyard at Queens' College with the coat of arms of Margaret of Anjou the founder.  Their motto is Floreat Domus or May this house flourish.

The old dining hall of Queens' College complete with a center portrait of the original founder Margaret of Anjou and the college motto.

Fireplace in the old dining hall of Queens' College Cambridge.

One of six beautiful stain glass windows in the old dining hall at Queens' college which include elements of the college coat of arms.

The entryway to the old dining hall in Queens' College Cambridge.

Sister Burkinshaw in the inner courtyard of Queens' College.  The building with English Tudor style on the right is the College President's residence.

The Mathematical Bridge spanning the River Cam. (Anciently the location of the original bridge over the River Cam became known as Cam Bridge, shortened to Cambridge, the name of the town and University.)  The bridge was designed by William Etheridge, and built by James Essex in 1749. The arrangement of timbers is a series of tangents that describe the arc of the bridge, with radial members to tie the tangents together and triangulate the structure, making it rigid and self-supporting. Popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts but this is not correct. 

The cloister court erected in the 1490's at Queens' College Cambridge.

Paul and Molly in front of the chapel of Queens' College Cambridge.

The Queens' College Chapel was designed by George Frederick Bodley, built by Rattee and Kett and consecrated in 1891. It follows the traditional College Chapel form of an aisle-less nave with rows of pews on either side, following the plan of monasteries, reflecting the origins of many colleges as a place for training priests for the ministry.

The beautiful pipe organ in the back of the Queens' College chapel.

A plaque in the Queens' College chapel recognizing the ultimate sacrifice of members of the University during WW I and WW II.

The entrance to King's College Cambridge.  King's was founded in 1441 by Henry VI, soon after he had founded its sister college in Eton (which is now the prep school attended by the royals including alumnus Prince William and Prince Harry). However, the King's plans for the college were disrupted by the Wars of the Roses and resultant scarcity of funds, and his eventual deposition. Little progress was made on the project until in 1508 Henry VII began to take an interest in the college, as a political move to legitimize his new position. The building of the college's chapel, begun in 1446, was finally finished in 1544 during the reign of Henry VIII.

A panoramic view of the King's College Front Courtyard with (left to right) the Gatehouse, the Gibbs Building and the Chapel.  The current enrollment at King's College is 420 undergraduates and 280 graduate students.

The chapel of King's College which was begun in 1446, was finally finished in 1544 during the reign of Henry VIII.  The College Chapel, an example of late Gothic architecture, was built in three stages. The Chapel features twenty-six large stained glass windows, twenty-four of which date from the sixteenth century.  

The Chapel features the world's largest fan vault ceiling.

The Chapel is used as a place of worship and also for concerts and college events. The world-famous Chapel choir consists of organ scholars, choral scholars (male students from the college and other colleges) and choristers (boys educated at the nearby King's College School).

The altarpiece of the chapel is Peter Paul Rubens' painting the Adoration of the Magi.

The Corpus Clock is a large sculptural clock at street level on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. It was conceived and funded by John C. Taylor, an old member of the college.  The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of an insectoid creature similar to a  locust. The sculpture is actually the clock's escapement. Taylor calls this beast the Chronophage, literally "time eater". It moves its mouth, appearing to "eat up" the seconds as they pass, and occasionally it "blinks" in seeming satisfaction. The creature's constant motion produces an eerie grinding sound that suits its task. The hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock.

Just north of Cambridge is the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial. The cemetery dates to 1943, when it was opened as a temporary cemetery on 30.5 acres of land donated by the University of Cambridge. It was dedicated on 16 July 1956 and contains the remains of 3,811.

Molly, Paul and Sister Burkinshaw in front of the American flag at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.

1941-1945:  On the great wall leading to the chapel are recorded the names of Americans who in this area of operation or in the waters of the Atlantic, gave their lives in the service of their country and who sleep in unknown graves.

A small portion of the grave markers.

The chapel and reflecting pond.

Interior of the cemetery chapel.

A map illustrating the areas of combat for those interred in the cemetery. 

A continuation of the map showing the Western European areas of combat during WW II.

On the back of the chapel is a map showing Army, Navy and Airforce Installations and US Military Cemeteries (Cambridge and Brookwood) in the United Kingdom.   At the top are these words:  
"These and many other sites were lent by the people of the United Kingdom to the Armed Forces of the United States of America in order that they might prepare and support the great military assaults.  1941-1945" 

Panoramic shot of the wall with the names of 3,811 servicemen who gave their last full measure of devotion to the cause of freedom during WW II in the Western European field.

Panoramic shot of the grave markers of 3,811 servicemen who gave their last full measure of devotion to the cause of freedom during WW II in the Western European field.

In the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently expressed the feelings which are also appropriate in remembrance of those buried at Cambridge.

"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.  But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Again, we recall the words of a Prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball:  "Remember is the word.  Remember is the program." (Spencer W. Kimball, "Circles of Exaltation", BYU Devotional Address to Seminaries and Institutes of Religion Faculty, 28 June 1968)

We loved having Paul and Molly visit us here in this historic land and the opportunity to remember and appreciate those who have gone before us.  We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw