Every year at the holiday dinner, on a table below the tapestry in Strachan Hall,  we place the ‘splendid silver epergne’ that John Strachan bequeathed to Trinity College in his will. The epergne is moved from the exhibit case in the archives where it is on permanent display. Students from the Trinity College Historical Society provide the muscle (it’s very heavy) and we fill the epergne’s bowls with red and green grapes to complete the festive look.

Strachan was given the epergne in 1833, several years before the College existed, by a group of his former students at Cornwall. The names of the students, which included Sir John Beverley Robinson, are etched on the bottom. The group commissioned the piece in London, enlisting the help of Strachan’s friend, the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, to contribute ideas for the iconography of the epergne. Figures representing Religion, Poetry, Geography and History in the classical style form the column from which exuberant branches extend. The base displays explanatory texts on four sides. The silversmith was William Ker Reid and his marks can be found on the base and on each of the separate components.  

Strachan was deeply moved by the gift of the epergne (his reaction is recorded in The Upper Canada Courier for July 3, 1833). I think it’s reasonable to suppose that Strachan’s later commitment to the education of young people through the founding of King’s College and later Trinity, in part came from a sense of responsibility to his former students  to properly educate their descendants. Along with the gift of his library, the epergne forms a tangible link between the founder and the College. His will includes the stipulation that the epergne was “always to be used at the annual dinner…”, a simple request that we are delighted to fulfill.