I spotted this forlorn glass of Pimms on my way to take Rachel to school this morning. She normally cycles but the weather forecast is for rain, turning heavy, turning torrential with lightning.... And she twists her dad's arm with remarkable ease. Anyway I threw Monty in the boot and decided we should get out and about early on in the day. I was quite surprised an hour later when the glass was still there and it gave me a great excuse to take one of the most photographed bridges in Cambridge - the Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College. It is often incorrectly ascribed to Isaac Newton but was in fact designed by William Etheridge and built in 1749. It has since been rebuilt twice (this one in 1905) and was never built without screws or pins as is regularly claimed. The red brick building on the right is the President's Lodge and is the oldest building backing on to the river, dating from 1460. Until the 1830s the college was called Queen's but it was then changed to Queens' to mark the involvement of two queens in the endowment - it's a pedants dream! They struggled for money for a long time as their endowments from Richard III were removed by Henry VII after the War of the Roses - it's always wise to back the right horse....
A good eye! I am trying to train myself to see shots like this! I'm sure the person who left the glass spent a long time there on the bridge pondering all that history! :)
Wouldn't just have looked the same with a can of beer somehow !! Lovely focus on that glass with the apple & straw & then the blur of the bridge in the back ground. Interesting history of the Mathematical Bridge...wonderful name there !! These girls know when to turn the charm to fathers !!!
I love how the mathematical bridge is arching over the forgotten glass. Ah, the memories this picture awakens - my daily ride to university. I know I sound like a broken record but I miss it!
