Ties of affection and loyalty to my new alma mater bubbled to the surface yesterday. We'd made the short trip from Newport to Providence, the capital of Rhode Island noted for Brown University. Two excessively enthusiastic tour guides fell within earshot as we entered Brown's reddy leafy campus (rather Harvard-like). Surrounded by earnest teenagers and fawning parents, the speakers looked more than a little flustered as their every word was analyzed furiously by these anxious-looking guests. In fact everyone was on edge. It was college open day.
We stuck around to listen to the spiel. But next to us, one parent was heard by your correspondent to mutter to his wife: 'Well, this sure does beat New Haven'. Punk, thought I, feeling a sudden yet overwhelming urge to break into 'Bright college days' with its rousing finale: 'For God, for country, and FOR YALE'. I held back.
While Providence isn't brimming with things to see, the College Hill/Brown district is exceptionally pretty, and the State Capitol area downtown imposing in that municipal kind of way. The laid-back feel of the place and its cleanliness are what struck me most. And a brilliant exhibit on Roger Williams - the Cambridge-educated man who established Rhode Island having fled religious bigotry in the Massachusetts settlements - left a very favourable impression. (I'm really growing to love these local history museums.)
Warmly recommended.
My toodle around New England takes us to South Deerfield MA today, and Boston tomorrow.
Love to all back home. I miss you very much.
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