A History of Musā (Part II)

The Memorial Buildings were formally opened on 16 June 1897.  Basil Champneys had been appointed as architect to the project in 1894.  The chosen site, abhorrent to some, even though it obscured the gymnasium (now QE II Theatre), was the garden in front of Warden Harris’s College Sickhouse.

Dr Fearon, who was Headmaster throughout the project, described the proposed purpose and contents thus:

They promise to be of immense value to the school.  They are intended to cultivate and develop various wholesome interests which lie outside the ordinary school curriculum.  These may be described as mainly three – love of natural history, love of art and architecture, love of archaeology, including especially the history of the college and city of Winchester.

That was from a letter to The Times in 1895.  Fearon made subsidiary appointments to ensure that suitable collections were procured and curated:

Henry Hardy (Coll, 1874-79; CoRo 1883-1921) was tasked with superintending the Wykehamical collection, which began with portraits of prominent Old Wykehamists, plans and pictures of the College and would be extended to include a complete collection of Long Rolls and Short Rolls.  The Old Wykehamist room was originally established on the ground floor of Musā, but the contents eventually formed the basis of the Wiccamica collection now housed in the room above Chantry.

Rev Arthur Bather (CoRo, 1894-1928) was given charge of the archaeological section.  He arranged for casts of classical statues and received gifts of Greek vases to form the basis of the collection.

Monty Rendall (CoRo, 1887-1911; HM, 1911-24) was responsible for the art collection.

Charles Griffith  (CoRo, 1859-1902) arranged for the Natural History collection.  He was aided by Rev George Hewett (CoRo, 1882-1916; HoDo G, 1896-1916) and Llewellyn Garbutt (CoRo, 1883-1918), who presided over the Photograhic collection.  

These collections grew over time and their development is recorded in The Wykehamist over the course of months and years.  Although largely dispersed beyond what we now call Musā, many of the collected items can still be seen:

Casts of classical sculptures remain in Musā or are in Treasury. 

The Greek vases are in Treasury.

The collection of Hampshire Birds is now in Science School, along with the fossil collection.

Wiccamica Room is less accessible but holds an ever-growing collection of Wykehamical memorabilia and can be found on the first floor above Fromond’s Chantry.

We will investigate some of these collections in future editions of the Trust e-Servant.  But in the next edition we will complete this brief history of Musā  by describing the four famous Wykehamists who are depicted on its façade overlooking Meads. 

The figures were sculpted by ‘Signor Lucchesi’ (Andrea Carlo Lucchesi) and comprise full-length statues of the Founder and Queen Victoria on the flanks, and between them, relief busts of:
Bishop Thomas Ken;
William Grocyn;
Lord Seaton (formerly John Colborne);
and Lord Selborne (formerly Roundell Palmer).

Finally, for those with an interest in historic finances, these brief receipt and expenditure accounts for the Memorial Buildings were published in The Wykehamist in December 1897: