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

Sir Bradley Wiggins - St Augustine’s Sport Centre

Sir Bradley Wiggins - St Augustine’s Sport Centre

NW6, Oxford Road, St Augustine’s Sport Centre

As a child Wiggins attended St Augustine's School. The Brent and Kilburn Times announced the unveiling of this "Sculpture of Sir Bradley ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Grenfell fire - sculpture

Grenfell fire - sculpture

W11, Lancaster Road, 240, Notting Hill Methodist church

These 3 memorials are all in the pleasantly traffic-free Kingsdown Close, at the front of the church. In relation to our photo, the cherr...

1 subject commemorated
Bombs 7/7/05 - St Pancras church sculpture

Bombs 7/7/05 - St Pancras church sculpture

NW1, Euston Road, Church garden

Seeing as how this face has only one eye, and it's closed, the quotation seems particularly ill-chosen.

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
St Olav's Church - Seafarers' memorial

St Olav's Church - Seafarers' memorial

SE16, St Olav's Square, St Olav's Church

To us this is a rather eerie-looking seafarer. A colleague informs us that the Norwegian inscription translates as 'In memory of our nava...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Nike Statue - Plaque 1

Nike Statue - Plaque 1

SE18, Number 1 Street, Main Guardhouse

{Below an image of the Olympic torch:} A gift from the people of ancient Olympia to the people of London. To commemorate the hosting of t...

1 subject commemorated