Stunning.

For an alphabetical index of the New England College series of pieces, click here.

Founded in 1764, Brown is one of but nine schools dating from before the American Revolution. A healthy endowment sees to it that the 6,300 undergraduates and 2,200 post graduates are ensconced in pristine surroundings on the gorgeous 143 acre campus in beautiful Providence, Rhode Island. Size appears to be inversely proportional to quality for this, the smallest of the US states by area, is also home to its finest arts school, the neighboring Rhode Island School of Design. Indeed a shared double degree with RISD is to be had for five year students.

Brown was the first Ivy League school to offer engineering studies and also has the distinction of permitting students to design their own courses. Nothing is mandatory here. So well known is this concept that it is now known as the ‘Brown Curriculum’.

Prize winners galore grace the alumni and faculty counts here, from Nobels and National Medal of Sciences winners to Rhodes Scholars and MacArthur Genius fellows. This is as good as it gets in American academia.

The campus is a thing of beauty and my son and I enjoyed a splendid – and rarely dry – day in wandering around. We were made to feel very much at home by staff and students in this beautiful setting, a testament to the civilizing power of the liberal psyche, one much under attack today by the forces of darkness seeking to usurp the American Republic. Brown fills you with the knowledge that this evil is but a temporary setback to progress from the Age of Enlightenment on. This is not a flame that can possibly be extinguished and if we came away encouraged by this realization then that is how it should be after a visit to one of the world’s greatest schools.

Little narrative is needed for what follows. Just gaze on the sublime beauty, the many quiet places, the expanses of lawns and air which make this a hallowed academic setting.

Brown’s mascot is the bear.

The cupola in octagonal Robinson Hall, once a library, now the Department of Economics.

The reading room in the Hay Gallery, recently restored – right down to modern furniture – with a grant form India’s Mittal family. Mittals graduated here in ’12 and ’15. And we seek to deny their compatriots American citizenship?

‘Idee de Pietra’ by Giuseppe Penone. High whimsy.

Hammock studies.

Untitled (Lamp/Bear) by Urs Fischer. Public art is everywhere on the campus grounds.

Even Brown cannot escape the obligatory ugly. This high rise gaol masquerades as the List Art building.

The Wriston Quad, named after a former President of the University.

An appropriately named crossroad on which to conclude our tour.

There are so many prominent alumni of Brown that it’s hard to know where to start. They include the great philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donor of a magnificent library on the campus, Janet Yellen, the most powerful person in the world, Ted Turner, Oren B. Cheney, the founder of Bates College, George Kidd Teal, inventor of the first silicon transistor, Emma Watson, Walter/Wendy Carlos of synthesizer fame, and if that’s not enough the list of distinguished faculty members is every bit as long.