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Jeremy Bentham - a song recorded in 1967

(Sung to the tune of John Brown's Body)

Click here to hear the song

A recording of the above song has been sent to the Bentham Project by Professor A.G. Davies of the Department of Chemistry at UCL. He writes: 'The song was in the College Song Book. When I was a student many years ago, it was sometimes sung by students, but it seems to have gone out of fashion, though I gather that our chemistry students have added some verses of a chemical nature.

'This recording was made in 1967 when our Chemical and Physical Society arranged, through the British Council, an exchange scheme with the corresponding students' society at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. The British Council wanted some more "culture" inserted into the programme which we put forward, and they suggested a lecture on the history of the Chemistry Department. As a basis for the talk, I got three of my research students, and a visiting schoolmaster who could sing, to record the song. The man on the guitar, and who sings the solo chorus to the fourth verse, is John Kennedy, who is now Professor of Chemistry at Leeds.'

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.

Then 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, Jeremia 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.