罢丑别听国际米兰对阵科莫 Animal Alphabet series听celebrates 国际米兰对阵科莫's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here,听B is for Bear 鈥 found听roaming 国际米兰对阵科莫shire 120,000 years ago, on 17th century murals in Madingley Hall, and keeping Lord Byron company at Trinity College.
罢丑别听国际米兰对阵科莫 Animal Alphabet series听celebrates 国际米兰对阵科莫's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here,听B is for Bear 鈥 found听roaming 国际米兰对阵科莫shire 120,000 years ago, on 17th century murals in Madingley Hall, and keeping Lord Byron company at Trinity College.
I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me what to do with him, and my reply was, 鈥榟e should sit for a fellowship鈥
Lord Byron
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When the eminent architect T G Jackson designed the , he added a delightful flourish to the double stairway leading up to the entrance. A pair of brown bears guards one set of steps and a pair of bison the other.
The choice was apposite. In 1904 geologists found fossilised remains of both bears and bison in the gravels of Barrington, a village south east of 国际米兰对阵科莫.听Bears and bison were just some of the animals roaming northern Europe 120,000 years ago during an inter-glacial period.
The Sedgwick Museum takes its name from Adam Sedgwick, one of the founders of modern geology. It鈥檚 one of the world鈥檚 oldest geological museums and its collection comprises many millions of objects including spectacular ichthyosaurs found by the fossil collector Mary Anning.听The fossils found in the Barrington Beds by a group of 国际米兰对阵科莫 geologists are on display in Bay 3. Among the exhibits are remains of hippo, red deer, hyena, bison and elephant 鈥 as well as bear and bison.
Look carefully at the stone used to sculpt the animals at the museum entrance and you will see that it鈥檚 full of tiny fragments of shells. The stone that Jackson chose for the dressings of the building is shelly oolitic limestone of Middle Jurassic age.听This stone dates from around 170 million years ago, when marine animals flourished in the warm seas that covered much of the northern hemisphere.
The bears at the Sedgwick Museum mark the start of a 鈥榖uilding stones of 国际米兰对阵科莫鈥 walk devised by Dr Nigel Woodcock, Reader in Earth Sciences. He said: 鈥淭he stone used for the dressings of the Sedgwick Museum come from the Clipsham quarry north west of Stamford. The earliest recorded use of Clipsham was for Windsor Castle in the 14th century. Its durability made it a favourite with Victorian architects. In 国际米兰对阵科莫, Clipsham was also used for the dressings at Pembroke College, Great St Mary's and King's College Chapel.鈥
The Sedgwick Museum is not the only 国际米兰对阵科莫 building to feature bears: one of several late 16th or early 17th听century murals high up inside a tower at Madingley Hall (home to ) portrays a bear hunt. Until the practise was stopped in the mid-19th century, bears were bred for sport.
One of the figures depicted in the Madingley Hall murals might be a past owner of the hall. Sir Edward Hynde, who was especially fond of hunting, had bread especially baked for the bears he kept in his extensive park.
The eccentric poet Lord Byron is reported to have kept a bear while he was a student at Trinity College in the early 1800s. He鈥檚 said to have purchased the bear, quite possibly at Stourbridge Fair, in defiance of the rules that banned students from keeping dogs in college.
On 26 October 1807 Byron wrote to his friend Elizabeth Pigot: 鈥淚 have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a tame bear. When I brought him here, they asked me what to do with him, and my reply was, 鈥榟e should sit for a fellowship鈥.鈥
Next in the 国际米兰对阵科莫 Animal Alphabet: C is for an animal that is the source of almost half the meat eaten in the UK, and the听bacteria responsible for听four out of five cases of food poisoning.
Inset images:听Scene听showing how some of the plants and mammals found as fossils at Barrington may have looked in life (artwork by听Robert Nicholls听漏 2009听Sedgwick听Museum of Earth Sciences, 国际米兰对阵科莫); 17th听century听mural at听Madingley Hall (国际米兰对阵科莫 Institute of Continuing Education).
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