Author Archives: carolinemmurray

Dr Ducarel Writes to Dr Watson

Posted on 01/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

Whether history has been kind to Andrew Coltée Ducarel (1713–85) rather depends on which source you use. Francis Grose and Horace Walpole seem both to have loathed him (but didn’t the latter loathe almost everyone?). Others, including John Nichols, have … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Botany, Gardens, History, London, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Andrew Ducarel, garden history, Garden Museum, herbals, horticulture, Lambeth, plant collections, Tradescant, William Watson | 10 Comments

Plant of the Month: December

Posted on 17/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

For the avoidance of doubt (as we lawyers like to say), I’m talking here about European mistletoe: Viscum album (Linnaeus). There are about 70–100 species worldwide, as well as New World and southern hemisphere ‘mistletoes’ of quite different species, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Literature, Natural history | Tagged 'The Mistletoe Bough', Christmas, gardens, mistletoe, myths and legends, Victorian Web | 2 Comments

Object of the Month: December

Posted on 11/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

I bought a pack of these Christmas cards at the Fitzwilliam Museum shop a couple of weeks ago (don’t all rush, because sadly they are showing as out of stock on the website at the moment), partly because it’s a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Christmas cards, Fitzwilliam Museum, Hendrick Avercamp, ice-skating, Netherlands, skates | 1 Comment

Admiral Russell’s Frame

Posted on 01/12/2016 by carolinemmurray

Am I alone in having only the vaguest possible understanding of European history in the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1688-1789)? It is said that children these days leap from the Tudors to the Nazis (a cynic would say same difference), but … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged battle of La Hogue, earl of Orford, Fitzwilliam Museum, Russell Frame | 1 Comment

Object Of The Month: November

Posted on 24/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

In the Western Christian churches, Advent is the period of four weeks (or so) before Christmas Day, beginning on the Sunday closest to the feast of St Andrew on 30 November. This year it falls on 27 November, and may … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, Music, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged Advent, Advent calendars, Christmas, Fitzwilliam Museum | 3 Comments

The Extraordinary Lusignans

Posted on 20/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

I haven’t read or watched Game of Thrones, but, from what I gather, the story of how the obscure Lusignan family, minor nobility from Poitou in France, ended up as kings of Jerusalem, Armenia and Cyprus would fit in quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Venice | Tagged Caterina Corner, Cilician Armenia, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Lusignan dynasty | 5 Comments

Messing About In Boats

Posted on 17/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

The origins of the Regata Storica in Venice are unclear. One version is that it commemorates the occasion on which twelve poor but honest and beautiful girls, who had been given dowries by the state and were about to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged Caterina Cornaro, history of Cyprus, Regata storica, Venice | 4 Comments

Plant of the Month: November 2016

Posted on 13/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

I was parking my car outside a friend’s house in leafy western Cambridge when something squidged from above on to the bonnet and disintegrated most messily. I opened the car door and was assailed by a most appalling smell of … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, London, Natural history | Tagged Engelbert Kaempfer, fossil trees, Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo tree, Joseph Banks, Kew Gardens | 18 Comments

Plantin and Moretus

Posted on 30/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

Not quite a Proustian moment, as no madeleines were dunked in lime-flower tea, but the other day a friend with unexpected time on his hands in Belgium enquired of the world via Twitter what was interesting in Antwerp. Immediately, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged Antwerp, Arthur Rank Hospice, Christophe Plantin, history of printing, Jan Moretus, Peter Paul Rubens, Philip II, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Polyglot Bible | 7 Comments

Plant Of The Month: October

Posted on 20/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

This may sound a perverse choice, given all the possibilities, not least autumn-flowering bulbs and corms (and even ivy, the flowers of which are still attracting bees and butterflies), but here goes, anyway.

Posted in Botany, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged daisy family, pellitory, plant of the month | 6 Comments