Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge ScholarsGooch, Richard
History
Nuts to crack; or Quips, quirks, anecdote and facete of Oxford and Cambridge Scholars
Gooch, Richard
University of Cambridge -- Anecdotes; University of Oxford -- Anecdotes
His mulberry tree, more fortunate than either that of Shakspeare, or
the pear tree of his contemporary and patron, Oliver Cromwell, is
still shown in the Fellows' Garden of Christ College, and still "bears
abundance in fruit-time," and near it is a drooping ash, planted by
the present Marquis of Bute, when a student of Christ College.
* * * * *
CROMWELL'S PEAR-TREE
I saw cut down, from the window of my sitting-room, in Jesus-lane,
Cambridge (which happened to overlook the Fellows' Garden of Sidney
College,) in March, 1833. The tree is said to have been planted by
Cromwell's own hand, when a student at Sidney College, and, said the
Cambridge Chronicle of the 11th of the above month, it seems not
unlikely that the original stock was coeval with the Protector. The
tree consisted of five stems (at the time it was cut down,) which rose
directly from the ground, and which had probably shot up after the
main trunk had been accidentally or intentionally destroyed. Four of
these stems had been dead for some years, and the fifth was cut down,
as stated above. "A section of it, at eight feet from the ground, had
103 consecutive rings, indicating as many years of growth for that
part. If we add a few more for the growth of the portion still lower
down, it brings us to a period within seventy years of the
Restoration; and it is by no means improbable that the original trunk
may have been at least seventy or eighty years old before it was
mutilated. The stumps of the five stems are still left standing, the
longest being eight feet high; and it is intended to erect a rustic
seat within the area they embrace."
OTHER MEMORIALS OF CROMWELL
At Sidney College, are his bust, in the Master's Lodge, and his
portrait in the Library. The first was executed by the celebrated
Bernini, at the request of Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, from a
plaster impression of the face of Cromwell, taken soon after his
death. It was obtained by the late learned Cambridge Regius Professor
of Botany, Thomas Martyn, B.D., during his stay in Italy, and by him
presented to the Society of Sidney College, of which he was a fellow.
Lord Cork said it bore "the strongest character of _boldness_,
_steadiness_, _sense_, _penetration_, and _pride_." The portrait is
_unique_, drawn in crayons, by the celebrated Cooper, and is said to
be that from which he painted his famous miniatures of the Protector.
In the College Register is a memorandum of Cromwell's admission to the
society, dated April 23, 1616, to which some one has added his
character, in Latin, in a different hand-writing, and very severe
terms.
* * * * *
DRYDEN CONFINED TO COLLEGE WALLS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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