History -Chemical History of UCL

The College Song

Jeremy Bentham

(AIR: John Brown's Body)

In A.D. eighteen twenty-six, a hundred years ago,
Our London was a wilderness, as probably you know,
And where the Gardener's mansion stands the weeds were wont to grow
A hundred years ago.

Weeds were growing where the Coll. is,
Weeds were growing where the Coll. is,
Weeds were growing where the Coll. is,
A hundred years ago.

The Jeremiah Bentham (call him Jeremy for short)
Deliberated long and then decided that he ought
to found a little College where good learning might be taught,
A hundred years ago.

Thought he'd found a home of learning,
A hundred years ago.

Then in the weedy wilderness a noble structure grew,
The Architect, Bill Wilkins, and the artist Flaxman too
Combined to make the College what it is to me and you,
A hundred years ago.

Jeremiah built the College, A Hundred years ago.

Then, lying on his deathbed, Jeremiah made a will:
Said he "Preserve my body with the utmost of your skill,
And place me in the library that all may see me still,
A hundred years from now."

Though his life is long departed,
His body's with us still.

They set him in a cupboard in the Science Libraree:
They dressed him in the clothes he wore that future folk might see
Just what the beau ideal of an Englishman should be,
A hundred years from now.

Just to show us what we should be,
A hundred years from now.

[We hope to have a recording of this song, together with a special updated and entirely scurrilous version written specially for this lecture, available for download at a later date.]

This page last modified 20 September, 2010