Peak District
“There is no finer county in England than Derbyshire and all the celebrated beauties of Chatsworth, Dovedale, and the Peaks.”
Amanda counted and there are actually six gates, not five.
So, here we go one final time—waving goodbye to Cae Canol Farmhouse as we pass through the first gate on our way down the hill. Then it’s north to Manchester and the Peak District in the Midlands of England. Can’t wait!
The six gates behind us for good, we stopped in a lay-by (turnout) on B4391 when we caught one final glimpse of our farmhouse at the base of the mountain.
SEAT Arena FR
Car rental companies only allow you to rent a car for so long. We first rented an MG from Avis.
Next we rented the Hyundai hybrid, which we picked up from Enterprise at Heathrow with Debbie and Nathan and took on the ferry to Ireland and back.
Now it’s time to switch back to Avis. Near Manchester Airport, we sadly gave up our very economical hybrid in exchange for a SEAT Arona FR. Huh?
Never heard of SEAT? Neither had we. The Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (SEAT), is a car manufacturer created in Spain in the 1950s. In the 1980s, SEAT became part of the Volkswagen family, and in the 1990s, VW build a massive plant in Martorell, Spain to produce SEAT cars.
It’s a bit of a tin-can-on-wheels if you ask me, and I’m not sure it has the soul of a VW in it at all. Then again, my opinion of German innovation has fallen sharply since arriving in the UK. The many German-made kitchen and laundry appliances we’ve encountered make me yearn for their American counterparts.
In bookstores I’ve recently been seeing the bestselling book Why the Germans Do It Better on display. If we’re talking Bosh, Neff, and Siemens—then the Germans certainly need to do it better! Taylor Page, am I missing something?
I won’t hold SEAT against the Germans though—that one’s on Spain.
John Rylands Library, Manchester
The John Rylands Library was founded by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her husband John Rylands, who died in 1888.
The year following John’s death, Enriqueta commissioned the architect Basil Champneys to design the Library, which took ten years to build and opened to readers and visitors on January 1, 1900.
The main staircase leads up to the beautiful historic Reading Room and provides stunning views of the Gothic architecture of the Entrance Hall below and the Lantern Gallery above.
Lantern Gallery
The John Rylands Library is one of the finest examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Europe and is indisputably one of the great libraries of the world.
Enriqueta Rylands
The historic Reading Room resembles the layout of a church. The glass in the high windows was chosen to let light in, but obscure the view to the outside.
The library houses one of the world’s finest collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archives. The library became part of the University of Manchester in 1972.
The library even contain books that might interest us specifically.
Alcoves down both sides of the library were designed for private study. Today, anyone can study in these inspirational spaces or wander the room to marvel at the beautiful and peaceful nature of the space.
St John Fragment
The Fragment of the Gospel of John is one of the Library’s most famous artifacts. The John Rylands Library has been an international center for Biblical studies since it opened in 1900.
The Fragment is widely regarded as the earliest portion of any New Testament writing ever found.
Recent research suggests the Fragment dates from around to 200 AD.
It provides evidence on the spread of Christianity in the provinces of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of our era.
The St John Fragment
This small scrap of papyrus only measures 3.5 in x 2.4 in.
The first side of the fragment contains the beginning of seven lines from John 18:31-33.
The reverse of the fragment contains the end of seven lines from John 18:37-38. It’s hard to believe you can glean much from such meager scraps, but the experts insist they are invaluable.
The Whole Booke of Psalmes, London, 1630
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this book is absolutely tiny. Embroidered bindings were very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially on small prayerbooks like this one. These bindings for books were done by professional embroiderers, following stock patterns, rather than being crafted at home by the owner.
Dishoom
After visiting the library, we walked to Dishoom for a late lunch. The food was excellent as always.
Keith Says “Hi”
After lunch, we walked back to our car and Amanda immediately spotted this dime sitting on the ground right next to her car door.
Middleton-by-Youlgrave
The traffic leaving Manchester was miserable (late Friday afternoon), so we were thrilled once we were finally able to leave the big city behind and make it to our comfy apartment in the tiny village of Middleton-by-Youlgrave. You can check it out on the map below. We’ll provide a video tour in our next post. We absolutely love the Peak District, so we’re excited to share this part of our journey in the coming days. Until then! ❤️
