Category Archives: Uncategorized

Plant of the Month: February 2018

Posted on 18/02/2018 by carolinemmurray

‘In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject [natural selection] with more spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge.’ Charles Darwin, in On the Origin of Species I … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Gardens, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Mr and Miss Morris

Posted on 10/02/2018 by carolinemmurray

I did something the other week which I’d never achieved before: I went to the end of a London Underground line! I have to say that I was a bit disappointed that the Victoria Line remained resolutely Underground until Walthamstow … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Literature, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Printing and Publishing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

The Legacy of Sir J.E. Smith

Posted on 08/02/2018 by carolinemmurray

A terrific bargain available once a month in London is a ‘Treasures Tour’ and visit to the Library of the Linnean Society, in Burlington House, Piccadilly. (I have now managed one way and another to get inside the Royal Astronomical … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, History, London, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Hortus Academicus

Posted on 10/07/2017 by carolinemmurray

The botanic garden in Leiden is always associated with its hugely distinguished first director, Carolus Clusius, and sure enough, his bust is the first thing you see at the entrance. I wasn’t aware, however, until our recent visit, that other … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Gardens, History, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments

A Skeleton in the Cupboard?

Posted on 06/05/2017 by carolinemmurray

One of the things I’m doing at the moment is browsing through nineteenth-century issues of the Gardeners’ Chronicle (online – God bless the Biodiversity Heritage Library!), cross-checking references to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. A lot of the material is … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Cambridge, Gardens, History, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

William Cobbett, Nurseryman

Posted on 03/04/2017 by carolinemmurray

Though the constant thread running through his adult life was radical journalism (for which he spent most of the years 1810–12 in Newgate prison), William Cobbett (1763–1835) had many careers: farmer, soldier, grammarian, language teacher, author, economist, printer, publisher, Member … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, History, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

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

Object(s) Of The Month: March

Posted on 14/03/2016 by carolinemmurray

Some of the most ancient artefacts which have survived to grace our modern museums were carved from bone or ivory: hardwearing substances, which survive almost anything except a severe conflagration or a deliberate act of grinding them to shards or … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Cambridge, Exploration, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments