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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780752485911 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The History Press |
| Publication date: | 02/29/2012 |
| Series: | Book of Days |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 368 |
| File size: | 795 KB |
| Age Range: | 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Cambridge Book of Days
By Rosemary Zanders
The History Press
Copyright © 2012 Rosemary Zanders,All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7524-8591-1
CHAPTER 1
January 1st
1631: On this day, the carrier Thomas Hobson died, prompting the young poet John Milton from Christ's College to write a verse, beginning with:
Here lies old Hobson. Death hath broke his girt, And here, alas! hath laid him in the dirt.
Though hardly the most reverential of epitaphs, it was unique in being written by Milton about someone outside his usual university circles. Described variously as 'shrewd, industrious, successful and unpretentious', Hobson was the city's undisputed transport king, running a thriving business behind the George Hotel; today, Hobson's Building in St Catharine's College marks the site. Hobson had wagons which conveyed both goods and passengers to the Bull Inn in London; he also hired out individual horses, on a strict rota basis, only offering the horse which was next in turn for work. This system gave birth to the phrase 'Hobson's Choice', meaning no choice at all. Hobson was buried in the chancel of St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, but although he was survived by a widow, two daughters and six grandchildren, no memorial was erected in his memory. (Bushell, W.D., Hobson's Conduit, CUP: 1938)
January 2nd
1300: On this day, the 'brethren and sisters' of St Mary's Gild celebrated a solemn mass for their deceased members at the Church of St Mary by the market. The 'congregation' of the Gild of St Mary met on a very irregular basis, usually in order to agree on procedures and to elect officers. Just half a century later, in 1352, the Gild of St Mary was permitted by Royal Charter, on 'account of poverty', to merge with the Gild of Corpus Christi, which was attached to the Church of St Benedict. The main purpose of this alliance appears to have been the foundation of a college, established primarily to train priests, who were in short supply after the ravages of the Black Death in 1348. Thus was born Corpus Christi College, which has the distinction of being the only college in either Oxford or Cambridge to be founded neither by royalty nor by wealthy individuals, but by its citizens. The Gild archives are still in the College's possession, along with a drinking-horn of similar vintage, taken from an aurochs (a now-extinct animal); students still drink from it today when it is passed around the table at College feasts. (Stanley, L.T., The Cambridge Year, Chatto & Windus: 1960 / Cambridge Society Magazine: 2002)
January 3rd
1873: On this day, Josiah Chater made the following entry in his diary, a sad reflection on the stigma associated with illegitimate births in Victorian times: 'The poor girl assistant in Jackson's in the Cury [Petty Cury today], was found in the river this morning just below the Great Bridge. An inquest was held this morning. M. [the father, a well-known wine merchant in Cambridge] was summoned but did not appear; she left a note stating that if he had done as he ought to have done he would not now be answerable for her death and that friends were to apply to him to bury her'. At the adjourned inquest a week later, a verdict of 'found drowned in an unsound mind caused by her seducer' was given. M., the man whom the girl had accused in her letter, was present in the court and was named by one of the jury. 'He had a fearful reception,' wrote Josiah. An earlier diary entry tells of a Cambridge servant who had given birth to an illegitimate child, suffocated the baby and then put it in a drawer where it was found the following day by her mistress, who 'vowed that she was completely ignorant of the girl's condition'. (Porter, E., Josiah Chater's Diaries, Phillimore: 1975)
January 4th
1852: On this day, Captain Davies, accompanied by about sixty of his 'fine and powerful' men, attended an inaugural service in Chesterton Church, Cambridge, for the newly-formed Cambridgeshire police force. The new police officers were earnestly exhorted to perform 'their duty to God and man' and were reminded in the vicar's sermon that 'rulers are not a terror to good works but evil'. The police uniform was supplied by Messrs Hibbert & Co. and included truncheons, handcuffs, lanterns, capes and even a small supply of leg-irons. The use of handcuffs was questioned in court after a policeman was 'hooted' for leading a detainee through Cambridge in 'bracelets', but this was overridden. At night time, officers could wear their own clothes in order to save wear and tear on the uniform, but this of course made the officers harder to identify. In 1855, PC Peake was reported missing in the early hours of the morning, wearing 'a brown straw hat, a brown overcoat and Wellington boots'. In the same year, the county constabulary mooted a 'moustache movement', which was approved and recommended by the authorities. (Watts, P., The Formation of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Cambridgeshire Local History Society Review: 2001)
January 5th
1970: On this day, Roberto Gerhard, Spanish Catalan avant-garde composer, scholar, writer and broadcaster, died in Cambridge following a stroke and was subsequently buried in the romantically atmospheric Ascension Burial Ground, alongside such Cambridge luminaries as G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein. A staunch Republican supporter during the Spanish Civil War, Gerhard left his homeland after the Republican defeat in 1938, never to return except for holidays; his music, with its strong Catalan sympathies, was virtually banned in Spain during the Franco regime. After short stays in Paris, Vienna and Berlin, Gerhard was offered a research scholarship at King's College in Cambridge, a city in which he was to reside for the rest of his life, not only becoming a British citizen and 'a virtuoso master of the English language' but also being awarded the CBE for his services to music. Gerhard was a very prolific composer and one of the first to master electronic composition; his incidental music for the 1955 Stratford performance of King Lear has the distinction of being the first electronic score for the British stage. Gerhard's archive, including most of his musical manuscripts, over a thousand letters plus photographs and other documents, is kept in the Cambridge University Library. (The Times / CUL)
January 6th
1973: On this day, at the beginning of its 500th anniversary year, work began in St Catharine's College to excavate the area below the east end of the chapel. Records show that only four people had been buried in the main chapel since its consecration in 1704 and a handful of others, including John Addenbrooke (after whom the Cambridge hospital is named), in the antechapel. Several of these graves had been located when central heating was installed in the mid-1950s, but the east end remained a mystery. In 1970 the original altar was moved, revealing a heavy stone slab; it was decided to remove this and replace it with black and white marble squares, to match the surrounding floor. Brickwork was revealed just 2 inches below the stone slab; further investigation showed this to be a brick arch, beneath which was a vault, approximately 6ft deep, containing two coffins, soon identified as containing Archbishop Sir William Dawes, Master of St Catharine's College, and his wife. Lady Dawes had died at the age of twenty-nine in 1705 and her distraught husband buried her here, placing an elaborate monument to her memory, now removed to the antechapel. (Aston, S.C., St Catharine's College Society Magazine: 1973)
January 7th
1780: On this day, an inquest opened into the death of a newborn child whose body had been discovered in the river behind Trinity College. Local surgeon Mr Bond carried out a post-mortem examination, recording: 'The head swelled and bruised, the skull fractured in several places', concluding that in his opinion the child had been born alive and 'received its death by the wounds in the head.' The mother of the baby was found to be Elizabeth Butchill, a young bed-maker at Trinity College, who, it was suspected, had had an affair with one of the undergraduates. Described as a 'fair young maiden', she was also uneducated and naive; as soon as her newborn baby started crying, the terrified girl, still weak after giving birth, took her baby outside. She reached the 'bogs' (toilets near the River Cam) and threw the infant down one of the holes which opened into the river. She buried the placenta and other evidence of the birth in a nearby dunghill. Convicted of 'wilful murder', poor Elizabeth was sent to the prison in Cambridge Castle, whence to the gallows to hang 'for her crime'. (Bell, J., More Cambridgeshire Crimes, Popular Publications: 1995)
January 8th
1880: On this day, 'the great baking powder case', a Victorian dispute over food additives, was heard at the Cambridge Borough Sessions and aroused a lot of interest, especially among housewives and shopkeepers. Local grocery shops were accused of selling baking powder consisting of ground rice, alum and soda bicarbonate. Despite being on the market for forty years, it was claimed that the alum was 'injurious to health' and should be removed. The conviction was quashed, but debates over food additives were of course only just beginning ... (Porter, E., Josiah Chater's Diaries, Phillimore: 1975)
* * *
2001: On this day, bells rang out across Cambridge, celebrating the sealing of Cambridge's first royal charter by King John 800 years ago to the day. The charter gave the city more control over its finances, kick-started the local economy and helped create the conditions which led to the birth of Cambridge University just eight years later. To celebrate the octocentenary the City Council joined forces with Cambridge universities, churches, colleges and businesses to organise a year-long programme of special events. (Cambridge Evening News)
January 9th
1756: On this day, poet Thomas Gray wrote from Peterhouse to his friend Dr Wharton asking for a rope-ladder, 'for my neighbours every day make a great progress in drunkenness, which gives me reason to look about me'. Gray gave very specific instructions: 'It must be full 36 foot long ... but as light and manageable as it may be, easy to unroll, and not likely to entangle ... it must have strong hooks ... to throw over an iron bar to be fix'd withinside of my window'. The rope ladder was duly delivered and an iron bar installed outside his college window from which to hang it; Gray must have enjoyed a moment of peace, knowing that he could make a hasty emergency exit in the event of fire or another tragedy. He was of course opening himself up to derision, and Viscount Percival and friends, rising early to go hunting, roared out 'Fire! Fire!', hoping to see Gray descend the ladder in his nightcap. Gray was indeed very agitated, but spotted the perpetrators in time. His complaints to the College fell on deaf ears and within two months Gray had decamped to Pembroke College, taking with him his 'rope-ladder and firebags'. The iron bar remains in position to this day. (Chainey, G., A Literary History of Cambridge, Pevensey Press: 1985)
January 10th
1985: On this day, Cambridge computer pioneer Clive Sinclair launched his iconic, battery-powered, one-seater tricycle, the C5. Sinclair, who had invented the slim-line pocket calculator and Spectrum computers in the 1970s and '80s, was convinced that C5s would sell in their millions, but the reality was rather different. Although the novelty value of the C5 meant that sales got off to a quick start, they soon dwindled and production was eventually discontinued. The vehicle had a maximum speed of 15mph and required pedal power for starting and for travelling uphill. There were other problems; it had a very limited range, its cockpit was exposed to the elements and its drivers were very vulnerable on open roads. Worse, no driving license was required, even fourteen year olds were allowed to drive it and helmets were not compulsory. In Cambridge, a C5 was seen 'weaving among pedestrians' on Parker's Piece, prompting a debate as to whether it was a car or a tricycle. Some were worried that it seemed to have 'a licence to go anywhere, posing a threat to people'. The whole project had a disastrous effect on Sinclair's finances. Facing losses of up to £7m, he sold his computer business to Alan Sugar's Amstrad. (Cambridge Evening News)
January 11th
1584: On this day, the charter of Queen Elizabeth I authorising Sir Walter Mildmay, for many years her Chancellor of the Exchequer, to found Emmanuel College was sealed. From the outset, Emmanuel College was well known as a Puritan establishment and the statutes made clear that it was to be a 'school of prophets', to train learned and devoted ministers of the Church of England. By the reign of Charles I, the high church was having a revival under William Laud and a number of Emmanuel graduates decided to emigrate to America, taking their Protestant faith with them. Of the first hundred university graduates who settled in New England, no fewer than one third were from Emmanuel College in Cambridge. The best known of these was John Harvard, who died young in 1638, leaving his books and half his estate to found a new university which still bears his name today. A Victorian representation of John Harvard can be seen in the chapel windows; in the background of the window is a sailing ship, such as that in which he would have crossed the Atlantic, along with the monument on the site of Harvard's supposed grave at Charlestown. (Stubbings, F., Emmanuel College: An Historical Guide: 1996)
January 12th
1567: On this day, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge made Joan Fan atone for her misdemeanours; she was ordered to kneel at the porch of St Giles' Church while the bells tolled, then when the curate said the Ash Wednesday penitential prayers she was brought into the middle of the church, told to kneel there throughout the service, and 'after the commandments said, she should turning to the people acknowledge her fault and pray the people to pray for her amendment'. There is no mention of what misdemeanour had warranted this very public punishment. (Oosthuizen, S., A Woman's Guide to Cambridge, Woody Press: 1983)
* * *
1825: On this day, a son was born to botany lecturer Frederick Brooke Westcott and his wife Sarah. Brooke Foss Westcott's home life was simple, frugal and solitary, but it was during his time at Trinity College in Cambridge that he established the ascetic lifestyle for which he was later renowned, rising early, eating very little and working until after midnight. As Regius Professor of Divinity, Westcott helped to set up the clergy training school in Jesus Lane which now bears his name, Westcott House. (Ely Ensign / Dictionary of National Biography)
January 13th
1998: On this day, forty-five years after his arrival as an undergraduate, leading Indian economist Professor Amartya Sen became the thirty-sixth Master of Trinity College. His initiation as Master did not, however, go totally according to plan. Tradition dictates that the Master-to-be should hand a letter from the Queen to the Head Porter, confirming his new appointment. The Fellows, gathered in the Chapel, then examine its authenticity whilst the new incumbent waits outside the Great Gate. Amartya Sen left this important letter in the room where he changed after lunch. He locked the door and put the key in his coat pocket; when he returned later to retrieve the letter, he realised that he had left his jacket, along with the crucial key, somewhere else. The investiture was due to start in nine minutes and the Porters' master-key was staircase specific. Desperate measures were called for and it was decided to kick the door down; Sen grabbed the letter with just one minute to spare. Probably no one else realised what had happened, but Sen later described his entry as being 'more like King Kong than the Master of Trinity College'. Eleven months after his installation at Trinity, Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. (Cambridge Evening News)
January 14th
2004: On this day, the Cambridge Evening News showed a photograph of Ian Whittle unveiling a plaque to his father Sir Frank Whittle, who through his invention of the jet engine had 'made the world a smaller place'. The plaque was erected this week on the gatepost of the University's Engineering Department in Trumpington Street. Frank Whittle came to Cambridge in 1934 as a mature student and completed a three-year mechanical science course in just two before inventing the jet engine a year later. Sir Frank had begun his research into the engine while he was in the RAF in 1929, although his early proposals were rejected by the Air Ministry as 'quite impracticable'. After completing his studies, the RAF assigned Sir Frank full time to the development of the jet engine and the first run of the experimental model was achieved in 1937. The first flight of his jet engine took place in May 1941, when an E-28-39 aircraft made a seventeen minute flight, marking the start of a new age of air transport and travel. In 1972, his contribution to jet propulsion was commemorated by the opening of the Whittle Laboratory in West Cambridge, still active today in the research of compressors and turbines. (Cambridge Evening News)
January 15th
1350: On this day, William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, founded 'The Hall of the Holy Trinity of Norwich' to replenish the numbers of lawyers and priests who had been lost to the plague and in particular to educate students in canon and civil law. Trinity Hall, as the college is known today, is still often called the Lawyers' College. Bishop Bateman was an absentee founder, spending much of his time at Avignon, home of the Popes in the fourteenth century; Bateman had been sent there in an attempt to end the Hundred Years' War. Several of the early colleges were initially called Hall and later changed their title to College, but Trinity Hall was unable to do this after Henry VIII founded Trinity College, a completely separate entity, just down the road in 1546. Nestling between its larger neighbours of King's, Clare and Trinity, Trinity Hall is a very attractive college, with gardens leading down to the River Cam. Novelist Henry James commented: 'If I were called upon to mention the prettiest corner of the world, I should draw a thoughtful sigh and point the way to the gardens of Trinity Hall.' (Crawley, C., Trinity Hall: The History of a Cambridge College, Trinity Hall: 1976)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Cambridge Book of Days by Rosemary Zanders. Copyright © 2012 Rosemary Zanders,. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
January,February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December,