Category Archives: Cambridge

Virtual Knowledge

Posted on 12/03/2021 by carolinemmurray

Now that The End may be in sight (touching wood, not counting my chickens, not jinxing it by booking holidays, etc. etc.), I’ve been pondering what, if anything, about life in lockdown I might actually miss. It is of course … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Litter

Posted on 06/01/2021 by carolinemmurray

A couple of months ago, I became a signed-up, official Volunteer Litter-Picker for Cambridge City Council. This came about because I get furious about litter all the time, but had no idea what to do about it in any systematic … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Botany, Cambridge, Natural history | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

2020 in the Research Plots

Posted on 03/01/2021 by carolinemmurray

Not all of 2020, in fact, as the Cambridge University Botanic Garden was sadly but inevitably closed between March and June … I began following a particular plant or hedge throughout the year in 2017, with varying degrees of success … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Plant of the Month: November 2020

Posted on 24/11/2020 by carolinemmurray

I am in the throes of having my garden made over. This is because, when I was young, and even more ignorant than I am now: (1) I put too many shrubs in too close together; (2) I maximised planting … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Ole Worm

Posted on 09/10/2020 by carolinemmurray

I was prone to nominative determinism for more than half a century before I knew what it meant. A children’s biography of Grieg in my primary school library (who now remembers this series by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Botany, Cambridge, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, The Netherlands | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Plant of the Month: August 2020

Posted on 26/08/2020 by carolinemmurray

The name ‘acanthus’ was taken by Linnaeus from the Greek ἄκανθος, used by Aristotle among others to mean a prickly Mediterranean plant (today A. mollis), imitated in the Corinthian columns of Greek architecture; the related ἄκανθα means ‘thistle’. The family … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | 5 Comments

Jonas Webb, the Southdown Man

Posted on 03/04/2020 by carolinemmurray

I imagine that most people these days, if they have heard of Babraham at all, know it for the Babraham Institute, a research campus at which the nineteenth-century Babraham Hall (it had several antecedents) sits in the centre, and which, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, London, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Quinquennium

Posted on 20/03/2020 by carolinemmurray

Well, the plan was to be writing from lovely Lucca to mark the fifth anniversary of La Vita Nuova, but fate has decreed otherwise. Instead, I sit contemplating the garden, and will shortly be going with Him Indoors on a … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Italy, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Deacon Also Paints

Posted on 18/03/2020 by carolinemmurray

The Flowers Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum (currently closed, alas, because of COVID-19) is one of my favourite places – I can’t get enough of the botanical paintings, the glorious jumble of blooms which you would never find (even in … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The Naming of Plants

Posted on 23/01/2020 by carolinemmurray

Richard Chandler Alexander Prior (1809–1902) does not (yet) appear in the pages of the ODNB, though his day may come. He knew and corresponded with many of the great scientists of the nineteenth century; he was a physician whose health … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments