Category Archives: Gardening

Goodbyeee!

Alas, and thrice woe (from my point of view anyway), this is my last ever blog for the Cambridge Library Collection. I now slip away into the sunset, leaving others to ramble on (or, even better, write snappily and coherently) … Continue reading

Posted in Archaeology, Astronomy, Biography, Cambridge, Classics, Earth Sciences, Fiction and poetry, Gardening, History, Language and Linguistics, Life Science, Literary Studies, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, Printing and Publishing History, Travel and Exploration | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Spring and Port Wine

 … is the name of a play and then a film about Bolton, in northern England. However, I’m borrowing the title because I’ve just spent a few spring days in (O)Porto, where the wine comes from. My Portuguese vocabulary has … Continue reading

Posted in Art and architecture, Biography, Gardening, History, The Naval Chronicle, Travel and Exploration | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Child’s History of England

The paths of the Cambridge Library Collection and Charles Dickens have crossed several times – remarkable, given that Dickens is (of course) one of Britain’s greatest novelists, and we don’t publish much fiction. But of the short experimental (for us) … Continue reading

Posted in Clements Markham, Education, Egyptology, Fiction and poetry, Gardening, History, Linguistics, Literary Studies, Printing and Publishing History, Religious Studies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Huguenots

I have mentioned before the industrious Samuel Smiles, Victorian believer in hard work and self-education (otherwise known as pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps) as the way to social improvement and financial prosperity. His 1867 work on the Huguenot communities … Continue reading

Posted in Archaeology, Art and architecture, Gardening, History, Printing and Publishing History, Religious Studies | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

The Diary of John Evelyn

One of my vital tools as a scribbler of blogs on books is a little pack of those things – I don’t even know what they are called – which you can stick on to a page to mark a … Continue reading

Posted in Art and architecture, Biography, English Men of Letters, Gardening, History, Literary Studies, Travel and Exploration | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments