Category Archives: Cambridge

Object of the Month: October

Posted on 06/10/2016 by carolinemmurray

I came across this fragment in the online catalogue of the Fitzwilliam Museum while looking for something else. Ha! Corinthian, I thought, in my ignorant way, but it isn’t: it’s sixth-century BCE Clazomenian, as classified  (no. 7 in the Tübingen … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Cambridge, Classics, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The King’s Faithful Servant

Posted on 16/09/2016 by carolinemmurray

Rustat Road in Cambridge is where, in a former century, one used to go and pay one’s water rates to the Cambridge Water Company. I haven’t been able to find a picture of the building online, but I have a … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Cambridge, History, London, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The Dotterel

Posted on 27/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

I was dining at the Reform Club the other night (not something that happens to me particularly often). I didn’t get to see Alexis Soyer’s legendary kitchens – do they indeed still exist? – but we did take coffee in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge, History, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Object of the Month: August

Posted on 22/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

The apotheosis of Nelson was already well under way in 1836, when one George Gunning, of Frindsbury in Kent, presented a snuffbox to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Books, prints, portraits, medals and ceramics preserved the great naval hero in the public … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Bourns

Posted on 18/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

The word ‘bourn’ has two main meanings: it is either a brook (cf. northern and Scots ‘burn’) or it is a destination, limit, or boundary (as in ‘… That undiscovered country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns’). As a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lammas

Posted on 08/08/2016 by carolinemmurray

… is about now, sort of. It is an ancient festival, but seems to have meant different things to different people, and to have been celebrated at different times in different circumstance. It is not an official moveable feast of … Continue reading →

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Plant of the Month: July

Posted on 31/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

Though it’s difficult to select a subject in July (too much choice!), I decided to write about pinks – as opposed to carnations, sweet Williams, or any others of the Dianthus tribe – but the most superficial investigation shows that … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, Natural history, Venice | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Object of the Month: July

Posted on 29/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

I was planning to follow up on some thoughts generated by a recent interesting talk at the Fitzwilliam Museum about portraits of men with their secretaries/assistants/friends, but I got diverted quite early on to a rather different topic. The Museum … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Bemerton

Posted on 21/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

Our school hymnbook was Songs of Praise (without music). I still have my copy, and I honestly can’t remember whether it was mine to keep or whether I stole it (the latter by inadvertence, because I was far too Goody-Two-Shoes … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, History, Literature, Natural history | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Toadstone

Posted on 14/07/2016 by carolinemmurray

This all started when I was looking for frogs in art (another story…). A search engine, clearly unable to tell its Batrachia from its Bufones, came up with the three-legged toad of Liu-Hai, of which, as it happens, there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment