Illustration from March ‘Tossing the Pancake’ from The Comic Almanack: an ephemeris in jest and earnest, containing merry tales, humorous poetry, quips and oddities. By Thackeray, Albert Smith, Gilbert A. Beckett, the Brothers Mayhew, with many hundred illustrations by George Cruikshank and other artists. 1st [-2nd] series, 1835[-1853]. (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll 827.89 COM)
This year, Shrove Tuesday falls on 8th March. Christians were expected to go to confession in the week before the penitential period of Lent and Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Ash Wednesday (i.e. the first day of Lent). To shrive (the verb from which the past participle shrove is derived) means to obtain absolution but Shrove Tuesday can be thought of as a day of high spirits before entering a more sombre mood.
Of course, many people will know Shrove Tuesday by its more colloquial name of Pancake Day and in this guise, it is thought of more as a day of feasting on those ingredients which are prohibited during Lent, a time of fasting. In fact, the names given to the day in other countries often translate as Fat Tuesday.
From the Twelfth Century, Shrove Tuesday celebrations often incorporated games of ‘mob football’ but the Highway Act of 1835 banned the playing of football on public highways and the tradition died out in all but a few towns, including Alnwick (Northumberland) and Sedgefield (Co. Durham). Pancake races have proved to be a more enduring tradition. Since the mid-Fifteenth Century, entrants have run towards a finishing line, tossing their pancakes into the air as they go, and catching them in frying pans. The tradition is said to have originated with a housewife in Olney, Buckinghamshire who was so engrossed in making pancakes that she lost track of time and, on the peal of the church bells calling people to service, she rushed out of the house still carrying her pancake and pan.
This cartoon is from The Comic Almanack by the English artist, caricaturist and book illustrator, George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Cruikshank was renowned for his humorous drawings, satirical political cartoons and social caricatures of English life. He is considered to have been one of the most important British graphic artists of the Nineteenth Century and was undoubtedly one of the most popular cartoonists of his day.
The Comic Almanack, published annually from 1835, contained amusing stories, poems, jokes and cartoons. The illustrations were chiefly Cruikshank’s and he engaged others such as the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray to supply the stories. The Almanack was a hugely successful publication, although competition from Punch’s Almanack, which began in December 1844, eventually led to its demise.
The East view of Widdrington Castle in Northumberland (Local Illustrations, C432
Northumberland is full of ruined castles that draw tourists year after year to imagine how magnificent they must have once looked. But, it is also filled with sites where castles once stood, that today there remains little or no trace of. One such site is Widdrington in Northumberland, not far from Druridge Bay. This is where Widdrington Castle stood from the 14th century until its demolition in the 19th century.
The first records of a structure at this site describe a medieval fortified manor house and castle. In 1341 Gerard Widdrington was granted a licence to fortify the house. The engraving shows a substantial tower with turrets at the corners, similar to the castle at nearby Belsay. By 1592 the castle had three parts: the original tower, a great hall and a northern tower. In the late 17th century wings were added to the towers, and a walled garden was laid out. However, by 1720 and with new owners, it was in a ruinous condition. Sometime after 1772 the castle was demolished and rebuilt, but the new building burnt down before it was finished. After this a new Gothic castle was built, but this too fell to ruin and was demolished in 1862. The dilapidated state in which the castle found itself many times over the years probably owed much to the fact that it was rarely the main residence of the families who owned it, and lack of use caused it to fall into disrepair.
Widdrington Castle’s claim to fame is that King James VI of Scotland and I of England was believed to have stayed at the castle in 1603. Sir Robert Carey, the second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, who married the widow of Henry Widdrington in 1593, rested here during his journey from London to Edinburgh to inform James of Elizabeth’s death. On James’ journey south to claim the throne the men are said to have stayed at Widdrington.
The Widdrington family themselves were Catholic and Royalist and therefore strong supporters of the Stuart cause. The first baron was a Royalist army officer, the second baron served in the army of Charles II, and during the revolution of 1688 the third baron was dismissed as governor of Berwick and Holy Island and imprisoned. His three sons, William, Charles and Peregrine, all became active Jacobites.
The fourth baron, William Widdrington (1677/8-1743) was educated at Morpeth grammar school and in Paris where he became familiar with the exiled Stuart court. He took a leading role in planning the north’s contribution to the Jacobite rising of 1715, providing one of the five troops in the Northumbrian force. However, he was confined to his bed with gout during the Battle of Preston, and when it was clear that the situation was hopeless he advised surrender. After the failed rising he was tried for high treason. In his defence he argued that he had not been aware of the plan and had only joined to keep face with his friends. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but with only hours to spare he was reprieved and released from the Tower. The Widdrington estates were confiscated by the Crown and sold to Sir George Revel. The estate then passed via marriage to Sir George Warren and then on to Lord Vernon. An attainder was passed on the family titles although Widdrington’s eldest son, Henry Francis, was commonly called Lord Widdrington. Following the death of Henry in 1774 the Widdrington family appears to have become extinct.
The site of Widdrington Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. All that remains of the protected site today is the Castle mound and a row of lime trees, known as The Apostles. The site lies close to The Country Barn in Widdrington, which uses the castle as its logo.
Postcard photograph of Mr and Mrs Charles Trevelyan, c. 1904 (Trevelyan (Charles Philips) Archive, CPT 1/3/4)
To celebrate the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday 29th April 2011 we bring you a special ‘wedding’ treasure!
The postcard photograph above shows Mr. and Mrs. Charles Trevelyan with the Trevelyan family crest, which bears the motto ‘Time tests faith’. Charles Philips Trevelyan (1870 – 1958) married Mary Bell (1881 – 1966), the half sister of Gertrude Bell, in 1904. Special Collections holds Charles’ papers, the Liberal MP who famously defected to Labour in 1918. It is unknown what this postcard was used for. It dates from after their wedding in 1904 as they are identified as ‘Mr and Mrs Trevelyan’. It may have been part of a thank you note to guests for their wedding presents or simply a portrait of the newly-married couple that they sent out to family and friends.
Special Collections also holds the papers of Mary Trevelyan (who was known as Molly), including her diaries for the years 1892 – 1917. The page below is taken from her diary for 1904 and is among a series of entries regarding their wedding day.
Newspaper clippings from Molly Trevelyan’s diary, listing the presents that were gifted to Charles and Molly Trevelyan on their wedding day, 1904 (Trevelyan (Charles Philips) Archive, CPT 2/1/9)
They include her handwritten account of the wedding day with cuttings from the press and a complete list of gifts received by the bride and bridegroom.
This page shows one of three cut-out from the newspaper listing all the wedding presents they received and who they were from.
The fact that this was published in the press shows that the public appetite for information about the rich and famous has always been strong!
Gifts included a grand piano from the mother of the bride; a fur coat from the father of the bride to the groom; numerous collections of books and poems, including The Life of Gladstone from Mr and Mrs Gladstone; some letters written by Dickens; tea sets; writing desks; two grandfather clocks; hundreds of items of silverware; and more candlesticks and inkstands than anyone could ever find occasion to use!
Wedding presents have been given since ancient times. They have normally been practical items for the new couple’s home. However, in some cultures guests would have been expected to contribute to the wedding banquet as a thank you for their invitation! The idea of the wedding trousseau or ‘bottom-drawer’ put together by the bride’s family has its origins in the dowry. Dowry is an ancient custom, which has been practised around the world throughout history. This has often been money but can also include a selection of goods paid for by the bride’s family to furnish the newlywed’s home. As many newlywed couples did not have much money, the bride’s mother would put away household goods, including homemade items often in a bottom drawer, starting before their daughters had even met their future husband! The idea was to create a collection of everything a young woman setting-up her first home would need. Some ostentatious Victorians even introduced a ‘trousseau tea’ in an effort to out-do each other, where wealthy families would display trunk loads of linens, china and clothes they had put together for their daughters!
Nowadays, as many couples live together before marriage, wedding gift lists are more likely to include luxury items rather than practical ones and many couples choose not to have traditional gifts at all, instead asking guests to contribute money to a honeymoon, they could perhaps not otherwise afford. Prince William and his bride-to-be Kate Middleton have asked guests to donate money to charity rather than buy them wedding presents. This is likely to lead to hundreds of thousands of pounds being donated to the twenty-six, not very well-known, charities that the couple have chosen. Of course there are some advantages – they are less likely to end up with things they do not need. The Queen and Prince Philip received five hundred cases of tinned pineapple and ingredients for their wedding cake from the Australian people when they married in 1947. However, William and Kate they are still likely to receive numerous presents from the general public. Prince Charles and Princess Diana received thousands of presents from well-wishers around the world after their marriage at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981, including a roomful of antique furniture from Canada and twenty silver platters inscribed with their wedding date from Australia. A selection of the presents was placed on display at St. James’s Palace and some items were later distributed to charity. After all there are only so many toasters and kettles that a Royal couple needs!
Front cover of Wood, J.G. Skating and Sliding (London: Routledge, 1872) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 796.91 WOO)
In the mid Nineteenth Century, increasing literacy levels and the industrialisation of printing and book-making combined to create a demand for cheap publications. This demand was well-met by ‘yellowbacks’: low-priced octavos with strawboard boards covered with yellow paper and often block-printed with pictures. Yellowbacks were ubiquitous in the 1870s and 1880s and George Routledge dominated the field. His publishing house started to experiment with non-fiction and with educational handbooks and thus the series Routledge’s Sixpenny Handbooks was born.
Illustration of ‘Skating’ from Wood, J.G. Skating and Sliding (London: Routledge, 1872) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 796.91 WOO)
Skating and Sliding by the Reverend J.G. Wood and other
writers is an example of the series which also treated such subjects as
cricket, manly exercises, fireworks, swimming and conjuring. This particular
manual takes learners through the history of skating, putting skates on, how to
start from the inside edge and progresses to various skating figures, such as
the Dutch Roll and the Figure of Three. It quotes three maxims attributed to
renowned skater Robert Ferguson: “Throw fear to the dogs”, “Put
on your skates securely” and “Keep your balance”!
Extract from Wood, J.G. Skating and Sliding (London: Routledge, 1872) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 796.91 WOO)
From 1607 to 1814 a frost fair was held on the River Thames
and into the early- Nineteenth Century rivers and canals froze sufficiently to
support skating. The Skating Club was founded in London, 1830 and in 1876, the
first artificial ice-rink (the Glaciarium) opened in Chelsea.
John George Wood (1827-1889), having worked in the
anatomical museum, Oxford and having made a name for himself delivering
illustrated lectures on zoology, was best known as a writer on natural history.
However, he also wrote books on gymnastics and other sports and even edited The
Boys Own Magazine.
Photograph of Lord Armstrong from University Archives
26th November 2010 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Lord Armstrong. William George Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Cragside, was a scientist, engineer, inventor and businessman. His achievements brought him world renown and fixed Newcastle and the North East of England firmly on the science and engineering map.
This photograph depicts Lord Armstrong standing at the doorway to Cragside, his country home in Rothbury, Northumberland, in c. 1897 when Armstrong was in his old age. In the photograph Armstrong appears to be content, satisfied and self-assured, if a little tired, and a glance at the story of his life and achievements explains why.
Armstrong was born on 26th November 1810 at 9 Pleasant Row, Shieldfield, in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the only son of William Armstrong, a corn merchant and local politician. Armstrong Senior wanted his son to enter the legal profession and, upon leaving school, Armstrong took articles under the wealthy Newcastle solicitor and family friend Armorer Donkin, becoming a partner in the firm in 1835.
Armstrong was a good solicitor, but his passion lay elsewhere. From an early age he had possessed a fascination with all things scientific and mechanical. This continued into adulthood and a turning point in his life came in 1835 when, during a fishing trip to Dentdale in Yorkshire, his attention was captured by what he recognised as an inefficient use of water in an over-shot water-wheel. Over the next ten years, Armstrong devoted his spare time to developing the effective use of water as a motive power, and his tireless work culminated in his demonstration, to great applause, of a model hydraulic crane at the Literary and Philosophical Institute in Newcastle in December, 1845.
During this early period of his career Armstrong’s imagination was also captured by an aspect of science which was to become one of his greatest loves: electricity. When, in 1840, workers at Cramlington Colliery in Northumberland began to experience electric shocks from steam escaping at high-pressure from a boiler, Armstrong applied his capabilities to establishing and describing the cause of the phenomenon, later named The Armstrong Effect in his honour. He published a series of papers on the effect and developed a spark-inducing hydroelectric machine which he exhibited at the Literary and Philosophical Society. His discovery led to him being elected a fellow of the Royal Society in May 1846.
In the mean time, Armstrong’s hydraulic cranes had impressed many and were in such high demand that, in 1847, he established Messrs W.G. Armstrong & Co., in partnership with Armorer Donkin and others, to manufacture machinery using his hydraulic technology. He finally resigned from his solicitor’s job shortly afterwards. In the same year the partners founded an engineering works at Elswick on the banks of the River Tyne, just to the west of Newcastle. The Elswick Works were to go from strength to strength and evolve through several incarnations over the decades, Armstrong’s reputation as an engineer and a businessman growing alongside them.
In the 1850s Armstrong moved into the field of armament production when he developed a new type of field gun in response to the high loss of life experienced during the Crimean War, and was commissioned to supply the War Office with Armstrong Guns, receiving a knighthood for his services. Later, after the government ended its contract with the Elswick Works, Armstrong went on to sell armaments, including naval guns, indiscriminately to foreign countries. Although this seemed controversial to some, Armstrong felt justified in doing so.
Armstrong became a nationally and internationally renowned figure and, as he amassed great wealth from his engineering successes, he became a great benefactor to his native Newcastle. His gifts included Jesmond Dene, the landscaped park which he gave for the benefit of the town’s inhabitants, and substantial financial support towards the foundation of a College of Physical Science, ultimately to evolve into Newcastle University.
He was awarded many honours for his achievements, including election to the Presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1863. During his inaugural address as President at the Association’s meeting in Newcastle in the same year, he spoke about the issue of finite coal reserves and the potential for harnessing solar power, adding “visionary” to his many other accolades.
In the same year, Armstrong purchased land near Rothbury and began the construction of his country residence Cragside, where he would increasingly spend his time as he retired from the day-to-day running of the business. These later years of Armstrong’s life saw his love-affair with electricity re-surface when, in keeping with his instinct for innovation, Cragside was the first house in the world to be lit using hydroelectric power and the first to be lit by Joseph Swan’s newly-invented incandescent light. He experimented further with electricity and in 1897 published the volume Electric Movement in Air and Water which contained a set of striking photographic images of electric discharges taken by the Rothbury-based photographer John Worsnop, who also took the photograph of Armstrong shown here.
Armstrong was raised to the peerage as Baron Armstrong of Cragside in June 1887. When he died in 1900, he left an enduring legacy and was remembered as having been a towering figure of the Victorian era.
Front cover of Campbell, W.D. Beyond the border. With 167 illustrations by Helen Stratton (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1898) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 823.89 CAM)
Yes, it was most decidedly Black Duncan the smith who was at the bottom of the whole affair. He was the author of the remark that set everybody gaping, and made such a tremendous fuss in the town. He it was who let fall the fatal joke, when his wife brought in the dish of broiled haddock that morning at breakfast; and though it is not the best taste to laugh at one’s own pleasantries, he, I must confess, did so. It was beyond measure funny, and not a bite or sup would he taste till he had had his laugh out. Thus begins Walter Douglas Campbell’s Beyond the border (1898). It appears to be a children’s story, with a king and queen, a talking cat and a hag who lives in a tower with her daughter who has a “flat, yellow face, speckled like a trout”.
Helen Stratton (fl. 1892-1925) provided 167 black and white illustrations to accompany the text. A British illustrator who was particularly associated with children’s books and fairy tales, she was sometimes influenced by the Glasgow School of Art and art nouveau movement; at other times was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting.
The book itself has a green Victorian cloth binding, with a front cover design depicting a witch dropping frogs into a cauldron, and highly-stylised cats on the spine. It was presented to J. Patten MacDougall from Innis Chonain in 1899. Innis Chonain is the Scottish Island on which Douglas Walter Campbell, an amateur architect, had built a large home.
Juno: A beautiful improved short-horned cow from A Description of the different Varieties of Oxen, common in the British Isles; Embellished with Engravings; being an accompaniment To a Set of Models of the Improved Breeds of Cattle, executed by George Garrard, Upon an exact Scale from Nature, Under the patronage of the Board of Agriculture (London: J. Smeeton, 1800) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 636.22 GAR Elephant folio)
In 1800 fields were ploughed by oxen, tallow production was a major industry (beef fat rendered for use in candles, salves and to lubricate ammunitions), hides were used by the leather industry and the increasing urban population wanted milk and meat for their tables. It was an important time for improving livestock and founding commercially-successful breeds. It was also a time when the tradition for romanticised, stylised portraits of animals and rural life prevailed as owners and breeders commissioned paintings and etchings of the prize animals which were fattened to great weights and toured around the country. Today, those late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century breeds are either extinct or changed beyond recognition, for the most part.
Before the late Eighteenth Century cattle breeds were not formally recognised but intensive selective inbreeding led to distinct breeds and this corresponds with the introduction of illustrated books on animal husbandry. As few farmers would have been literate, animal portraiture served to demonstrate and to advertise the advantages of some breeds over others. However, owners and breeders wanted artists to depict the cattle even more obese than, in reality, they were. Thomas Bewick recalled in his Memoir being sent for to Barmpton to draw cattle and sheep but his drawings were not approved because they did not resemble other paintings of the animals – paintings which did not bear any resemblance to the animals as their corpulence was so exaggerated. Bewick wrote:
“I objected to put lumps of fat here and there where I could not see it, at least not in so exaggerated a way as on the painting before me … Many of the animals were, during this rage for fat cattle, fed up to as great a weight and bulk as it was possible for feeding to make them; but this was not enough; they were to be figured monstrously fat before the owners of them could be pleased”.
Bewick, T. A Memoir of Thomas Bewick (Newcastle-on-Tyne: Printed by Robert Ward; London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1862), p.184.
George Garrard’s portraits, seen here, were actually drawn to scale. He made plaster models of cattle, sheep and pigs (held in the Natural History Museum, London) and the dimensions of the animals he drew are recorded on the prints.
Short-horned cattle
Short-horned cattle were developed in the late Eighteenth Century when Teeswater and Durham cows were crossbred. Charles and Robert Colling, following Robert Bakewell’s model for breeding long-horn cattle, developed the first systematic short-horn breeding programme and are thus credited as having established the breed. Robert lived in Barmpton, about three miles north of Darlington. (Darlington had gained a reputation for its cattle market or fair.)
According to Garrard’s accompanying text, Juno was Colling’s favourite cow and she had been declared “the best of the year in the district”. She was deep red in colour and had been calved in 1807.
The Holderness breed
A White Teeswater Ox from Short-horned cattle were developed in the late Eighteenth Century when Teeswater and Durham cows were crossbred. Charles and Robert Colling, following Robert Bakewell’s model for breeding long-horn cattle, developed the first systematic short-horn breeding programme and are thus credited as having established the breed. Robert lived in Barmpton, about three miles north of Darlington. (Darlington had gained a reputation for its cattle market or fair.) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 636.22 GAR Elephant folio)
Short-horned cattle were developed in the late Eighteenth Century when Teeswater and Durham cows were crossbred. Charles and Robert Colling, following Robert Bakewell’s model for breeding long-horn cattle, developed the first systematic short-horn breeding programme and are thus credited as having established the breed. Robert lived in Barmpton, about three miles north of Darlington (Darlington had gained a reputation for its cattle market or fair).
Highland Ox
A Fat Highland Ox from Short-horned cattle were developed in the late Eighteenth Century when Teeswater and Durham cows were crossbred. Charles and Robert Colling, following Robert Bakewell’s model for breeding long-horn cattle, developed the first systematic short-horn breeding programme and are thus credited as having established the breed. Robert lived in Barmpton, about three miles north of Darlington. (Darlington had gained a reputation for its cattle market or fair.) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 636.22 GAR Elephant folio)
Sir Henry Vane Tempest (1771-1813) had served as M.P. for Durham City. His Highland ox was black and had been exhibited at Smithfield in 1809, when it weighed 90 stone. Never recovering from the fatigue of travelling, the ox was slaughtered some time thereafter. The ox bears only a slight resemblance to the long-horned, reddish-tan, long-haired Highland cattle of today. Back then, the cattle could be brown, black, red, tan or even brindled (i.e. patterened).
The White Wild Bull of Britain
The White Wild Bull of Britain from Short-horned cattle were developed in the late Eighteenth Century when Teeswater and Durham cows were crossbred. Charles and Robert Colling, following Robert Bakewell’s model for breeding long-horn cattle, developed the first systematic short-horn breeding programme and are thus credited as having established the breed. Robert lived in Barmpton, about three miles north of Darlington. (Darlington had gained a reputation for its cattle market or fair.) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 636.22 GAR Elephant folio)
The open fields, woods and ravines of Chillingham Park, Northumberland (seat of Lord Tankerville until 1971) continue to be home to the wild British cattle. In the early Nineteenth Century, the herd numbered about one hundred – today there are eighty five animals although the harsh winter of 1947 had reduced the herd to thirteen. Garrard relates that “when any of the herd happen to be wounded, or grown old, or otherwise decrepit, the rest run upon it and gore it to death”.
The cattle have lived in Chillingham Park, with minimal human intervention, since the Thirteenth Century and have not been genetically altered. They are small, white with red ears and upright horns.
More about the Oxen
Juno: A beautiful improved short-horned cow bred by Mr. Robert Colling of Barmpton near Darlington – 4 years old.
A Fat Teeswater Ox called The Ox of Houghton Le Spring: An improved short horned of extraordinary size and beauty, bred and fatted by John Nesham Esqr. of that place near Durham – it was got by Mr. Mason’s bull called Trunnell out of a cow by Favourite …
A Fat Highland Ox. Fed by Sir Henry Vane Tempest of Lampton Hall – weight 90 Stone 14lbs.
The White Wild Bull of Britain Bred in its native purity in Chillingham park Northumberland.
Section of map detailing Canis Minor, picturing Orion with his two faithful dogs from Malby’s Telescopic Companion or Celestial Globe-Atlas in XXI sheets by John Addison. Exhibiting the whole of the stars contained in the catalogues of Piazzi, Bradley, Hevelius, Mayer, Lacaille and Johnson. The double stars marked from Herschel and Struve. Corrected from Baily’s edition of Flamsteed’s British Catalogue. With additions carefully collated from the observations of the most esteemed British and Foreign astronomers together with the nebulae observed by W. Herschel and Sir J. Herschel (London, 1843) (Rare Books, RB Folio 523.89 MAL)
Malby’s Telescopic Companion or Celestial Globe-Atlas was published by the map and globe makers Malby & Co. in January, 1843. This handsome volume, with ornate gilt-decorated cloth binding, contains a set of twenty one striking double-page colour plates depicting the stars and constellations in the sky, as recorded by the many renowned astronomers who had identified and listed the stars throughout history.
The constellations into which the sky of the northern hemisphere has traditionally been divided were originally described by the Ancient Greeks, who likened each constellation to a mythological figure or sign of the zodiac, although the Latin forms of their names, rather than the Greek, have traditionally been used. The plates in Malby’s globe-atlas carry colourful artistic representations of these figures. This plate depicts the constellations Canes Venatici, Bootes and Ursa Major. The Canes Venatici (“hunting dogs”), Asterion and Chara, are held on a leash by Bootes the herdsman as they chase the Great Bear (Ursa Major), whose tail can be seen disappearing off to the left of the picture.
Malby’s globe-atlas actually served a dual purpose, as the atlas could either be used in its original form as a book or the sheets could be cut out and joined together according to the instructions provided to create a three-dimensional globe. The firm Malby & Co., established by Thomas Malby in c. 1839, was known for producing maps and globes of varying types and sizes, including table and pocket globes, and associated itself with the geographical publishing of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK).
The volume is apparently exceedingly rare; the British Library lists only a copy of the 1845 edition in its holdings and no other copies of this particular edition, which appears to be the first, are listed anywhere else.
Adding to its interest, the volume carries the bookplate of Hugh Lee Pattinson, the eminent metallurgical chemist and industrialist from the North-East of England who discovered the process of separating silver from lead, later known as the Pattinson Process. He was also the great grandfather of Gertrude Bell. The Latin motto on his coat of arms reads Ex Vile Pretiosa which means “Valuable things from base things”, an allusion to his momentous discovery.
Drawing of Florence Nightingale from The Life of Florence Nightingale (Volume One) by E. T. Cook (Pybus (Professor Frederick Charles) Collection, Pyb L.i.35)
The 13th August 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Florence Nightingale. Florence was an English nurse who became famous while looking after injured soldiers during the Crimean War.
Florence was from an upper-class Victorian family and was frustrated by her sheltered upbringing. She wanted to pursue an education and aged sixteen she felt a calling from God to become a nurse. In the Mid-Nineteenth Century nursing was an occupation on a par with domestic service and her parents were horrified by her decision. Undeterred she went to Germany to carry out her training.
At the same time anger was mounting about the suffering of British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. Florence was sent to Scutari in Turkey to head a team of female nurses. In letters home, she described the appalling conditions. Four times as many were dying from infection and disease as in battle. The death rates were high until the Sanitary Commission arrived and flushed out the sewers upon which the hospital was built.
As head nurse, Florence ran a tight ship. She instilled discipline in her nurses and introduced uniforms and a strict curfew. She also took on tasks that went beyond her duty, but increased her popularity with the soldiers, such as writing letters of condolence to relatives and setting up a banking system that allowed soldiers to send money home.
However, Florence Nightingale the woman and Florence Nightingale the legend were two very different people. The legend was born on 24th February 1855, when the Illustrated London News published an engraving of her holding a lamp in a hospital ward while tending to injured soldiers.
The public couldn’t get enough of the story of the beautiful, caring young woman who was risking her life in a warzone. An industry sprung up producing statuettes, figurines and posters, mainly by artists who had never seen her! Songs and poems were written describing her efforts in tending for the sick and the dying soldiers. The media frenzy was so great that when Florence arrived back in England in August 1856, she had to travel under the pseudonym Miss Smith, so that she could return to her family home without drawing attention!
Florence, however, detested her celebrity status. She felt that the legend that had been created around her hid what she was trying to achieve. The idea of fame was different in the 19th Century – it was associated with criminals and travelling entertainers so it is not surprising that Florence didn’t exactly bask in it.
However, it was the Florence of legend that allowed the real Florence to make the changes she had dreamt of. Government ministers were aware of her popularity and felt they couldn’t refuse her. Using public money donated in her honour, she set up the Nightingale School for nurses. In 1860 her Notes on Nursing, which advised ordinary women on how to care for relatives, became a bestseller. She used her fame to campaign for reforms in many areas of health and throughout her life wrote 200 books, pamphlets and articles, and more than 14,000 letters, campaigning for improvements until her death.
Illustration of Grace Darling from Grace Darling and her times by Constance Smedley (Clarke (Edwin) Local Collection, Clarke 1707)
Florence’s experience of unwanted fame echoes that of an earlier Victorian heroine, Grace Darling. Grace grew-up on the Farne Islands where her father was a lighthouse keeper. On 7th September 1838, along with her father, she saved nine people from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire. The ship had crashed on the rocks and in the early hours of the morning Grace spotted the wreck and survivors from the lighthouse. She and her father took a rowing boat across to the wreck and Grace kept it steady while her father helped the survivors in.
News of the rescue was reported by the local newspapers who cast Grace in a heroic light. The myth began to take shape as journalists competed to create the most exciting account of events. It was reported that Grace was awoken by the cries of the survivors, which would have been an impressive feat given the noise of the gale-force wind blowing outside at the time, as her sister Thomasina later commented! It was also suggested that Grace forced her father to take the boat out regardless of the risks. It is highly unlikely that Grace would have disobeyed her father and in turn William Darling, an experienced seaman, would never have taken such a chance if he felt their own lives would be at risk.
The media frenzy which surrounded Grace was akin to that which we associate with modern-day celebrities. But with a young girl as Queen the press wanted female heroines. Soon her image could be found on trinkets, plates, postcards, chocolates and even soap boxes! Even William Wordsworth wrote a poem about her in 1843. Grace received letters requesting locks of her hair and scraps of the dress she wore during the rescue. Pressure also came from the Victorian paparazzi; the portrait artists. In a letter to the press five weeks after the rescue, her father requested that other painters take their likenesses from one of the seven paintings already completed!
Grace’s story became popular as it fitted in well with the romanticism of the Victorian period. All of the elements, the fact that she lived on a remote island, was beautiful and obedient and had such an angelic name, created an enchanting story. Fiction writers would have struggled to create a character that embodied the ideal Victorian woman in the way that Grace did.
A number of books were written about Grace. Grace Darling, or the Maid of the Isles by Jerrold Vernon, gave birth to the legend ‘of the girl with windswept hair’. This is particularly amusing as Grace went out in the boat with her hair in curling-rags! It could be argued that it was the ordinariness of Grace’s life as a lighthouse keeper’s daughter, which led to the creation of the myths. Journalists felt they had to invent stories about Grace to ensure she lived up to her reputation as a heroine.
Tragically, Grace died of tuberculosis in 1842, aged 26. However, the Grace Darling story continued long after her death. If she had married and grown old, she would no longer have been the girl of the legend. Through her untimely death she was immortalised as the brave and beautiful heroine she never wanted to be.
Drawing of a microscope from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon. (London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)
“The most ingenious book that I ever read in my life.” Samuel Pepys (diary, 21st January 1665).
Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was a natural philosopher and architect: he was curator of experiments for the Royal Society, Gresham Professor of Geometry, was chief assistant to Christopher Wren (the method by which the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral was constructed was conceived by Hooke), Surveyor to the City of London following the Great Fire and indeed devised a set of planning controls for London which have retained some relevance.
He has been described as an irascible and querulous man and he fell into dispute with Isaac Newton over who should take credit for work on gravitation. His reputation suffered and it was only in the Twentieth Century that he was repositioned as one of the most important scientists of the Seventeenth Century.
Hooke’s Micrographia was the first major publication of the Royal Society and, capturing public imagination in a radically new way, became the first scientific best seller. The book includes planetary bodies, the origin of fossils and the wave theory of light but its main focus, and what was so exciting, were the descriptions and magnificent copperplate engravings of the things which he observed through a microscope – the stinger of a bee, the eyes of flies, seeds, and so forth. A previously invisible microscopic world was revealed. Micrographia is also notable for Hooke’s invention of the biological term ‘cell’ after walled plant cells reminded him of monks’ quarters.
Drawing of a blue fly from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon. (London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)
The plates shown here (below) depict Hooke’s microscope; a hairy mould, “multitudes of which [Hooke] found to bespeck & whiten over the red covers of a small book, which, it seems, were of Sheeps-skin, that being more apt to gather mould, even in a dry and clean room, then other leathers” and a blue fly, which he describes as “a very beautifull creature“.
Drawing of mould on Hooke’s plate from Hooke, R. Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon. (London: Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665) (Pybus (Professor Frederick) Collection, Pyb. R.iii.2)
The edition held in Special Collections is part of the Pybus Collection of c.2,000 books which had been brought together by local medic and surgeon, Professor Frederick Charles Pybus (1883-1975). It has the armorial bookplate of The Right Honourable Francis Lord Brooke on the front pastedown and ms annotations on the title page.
