Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Darwin's Pilgrims in Cambridge: the Movie


Here is the next installment in the Darwin's Pilgrims movies, our trip to Cambridge. 
Link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=513900029811842595&hl=en

Unfortunately, because of a lorry on fire on the motorway Lauri, Cyndi and I arrived over two hours late for our rendezvous with Baba Brinkman and Claire McShane and so our trip was shorter than planned. Also, Christ's was closed to visitors, so we had to make do with photos outside. But the visit to magnificent King's College Chapel, where Darwin used to go and listen to anthems (like Handel's Zadok The Priest heard here), made it all worthwhile. 

Here is what Darwin said about the chapel in his autobiography:
I acquired a strong taste for music, and used very often to time my walks so as to hear on week days the anthem in King's College Chapel. This gave me intense pleasure, so that my backbone would sometimes shiver. I am sure that there was no affectation or mere imitation in this taste, for I used generally to go by myself to King's College, and I sometimes hired the chorister boys to sing in my rooms.

1 comment:

Gary McGath said...

Not quite on topic, but I've just posted a review of your excellent book.

http://www.mcgath.com/roughguidetoevolution.html