Category Archives: History

Professor Martyn Writes to Dr Pulteney

Posted on 30/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

One of my current voluntary activities consists in part of thumbing through an elderly card index, which reposes in an elderly and beautiful wooden card index case. In the course of this rummaging, I have noticed with alarm the increasing … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Cory Library, CU Botanic Garden, John Martyn, Richard Pulteney, Thomas Martyn | 11 Comments

Westminster Bridge

Posted on 22/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

I tend to ignore the porcelain gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, since, as I have mentioned before, I really don’t like the coy, arch, simpering, figurative pieces that populate so many of the shelves. A quick genuflect towards the bookcase … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged 'Architect Earl', 9th earl of Pembroke, Canaletto, Fitzwilliam Museum, Westminster Bridge | 2 Comments

Object of the Month: January 2017

Posted on 14/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

If ever I were to take up collecting as a serious pastime (as distinct from the random acquisition of books, plants and balls of wool), I think I would go for Italian maiolica pharmacy jars. (The sine qua non, of … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Botany, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged ceramics, Fitzwilliam Museum, Florence, maiolica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, pharmacy jars, Venice | 14 Comments

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