Queen Mary's Library

So the people in my program got a tour of Queen Mary's Library today, which is actually a working library for a boarding school here, St Leonard's. Actually, apparently they don't give tours to many people, so it was a privilege! :)

Anyway, Queen Mary stayed in the library when she visited St Andrews for extended periods of time, and so she has a room in it... Rumor has it that she wandered around town dressed as a commoner, though there's not really anything to confirm that. :) But it's fun nonetheless.

The land it's built on has been occupied in one way or another since the 12th century...there's evidence of pots and such dating back to then. And plow marks not long after that. But the present (stone) house has been around since the 16th century. It's quite lovely! :)
Oh, one bit of information, there's a lot of paintings of Mary in the house...we didn't see that many of her, but the archivist/curator said that paintings of Mary show either a very frail, feminine woman or a huge strapping woman with a cross...usually. :) Mary was actually 6 feet tall, so she was quite a large woman!

That's about all (I can tell you more later, once I read more of this rather long but interesting pamphlet!), except here are some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennibenni/sets/72157602522232630/

Bye!