Royal Holloway College, where I studied English in the early 1980s, is in Englefield Green in Surrey. The college itself (which is part of the University of London) is a remarkable building, a 19th-century redbrick copy of a French chateau.
Okay, it's definitely OTT, but I kind of like it.
Royal Holloway did a lot for and to me. I made a few lifelong (I hope) friends there, fell in love and out again, read a lot. Could have done that anywhere, though... No, the people mattered more, but what mattered about the place was the atmosphere: the countryside, town, London nearby and Heathrow nearer, Windsor Great Park a short walk away. Until then I'd thought that only unspoiled countryside could be interesting. Now I know that it doesn't exist, at least in Britain - but what Holloway showed me was the mystery of 'nature methodized', of gardens vying with wildernesses, control with chaos, classicism with romanticism. etc etc etc.... And the contrast between those two has been feeding my imagination ever since.
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