Sculpture

Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - back

Inscription

{To the right of a drawing/map showing the school buildings:}

Farewell parental scenes! A sad farewell!
To you my grateful heart still fondly clings,
Tho’ fluttering round on fancy’s burnish’d wings
Her tales of future joy hope loves to tell.
Adieu, adieu! Ye much-lov’d cloisters pale!
Ah! would those happy days return again,
When ‘neath your arches, Free from every stain,
I heard of guilt and wonder’d at the tale!

Dear haunts! Where oft my simple lays I sang,
Listening meanwhile the echoings of my feet,
Lingering I quit you with as great a pang
As when, erewhile, my weeping childhood, torn
By early sorrow from my native seat,
Mingled its tears with hers my widow’d parent lorn.

On Leaving School
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"On Quitting School" (sometimes "On Leaving School") is a sonnet by Coleridge, aged 18, dedicated to saying goodbye to Christ's Hospital and his childhood home at Ottery St Mary in Devon.

The drawing/map to the left of the text is based on the Agas map, c.1561.

Site: Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture (2 memorials)

EC1, Newgate Street

This sculpture marks the 350 years of Christ’s Hospital School in the City of London (1552-1902) but the year of installation, 2017, seems random. The School was originally close to this location.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - back

Subjects commemorated i

Christ's Hospital

Founded by Edward VI in the remains of Greyfriars Monastery for the education...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - back

Created by i

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poet and critic. Born and brought up in Ottery St Mary, Devon. Pupil at Chris...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - back

Also at this site i

Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - front

Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - front

The children are marching out of the background, become older and fully 3D at...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Limehouse basin model

Limehouse basin model

E14, Limehouse Dock quayside, Harbour Masters Office

This Harbour Masters Office has a rather nice 6-sided pagoda-like from. The model of the basin is on the mini-me brick pedestal. It doesn...

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Tower of London execution site

Tower of London execution site

EC3, Tower Green, Tower of London

Catling wrote the poem as well as creating the sculpture. Doesn't that cushion look lovely and comfy - just the place to lay a weary head...

10 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - front

Christ’s Hospital School - sculpture - front

EC1, Newgate Street

The children are marching out of the background, become older and fully 3D at the front. The younger kids, towards the end of the line, w...

4 subjects commemorated, 3 creators
St James's Church Garden opening

St James's Church Garden opening

SW1, Piccadilly

Looking at the cafe picture: - The war damage plaque is on the wall that you can just see on the left. - On the right you can see one o...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Aboliton of slavery - SE1

Aboliton of slavery - SE1

SE1, Potters Fields

We photographed this statue in September 2012 and it was gone by March 2014.  Presumably it was relocated somewhere but we don't know.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

World War 1

World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came along at which point it was renamed as World War One or the First World War. But the term was first used in print in 1920...

Event, Armed Forces, Tragedy

402 memorials
Archibald William Cockburn

Archibald William Cockburn

Archibald William Cockburn of Cockpen (of Scottish heritage), QC and judge. Treasurer of the Temple Church in 1969.  Married Jacqueline in May 1933 at St George's Hanover Square. They had no children.

Person, Friend / family

1 memorial
17 Bruton Street

17 Bruton Street

The London home of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore from 1920. The house from which their daughter married the Duke of York (the future King George VI) and the house to which the couple moved ju...

Building, Royalty

1 memorial
Robert Milligan

Robert Milligan

Merchant. Born in Dumfries. He grew up on his family's sugar plantation in Jamaica, and moved to London in 1779. He headed a group of powerful businessmen, who planned and built the West India Dock...

Person, Commerce, Race Issues, Caribbean Islands, Scotland

2 memorials
Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford

Actor. He first came to fame, playing Han Solo in the Star Wars films. He went on to appear as the eponymous archaeologist in the Indiana Jones films. Vice-chair of Conservation International, an o...

Person, Cinema, Seriously Famous, USA

2 memorials