W. Gibson
A narrative of the celebration of peace at Cambridge: comprising the illuminations, Marshal Blucher’s visit, and the peace festival on Parker’s Piece, Tuesday, July 12, 1814
Cambridge: W. Gibson, 1814
Cam.c.500.27(1), folding plate

Cambridge celebrated Napoleon’s abdication in 1814, and the prospect of peace, with great enthusiasm. A festival of lights on 14 April was followed by a more elaborate ‘General Illumination’ following the proclamation of peace on 27 June. ‘Thank God’, in very large letters, appeared that evening over the gate of Christ’s College. For a fortnight in June, sovereigns, ministers and generals of the Coalition nations visited England to celebrate peace in Europe. They endured a crowded schedule, which included a race meeting at Ascot, a Naval review at Portsmouth, a banquet in the City of London and a degree ceremony at Oxford. Cambridge’s omission from the programme was notable, and so when the Prussian Field Marshal Blücher found time to visit the city in July, it may have helped soothe wounded feelings. Blücher spent a busy day in Cambridge, receiving an honorary LL.D. degree, patiently shaking innumerable hands and making two emotional after-dinner speeches in German. The ‘great and good’ of the town remembered the ‘poorer classes’ of Cambridge, arranging a grand Peace Festival on Parker’s Piece, paid for by a public subscription which raised nearly £1,000. Some 6,000 people eventually sat down to a dinner of beef, plum pudding, tobacco and plenty of ale. No-one was left out: leftovers were sent to the ‘isolated and unfortunate characters’ in the county gaol. This plate shows the table plan for the dinner.