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
And it is here worthy of remark, that it was to another celebrated
Cantab, Porson's contemporary, Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke, the
traveller, that we are indebted for that relique of antiquity. He
happened to be in Egypt at the time the negociation for the evacuation
of that country by the remnant of Bonaparte's army was progressing
between Lord Hutchinson and the French General, Menou. Knowing the
French were in possession of the famed Rosetta stone, amongst other
reliques, Clarke's sagacity induced him to point out to Lord
Hutchinson the importance of possessing it. The consequence was, he
was named as one of the parties to negociate with Menou for the
surrender of that and their other Egyptian monuments and valuable
reliques which the _sçavans_ attached to the French army had
sedulously collected; and notwithstanding every impediment and even
insult were heaped upon, and thrown in Clarke's way, his perseverance
was proof against it all. Indeed,
DR. EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE,
Whose name and writings are now justly celebrated throughout the
civilized world, was from his very childhood (says his biographer,
contemporary, and friend, the learned Principal of King's College,
London,) an enthusiast in whatever he undertook, and always possessed,
in a very high degree, the power of interesting the minds of others
towards any objects that occupied his own. This was remarkably
illustrated by his manufacture of
A BALLOON, WITH WHICH HE AMUSED THE UNIVERSITY,
In the third year of his residence, when not more than eighteen,
probably the only instance of a member of either university
constructing one. It "was magnificent in size, and splendid in its
decorations, and was constructed and manoeuvred, from first to last,
entirely by himself. It was the contrivance of many anxious thoughts,
and the labour of many weeks, to bring it to what he wished; and when,
at last, it was completed to his satisfaction, and had been suspended
for some days in the college hall, of which it occupied the whole
height, he announced a time for its ascension. There was nothing at
that period very new in balloons, or very curious in the species he
had adopted; but by some means he had contrived to disseminate, not
only within his own college, but throughout the whole university, a
prodigious curiosity respecting the fate of this experiment; and a
vast concourse of persons assembled, both within and without the
college walls; and the balloon having been brought to its station, the
grass-plot within the cloisters of Jesus' College, was happily
launched by himself, amidst the applause of all ranks and degrees of
gownsmen, the whole scene succeeding to his wish; nor is it very easy
to forget the delight which flashed from _his_ eye, and the triumphant
wave of _his_ cap, when the machine, with its little freight (a
kitten,) having cleared the college battlements, was seen floating in
full security over the towers of the great gate, followed in its
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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