Category Archives: Natural history

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

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

In Deepest Limehouse

Posted on 26/05/2019 by carolinemmurray

I imagine that ‘Play it again, Sam’ is the most famous line from a film which was not actually spoken in the film, but ‘We don’t like strangers in these parts, Mr ‘Olmes’ may run it close among aficionados of … Continue reading →

Posted in Gardens, History, London, Natural history | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A Life in Footnotes

Posted on 15/04/2019 by carolinemmurray

I mentioned some time ago that I was going to investigate (at my usual superficial level, naturally) the life and career of the physician Francesco Travagino (sometimes Travagini), who appears to have taken advantage of a space on somebody else’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, History, Italy, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: April 2019

Posted on 10/04/2019 by carolinemmurray

Which came first, fritillary as the name of a plant (Fritillaria meleagris, the snake’s-head fritillary, also known as chess-flower, Lazarus-bell, leper-lily, frog-cup, or drooping tulip), or fritillary as the name of a butterfly? It seems that the plant has priority, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Vernal Equinox

Posted on 20/03/2019 by carolinemmurray

‘The vernal equinox has come too soon’ is, Him Indoors assures me, the opening line of a welcome ode written to celebrate the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to his school at some point in the 1960s. I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history | Tagged , , , , , | 2 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 , , , , , | 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 , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments