Another day, another library

Today was down to London for a day in the hugely impressive British Library. To see what I wanted, I needed a letter of introduction from a suitably erudite person but that unlocked the treasures that are in the Manuscript collection there.
This map of the Hebrides I did not even know existed and is over four hundred years old.
What I had really gone to see were some maps drawn by Laurence Nowell in about 1565. Small, beautiful and incredibly carefully drawn, it was incredible to be touching the hand-drawn manuscript, drawn by the tutor of Edward De Vere, one of the Shakespeare contendors, and the first person to translate Beowolf. Polymath is a word invented for him.
This link takes you an electronic copy of one of the maps but to feel it in the hand was a totally different experience.
Worth paying your taxes.....