Harlaxton Happenings - "in Just-spring" at Harlaxton
“in Just-
spring “ at Harlaxton
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It is “in Just- spring,” as the poet e e cummings would have written it (and did), and Harlaxton is showing early signs of its spring-time glory. Snow drops are everywhere, thousands of daffodil shoots are breaking through the earth (our students plant daffs every fall semester), the grass—which stays green all year, even under the snows—is growing richly luscious, and buds are appearing on hedgerows and trees. Waterfowl are flying in formation , stopping over on Harlaxton Lake; relieved birds are saying farewell to winter and cavorting in Harlaxton Woods; days are growing longer and longer, and all is coming back to life..JPG)
Spring comes early and lasts long in Britain. We welcome it at Harlaxton, at this mid-point of semester, with great joy. Our bumper class of 178 students (the Manor is essentially full) are studying hard, travelling through Britain and Europe, and discovering that magic of Harlaxton, the powerful Learning: All Together that changes lives.
Yes, it is “in Just- spring,” and it is good to be at Harlaxton, where all the faculty are brilliant, all the students are above average, and the energy never stops.
Gordon Kingsley
Principal
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Our British faculty led tours of St. Paul’s Cathedral, that “warehouse of monuments to British heroes.” Students examined specific paintings in the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, images that are part of their British Studies course. Quite a few of us stayed on until late Friday night, to see some of the best drama in the world or hear some of the best music or simply experience London by night. London is, of course, one of the great cities of the world, and we were making it our living textbook.
Why is travel so much a part of the Harlaxton Experience? Because we learn by those experiences, as young Europeans did from the 17th through the 19th centuries on the “Grand Tour”—it was a major part of their education. What’s more, at Harlaxton we link these travels to our studies by briefings, references, assignments, and reports. It may be Nursing students at Queen’s Medical Centre, or Engineering students at Isaac Newton’s home, or Biology students at Cambridge’s Cavendish Museum, or drama and literature students in Stratford. 
In September, 1944, the First British Airborne went out from Harlaxton as part of Operation Market Garden, an allied offensive that included the largest airborne operation of all time. Paratroopers from Harlaxton itself were dropped at Arnhem—later fabled as “a bridge too far”—and were penned up by a German Panzer division that had not appeared on intelligence reports. They were unable to cross the Rhine in sufficient force, and of every five who went out from Harlaxton, only one young man came back. They were, we remind ourselves, the very same age as our current Harlaxton students now inhabiting the very same house.
Veterans of the Parachute Regiment come to Harlaxton on November 11 to lay wreaths of poppies and small crosses at the monument in Pegasus Courtyard built of concrete by the very hands of the soldiers billeted here during those terrible years. Harlaxton students and staff members join in, at the Regiment’s invitation. We have kept the monument here, and we honor the memory of those who gave their lives that we might be free today.