Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
One onlooker called it a beautiful act of vandalism. Another guessed it was the work of a ``rogue intellectual.''
Somehow, a finely crafted red granite bench bearing a passage from Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel ``Orlando'' has appeared in a public park.
And no one - or next to no one - knows who put it there.
``Somebody who liked to think put this here,'' said Pat McElearney, who read the inscription aloud to her husband.
``I suspect a woman was behind this,'' said Pam Varley, who walks her dog through the park every day. ``It's a womanly quote, and it's a womanly author, and it's a womanly idea.''
She added: ``A rogue intellectual. There are plenty of those in Cambridge.''
Whoever was responsible, the city decided Wednesday that the monument can stay.
``With all the negative press that's out there, to see someone do something like this is a really positive gesture,'' said Mike Nicoloro, managing director of the Water Department, which owns the land.
Nicoloro said he had been contacted by a representative of the mysterious benefactor. The caller, a lawyer, declined to identify the givers or their motive.
The inscription chiseled atop the 4-foot surface of the bench seems to have been written for the place. It comes from of Chapter 5 of ``Orlando'':
``There are wild birds' feathers - the owls, the nightjars. I shall dream wild dreams. I should lie at peace here with only the sky above.''
Kay Hudgins, who visited the clearing amid the pine trees, said it proved her theory that somebody's ashes had been spread there. She called it a ``beautiful act of vandalism.''
Whoever was behind the caper had to haul the 600-pound monument down a steep embankment.
The stone and the inscription cost at least $2,000, according to a local monument supplier that was not involved.
``This is a masterpiece,'' said Anthony Ippolito, a Water Department supervisor. ``Somebody really took their time. It's a beautiful piece.''
by CNB