History -Chemical History of UCL

The Autoicon

I know that you would all like to sing it, but there really is not time. Let's look first at the last two verses.

Bentham was an eccentric:
"Then lying on his deathbed, Jeremiah made a will, said he, preserve my body with the utmost of your skill, and put me in the library, that folks may see me still, a hundred years from now...."

"so they sat him in a cupboard in the Science Libraree, they dressed him the clothes he wore that future folks might see, just what the beau ideal of an Englishman should be, a hundred years from now".

And of course, they did just that. Here is he as we now know him, sitting the South Cloisters, providing a model for future generations of students. At the centenary and sesquicentenary of the college, he was brought out to the College Committee meeting. He sat at one end of the table, the Provost at the other, and the minutes record 'Jeremiah Bentham, present but not voting'.

This page last modified 20 September, 2010