Category Archives: Museums and Galleries

Jewels

Posted on 05/09/2019 by carolinemmurray

Also in Brugge the other day, I was hit by a interesting revelation (assuming, of course, that the statement below, in the Groeninge Museum, is true). The reason Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and the other so-called Flemish Primitives painted … Continue reading →

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

In Brugge

Posted on 29/08/2019 by carolinemmurray

I begin thus because, as on previous visits, I noticed that the good people of what we tend to call Bruges would rather speak German or English, or indeed Chinese, than utter a word of French. But we were (for … Continue reading →

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

The Great Belzoni

Posted on 23/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

… is today hung on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum – or, at any rate, a spectacular likeness produced after his death is. I mentioned this fascinating character several times in my previous blogging persona, but his arrival in Cambridge … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Biography, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Popinjays

Posted on 17/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

I didn’t mention that at Niguliste, there is also a collection of silver objects, many of them formerly owned by the various guilds of Tallinn. By far (in my view) the most attractive of these items is a popinjay, made … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Niguliste

Posted on 10/07/2019 by carolinemmurray

Five years ago, and in another life, I wrote about Laulupidu, the Estonian music festival held every five years, and guess what, we’ve just returned from the 2019 celebration in Tallinn – even more significant than normal as it is … Continue reading →

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Sedgwick’s Boots

Posted on 20/06/2019 by carolinemmurray

I begin with an appalling confession, made because of my reasonable confidence that nobody (least of all @TheMuseumOfLiz) actually reads this stuff … Here goes: although the Golden Jubilee of my arrival in Cambridge is only just below the horizon, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: June 2019

Posted on 04/06/2019 by carolinemmurray

This seems to be an amazing spring/summer for roses – even mine are looking good (or were until it just started raining), and they are by no means my most successful plants. And it’s not just locally, either. We’ve just … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Gardens, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Blackbird

Posted on 30/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

Has there ever been a spring/summer like this for blackbird song? (Except, obviously, the year in which, in late June, Edward Thomas’s train stopped unexpectedly at Adlestrop?) I’m especially fortunate in that I have two competing to outdo each other … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Literature, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Loss of the ‘Royal George’

Posted on 09/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

Was Proust the first or merely the best to describe the extraordinary moment when a completely forgotten incident in your life rises fully formed in your memory? In my most recent incident, it was a phone call at work about … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Exploration, France, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Allegorical Tombs

Posted on 06/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

… are apparently a Thing, and one which I have come across twice in as many days in Venice, though they seem to owe their origin to one Owen Swiny (MacSwiny, McSweeny, MacSwiney, McSwiny, and other variants), of Enniscorthy in … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, Cambridge, History, Italy, London, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments