Professor Hedgehog's Journal

Garden Work for Every Day

Posted on 23/10/2017 by carolinemmurray

Back in the day, I was involved in reissuing several books by the polemical garden writer William Robinson (1838–1935), he of Gravetye Manor. The Wheel of Fortune having nudged on a bit, I am now spending a few hours each week leafing through Robinson’s weekly periodical, The Garden, which he wrote large chunks of, edited and published from 1871 to 1899. (He continued to own it until 1919.) I am looking for certain specific references, but it’s fatally easy to get distracted. Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, History | Tagged Foster's Schoo, head gardener, Sherborne Castle, Victorian country estate, W.G. Pragnell, William Robinson | 2 Comments

The Shoemaker of Banff

Posted on 18/10/2017 by carolinemmurray

Samuel Smiles, biographer and enthusiast for those who demonstrated the ability to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, was very taken with Thomas Edward, of Banff, Scotland. He name-checked him in Self-Help (1859), as follows: Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, Natural history | Tagged Banff, natural history, Samuel Smiles, Thomas Edward | Leave a comment

Object of the Month: September 2017

Posted on 26/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

Now that I spend part of my time in a museum (tough gig, but somebody has to do it), I am getting quite good at pausing mid-stride and staring without actually falling over or causing anyone else to fall over. If I try this in the street, the results are usually not so good, and of course I am completely intolerant if anyone else does it to me – ‘Come on, Tourist, are you telling me you’ve never seen King’s College Chapel before?’ (Though in fact this happens less and less often, because the Tourists are all reading about King’s College Chapel on their phones, or taking selfies, not breaking stride in awe and wonder at the sight before them.) Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged cranes, Fitzwilliam Museum, Godfrey Gompertz, history of Korea, Korean pottery, W.M. Tapp | 5 Comments

Torcello

Posted on 22/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

Assuming anyone can be bothered to make the trip, I think I’d like my ashes scattered at the Secret Cat Place on Torcello. Though alas, even Torcello is going a bit downhill, since today, for the first time ever, there was another couple at the Secret Cat Place when we arrived, sitting down as though they owned it, which – though possible – is unlikely as they were speaking Spanish. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, History, Italy, Venice | Tagged Byzantium, mosaics, Sta Maria Assunta, Torcello, Venice | 4 Comments

Robert Harrild and Sons

Posted on 11/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

Just as everything is connected to everything else, so one thing leads to another. I was leafing through an ancient copy of Country Life in the doctor’s waiting room the other day, and was electrified to see a photograph of half an Albion press which clearly had the words on it ‘Harrild and Sons’. Having (to my shame) come across the name of Robert Harrild only a week before, I wisely concluded that Fate was nudging me to have a further look at him … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, History, London, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Christ's Hospital, Gothic novel, Great Exhibition, printing, printing press, printing roller, Robert Harrild | 14 Comments

St Antholin’s

Posted on 04/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

4 September 1666 is generally reckoned to have been the most destructive day of the Great Fire of London, during which large amounts of the city on the north bank of the Thames were razed to the ground. The lost buildings included many churches, and it was the determination to replace many of these on their original sites which – as well as insoluble wranglings about land ownership and rights of way – caused the reconstruction of the area to end up being dov’ era, if not quite com’ era. Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliography, Biography, History, London, Printing and Publishing | Tagged City of London, Great Fire of London, London churches, Richard Newcourt, Sir Joseph Banks, St Antholin's church, St Anthony Abbot, Temple of Mithras, The Gentle Author | 3 Comments

Father of the More Famous

Posted on 01/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

I’m currently reading a book about Sir Joseph Banks as an Enlightenment figure (yes, I probably should get out more), and was struck by this quotation: ‘Mann [the Abbé Mann (1735–1809), a Yorkshire Catholic convert and savant who became a soldier, then a monk, then a secular scientist] closed his letter by congratulating Banks on “the inestimable blessing of being in a free country”.’ Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Italy, Literature, London, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Anthony Panizzi, Dante, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Gabriele Rossetti, Sir Joseph Banks, Ugo Foscolo | Leave a comment

The Unusual Grand Tour of Sir J.E. Smith

Posted on 28/08/2017 by carolinemmurray

Although, in my previous existence, I had been involved in reissuing the hagiographic two-volume ‘life and letters’ of Sir J.E. Smith (1759–1828), founding president of the Linnean Society, written by his delightfully named widow, Pleasance, I did not actually read it until quite recently. The work was published in 1832, by the firm of Longman at its most expansively partner-ridden: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman. Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Botany, France, Gardens, History, Italy, Natural history, Printing and Publishing | Tagged Grand Tour, Jonas Dryander, Linnaeus, Linnean Society, Sir J.E. Smith, Sir Joseph Banks | 7 Comments

Plant of the Month: August 2017

Posted on 13/08/2017 by carolinemmurray

Quasi-familial motives led the Hedgehog ménage to Thessaloniki recently, and a jolly time was had by all, in spite of 40 degrees C, 98% humidity, and the overwhelming nature of Greek hospitality. We had time for a little light sightseeing; and on all our travels to and from the leafy and lofty suburb where we were staying, as well as driving from the airport and back again, I noticed one particular plant which was surviving and thriving on roadsides and waste land in the extremely parched landscape. Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, History, Natural history | Tagged Greece, invasive plants, Solanum, Thessaloniki | 2 Comments

Plant of the Month: July 2017

Posted on 30/07/2017 by carolinemmurray

Regrets, I’ve had a few … but none so profound as for the fatal day on which I gratefully accepted a kind neighbour’s gift of a single plant of Meconopsis cambrica. Up to my oxters (whatever they are) in the stuff today, I marvelled at the foolishness of my distant youth, when – even more ignorant about horticulture than I am today – all I wanted was plants to fill my newly acquired garden, most of which had previously existed as paving and a jerry-built shed, the electric lighting to which was achieved by a cable loosely draped across the said paving, itself so badly laid that the cable mostly sat in pools of water. Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, Natural history | Tagged Himalayan balsam, invasive plants, Meconopsis cambrica, non-native plants, Welsh poppy | Leave a comment