The door into Saint Botolph’s Church on Trumpington Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:
1, photographs of a church or place of worship;
2, the day’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
My theme this week is churches in Cambridge that are not college chapels. My photographs this morning (26 August 2021) are from Saint Botolph’s Church on Trumpington Street, at the corner of Silver Street.
The chancel of Saint Botolph’s was rebuilt by Bodley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Saint Botolph’s Church on Trumpington Street, Cambridge, beside Corpus Christi College and close to Little Saint Mary’s Church, is another Cambridge church associated with the architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907). Like All Saints’ Church, it too has windows by the Tractarian artist Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907).
Saint Botolph, an abbot from East Anglia who lived in the seventh century, is the patron saint of travellers, and this church once stood at the South Gate or Trumptington Gate of Cambridge, used by travellers arriving from or leaving for London, or travellers from the west who crossed the River Cam where Silver Street Bridge now stands.
There may have been a Saxon church on this site in the past, and it certainly was the site of a Norman church. The nave and aisles of the present church were built in the early 14th century, ca 1320, the period that was influential in Bodley’s design of All Saints’ Church.
The tower was built in the 15th century, as were the west end of the nave, the south chapel and the south porch, as well as the carved rood screen separating the nave from the chancel.
This is the only mediaeval rood screen to survive in an ancient parish church in Cambridge. The panels were painted in the 19th century with images of the Archangel Gabriel (left or north side) and the Virgin Mary (right or south side), and together they tell the story of the Annunciation.
The mediaeval font near the tower and the west porch has an elegant, octagonal Laudian wooden cover and canopy that date from 1637.
Bodley was invited to rebuild the chancel of Saint Botoloph’s in 1872, and he brought with him two local artists, GR Leach, who was also working at All Saints, and G Gray, to carry out the high Victorian decoration of the chancel.
The north window in the chancel is a memorial to the Revd Dr William Magan Campion (1820-1896), who was the Rector of Saint Botolph’s (1862-1892) and President of Queens’ College, Cambridge (1892-1896).
The window shows Saint Botolph between Saint Bernard and Saint Margaret, the two patron saints of Queens’ College, which was patron of the living. Campion was instrumental in bringing Bodley, and Kempe and Leach along with him to work on the restoration of Saint Botolph’s as a result of their work at All Saints’ Church in Jesus Lane.
An earlier association with neighbouring Corpus Christi College is recalled by with the pelican in the Crucifixion window by Kempe in the north aisle.
The north window in the chancel commemorates the Revd Dr William Magan Campion (1820-1896), Rector of Saint Botolph’s and President of Queens’ College, who was born in Port Laoise (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Bodley’s patron at Saint Botolph’s, William Magan Campion, was born in Ireland. He was born on 28 October 1820, the second son of William Campion of Maryborough (Port Laoise), Co Laois. He was admitted as a pensioner to Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1845 to read Maths, and was elected a Fellow of Queens’ in 1850, when he was appointed a Lecturer in Mathematics.
He was ordained deacon in 1851 and priest in 1855. However, he was considered too young to become the President of Queens’ College when Joshua King died in 1857.
Campion became a member of the first Council of the Senate and its Secretary in 1865. He was the Rector of Saint Botolph’s (1862-1892), a rural dean (1870-1892), and an Honorary Canon of Ely Cathedral (1879-1896). He was also Lady Margaret’s preacher in Cambridge University in 1862, and Whitehall Preacher in 1862-1864.
Campion was finally elected President of Queens’ College in 1892 after the death of George Phillips. But by then he was already old and in poor health. He died in the President’s Lodge at Queens’ College on 20 October 1896 and is buried in the Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge.
Father Stephen Anderson is the Rector of Saint Botolph’s and Tim Brown is the Interim Director of Music.
The mediaeval font has a restored Laudian cover and canopy (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Matthew 24: 42-51 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 42 ‘Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
45 ‘Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked slave says to himself, “My master is delayed”, 49 and he begins to beat his fellow-slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. 51 He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Inside Saint Botolph's, facing the west end and looking out onto Trumpinton Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerofrd)
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (26 August 2021) invites us to pray:
Let us pray for those working to make gender equality a reality. May we treat each other with respect and dignity, regardless of gender.
The Crucifixion Window by Kempe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
One of the panels on the rood screen, painted in the 19th century with images of the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, telling the story of the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
26 August 2021
Myrtle Grove in Youghal
has links to Walter Raleigh
and Claud Cockburn
Myrtle Grove, Youghal, Co Cork … associated with many of the legends about Sir Walter Raleigh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Patrick Comerford
When I was visiting Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, as part of last week’s summer ‘road trip,’ I was disappointed not to be able to have a proper look at Myrtle Grove.
This Tudor house beside the gates of the churchyard is said to have been the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was also the home of the writer and journalist Claud Cockburn, who wrote regularly for The Irish Times, as did many of his sons.
Myrtle Grove is said to stand on the site of the house of the Wardens of Youghal. With its tall chimneys, oriel windows and many gables, the house is a rare Irish example of an unfortified, late mediaeval Tudor style stone house. It is said to have been built by Sir Walter Raleigh, and there are many legends associated with his time in the house.
It is said that a panicked servant at Myrtle Grove dowsed Raleigh in water while he was smoking the first tobacco in Ireland.
Raleigh reputedly brought the first potatoes from Virginia to Ireland in 1585, and planted them at his home at Myrtle Grove. For the following two years he was mayor of Youghal, where Queen Elizabeth I granted him 42,000 acres (170 sq km) of land.
At Myrtle Grove, he entertained the poet Edmund Spenser, who is said to have been inspired to write the last verse of the ‘Faerie Queene’ while looking out the window of Myrtle Grove.
Four yew trees in the gardens are said to have been planted by Raleigh, and he made his final trip from Cork to the West Indies in 1617.
However, many of the legends in Youghal about Walter Raleigh date to the romanticising of his links with Youghal by Samuel Hayman in his New Handbook for Youghal (1858). The Hayman family acquired Myrtle Grove in the 18th century, and renovated the house in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Myrtle Grove, Youghal, seen from Saint Mary’s Churchyard … the house was the home of the Blake, Arbuthnot and Cockburn families in the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
In the early 20th century, it was the home of Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1840-1918), who had been Governor of the Bahamas (1884-1887), Newfoundland (1887-1888), Jamaica (1888-1898), Hong Kong (1898-1903) and Ceylon (1903-1907). He was born in Limerick, and died at Myrtle Grove in 1918.
Two years earlier, in 1916, Blake’s daughter, Olive, and her husband, Major John Bernard Arbuthnot, moved into Myrtle Grove with their family. Their youngest child was the writer and artist Patricia Evangeline Anne Cockburn (1914-1989). When the Arbuthnots moved to London in 1918, Patricia was left at Myrtle Grove with her widowed grandmother.
In 1940, after a divorce, Patricia married the journalist Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), and they returned to Youghal to live at Myrtle Grove in 1947.
For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times. Patrick’s godmother was Lady Clodagh Anson, who once lived at the Towers in Ballysaggartmore, in Lismore, Co Waterford.
Patricia and Claud Cockburn moved to Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. Claud died on 15 December 1980, Patricia died on 6 October 1989; they are both buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother and close to the gates of Myrtle Grove.
The grave of Patricia and Claud Cockburn in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Myrtle Grove remains in private ownership and is closed to the public, but is being renovated and restored. The house is a rare example of an unfortified 16th century Irish house to have survived with much of its original form intact. It retains its original character and some interior features that may date back to the 1580s.
The Tudor features include the steep gables, oriel windows and tall chimneys. This is a detached triple-gabled six-bay three-storey house, built ca 1550, with a porch-oriel at the front, dormer windows at the rear, and an oriel window on the south elevation.
The oriel over the porch has a rendered pediment. The square-headed window openings have sash windows in the gables and on the second floor, and bipartite sash windows on the first and ground floors. The round-headed window opening in the oriel over the porch is flanked by four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows.
The oriel window on the south side has six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. The round-headed window at the rear has a spoked fanlight, and there is a round-headed door opening in the porch.
The house has rendered chimneystacks, a pitched slate roof, and a weathervane. The rubble sandstone masonry walls are covered with roughcast render. Leading into the house, a pair of square-profile rendered piers have double-leaf timber gates and a pedestrian entrance.
The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is also an attractive and eye-catching building, with a gable-fronted porch with an heraldic plaque, pointed arch windows and square-headed windows, a pointed arch opening at the porch, and timber battened door.
The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Patrick Comerford
When I was visiting Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, as part of last week’s summer ‘road trip,’ I was disappointed not to be able to have a proper look at Myrtle Grove.
This Tudor house beside the gates of the churchyard is said to have been the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, and was also the home of the writer and journalist Claud Cockburn, who wrote regularly for The Irish Times, as did many of his sons.
Myrtle Grove is said to stand on the site of the house of the Wardens of Youghal. With its tall chimneys, oriel windows and many gables, the house is a rare Irish example of an unfortified, late mediaeval Tudor style stone house. It is said to have been built by Sir Walter Raleigh, and there are many legends associated with his time in the house.
It is said that a panicked servant at Myrtle Grove dowsed Raleigh in water while he was smoking the first tobacco in Ireland.
Raleigh reputedly brought the first potatoes from Virginia to Ireland in 1585, and planted them at his home at Myrtle Grove. For the following two years he was mayor of Youghal, where Queen Elizabeth I granted him 42,000 acres (170 sq km) of land.
At Myrtle Grove, he entertained the poet Edmund Spenser, who is said to have been inspired to write the last verse of the ‘Faerie Queene’ while looking out the window of Myrtle Grove.
Four yew trees in the gardens are said to have been planted by Raleigh, and he made his final trip from Cork to the West Indies in 1617.
However, many of the legends in Youghal about Walter Raleigh date to the romanticising of his links with Youghal by Samuel Hayman in his New Handbook for Youghal (1858). The Hayman family acquired Myrtle Grove in the 18th century, and renovated the house in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Myrtle Grove, Youghal, seen from Saint Mary’s Churchyard … the house was the home of the Blake, Arbuthnot and Cockburn families in the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
In the early 20th century, it was the home of Sir Henry Arthur Blake (1840-1918), who had been Governor of the Bahamas (1884-1887), Newfoundland (1887-1888), Jamaica (1888-1898), Hong Kong (1898-1903) and Ceylon (1903-1907). He was born in Limerick, and died at Myrtle Grove in 1918.
Two years earlier, in 1916, Blake’s daughter, Olive, and her husband, Major John Bernard Arbuthnot, moved into Myrtle Grove with their family. Their youngest child was the writer and artist Patricia Evangeline Anne Cockburn (1914-1989). When the Arbuthnots moved to London in 1918, Patricia was left at Myrtle Grove with her widowed grandmother.
In 1940, after a divorce, Patricia married the journalist Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), and they returned to Youghal to live at Myrtle Grove in 1947.
For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times. Patrick’s godmother was Lady Clodagh Anson, who once lived at the Towers in Ballysaggartmore, in Lismore, Co Waterford.
Patricia and Claud Cockburn moved to Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. Claud died on 15 December 1980, Patricia died on 6 October 1989; they are both buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, under a tree planted by her mother in memory of her brother and close to the gates of Myrtle Grove.
The grave of Patricia and Claud Cockburn in the churchyard of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Myrtle Grove remains in private ownership and is closed to the public, but is being renovated and restored. The house is a rare example of an unfortified 16th century Irish house to have survived with much of its original form intact. It retains its original character and some interior features that may date back to the 1580s.
The Tudor features include the steep gables, oriel windows and tall chimneys. This is a detached triple-gabled six-bay three-storey house, built ca 1550, with a porch-oriel at the front, dormer windows at the rear, and an oriel window on the south elevation.
The oriel over the porch has a rendered pediment. The square-headed window openings have sash windows in the gables and on the second floor, and bipartite sash windows on the first and ground floors. The round-headed window opening in the oriel over the porch is flanked by four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows.
The oriel window on the south side has six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. The round-headed window at the rear has a spoked fanlight, and there is a round-headed door opening in the porch.
The house has rendered chimneystacks, a pitched slate roof, and a weathervane. The rubble sandstone masonry walls are covered with roughcast render. Leading into the house, a pair of square-profile rendered piers have double-leaf timber gates and a pedestrian entrance.
The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is also an attractive and eye-catching building, with a gable-fronted porch with an heraldic plaque, pointed arch windows and square-headed windows, a pointed arch opening at the porch, and timber battened door.
The Church gate lodge beside Myrtle Lodge at the entrance to Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)