This week’s Unicorns! All the strange yet glorious in one place. A Tudor Castle lost and found, reading Ukrainian and Classical literature, deep reading, the intact mind, and Mary Cassatt at work in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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The reality of life is that sometimes we lose things—keys, overdue library books, one of our favorite socks. But In Collyweston, England, the locals managed to lose a Tudor castle—but don’t worry, now they’ve found it too! A taste from NYT’s Megan Specia’s reporting on this story:
For generations, residents of Collyweston — a village in central England snuggled up against the River Welland — passed down stories of a grand Tudor palace, of royal processions through the valley below, of the mother of a king who had called it home.
Over hundreds of years, the stories persisted, even as memory of the palace’s whereabouts faded. But the lore suddenly came to life when a handful of amateur historians unearthed portions of the long-lost palace, buried under a few feet of soil. Historians from the University of York have verified their findings.
“We are a small village with a small group of enthusiasts, and what we’ve basically achieved here is nothing short of a miracle,” said Chris Close, 49, the chairman of the Collyweston Historical and Preservation Society. “You know, it’s not every day you get to dig up a part of your country’s past.”
So how did it get lost, to begin with? Well…
After the Tudor era, which ended in 1603, the palace fell into disrepair. Its contents were sold, portions knocked down or repurposed, and new buildings went up. The palace slowly faded into history, disappearing into the dirt. Almost.
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This essay from Vladislav Davidzon and Kate Tsurkan, “The Landscape of Ukrainian Literature,” comes from March 2022, but it is worth re-reading now, as we consider the destruction of Ukrainian culture, heritage, literature that Russia’s war continues to perpetrate.
And if you missed Amanda McCrina’s stunning essay last week on “The Unmysterious Russian Soul,” you should remedy this.
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Over at The Imaginative Conservative, Eric Hutchinson has a delightfully whimsical essay on the benefits of classical education—the delight is an essential benefit, he argues.
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Summer is the season for reading, and Common Good Magazine has an interview with, Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts, the three co-authors of a new book, Deep Reading. Look at this gorgeous cover!
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Speaking of reading, John Wilson recommends a children’s book I wasn’t familiar with in his latest First Things books column.
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On her podcast, Amy Julia Becker interviews Amy Lutz about her book Chasing The Intact Mind.
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If you read this blog regularly, you may have noticed that I use a Mary Cassatt image just about every time there is a parenting or motherhood or children-related post here at The Arena. Why? Because her paintings just perfectly capture the emotions, the delight, yet the ordinary busyness and messiness of family life with small children. Anyway, there is a Mary Cassatt at Work exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until September 8th, when it will move to San Francisco, and will be definitely out of my reach. So I’m making it my goal this summer to go see it—probably after I turn in the book that’s due on August 1st.