Category Archives: History

The Charterhouse

Posted on 28/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

Another real bargain in London … Last week I took a tour of the Charterhouse. In my case it was organised by the Friends of Strawberry Hill, but you can book online yourself. I was escorted there by kind relatives … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Gardens, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Music | Tagged Caravaggio, Charterhouse Square, Clerkenwell, Knights of Malta, Smithfield, St John Ambulance Brigadee, St John's Gatehouse, The Charterhouse, William Hogarth | 4 Comments

Object of the Month: March 2019

Posted on 20/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

May I strongly recommend the new exhibition in the Fan Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum (it’s on until January 2020, so you have plenty of time)? It is a selection of the fan collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd, given … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Cambridge, France, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged botanical fan, Erasmus Darwin, Fan Museum, fans, Fitzwilliam Museum, Sarah Ashton | 4 Comments

Plant of the Month: March 2019

Posted on 09/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

As I have mentioned in passing before, the botanist Pierre Magnol (1638–1715) was born in Montpellier, and spent most of his life there. His father and grandfather were apothecaries, and his mother’s male relatives were physicians. His older brother César … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, France, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged botany, Charles Plumier, Curtis' Botanical Magazine, Ehret, magnolias, Montpellier, Pierre Magnol, Redouté, Tournefort | 5 Comments

Ruskin at Two Hundred

Posted on 05/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

To London last week for a few days of Culture. I decided to go down the night before my first assignation, rather than turn up at Two Temple Place (which does not have cloakroom facilities) with two stuffed gorillas and … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Botany, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged architecture, botanical drawing, Charles Fairfax Murray, George Allen, H.R. Newman, J.M.W. Turner, John Bunney, John Ruskin, Octavia Hill, Old Master copies, Ruskin at Walkley, Samuel Prout, Two Temple Place, Venice | 4 Comments

The Artichoke

Posted on 16/02/2019 by carolinemmurray

I have been to Strawberry Hill twice now, and on both occasions the weather was foul. Luckily, the house is well signposted from the station, and barely five minutes’ walk away, but I really must try and get myself over … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bibliography, Biography, France, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged artichoke, Charles Brandon, Horace Walpole, Mary Tudor, portraits, queen of France, Strawberry Hill | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: January 2019

Posted on 25/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

A lot of choice, during this (so far) mild winter. I wondered about Sycopsis chinensis, of which the yellow filaments are currently glowing @CUBotanicGarden, or one of my own winter-flowering clematis, but – not only because it is glorious in … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Cambridge, Exploration, Gardens, History, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Cambridge University Botanic Garden, Daphne, Daphne bholua, East India Company, Francis Buchanan, Marquis Wellesley, Nepal, paper-making, plant of the month, winter garden | 1 Comment

Object of the Month: January 2019

Posted on 19/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

I have mentioned before how the heroic toilers of the Fitzwilliam Museum rotate the displays, especially in the ceramics galleries, on a regular basis, so that one has to keep one’s eye peeled for novelty as one moves through. Last … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Cambridge, History, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged Bernard Rackham, ceramics, Fitzwilliam Museum, Glaisher bequest, John Wilkes, red stoneware, Victoria & Albert Museum | 1 Comment

Woman’s Work

Posted on 10/01/2019 by carolinemmurray

… (a) is never done, proverbially, and (b) consists of cooking, cleaning and home-making (oh, and child-bearing), traditionally. Therefore it is always interesting, and sometimes quite astonishing, to come across a historical figure who worked in a role which, according … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged Anna Morandi Manzolini, Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Laura Bassi, university of Bologna, university of Padua, women scientists, women's education | 1 Comment

The 205

Posted on 08/12/2018 by carolinemmurray

Over three years ago, I made some Resolutions for my unemployed dotage. My dotage has in fact turned out not be completely unemployed after all, and a delightful proportion of the rest of my time is now taken up with … Continue reading →

Posted in History, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged London buses, Stepney City Farm, Stepney Green, the East End, The Gentle Author | 2 Comments

A Bizarre Story

Posted on 30/11/2018 by carolinemmurray

Thompson Cooper (1837–1904) was the son of Charles Henry Cooper (1808–66), the distinguished Town Clerk of Cambridge, whose historical and biographical works on the city are still a major source of information. From 1842 to 1853 he published four volumes … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, Cambridge, History, Italy, Literature, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing, Venice | Tagged Bernardino Ochino, C.H. Cooper, Elizabethan spies, ODNB, Pietro Bizzarri, Sir Leslie Stephen, Thompson Cooper, William Cecil | Leave a comment