Author Archives: carolinemmurray

Open Gardens in Spitalfields

Posted on 14/06/2015 by carolinemmurray

Thanks to an alert from the estimable Gentle Author, we went on Saturday to the gardens open for the National Gardens Scheme in Spitalfields, London, and a splendid time we had. Purely by chance, we started at the smallest garden … Continue reading →

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Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal

Posted on 12/06/2015 by carolinemmurray

The Oxford World’s Classics edition of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere and Alfoxden journals is one of the very few books I have read where the notes are as interesting as the text itself. Pamela Woof’s mastery of her material leaves no … Continue reading →

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An Hour in the Botanic Garden

Posted on 08/06/2015 by carolinemmurray

It seems quite ridiculous to say that Cambridge University Botanic Garden looked even more lovely and amazing today than it usually does, but this is none the less true. From the daisies on the lawn to the campion, lady’s smock … Continue reading →

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Barnabas Oley, Vicar of Great Gransden

Posted on 05/06/2015 by carolinemmurray

Near the end of John Walker’s selection of letters among the antiquarian great and good of Oxford in the early eighteenth century is an explanation from one John Worthington to Thomas Hearne about the author of ‘the prefatory account of … Continue reading →

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A Week at Waterloo

Posted on 02/06/2015 by carolinemmurray

I’ve just visited the excellent exhibition on Waterloo and its consequences – including literary ones – at Cambridge University Library: ‘A damned serious business: Waterloo 1815, the battle and its books’. It is thoroughly to be recommended – well laid … Continue reading →

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Celebrated Ladies of Great Britain

Posted on 31/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

I’ve already mentioned the treasures to be found in the three volumes of John Walker’s Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1813). In Volume 2 part 1, mention is made (in a 1749 letter) of … Continue reading →

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Mr Fairchild’s Mule

Posted on 28/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

In a previous life/blogspot, I mentioned in passing the horticulturalist Thomas Fairchild (1667–1729), who left £25 for the endowment of an annual Whitsuntide sermon on either the ‘Wonderful Works of God in the Creation, or on the Certainty of the … Continue reading →

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The Lapwing

Posted on 19/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

I was aghast to learn a few days ago that the lapwing (or peewit, or green plover), Vanellus vanellus, is now a rare bird. A very long time ago, I saw hundreds of them every Sunday evening, and I had … Continue reading →

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Professor Henslow’s Legacy

Posted on 17/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

To CUBG on Saturday for the Festival of Plants: it started cloudy and windy but cleared up to blue sky and bright sunshine. As usual, there was a marquee with stalls showing the work of the Sainsbury Laboratory and other … Continue reading →

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More Amateur Thoughts on Ruskin

Posted on 12/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

One Saturday in April, I attended a rather brilliant one-day conference at Anglia Ruskin University here in Cambridge, on the subject of ‘Ruskin the Educator’. The tone of the gathering can be indicated by the hissing which greeted a mention … Continue reading →

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