Professor Hedgehog's Journal

‘Books and Dirtiness, the Usual Appendages of Learning’

Posted on 07/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

I had long promised myself the treat of tackling Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, To Which Are Added, Hearne’s Journeys to Reading, and to Whaddon Hall, the Seat of Browne Willis, Esq., and Lives of Eminent Men, which I knew would be full of Good Stuff, as the three-volume work contains the first published text of John Aubrey’s ‘Brief Lives’. I didn’t even get to page 1 of Volume I before being distracted by the contents page: ‘Letter XCI: Dr Hickes to Dr Charlett, recommending Mrs Elstob to his patronage, and that of the University, with a great character of her Learning and Abilities’. Mrs Elstob, who she? Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Anglo-Saxon studies, Elizabeth Elstob, Margaret duchess of Portland, Oxford University, Uiniversity College Oxford | 2 Comments

Retirement: 6 Weeks In

Posted on 05/05/2015 by carolinemmurray

Well, I’ve just been sternly admonished by a friend for describing myself on my Twitter account as an ‘Old Lady’. ‘Lady of Leisure’ has been suggested, but I’ve rarely been so busy. ‘Lady in Retirement’? But that’s reminiscent of the melodrama and film about murder among sweet little old ladies… Any other ideas? (Family members have already vetoed Old Bat…) Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Great Garden Giveaway, John Ruskin, retirement, Torcello, Trono d'Attila, Venice | 1 Comment

An Afternoon at the V&A

Posted on 20/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

… was preceded by half a morning at the Natural History Museum. I was at the latter on business, but had the great pleasure of admiring Sophie the Stegosaurus, and also of viewing the stunning Audubon birds, which I later discovered on Twitter had just been put on display in the Bird Gallery. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Charles Dickens, Chauncy Hare Townshend, Great Exhibition 1851, Victoria and Albert Museum | 2 Comments

Nature’s Engraver

Posted on 17/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

The book I have most enjoyed reading so far in 2015 was published in 2007, and I should have got to it long since, as it was written by one of my favourite authors, Jenny Uglow, whose latest work, In These Times, is the next in my pile. Nature’s Engraver describes the life and works of Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), perhaps the greatest wood-engraver ever. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Jenny Uglow, Thomas Bewick, wood engraving | 15 Comments

Defining Beauty

Posted on 14/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

Well, the BBC did a bit to justify the licence fee last Wednesday night. First on BBC 4 TV, the amiable Quizeum (silly name, superficial content, Griff Rhys Jones trying too hard, but none the less quite fun), then a new art series with Alastair Sooke on ancient Greece, and to cap that, a programme about the British Museum’s ‘Defining Beauty’ exhibition, fronted by ‘stand-up comedian/classicist’ Natalie Haynes. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'Defining Beauty', British Museum, Greek sculpture, polychrome sculpture | Leave a comment

Retirement: Three Weeks In

Posted on 09/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

Well, so far on this voyage of discovery, I have learned that: Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged holidays, retirement, shopping | Leave a comment

Painting Paradise

Posted on 06/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

If you do nothing else in London between now and 11 October, make sure you go to this lovely exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in London. This is my opinion, at any rate: that of Richard Dorment in Friday’s Telegraph is somewhat different. I can’t decide whether I fall into his category of someone who ‘already know something about these subjects’ (flattering!) or of those ‘who hang on every word Alan Titchmarsh says, who wait excitedly for “Gardener’s Question Time” and loved the much missed TV shows “Front Gardens” and its sequel “More Front Gardens”’ (insulting?). Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Kew Gardens, Painting Paradise, Royal Collection | 11 Comments

The Rubens Effect

Posted on 02/04/2015 by carolinemmurray

I didn’t think I liked Rubens – melodrama, Counter-Reformation, acres of female flesh – until I visited his house in Antwerp. This was achieved after a horrendous journey by car from Brussels: Belgian drivers are even worse than the French (though you’d think that wasn’t possible), and the road itself was so badly grooved that we were quite positive at one point that the car steering had failed. Consequently, I was prepared to like anything at all that didn’t involve vehicular motion, and was greatly restored by a tour of the Plantin-Moretus House (what a shame that Venice doesn’t have an equivalent memorial to Aldus Manutius rather than this disregarded plaque).

But Rubens’ house was a revelation, not only of his skill as a painter of serene and beautiful landscapes, but also of his life as a well-to-do paterfamilias, and his extraordinary industry.

Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged landscape paiting, portraiture, Royal Academy, Rubens | 4 Comments

Arthur Young, Agriculturalist

Posted on 31/03/2015 by carolinemmurray

I first came across Arthur Young (1741–1820) a very long time ago when I was involved in the production of Cambridge’s Agrarian History of England and Wales, volumes 5 and 6. The works used Arthur Young’s remarkable surveys of British agriculture as sources for agricultural practice and also as a record of change during the so-called Agrarian Revolution: at least as significant for the future of Britain as the more celebrated Industrial Revolution. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged argriculture, Arthur Young, France, Suffolk | 6 Comments

Virtual Unwrappings

Posted on 29/03/2015 by carolinemmurray

Last Friday, to the British Museum, pausing en route from King’s Cross only to snap the plaque on the house of Sir Samuel Romilly.

Sir Samuel Romilly lived (and died) here: just off Russell Square, London

The cover image used here is a print from the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence

I was meeting Him Indoors to see the ‘Ancient Lives, New Discoveries’ exhibition before it closes on 19 April, and (following my Resolution) ‘Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art’, which opened last week and runs until 5 July. [Stop Press! BM has just announced a further reprieve for the mummies – now till 12 July!] Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged British Museum, Egyptology, mummies | Leave a comment