24 May 2022: The Ramsay Centre recently helped organise a Cambridge get-together for our UK-based Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars, so they could catch up with one another and explore Cambridge University.
Eleven of our twenty inaugural scholars attended the gathering from May 13-14 at Peterhouse in Cambridge.
Ramsay Postgraduate Scholar Daniel McKay who is studying a PhD in History at Cambridge offered the following reflection on the gathering:
“Ramsay scholars from Oxford and London joined those in Cambridge for a convivial gathering on Friday 13 May at Peterhouse. After tea and cake, some of the scholars attended Evensong in the chapel at King’s College Chapel, where we heard ancient music sung by their famous choir. The scholars and our guest Professor Brendan Simms then came together in the Fellows Garden at Peterhouse for a welcome drink and to enjoy each other’s company in the warm spring air as the sun set. This was followed by a dinner in the panelled splendours of the Henry Cavendish Room which commenced after a reading of the college’s Latin graces.
Between the venison and the pudding, we became better acquainted with each other and our individual journeys over the past two terms. After dinner, port passed around, Professor Simms began an excellent discussion which drew on all our different disciplines. We retired to the Middle Combination Room to continue the discussions into the evening. The following day, roused by brunch in Peterhouse’s medieval hall, we ambled along the Cam through the sunlit meadows to Grantchester – recalling lines from Rupert Brooke’s poem ’The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.’
I only know that you may lie
Day long and watch the Cambridge sky,
And, flower-lulled in sleepy grass,
Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,
Until the centuries blend and blur
In Grantchester, in Grantchester. …
Reaching ‘The Orchard’ cafe underneath the fruit trees in our deck chairs, we remembered its former storied patrons like Virginia Woolf, Ludwig Wittengstein, and debated the correct way to apply jam and cream to scones. There was no resolution, though we all concurred that it had been a privilege to meet each other and hoped that future generations of Ramsay Scholars would continue a happy collegial tradition of convening together through the academic year.”
For more information on our Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarships visit www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098 / sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org
For more information on the Centre please visit our website: www.ramsaycentre.org