Hood of the Month
MusB, University of Cambridge
All hoods used by the University of Cambridge are of the same full shape [f1]. In the late nineteenth century, a change of status in music degrees prompted revisions to the scheme. It was the distinguished Professor of Music, Charles Villiers Stanford, who proposed that the MusB should wear a hood of the same colour as that for Doctors of Music, lined with lambs’ wool (in due course, fur replaced wool for all bachelors’ hoods). This was accepted on 10 June 1889, from which time may be traced the current magnificent garment of dark cherry satin, half lined and the cape bound with one inch of white fur. For once, Charles Franklyn’s immortal phrase may be confidently applied, since few would contest that this hood really is one of the most beautiful and dignified in the world.
The Archive of the Burgon Society is proud to hold Boris Ord’s MusB hood, an item that was later inherited by Simon Preston. However, as this item is now somewhat fragile, the photo here of a newer example shows the model in all its glory.
Andrew Plant, FBS
Photograph by Chris Williams, FBS, courtesy of the Burgon Society Archive.
For further information, see Nicholas Groves, Paul Coxon and John Horton, The Academic Robes of Graduates of the University of Cambridge from the end of the eighteenth century to the present day (TBS 13, pp. 74–100)