An account of the proceedings at the celebration of the five hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the College, June 22, 1898.

  • Gonville and Caius College.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the proceedings at the celebration of the five hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the College, June 22, 1898. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE SPEECHES After the Royal toasts (“ God save the Queen ” being sung by the Choir), Dr John Venn, Fellow of the College and Editor of the Biographical History of the College, was at once called upon. Dr Venn said ; I have been deputed to propose a Toast, or rather a Memory, of the kind usually drunk in silence ; for, of the many included within its scope, few indeed are within our present reach :—to be encouraged by our praise, or warmed by our thanks. It is the Memory of our Benefactors : of that great cloud of witnesses,—witnesses to the nearness of the present and the past,—which compass us about in every ancient English Institution, whether religious, civic, or academic. They are a very numerous body, and include almost every rank and station in life. Our Commemoration Servicelong as it may seem, literally does not contain a tithe of those who “in their day bestowed charitably for our comfort of the temporal things given to them.” The small and the great are there. Take a few representative cases to illustrate the variety of age, condition, and motives, under which these gifts have been made. Here is a broken-hearted mother, in despair at the sudden and violent death of her only son. Dean Nowell, of St Paul’s, gives the account, and I should spoil it by repeating it in any words but his own. He says^, “The mother fell into sorrows uncomfortable; whereof I, being of her acquaintance, having intelligence did with all speed ride unto her house near to Hoddesdon, to comfort her the best I could. And I found her crying or rather howling continually, Oh my son! my son I And when I could by no comfortable words stay her from that cry and tearing of her hair, God, I think, put me in mind at the last to say, ‘Comfort yourself, good Mrs Frankland, and I will tell you how you shall have twenty good sons to comfort you in these your sorrows which you take for this one son.’ To the which words only she gave ear, and looking up, asked, ‘How can that be?’ And I said unto her, ‘You are a widow, rich and now childless, and there be in both Uni- 1 The “ Longer Conunemoration ” read at the Annual Commemoration of Benefactors is here alluded to, not the adaptation read in Chapel on the present occasion. * I could, of course, only quote one or two sentences at our Commemora- tion ; but the Dean’s letter is worth quoting somewhat fully. It was written to the Abp of Canterbury, and is given in Baker Ms. xxiv.; p. 385.