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stand and watch and work out what might be improved . I like rugby ( sorry ). I like cricket . I like Gaelic hurling – which I believe may have some similarities with Winchester football . And that ’ s the sport to which I ’ m most looking forward .
7 . From the ‘ Rhodes Must Fall ’ movement to calls for triggerwarnings about potentially offensive views , free speech is under great scrutiny in our universities . How should we balance the need for robust debate with the responsibility to protect young minds ?
I feel rather strongly about this one . So does the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford , Louise Richardson , in conversation with her gratuitously offensive interviewer on the Today programme recently . Educational institutions are ‘ places where we should hear any legal speech , and we should teach our students how you confront any speech which you find objectionable .’
8 . Spencer Leeson once described Winchester as a school which ‘ should be a powerhouse radiating energy into all the rest ’. What role do you think we should be playing on the wider educational stage ?
I guess that role should be one of substance , of integrity , not persiflage ( as it perhaps can be elsewhere ). Winchester does – and should – have a certain humility , yet also a confidence sired out of experience . Dr Townsend expressed it very eloquently last year : ‘ The wonderful thing about Winchester is that it really understands what tradition is – not a static hanging on to the past , but a dynamic carrying the best of the past into a new vitality .’
9 . What do you do in any spare time ?
I like listening to music , and watching sport . I also like writing . That ’ s mostly been about Victorian literature , or about educational issues . A long-term
project is a book about Shakespeare ; I ’ m teaching VI Book 2 using the rough draft of the first part of a book about English poetry . At some stage I think I might like to write something about Winchester . ■
Adam Crick ( E , 71-75 and Co Ro , 89-92 , 93-98 & 00-01 ): ‘ You were a rare coat cut from a very limited silk …’
Laurence Wolff ( Co Ro , 82- ) writes :
To those reading this article , Adam Crick might be remembered as a pupil , a fellow Old Wykehamist , a don who taught them , or as a colleague . To his friends and acquaintances , he was a particularly distinctive person . His character is conveyed in the extract below from the address given by Richard Robinson ( E , 71- 76 ) at his funeral . With his bequest of watercolours , he has become a significant benefactor to the College . There are works by Francis Place , Francis Towne , John White Abbott , Thomas Rowlandson and Peter de Wint , among others , that amplify the already comprehensive collection of English watercolours held by the College . Adam also donated to the Fellows ’ Library a copy of the Book of Common Prayer ( Oxford , 1683 ) with a fine Restoration binding by a craftsman known as Queens ’ Binder A . In Common Time 2017 , most of the Crick bequest will be on display in the wonderful new Treasury ; simultaneously , there will be an exhibition of paintings in the Art School with the title In Memoriam APSC by his friend and contemporary Christopher Twigg ( K , 71- 75 ). On Saturday , 7th January , 2017 a poetry reading in Mob Lib from Bound in a Nutshell , the volume of Adam ’ s poetry published after his death , will follow the openings of both exhibitions . If you would like to attend this event , which will begin at 6.30pm in Art School , please contact wincollsoc @ wincoll . ac . uk . Copies of Bound in a Nutshell will be available that evening , but may also be ordered from Wells .
An extract from the funeral address :
‘ In these last days and weeks , indeed over these several months , all of us who knew Adam was dying have played and replayed in our minds the memories of our special times with him . Time with Adam was always special . He made it so . Indeed , CRICK , the very word , means special . For his 21st birthday I gave him the complete Oxford English Dictionary and I was delighted then to find , when I looked up his name , the reference , 1663 , to “ a merry Crick and boon companion …” And so you have been , to us all , a ‘ boon companion .’
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