No . 133 The Trusty Servant
I think I ’ d like there to be a little more about the current life of the school . My impression from talking to OWs is that they remain deeply interested in the Wykehamical experience , and there may well be anxiety as well as excitement about the recent changes . We could be a window into their effects on a place so many people care about very deeply .
Is there anything you would like to cover , or would like OWs to write in about ?
The gap that I ’ ve noticed is in our coverage of OW music-making . Music is such an important – and impressive – part of what the school offers , and Wykehamist musicians are working all over the world . I ’ d love to get news of their achievements and projects , so we can feature them alongside OW publications .
Graeme Ginsberg has granted your wish already . See OW Music news on Page 33 . Ed
The first modest intake of day girls will take place this September . Will the TS be any different by the time they leave ?
Of course . But not because of the girls , or indeed the day-pupils , but because it changes , subtly , all the time , as any living thing is bound to . Nevertheless , given how many other ways OWs now have of communicating with each other , and we with them , it also seems to me that there ’ s a value in preserving some conscious element of tradition – perhaps not a surprising view from a don whose days are a mixed diet of English literature and Chapel Choir , with cricket and Winchester football on the side .
Thomas Browne
Matthew King ( Co Ro , 18- ), our Head of Biology , honours a great scientific Wykehamist :
Although technically Early Modern , Thomas Browne was definitely a ‘ Renaissance man ’ with a remarkably wide range of interests . He spent much of his life striving to bridge the gap between science , art and religion , attempting to find patterns in God ’ s creation of the natural world as evidence of intelligent design and attempting to dispel non-religious superstition and myth where he could find no tangible evidence . This was a continuation of the new 17 th -century empirical philosophy of science , relying on experimentation and observation rather than just logic and reason . This approach was started by Francis Bacon ( the Baconian method ) in the late 1500s and nurtured through the 1600s by Isaac Newton , Robert Hooke and Thomas Browne amongst others . This is how science has been correctly pursued ever since .
Thomas was born on 19 th October in 1605 . He died on 19 th October 1682 . William Shakespeare , who overlapped Browne briefly , also died on his own birthday – statistically you are up to 44 % more likely to die on your birthday than another day of the year ( depending on where you live in the world and the cultural view on celebration with large quantities of alcohol ). 77 was a pretty good innings for the 17 th century and his life spanned a hugely significant period of recent human history with many pivotal and interesting events :
1605 – The Gunpowder Plot .
1606 – First European ( Willem Janszoon ) to discover Australia .
1611 – King James Bible published – scripture now accessible to the masses .
1616 – Shakespeare dies aged 52 from a fever caught from ‘ a surfeit of wine ’ on his birthday .
1616 – Native American Princess , Pocahontas , travels to London from America and is presented to James I at a Royal Ball . She dies aged 21 in London in 1617 .
1619 – First Africans arrive in Jamestown ( not as slaves , but that soon followed and the transatlantic slave trade was established soon afterwards with the founding of the
Royal African Company ( 1672 ) which built most of the North American colonial settlements ).
1620 – Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America on the Mayflower .
1625 – James I dies , succeeded by his son Charles .
1628 – William Harvey published De Motu Cordis ( Anatomical Account of the Motion of the Heart and Blood ), the first time the circulation of the blood was correctly described .
1642 – English civil war begins . 1642 – Birth of Isaac Newton . 1642 – Death of Galileo Galilei .
1642 – First European ( Abel Tasman ) to discover New Zealand .
1645 – Battle of Naseby – instrumental in the parliamentarian victory in the civil war .
1649 – Charles I is executed . Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army rule for 11 years .
1653 - Izaac Walton writes The Compleat Angler which includes references to Winchester and the River Itchen . ( Walton is buried in Winchester Cathedral .)
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