BEAUTIFUL BRITAIN--CAMBRIDGE

By Gordon Home

[Illustration: THE OLD GATEWAY OF KING'S COLLEGE

This is now the Entrance to the University Library. At the end of theshort street is part of the north side of King's College Chapel. ]

CONTENTS

PAGE CHAPTER

 3 I. SOME COMPARISONS 6 II. EARLY CAMBRIDGE15 III. THE GREATER COLLEGES35 IV. THE LESSER COLLEGES51 V. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, THE SENATE HOUSE, THE PITT PRESS, AND THE MUSEUMS57 VI. THE CHURCHES IN THE TOWN

64 INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE ILLUSTRATION

Frontispiece 1. THE OLD GATEWAY OF KING'S COLLEGE17 2. THE LIBRARY WINDOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE24 3. IN THE CHOIR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL33 4. THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF TRINITY COLLEGE40 5. THE GATE OF HONOUR, CAIUS COLLEGE49 6. THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE56 7. THE CIRCULAR NORMAN CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHREOn the cover 8. THE "BRIDGE OF SIGHS, " ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE

CHAPTER I

SOME COMPARISONS

". . . _and so at noon with Sir Thomas Allen, and Sir Edward Scott andLord Carlingford, to the Spanish Ambassador's, where I dined the firsttime. . . . And here was an Oxford scholar, in a Doctor of Laws'gowne. . . . And by and by he and I to talk; and the company very merryat my defending Cambridge against Oxford. _"--PEPYS' _Diary_ (May 5, 1669). 

In writing of Cambridge, comparison with the great sister universityseems almost inevitable, and, since it is so usual to find that Oxfordis regarded as pre-eminent on every count, we are tempted to makecertain claims for the slightly less ancient university. These claimsare an important matter if Cambridge is to hold its rightful positionin regard to its architecture, its setting, and its atmosphere. Beginning with the last, we do not hesitate to say that there is amore generally felt atmosphere of repose, such as the mind associateswith the best of our cathedral cities, in Cambridge than is to beenjoyed in the bigger and busier university town. This is in part dueto Oxford's situation on a great artery leading from the Metropolis tolarge centres of population in the west; while Cambridge, although itgrew up on a Roman road of some importance, is on the verge of thewide fenlands of East Anglia, and, being thus situated off thetrade-ways of England, has managed to preserve more of that genial andscholarly repose we would always wish to find in the centres oflearning, than has the other university. 

Then this atmosphere is little disturbed by the modern accretions tothe town. On the east side, it is true, there are new streets of dulland commonplace terraces, which one day an awakened England will wipeout; there are other elements of ugly sordidness, which the lack of aguiding and controlling authority, and the use of distressinglyhideous white bricks, has made possible, but it is quite conceivablethat a visitor to the town might spend a week of sight-seeing in theplace without being aware of these shortcomings. This fortunatecircumstance is due to the truly excellent planning of Cambridge. Itis not for a moment suggested that the modern growth of the place isideal, but what is new and unsightly is so placed that it does notinterfere with the old and beautiful. The real Cambridge is soeffectively girdled with greens and commons, and college groundsshaded with stately limes, elms, and chestnuts, that there are neverany jarring backgrounds to destroy the sense of aloofness from theugly and untidy elements of nineteenth-century individualism which areso often conspicuous at Oxford. 

Cambridge has also made better use of her river than has her sisteruniversity; she has taken it into her confidence, bridged it in adozen places, and built her colleges so that the waters mirror some ofher most beautiful buildings. Further than this, in the gloriouschapel Henry VI. Built for King's College, Cambridge possesses one ofthe three finest Perpendicular chapels in the country--a featureOxford cannot match, and in the church of the Holy Sepulchre Cambridgeboasts the earliest of the four round churches of the Order of theKnights Templars which survive at this day. 

But comparisons tend to become odious, and sufficient has been said tovindicate the exquisite charm that Cambridge so lavishly displays. 

CHAPTER II

EARLY CAMBRIDGE

Roman Cambridge was probably called Camboritum, but this, like themajority of Roman place names in England, fell into disuse, and theearliest definite reference to the town in post-Roman times gives thename as Grantacaestir. This occurs in Bede's great _EcclesiasticalHistory_, concluded in A. D. 731, and the incident alluded to inconnection with the Roman town throws a clear ray of light upon theancient site in those unsettled times. It tells how Sexburgh, theabbess of Ely, needing a more permanent coffin for the remains ofAEtheldryth, her predecessor in office, sent some of the brothers fromthe monastery to find such a coffin. Ely being without stone, andsurrounded by waterways and marshes, they took a vessel and came intime to an abandoned city, "which, in the language of the English, iscalled Grantacaestir; and presently, near the city walls, they found awhite marble coffin, most beautifully wrought, and neatly covered witha lid of the same sort of stone. " That this carved marble sarcophaguswas of Roman workmanship there seems no room to doubt, and ProfessorSkeat regards it as clear that this ruined town, with its walls andits Roman remains, was the same place as the Caer-grant mentioned bythe historian, Nennius. 

In course of time the Anglo-Saxon people of the district must haveovercome their prejudices against living in what had been a Romancity, and Grantacaestir arose out of the ruins of its formergreatness. In the ninth century a permanent bridge was built, and thetown began to be known as Grantabrycg, or, as the Anglo-SaxonChronicle gives it, Grantebrycge. Domesday toned this down toGrentebrige, and that was the name of Cambridge when a Norman castlestood beside the grass-grown mound which is all that remains to-day ofthe Saxon fortress. What caused the change from G to C is hard todiscover, but when King John was on the throne the name was writtenCantebrige, and the "m" put in its appearance in the earlier half ofthe fifteenth century, the "t" being discarded at the same period. Itseems that the name of the river was arrived at by the same process. Perhaps the oddest feature of the whole of these vicissitudes innomenclature is the similarity between the Roman Camboritum andCambridge, for the two names have, as has been shown, no connectionwhatsoever. 

A map of Cambridgeshire, compiled by the Rev. F. G. Walker, showing theRoman and British roads reveals instantly that the university town hasa Roman origin, for it stands at the junction of four roads, or ratherwhere Akeman Street crossed Via Devana, the great Roman way connectingHuntingdon and Colchester. Two or three miles to the south, however, the eye falls on the name of a village called Grantchester, and if wehad no archaeology to help us, we would leap to the conclusion thathere, and not at Cambridge, was the ancient site mentioned by theearlier chroniclers. And this is precisely what happened. Even recentwriters have fallen into the same old mistake in spite of thediscovery of Roman remains on the site of the real Roman town, andnotwithstanding the fact that the two roads mentioned intersect there. The trouble arose through the alterations in spelling in the name ofthe village of Granteceta, or, as it often appears in early writings, Gransete, but now that Professor Skeat has given us the results of hiscareful tracking of the name back to 1080, when it first appears inany record, we see plainly that this village has never had a past ofany importance, and that the original name means nothing more than"settlers by the Granta. " There is a Roman camp near this village, anda few other discoveries of that period have been made there, but suchfinds have been made in dozens of places near Cambridge. 

It is therefore an established fact that modern Cambridge has beensuccessively British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman, and the original town, situated on the north-western side of the river, has extended acrossthe water and filled the space bounded on three sides by the Cam. 

Being on the edge of the Fen Country, where the Conqueror found thetoughest opposition to his completed sovereignty in England, the patchof raised ground just outside modern Cambridge was a suitable spot forthe erection of a castle, and from here he conducted his operationsagainst the English, who held out under Hereward the Wake on the Isleof Ely. In the hurried operations preceding the taking of the "Camp ofRefuge" in 1071, there was probably only sufficient time to strengthenthe earthworks and to build stockades, but soon afterwards Williamerected a permanent castle of stone on this marsh frontier--a buildingFuller describes as a "stately structure anciently the ornament ofCambridge. " In her scholarly work on the town, Miss Tuker tells us howEdward III. Quarried the castle to build King's Hall; how Henry VI. Allowed more stone to be taken for King's College Chapel; and how Maryin 1557 completed the wiping out of the Norman fortress by granting toSir Robert Huddleston permission to carry away the remaining stone tobuild himself a house at Sawston! Wherever building materials arescarce such things have happened, even to the extent of utilizing thestones of stately ruins for road-making purposes. It thus comes aboutthat the artificial mound and the earthworks on the north side of itare as bare and grass-grown as any pre-historic fort which has not atany period known a permanent edifice. 

Owing to its fairs, and particularly to the famous Stourbridge Fair, an annual mart of very great if uncertain antiquity, held near thetown during September, Cambridge at an early date became a centre ofcommerce, and it had risen to be a fairly large town of someimportance before the Conquest. In the time of Ethelred a royal minthad been established there, and it appears to have recovered rapidlyafter its destruction by Robert Curthose in 1088, for it continued tobe a mint under the Plantagenets, and even as late as Henry VI. Moneywas coined in the town. 

A bridge, as already stated, was built at Cambridge in the ninthcentury, but in 870, and again in 1010, the Danes sacked the town, andit would seem that the bridge was destroyed, for early in the twelfthcentury we find a reference to the ferry being definitely fixed atCambridge, and that before that time it had been "a vagrant, "passengers crossing anywhere that seemed most convenient. This fixingof the ferry, and various favours bestowed by Henry I. , resulted in animmediate growth of prosperity, and the change was recognized bycertain Jews who took up their quarters in the town and were, it isinteresting to hear, of such "civil carriage" that they incurredlittle of the spite and hatred so universally prevalent against themin the Middle Ages. The trade guilds of Cambridge were founded beforethe Conquest, and, becoming in course of time possessed of wealth andinfluence, some of them were enabled to found a college. 

As England settled down under the Norman Kings, the great Abbey of Elywaxed stronger and wealthier, and in the wide Fen Country there alsogrew up the abbeys of Peterborough, Crowland, Thorney, and Ramsey--allunder the Benedictine rules. To the proximity of these greatmonasteries was due the beginning of the scholastic element inCambridge, and perhaps the immense popularity of Stourbridge Fair, which Defoe thought the greatest in Europe, may have helped to locatethe University there. Exactly when or how the first little centre oflearning was established in the town is still a matter of uncertainty, but there seems to have been some strong influence emanating from theContinent in the twelfth century which encouraged the idea ofestablishing monastic schools. Cambridge in quite early times began tobe sprinkled with small colonies of canons and friars, and in thesereligious hostels the young monks from the surrounding abbeys wereeducated. Mr. A. H. Thompson, in his _Cambridge and its Colleges_, suggests that the unhealthy dampness of the fens would have made itvery desirable that the less robust of the youths who were trainingfor the cloistered life in the abbeys of East Anglia should betransferred to the drier and healthier town, where the learning ofFrance was available among the many different religious Ordersrepresented there. 

In 1284 the first college was founded on an academic basis. This wasPeterhouse. Its founder was Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, who hadmade the experiment of grafting secular scholars among the canons ofSt. John's Hospital, afterwards the college. Finding it difficult toreconcile the difficulties which arose between secular and religious, he transferred his lay scholars, or Ely clerks, to two hostels at theopposite end of the town, and at his death left 300 marks to build ahall where they could meet and dine. After this beginning there wereno imitators until forty years had elapsed, but then colleges began tospring up rapidly. In 1324 Michael House was founded, and following itcame six more in quick succession: Clare in 1326, King's Hall in 1337, Pembroke in 1347, Gonville Hall in 1348, Trinity Hall in 1350, andCorpus Christi in 1352. These constitute the first period ofcollege-founding, separated from the succeeding by nearly a century. 

The second period began in 1441 with King's, and ended with St. John'sin 1509. After an interval of thirty-three years the third periodcommenced with Magdalene, and concluded with Sidney Sussex in 1595. Afourth group is composed of the half-dozen colleges belonging to lastcentury. 

CHAPTER III

THE GREATER COLLEGES

St. John's. --With its three successive courts and their beautifulgateways of mellowed red brick, St. John's is very reminiscent ofHampton Court. Both belong to the Tudor period, and both haveundergone restorations and have buildings of stone added in a muchlater and entirely different style. Across the river stands the fourthcourt linked with the earlier buildings by the exceedingly beautiful"Bridge of Sighs. "

To learn the story of the building of St. John's is a simple matter, for the first court we enter is the earliest, and those that succeedstand in chronological order, --eliminating, of course, Sir GilbertScott's chapel and the alterations of an obviously later period thanthe courts as a whole. 

To Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress of the college, or, moreaccurately, to her executor, adviser and confessor, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who carried out her wishes, we owe the firstcourt, with its stately gateway of red brick and stone. It was builtbetween 1511 and 1520 on the site of St. John's Hospital of BlackCanons, suppressed as early as 1509. 

[Illustration: THE LIBRARY WINDOW ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE FROM THE BRIDGEOF SIGHS. From this spot beautiful views are obtained up and down theriver. ]

The second court, also possessing a beautiful gate tower, was addedbetween 1595 and 1620, the expense being mainly borne by MaryCavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury, whose statue adorns the gateway. Filling the space between the second court and the river comes thethird, begun in 1623, when John Williams, then Lord Keeper and Bishopof Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York, gave money for erectingthe library whose bay window, projecting into the silent waters of theCam, takes a high place among the architectural treasures ofCambridge. If anyone carries a solitary date in his head after a visitto the University it is almost sure to be 1624, the year of thebuilding of this library, for the figures stand out boldly above theGothic window just mentioned. The remaining sides of the third courtwere built through the generosity of various benefactors, and thencame a long pause, for it was not until after the first quarter of thenineteenth century had elapsed that the college was extended to theother side of the river. This new court came into existence, togetherwith the delightful "Bridge of Sighs, " between the years 1826 and1831, when Thomas Rickman, an architect whose lectures and publishedtreatises had given him a wide reputation, was entrusted with thework. The new buildings were not an artistic success, in spite of theelaborate Gothic cloister, with its stupendous gateway and theimposing scale of the whole pile. Their deficiencies might be maskedor at least diminished if ivy were allowed to cover the unpleasingwall spaces, and perhaps if these lines are ever read by the properauthority such a simple and inexpensive but highly desirableimprovement will come to pass. 

The stranger approaching St. John's College for the first time mightbe easily pardoned for mistaking the chapel for a parish church, andthose familiar with the buildings cannot by any mental process feelthat the aggressive bulk of Sir Gilbert Scott's ill-conceived edificeis anything but a crude invasion. More than half a century has passedsince this great chapel replaced the Tudor building which hadunluckily come to be regarded as inadequate, but the ponderous EarlyDecorated tower is scarcely less of an intrusion than when its masonrystood forth in all its garish whiteness against the time-worn brick ofLady Margaret Beaufort's court. A Perpendicular tower would have addeda culminating and satisfying feature to the whole cluster of courts, and by this time would have been so toned down by the action ofweather that it would have fallen into place as naturally as the TudorGothic of the Houses of Parliament has done in relation to WestminsterAbbey. Like Truro Cathedral, and other modern buildings imitating theEarly English style, the interior is more successful than theexterior; the light, subdued and enriched by passing through thestained glass of the large west window (by Clayton and Bell) andothers of less merit, tones down the appearance of newness and givesto the masonry of 1869 a suggestion of the glamour of the Middle Ages. Fortunately, some of the stalls with their "miserere" seats werepreserved when the former chapel was taken down, and these, with anEarly English piscina, are now in the chancel of the modern building. The Tudor Gothic altar tomb of one of Lady Margaret's executors--HughAshton, Archdeacon of York--has also been preserved. 

At the same time as the chapel was rebuilt, Sir Gilbert Scott rebuiltparts of the first and second courts. He demolished the Master'sLodge, added two bays to the Hall in keeping with the other parts ofthe structure, and built a new staircase and lobby for the CombinationRoom, which is considered without a rival in Cambridge or Oxford. Itis a long panelled room occupying all the upper floor of the northside of the second court and with its richly ornamented plasterceiling, its long row of windows looking into the beautifulElizabethan court, its portraits of certain of the college'sdistinguished sons in solemn gold frames, it would be hard to findmore pleasing surroundings for the leisured discussion of subjectswhich the fellows find in keeping with their after-dinner port. Thereis an inner room at one end, and continuing in the same line andopening into it, so that a gallery of great length is formed, is thesplendid library, built nearly three centuries ago and unchanged inthe passing of all those years. 

The library of St. John's is rich in examples of early printing byCaxton and others whose books come under the heading of incunabula, but it would have been vastly richer in such early literature hadBishop Fisher's splendid collection--"the notablest library of booksin all England, two long galleries full"--been allowed to come wherethe good prelate had intended. When he was deprived, attainted, andfinally beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as supreme headof the Church, his library was confiscated, and what became of it I donot know. Over the high table in the hall, a long and rather narrowstructure with a dim light owing to its dark panelling, hangs aportrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress of the college, andon either side of this pale Tudor lady are paintings of ArchbishopWilliams, who built the library, and Sir Ralph Hare. The mostinteresting portraits are, however, in the master's lodge, rebuilt bySir Gilbert Scott on a new site north of the library. 

[Illustration]

It was through no sudden or isolated emotion that Lady Margaret wasled to found this college in 1509, the year of her death, for she hadfour years earlier re-established the languishing grammar college, called God's House, under the new name of Christ's College, and hadbeen a benefactress to Oxford as well. On the outer gateways of bothher colleges, therefore, we see the great antelopes of the Beaufortssupporting the arms of Lady Margaret, with her emblem, the daisy, forming a background. Sprinkled freely over the buildings, too, arethe Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis. 

St. John's Hospital, which stood on the site of the present college, had been founded in 1135, and was suppressed in 1509, when it hadshrunk to possessing two brethren only. The interest of this smallfoundation of Black Canons would have been small had it not beenattached to Ely, and through that connection made the basis of BishopBalsham's historic experiment already mentioned. 

The founding of St. John's by a lady of even such distinction as themother of Henry VII. Could not alone have placed the college in theposition it now occupies: such a consummation could only have beenbrought about by the capacity and learning of those to whom hassuccessively fallen the task of carrying out her wishes, from BishopFisher down to the present time. To mention all, or even the chief, ofthese rulers of the college is not possible here, and before sayingfarewell to the lovely old courts, we have only space to mention thatamong the famous students were Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Matthew Prior, the poet-statesman; WilliamWilberforce, and William Wordsworth. 

KING'S COLLEGE. --Henry VI. Was only twenty when, in 1441, he foundedKing's College. In that year the pious young Sovereign himself laidthe foundation stone, and five years later it is believed that heperformed the same ceremony in relation to the chapel, which grew toperfection so slowly that it was not until 1515 that the structure hadassumed its present stately form. 

It was Henry's plan to associate his college at Eton, which he foundedat the same time, with King's. The school he had established under theshadow of his palace at Windsor was to be the nursery for hisfoundation at Cambridge in the same fashion as William of Wykeham hadconnected Winchester and New College, Oxford. Henry's first plan wasfor a smaller college than the splendid foundation he afterwards beganto achieve with the endowments obtained from the recently-suppressedalien monasteries. Had the young King's reign been peaceful, there islittle doubt that a complete college carried out on such magnificentlines as the chapel would have come into being; but Henry becameinvolved in a disastrous civil war, and his ambitious plans for agreat quadrangle and cloister, three other courts, one on the oppositeside of the river connected with a covered bridge and an imposing gatetower as well, never came to fruition. Fortunately, Henry's successor, anxious to be called the founder of the college, subscribed towardsthe continuance of the chapel, but he also diverted (a mild expressionfor robbery) a large part of Henry's endowments. Richard III. , in hisbrief reign, found time to contribute £700 to the college, but it wasnot until the very end of the next reign that Henry VII. , in 1508, devoted the first of two sums of £5, 000 to the chapel, so that thework of finishing the building could go forward to its completion, which took place in 1515. 

At the present time the chapel is on the north side of the college, but when originally planned it stood on the south, for the singlecourt which was built is now incorporated in the University Library, and the existing buildings, all comparatively modern, stand insomewhat disjointed fashion to the south, and extend from King'sParade down to the river. Fellows' Building, the isolated blockrunning north and south between the chapel and this long perspectiveof bastard Gothic, was designed by Gibbs in the first quarter of theeighteenth century, and its severe lines, broken by an open archway inthe centre, are a remarkable contrast to the graceful detail, of thechapel. Framed by the great arch, there is a delicious peep of smoothlawn sloping slightly to the river, with a forest-like backgroundbeyond. 

In the other buildings of King's it is hard to find any interest, forthe crude Gothic of William Wilkins, even when we remember that hedesigned the National Gallery, St. George's Hospital, and otherlandmarks of London, is altogether depressing. Even the big hall, presided over by a portrait of Sir Robert Walpole, is unsatisfying. Itis the custom to scoff at the gateway and stone arcading Wilkinsafterwards threw across the fourth side of the grassy court of thecollege; but, although its crocketed finials are curious, and wewonder at the lack of resource which led to such a mass of unwarrantedornament, it is not aggressive, neither does it jar with the academicrepose of King's Parade. 

[Illustration: IN THE CHOIR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. This Chapel andthat of Henry VII at Westminster and St. George's at Windsor, are thefinest examples of the gorgeous fan tracery belonging to the lastphase of English gothic architecture. ]

Owing to the extreme uniformity of the exterior of the chapel the eyeseems to take in all there is to see in one sweeping vision, refusingsubconsciously to look individually at each of the twelve identicalbays, each with its vast window of regularly repeated design. Butthere are some things it would be a pity to pass over, for to do sowould be to fail to appreciate the profound skill of the mediaevalarchitects and craftsmen who could rear a marvellous stone roof uponwalls so largely composed of glass. In this building, like its onlytwo rivals in the world--St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle andHenry VII. 's Chapel at Westminster--the wall space between the windowshas shrunk to the absolute minimum; in fact, nothing is left beyondthe bare width required for the buttresses, and to build thosereinforcements with sufficient strength to take the thrust of avaulted stone roof must have required consummate capacity and skill. At Eton, where, however, the stone roof was never built, thebuttresses planned to carry it appear so enormous that the buildingseems to be all buttress, but here such an impression could never fora moment be gained, for the chapel filling each bay completely masksthe widest portion of the adjoining buttresses. The upper portions areso admirably proportioned that they taper up to a comparatively slightfinial with the most perfect gradations. 

Directly we enter the chapel our eyes are raised to look at the roofwhich necessitated that stately row of buttresses, but for a time itis hard to think of anything but the splendour of colour and detail inthis vast aisleless nave, and we think of what Henry's college mighthave been had the whole plan been carried out in keeping with thisperfect work. Wordsworth's familiar lines present themselves as morefitting than prose to describe this consummation of the pain andstruggle of generations of workers since the dawn of Gothic on Englishsoil:

 Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense, With ill-matched aims the architect who planned-- Albeit labouring for a scanty band Of white-robed Scholars only--this immense And glorious work of fine intelligence! Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more; So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, Where light and shade repose, where music dwells Lingering--and wandering on as loth to die; Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality. 

When the sunlight falls athwart the great windows the tracery and themoulded stonework on either side are painted with "the softchequerings" of rainbow hues, and the magnificent glass shows at itsbest all its marvellously fine detail, as well as the beauty of itscolour. The whole range of twenty-six windows having been executedunder two contracts, dated 1516 and 1526, there was opportunity forcarrying out a great subject scheme, and thus it was found possible toillustrate practically the whole Gospel story, culminating in theCrucifixion in the east window, and continuing into apostolic timesuntil the death of the Virgin Mary. At the west end is the one modernwindow. It represents the Last Judgement. It is safe to say that oftheir period this glorious set of windows has no real rival, and it ishardly possible to do them any justice if the visitor has become alittle jaded with sight-seeing. In one of the windows there is asplendidly drawn three-masted ship of the period (Henry VIII. 'sreign), high in the bow and stern, with her long-boat in the wateramidships, and every detail of the rigging so clearly shown that theartist must have drawn it from a vessel in the Low Countries or someEnglish port. It is one of the best representations of a ship of theperiod extant. This is merely an indication of the vividarchaeological interest of the glass, apart from its beauty in thewonderful setting of fan vaulting and tall, gracefully moulded shafts. 

The splendid oaken screen across the choir, dividing the chapel intoalmost equal portions, was put up in 1536, at the same time as nearlythe whole of the stalls. It is rather startling to see the monogram ofHenry VIII. And Anne Boleyn, entwined with true lovers' knots, on thiswonderful piece of Renaissance woodwork, for in 1536, the date of thescreen, Anne, charged with unfaithfulness, went to the scaffold. Howwas it, we wonder, that these initials were never removed? The screenalso reminds us of the changes in architecture and religion which hadswept over England between the laying of the foundation stone and thecompletion of the internal fittings, for, not only had the Gothicorder come to its greatest perfection in this building, and then itswhole traditions been abandoned and a reversion to classic forms takenplace, but the very religion for which the chapel had been built hadbeen swept away by the Reformation. 

The Tudor rose and portcullis frequently repeated within and withoutthe chapel constantly remind us of the important part Henry VII. Played in the creation of one of the chiefest flowers of the Gothicorder and the architectural triumph of Cambridge. 

TRINITY COLLEGE. --Oxford does not possess so large a foundation asTrinity College, and the spaciousness of the great court impresses thestranger as something altogether exceptional in collegiate buildings, but, like the British Constitution, this largest of the colleges onlyassumed its present appearance after many changes, including thedisruptive one brought about by Henry VIII. In that masterful mannerof his the destroyer of monasticism, having determined to establish anew college in Cambridge, dissolved not only King's Hall and MichaelHouse, two of the earliest foundations, but seven small universityhostels as well. The two old colleges were obliged to surrender theircharters as well as their buildings; the lane separating them wasclosed, and then, with considerable revenues obtained from suppressedmonasteries, Henry proceeded to found his great college dedicated tothe Trinity. 

There is something in the broad and spacious atmosphere of the GreatCourt suggestive of the change from the narrow and cramped thought ofpre-Reformation times to the age when a healthy expansion of ideas wascoming like a fresh breeze upon the mists which had obscured men'svisions. But even as the Reformation did not at once sweep away alltraces of monasticism, so Henry's new college retained for aconsiderable time certain of the buildings of the two old foundationswhich were afterwards demolished or rebuilt to fit in with the schemeof a great open court. Thus it was not until the mastership of ThomasNevile that King Edward's gate tower was reconstructed in its presentposition west of the chapel. On this gate, beneath the somewhatdisfiguring clock, is the statue of Edward III. , regarded as a work ofthe period of Edward IV. 

Shortly before Henry made such drastic changes, King's Hall had beenenlarged and had built itself a fine gateway of red brick with stonedressings, and this was made the chief entrance to the college. Theupper part and the statue of Henry VIII. On the outer face were addedby Nevile between 1593 and 1615, but otherwise, the gateway is nearlya whole century earlier. 

It is interesting to read the founder's words in regard to the aims ofhis new college, for in them we seem to feel his wish to establish aninstitution capable in some measure of filling the gap caused by thesuppression of so many homes of learning in England. Trinity was to beestablished for "the development and perpetuation of religion" and for"the cultivation of wholesome study in all departments of learning, knowledge of languages, the education of youth in piety, virtue, self-restraint and knowledge; charity towards the poor, and relief ofthe afflicted and distressed. "

To the right on entering the great gateway is the chapel, a late Tudorbuilding begun by Queen Mary and finished by her sister Elizabethabout the year 1567. The exterior is quite mediaeval, and all theinternal woodwork, including the great _baldachino_ of gilded oak, thestalls and the organ screen dividing the chapel into two, dates fromthe beginning of the eighteenth century. In the ante-chapel the memoryof some of the college's most distinguished sons is perpetuated inwhite marble. Among them we see Macaulay and Newton, whose rooms werebetween the great gate and the chapel, Tennyson, Whewell--the masterwho built the courts bearing his name, was active in revising thecollege statutes, and died in 1866--Newton, Bacon, Wordsworth andothers. 

On the west side of the court, beginning at the northern end, we findourselves in front of the Lodge, which is the residence of the Masterof the College. The public are unable to see the fine interior withits beautiful dining- and drawing-rooms and the interestingcollection of college portraits hanging there, but they can see thefamous oriel window built in 1843 with a contribution of £1, 000 fromAlexander Beresford-Hope. This sum, however, even with £250 fromWhewell, who had just been elected to the mastership, did not coverthe cost, and the fellows had to make up the deficit. It was suggestedthat Whewell might have contributed more had not his wife dissuadedhim, and a fellow wrote a parody of "The House that Jack Built" whichculminated in this verse:

 This is the architect who is rather a muff, Who bamboozled those seniors that cut up so rough, When they saw the inscription, or rather the puff, Placed by the master so rude and so gruff, Who married the maid so Tory and tough, And lived in the house that Hope built. 

The Latin inscription, omitting any reference to the part the fellowstook in building the oriel, may still be read on the window. 

In the centre of this side of the court is a doorway approached by aflight of steps, and, from the passage to which this leads, we enterthe Hall. It was built in the first decade of the seventeenth century, and the screen over the entrance with the musicians' gallery behindbelongs to that period. 

[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF TRINITY COLLEGE. Trinity wasexpanded by Henry III from the "great college" built by Edward III. The gateway dates from about 1535. ]

Unfortunately, the panelling along the sides has replaced the oldwoodwork in recent times. This beautiful refectory resembles in manyways the Middle Temple Hall in London. The measurements are similar, it has bay windows projecting at either end of the high table, aminstrels' gallery at the opposite end, and well into the last centurywas heated by a great charcoal brazier in the centre. The fumes foundtheir way into every corner of the hall before reaching their outletin the lantern. Among the numerous portraits on the walls there areseveral of famous men. Among them we find Dryden, Vaughan, Thompson(by Herkomer), the Duke of Gloucester (by Sir Joshua Reynolds), Coke(the great lawyer), Thackeray, Tennyson (by G. F. Watts), Cowley andBentley. On the other side of the entrance passage are the kitchenswith the combination rooms above, where more notable portraits hang. The remainder of the court is composed of living-rooms broken by theQueen's Gate, a fine tower built in 1597 facing King Edward's Gate. Ithas a statue of Elizabeth in a niche and the arms of Nevile andArchbishop Whitgift. 

Nevile's Court is approached by the passage giving entrance to thehall. The eastern half was built when Nevile was master between 1593and 1615, and the library designed by Sir Christopher Wren occupiesthe river frontage. To the casual observer this building is acomparatively commonplace one, built in two stories, but although itallows space for the arcaded cloister to go beneath it, the libraryabove consists of one floor and the interior does not in the leastfollow the external lines. On great occasions Nevile's Court is turnedinto a most attractive semi-open-air ball or reception room. Onememorable occasion was when the late King Edward, shortly after hismarriage, was entertained with his beautiful young bride at a ballgiven at his old college. 

Passing out of the court to the lovely riverside lawns, shaded by tallelms and chestnuts, we experience the ever-fresh thrill of theCambridge "Backs, " and, crossing Trinity Bridge, walk down the statelyavenue leading away from the river with glimpses of the colleges seenthrough the trees so full of suggestive beauty as to belong almost toa city of dreams. 

There are other courts belonging to Trinity, including two gloomy onesof recent times on the opposite side of Trinity Street, but there is, alas! no space left to tell of their many associations. 

CHAPTER IV

THE LESSER COLLEGES

PETERHOUSE. --Taking the smaller colleges in the order of theirfounding, we come first of all to Peterhouse, already mentioned morethan once in these pages on account of its antiquity, so that it isonly necessary to recall the fact that Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded this the first regular college in 1284. Of the originalbuildings of the little hostel nothing remains, and the quadrangle wasnot commenced until 1424, but the tragedy which befell the collegetook place in the second half of the eighteenth century, when JamesEssex, who built the dreary west front of Emmanuel, was turned loosein the court. His hand was fortunately stayed before he had touchedthe garden side of the southern wing, and the picturesque range offifteenth-century buildings, including the hall and combination room, remains one of the most pleasing survivals of mediaeval architecturein Cambridge. 

Dr. Andrew Perne, also known as "Old Andrew Turncoat, " and other namesrevealing his willingness to fall in with the prevailing religiousideas of the hour, was made Master of Peterhouse in 1554, andsubsequently he became Vice-Chancellor of the University. He added tothe library the extension which now overlooks Trumpington Street, andto him the town is largely indebted for those little runnels ofsparkling water to be seen flowing along by the curbstones of some ofthe streets. The chapel was added in 1632 by Bishop Matthew Wren inthe Italian Gothic style then prevalent, and its dark panelledinterior is chiefly noted for its Flemish east window. The glass wastaken out and hidden in the Commonwealth period, and replaced when thewave of Puritanism had spent itself. All the other windows are laterwork by Professor Aimmuller of Munich. Before this chapel was builtthe little parish church of St. Peter, which stood on the site of thepresent St. Mary the Less, supplied the students with all they neededin this direction. 

CLARE. --Michael House, the second college, was, as we have seen, sweptaway to make room for Trinity, so that the second in order ofantiquity is Clare College, whose classic facade of great regularity, with the graceful little stone bridge spanning the river, is one ofthe most familiar features of the "Backs. " The actual date of thefounding of the college by Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of Gilbert deClare, was 1342, and the court, then built in the prevalent Decoratedstyle, continued in use until 1525, when it was so badly damaged byfire that a new building was decided upon, but the work was postponeduntil 1635, and was only finished in the second year of theRestoration. Although no shred of evidence exists as to the architect, tradition points to Inigo Jones, whose death took place, however, in1652. The bridge is coeval with the earliest side of the court, havingbeen finished in 1640. In the hall, marred by great sheets ofplate-glass in the windows, there are portraits of Hugh Latimer, Thomas Cecil (Earl of Exeter), Elizabeth de Clare (foundress), andother notable men. 

PEMBROKE. --Like Clare, Pembroke College was founded by a woman. Shewas Marie de St. Paul, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, and on hermother's side was a great-granddaughter of Henry III. She was also thewidow of Aymer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke, whose splendid tomb is aconspicuous feature of the Sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. 

Instead of the usual modest beginning with one or two existing hostelsadapted for the purposes of a purely academic society, the foundresscleared away the hostels on the site nearly opposite historicPeterhouse, and began a regular quadrangle, the first of thenon-religious type Cambridge had known. An existing hostel formed oneside, but the others were all erected for the special purpose of thecollege. A hall and kitchen were built to the east, and on the streetside opposite was a gateway placed between students' rooms. Marie deSt. Paul also received permission from two successive Avignonese Popesto build a chapel with a bell tower at the north-west corner of thequadrangle, and to some extent these exist to-day, incorporated in thereference library and an adjoining lecture-room. Of the otherbuildings to be seen at the present time the oldest is the Ivy Court, dating from 1633 to 1659. Since then architect has succeededarchitect, from Sir Christopher Wren, who built a new chapel in 1667, to Mr. G. G. Scott, the designer of the most easterly buildings in thestyle of the French Renaissance. Between these comes the street frontby Waterhouse, for whose unpleasing façade no one seems to have a goodword. There has indeed been such frequent rebuilding at Pembroke thatthe glamour of association has been to a great extent swept away. Thisis doubly sad in view of the long list of distinguished namesassociated with the foundation. Among them are found Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, who was Master of Pembroke; Foxe, the great Bishopof Winchester and patron of learning; Ridley; Grindal, afterwardsArchbishop of Canterbury; Matthew Hutton and Whitgift. Beside thesemasters Edmund Spenser, the poet Gray, and William Pitt are names ofwhich Pembroke will always be proud. 

CAIUS. --In the year following the founding of Pembroke Edmund deGonville added another society to those already established. This wasin 1348, but three years later the good man died and left the carryingon of his college to William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, who had justfounded Trinity Hall. He found it convenient to transfer Gonville'sfoundation to a site opposite his own college, and from this timeuntil the famous Dr. Caius (Kayes or Keyes) reformed it in 1557, thecollege was known as Gonville Hall. 

[Illustration: THE GATE OF HONOUR CAIUS COLLEGE. On the left is theSenate House, in the centre the East End of King's College Chapel, andon the right the University Library. ]

The buildings now comprise three courts, the largest called TreeCourt, being to the east, and the two smaller called Gonville andCaius respectively, to the west side, separated from Trinity Hall by anarrow lane. Tree Court had been partly built in Jacobean times by Dr. Perse, whose monument can be seen in the chapel; but in 1867 Mr. Waterhouse was given the task of rebuilding the greater part of thequadrangle. He decided on the style of the French Renaissance, andstruck the most stridently discordant note in the whole of thearchitecture of the colleges. The tall-turreted frontage suggestsnothing so much as the municipal offices of a flourishing borough. Thepresent hall, built by Salvin in 1854, was decorated and repanelled byEdward Warren in 1909. Two of the three curiously named gateways builtby Dr. Caius still survive, and one of them, the Gate of Honour, opening on to Senate House Passage, is one of the most delightfulthings in Cambridge. Dr. Caius had been a Fellow of Gonville Hall, and, having taken up medicine, continued his studies at the Universityof Padua; and after considerable European travel practised in Englandwith such success that he was appointed Physician to the Court ofEdward VI. Philip and Mary showed him great favour, and his reputationgrew owing to his success in treating the sweating sickness. Havingacquired much wealth, he decided to refound his old college, and theItalian Gothic of the two gateways is evidence of his delight in thestyle with which he had become familiar at Padua and elsewhere. Hebuilt the two wings of the Caius Court, leaving the Court open towardsthe south. The idea of his three gates, beginning with the simple Gateof Humility, leading to the Gate of Virtue, and so to that of Honour, is very fitting, for such sermons in stones could scarcely find abetter place than in a university. Caius has many famous medical men, treasuring the memory of Harvey, who discovered the circulation of theblood, and of Dr. Butts, who was Henry VIII. 's physician. 

TRINITY HALL. --As already mentioned, Trinity Hall was founded twoyears after Gonville made his modest foundation. It is specialized inrelation to law as its neighbour is to medicine. Althougharchitecturally of less account, its modern work is free from anythingobtrusively out of keeping with academic tradition. Salvin'suninspired eastern side of the court containing the entrance was builtafter a fire in 1852, and is typical of his harsh and unsympatheticwork. Behind the Georgian front of the north side of this court, thereis a good deal of the fabric of the Tudor buildings, and some of thelecture-rooms, with their oak panelling and big chimneys, are mostpicturesque. 

On the west side is the hall, dating from 1743, and the moderncombination room, containing a curious old semi-circular table, with acounter-balance railway for passing the wine from one corner to theother. The chapel is on the south side, and is a few years earlierthan the hall. 

CORPUS CHRISTI. --Within two years from the founding of Trinity HallCorpus Christi came into being, the gild of St. Benedict's Church, inconjunction with that of St. Mary the Great, having obtained a charterfor this purpose from Edward III. In 1352, Henry Duke of Lancaster, the King's cousin, being alderman at that time. 

This was the last of the colleges founded in the first period ofcollege-building, and it has managed to preserve under the shadow ofthe Saxon tower of the parish church, which was for long the collegechapel, one of the oldest and most attractive courts in Cambridge. Several of the windows and doors have been altered in later times, butotherwise three sides of the court are completely mediaeval. Havingretained this fine relic, the college seems to have been content tolet all the rest go, when, in 1823, Wilkins, whose bad Gothic we haveseen at King's College, was allowed to rebuild the great court, including the chapel and hall. Sir Nicholas Bacon and Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, are two of the most famous names associatedwith Corpus Christi. Parker left his old college a splendid collectionof manuscripts, which are preserved in the library. This college has astrong ecclesiastical flavour, and it is therefore fitting that itshould possess such a remarkable document as the original draft of theThirty-nine Articles, which is among the treasured manuscripts. 

QUEENS'. --After the founding of Corpus there came an interval ofnearly a century before the eight colleges then existing were addedto. Henry VI. Founded King's in 1441, and seven years later his youngQueen Margaret of Anjou, who was only eighteen, was induced by AndrewDocket to take over his very modest beginning in the way of a college. It was refounded under the name of Queen's College, having in the twoprevious years of its existence been dedicated to St. Bernard. As inthe case of King's, the progress of Margaret's college was handicappedby the Wars of the Roses, but fortunately Edward IV. 's Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, espoused the cause of Margaret's college whenDocket appealed to her for help. 

Above all other memories this college glories in its associations withErasmus, who was probably advised to go there by Bishop Fisher. Thereare certain of his letters extant which he dates from Queens', and itis interesting to find that he wrote in a querulous fashion of the badwine and beer he had to drink when his friend Ammonius failed to sendhim his usual cask of the best Greek wine. He also complained of beingbeset by thieves, and being shut up because of plague, but it need notbe thought from this that Cambridge was much worse than other places. 

Of all the colleges in the University Queens' belongs most completelyto other days. Its picturesque red brick entrance tower is the best ofthis type of gateway, which is such a distinctive feature ofCambridge, and the first court is similar to St. John's, with whichBishop Fisher was so closely connected as Lady Margaret Beaufort'sexecutor. In the inner court, whose west front makes a charmingpicture from the river, is the President's Lodge occupying the northside. Its oriel windows and rough cast walls of quite jovial contoursoverhanging the dark cloisters beneath strike a different note toanything else in Cambridge. Restoration has altered the appearance ofthe hall since its early days, but it is an interesting building, withsome notable portraits and good stained glass. The court, named afterErasmus, at the south-west angle of the college was, it is much to beregretted, rebuilt by Essex in the latter part of the eighteenthcentury; but for this the view of the river front from the curiouslyconstructed footbridge would have been far finer than it is. Like thesundial in the first court, this bridge, leading to soft meadowsbeneath the shade of great trees, is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. 

ST. CATHERINE'S. --This college was founded in 1473 by Robert Woodlark, Chancellor of the University, and dedicated to "the glorious VirginMartyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria. " Undergraduate slang, alas!reduces all this to "Cat's. " It was originally called St. Catherine'sHall, and is one of the smallest of the colleges. Although notclaiming the strong ecclesiastical flavour of Corpus, it has educatedquite a formidable array of bishops. From Trumpington Street thebuildings have the appearance of a pleasant manor-house of Queen Anneor early Georgian days, and, with the exception of the wing at thenorth-west, the whole of the three-sided court dates between 1680 and1755. Both chapel and hall are included in this period. 

JESUS. --Standing so completely apart from the closely clusterednucleus, Jesus College might be regarded as a modern foundationranking with Downing or Selwyn by the hurried visitor who had failedto consult his guide-book and had not previous information to aid him. It was actually founded as long ago as 1497, and the buildings includethe church and other parts of the Benedictine nunnery of the Virginand St. Rhadegund. 

Bishop Alcock, of Ely, was the founder of the college, and his badge, composed of three cocks' heads, is frequently displayed on thebuildings. The entrance gate, dating from the end of the fifteenthcentury, with stepped parapets, is the work of the founder, and is oneof the best features of the college. Passing through this Tudor arch, we enter the outer court, dating from the reign of Charles I. , butfinished in Georgian times. From this the inner court is entered, andhere we are in the nuns' cloister, with their church, now the collegechapel, to the south, and three beautiful Early English arches, whichprobably formed the entrance to the chapter-house, noticeable on theeast. In this court are the hall, the lodge, and the library, but themost interesting of all the buildings is the chapel. It is mainly theEarly English church of the nunnery curtailed and altered by BishopAlcock, who put in Perpendicular windows and removed aides without athought of the denunciations he has since incurred. In many of thewindows the glass is by Morris and Burne-Jones, and the light thatpasses through them gives a rich and solemn dignity to the interior. 

CHRIST'S. --Perhaps the most impressive feature of Christ's College isthe entrance gate facing the busy shopping street called Petty Cury. The imposing heraldic display reminds us at once of Lady MargaretBeaufort, who, in 1505, refounded God's House, the hostel which hadpreviously stood here. Although restored, the chapel is practically ofthe same period as the gateway, and it and the hall have bothinteresting interiors. From the court beyond, overlooked on one sideby the fine classic building of 1642 attributed to Inigo Jones, entrance is gained to the beautiful fellows' garden, where themulberry-tree associated with the memory of Milton may still be seen. 

[Illustration: THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE. The Large stainedglass window of the Hall is seen on the right, and beyond that thewindow of the Combination Room. The Dormer window of Harvard's room isseen on the extreme left. ]

MAGDALENE. --This college is the only old one on the outer side of theriver. It stands on the more historic part of Cambridge; but althoughan abbey hostel was here in Henry VI. 's time, it was not until 1542, after the suppression of Crowland Abbey, to which the propertybelonged, that Magdalene was founded by Thomas, Baron Audley ofWalden. In the first court of ivy-grown red brick is the ratheruninteresting chapel, and on the side facing the entrance the hallstands between the two courts. It has some interesting portraits, including one of Samuel Pepys, and a good double staircase leading tothe combination room, but more notable than anything else is thebeautiful Renaissance building in the inner court, wherein ispreserved the library of books Pepys presented to his old college. Inthe actual glass-covered bookcases in which he kept them, and in thevery order, according to size, that Pepys himself adopted, we may seethe very interesting collection of books he acquired. Here, too, isthe famous Diary, in folio volumes, of neatly written shorthand, andother intensely interesting possessions of the immortal diarist. 

EMMANUEL. --The college stands on the site of a Dominican friary, butSir Walter Mildmay, the founder, or his executors, being imbued withstrong Puritanism, delighted in sweeping away the monastic buildingsthey found still standing. Ralph Symons was the first architect, butall his excellent Elizabethan work has vanished, the oldest portion ofthe college only dating back to 1633. From that time up to the end ofthe eighteenth century the rest of the structures were reconstructedin the successive styles of classic revival. Wren began the work, butunluckily it was left to Essex to complete it, and he is responsiblefor the dreary hall occupying the site of the old chapel. 

SIDNEY SUSSEX. --At the foot of the list of post-Reformation collegescomes Sidney Sussex, founded, in 1589, by Frances Lady Sussex, daughter of Sir William Sidney, and widow of the second Earl ofSussex. During the mania for rebuilding, all the Elizabethan work ofRalph Symons was replaced by Essex, and in the nineteenth century thenotorious Wyatville, whose Georgian Gothic removed all the glamourfrom Windsor Castle, finished the work. 

DOWNING. --The remaining colleges belong to the period we may callrecent. Downing, the first of these, was not a going concern until1821, although Sir George Downing, the founder, made the will by whichhis property was eventually devoted to this purpose as early as theyear 1717. 

RIDLEY HALL came into being in 1879, and is an adjunct to the othercolleges for those who have already graduated and have decided toenter the Church. 

SELWYN COLLEGE, founded about the same time, is named after the greatBishop Selwyn, who died in 1877. The college aims at the provision, ona hostel basis, of a University education on a less expensive scalethan the older colleges. 

Of the two women's colleges, Girton was founded first. This was in1869, and the site chosen was as far away as Hitchen, but four yearslater, gaining confidence, the college was moved to Girton, a milenorth-west of the town, on the Roman Via Devana. Newnham arrived onthe scene soon afterwards, and, considering proximity to theUniversity town no disadvantage, the second women's college wasplanted between Ridley and Selwyn, with Miss Clough as the firstprincipal. 

CHAPTER V

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, THE SENATE HOUSE, THE PITT PRESS, AND THEMUSEUMS

In the early days when the University of Cambridge was still in anembryonic state, the various newly formed communities of academiclearning had no corporate centre whatever. "The chancellor andmasters" are first mentioned in a rescript of Bishop Balsham dated1276, eight years before he founded Peterhouse, the first college, andsix years before this Henry III. Had addressed a letter to "themasters and scholars of Cambridge University, " so that between thesetwo dates it would appear that the chancellor really became the primeacademic functionary. But it was not until well into the fourteenthcentury that any University buildings made their appearance. 

The "schools quadrangle" was begun when Robert Thorpe, knight, waschancellor (1347-64), and during the following century various schoolsfor lecturing and discussions on learned matters were built round thecourt, now entirely devoted to the library. Unfortunately, themedieval character of these buildings has been masked by a classicfaçade on the south, built in 1754, when it was thought necessary tomake the library similar in style to the newly built Senate House. Thus without any further excuse the fine Perpendicular frontage byThomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln and fellow of King's, wasdemolished to make way for what can only be called a most unhappysubstitute. George I. Was really the cause of this change, for in 1715he presented Cambridge with Dr. John Moore's extensive library, andnot having the space to accommodate the little Hanoverian's gift, theauthorities decided to add the old Senate House, which occupied thenorth side of the quadrangle, to the library, and to build a newSenate House; and the building then erected, designed by Mr. , afterwards Sir James, Burrough, is still in use. It is awell-proportioned and reposeful piece of work, although the averageundergraduate probably has mixed feelings when he gazes at the doubleline of big windows between composite pillasters supporting the rathersevere cornice. For in this building, in addition to the"congregations, " or meetings, of the Senate consisting of resident andcertain non-resident masters of art, the examinations for degrees wereformerly held. Here on the appointed days, early in the year, themuch-crammed undergraduates passed six hours of feverish writing, andhere, ten days later, in the midst of a scene of long-establisheddisorder, their friends heard the results announced. Immediately thename of the Senior Wrangler was given out there was a pandemonium ofcheering, shouting, yelling, and cap-throwing, and the same sort ofthing was repeated until the list of wranglers was finished. Followingthis, proctors threw down from the oaken galleries printed lists ofthe other results, and a wild struggle at once took place in whichcaps and gowns were severely handled, and for a time the marble floorwas covered with a fighting mob of students all clutching at thefluttering papers, while the marble features of the two first Georges, William Pitt, and the third Duke of Somerset remained placidlyindifferent. 

Although there is no space here to describe the many early books thelibrary contains, it is impossible to omit to mention that among thenotable manuscripts exhibited in the galleries is the famous _CodexBezae_ presented to the University by Theodore Beza, who rescued it, in 1562, when the monastery at Lyons, in which it was preserved, wasbeing destroyed. This manuscript is in uncial letters on vellum inGreek and Latin, and includes the four Gospels and the Acts. 

It was a pardonable mistake for the old-time "freshman" to think thePitt Press in Trumpington Street was a church, but no one does thisnow, because the gate tower, built about 1832, when the Gothic revivalwas sweeping the country, is now known as "the Freshman's Church. " ThePitt Press was established with a part of the fund raised tocommemorate William Pitt, who was educated at Pembroke College nearlyopposite. 

The University Press publishes many books, and gives special attentionto books the publication of which tends to the advancement oflearning. The two Universities and the King's printer have still amonopoly in printing the Bible and Book of Common Prayer. 

The magnificent museum founded by Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, is alittle farther down Trumpington Street. It was finished in 1847 byCockerell, who added the unhappy north side to the University Library, but the original architect was Basevi, who was prevented fromfinishing the building he had begun by his untimely death throughfalling from one of the towers of Ely Cathedral. The magnificence ofthe great portico, with its ceiling of encrusted ornament, is vastlyimpressive, but the marble staircase in the entrance lobby, with itsrich crimson reds, is rather overpowering in conjunction with thearchaeological exhibits. Plainer, cooler and less aggressive marblesuch as that employed in the lobby of the Victoria and Albert Museumwould have been more suitable. A very considerable proportion of themuseum's space is devoted to the collection of pictures--some of themcopies--which the University has gathered. The interesting Turnerwater-colours presented by John Ruskin are here, with a Murillo, reputed to be his earliest known work, and a good many other examplesof the work of famous men of the Italian and Dutch Schools. 

Besides the Museum of Archaeology, between Peterhouse and the river, the vigorous growth of the scientific side of the University is shownin the vast buildings newly erected on both sides of Downing Street, which has now become a street of laboratories and museums. Now thatthe outworks of the hoary citadel of Classicism have been stormed, andthe undermining of the great walls has already begun, the developmentof modern science at Cambridge will be accelerated, and in the face ofthe urgency of the demands of worldwide competition it would appearthat the University on the Cam is more fitted to survive than hersister on the Isis. 

[Illustration: THE CIRCULAR NORMAN CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. Thissplendid survival of the Norman age is one of the four churches inEngland planned to imitate the form of the Holy Sepulchre ofJerusalem. ]

CHAPTER VI

THE CHURCHES IN THE TOWN

Almost everyone who goes to Cambridge as a visitor bent on sightseeingnaturally wishes to see the colleges before anything else, but itshould not be forgotten that there are at least two churches, apartfrom the college chapels, whose importance is so great that to fail tosee them would be a criminal omission. There are other churches ofconsiderable interest, but for a description of them it isunfortunately impossible to find space. 

Foremost in point of antiquity comes St. Benedict's, or St Benet's, possessing a tower belonging to pre-Conquest times, and the onlystructural relic of the Saxon town now in existence. The church wasfor a considerable time the chapel of Corpus Christi, and the ancienttower still rises picturesquely over the roofs of the old court ofthat college. 

Without the tower, the church would be of small interest, for the naveand chancel are comparatively late, and have been rather drasticallyrestored. The interior, nevertheless, is quite remarkable inpossessing a massive Romanesque arch opening into the tower, withroughly carved capitals to its tall responds. Outside there are allthe unmistakable features of Saxon work--the ponderously thick walls, becoming thinner in the upper parts, the "long and short" method ofarranging the coigning, and the double windows divided with a heavybaluster as at Wharram-le-Street in Yorkshire, Earl's Barton inNorthamptonshire, and elsewhere. 

Next in age and importance to St. Benedict's comes what is popularlycalled "the Round Church, " one of the four churches of the Order ofKnights Templar now standing in this country. The other three are theTemple Church in London, St. Sepulchre's at Northampton, and LittleMaplestead Church in Essex, and they are given in chronological order, Cambridge possessing the oldest. It was consecrated the Church of theHoly Sepulchre, and was built before the close of the eleventhcentury, and is therefore a work of quite early Norman times. Theinterior is wonderfully impressive, for it has nothing of thelightness and grace of the Transitional work in the Temple, and theheavy round arches opening into the circular aisle are supported byeight massive piers. Above there is another series of eight pillars, very squat, and of about the same girth as those below, and the spacesbetween are subdivided by a small pillar supporting two semi-circulararches. Part of the surrounding aisle collapsed in 1841, and theCambridge Camden Society (now defunct) employed the architect Salvinto thoroughly restore the church. He took down a sort of battlementedsuperstructure erected long after the Norman period, and built thepresent conical roof. 

After these early churches, the next in interest is Great St. Mary's, the University Church, conspicuously placed in the market-place and inthe very centre of the town. It has not, however, always stood forthin such distinguished isolation, for only as recently as the middle oflast century did the demolition take place of the domestic houses thatsurrounded it. And inside, the alterations in recent times have beenquite as drastic, robbing the church of all the curious and remarkablecharacteristics it boasted until well past the middle of thenineteenth century, and reducing the whole interior to the stereotypedfeatures of an average parish church. 

If we enter the building to-day without any knowledge of its past, wemerely note a spacious late Perpendicular nave, having galleries inthe aisles with fine dark eighteenth-century panelled fronts, and morewoodwork of this plain and solemn character in front of the organ, inthe aisle chapels, and elsewhere. A soft greenish light from theclerestory windows (by Powell), with their rows of painted saints, falls upon the stonework of the arcades and the wealth of dark oak, but nothing strikes us as unusual until we discover that the pulpit ison rails, making it possible to draw it from the north side to acentral position beneath the chancel arch. This concession totradition is explained when we discover the state of the church before1863, when Dr. Luard, who was then vicar, raised an agitation, beforewhich the Georgian glories of the University Church passed away. Before the time of Laud, when so many departures from mediaeval customhad taken place, we learn, from information furnished during therevival brought about by the over-zealous archbishop, that the churchwas arranged much on the lines of a theatre, with a pulpit in thecentre, which went by the name of the Cockpit, that the service wascut as short as "him that is sent thither to read it" thought fit, andthat during sermon-time the chancel was filled with boys and townsmen"all in a rude heap between the doctors and the altar. " But thisconcentration on the University sermon and disrespect for the altarwent further, for, with the legacy of Mr. William Worts, the existinggalleries were put up in 1735, the Cockpit was altered, and otherchanges made which Mr. A. H. Thompson has vividly described:

 . . . The centre of the church was filled with an immense octagonal pulpit on the "three-decker" principle, the crowning glory and apex of which was approached, like a church-tower, by an internal staircase. About 1740 Burrough filled the chancel-arch and chancel with a permanent gallery, which commanded a thorough view of this object. The gallery, known as the "Throne, " was an extraordinary and unique erection. The royal family of Versailles never worshipped more comfortably than did the Vice-Chancellor and heads of houses, in their beautiful armchairs, and the doctors sitting on the tiers of seats behind them. In this worship of the pulpit, the altar was quite disregarded. . . . The church thus became an oblong box, with the organ at the end, the Throne at the other, and the pulpit between them. 

Of all this nothing remains besides the organ and the side galleries, and of the splendid screen, built in 1640 to replace its still finerpredecessor, swept away by Archbishop Parker nearly a century before, only that portion running across the north chapel remains. 

Until the Senate House was built, the commencements were held in thechurch, but thereafter it would appear that the sermon flourishedalmost to the exclusion of anything else. 

The diminutive little church of St. Peter near the Castle mound is ofTransitional Norman date, and has Roman bricks built into its walls. 

 O fairest of all fair places, Sweetest of all sweet towns! With the birds and the greyness and greenness, And the men in caps and gowns. 

 All they that dwell within thee, To leave are ever loth, For one man gets friends, and another Gets honour, and one gets both. 

AMY LEVY: _A Farewell_. 

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD. , GUILDFORD ANDESHER. 

[Illustration: PLAN OF CAMBRIDGE. By permission, from _A Concise Guideto the Town and University of Cambridge_ (J. Willis Clark), publishedby Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge. ]

INDEX

Akeman Street, 8Alcock, Bishop, 46, 47Ashton, Hugh, Archdeacon of York, 18Audley of Walden, Thomas Baron, 48

"Backs, " The, 34Bicon, Sir Nicholas, 43Bolsham, Bishop, 13, 21, 51Beaufort, Lady Margaret, 15, 18, 20, 45, 47Bede, 6Beza, Theodore, 54Boleyn, Anne, 28Burrough, Sir James, 52, 61

Cains College, 39-41Caius, Dr. , 40Cambridge Camden Society, 59Cambridge Castle, 7-10Cambridge, Origin of Name, 6-9Cavendish, Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, 16Caxton, William, 19Christ's College, 20, 47-48Clare College, 36-37Corpus Christi College, 13, 42-43, 57Curthose, Robert, 11

Docket, Andrew, 43Downing College, 50Downing, Sir George, 50

Edward III. , 10, 30, 42Edward VI. , 41Edward VII. , 34Elizabeth, Queen, 33Elizabeth Woodville, Queen, 44Ely, 6, 9, 12, 21Emmanuel College, 48-49Erasmus, 45Essex, James, 35, 49

Fisher, Bishop, 15, 19, 44, 45

George I. , 52, 53Gibbs, James, 23Girton, 50Gonville, Edmund de, 39Gonville Hall, 13, 40Grantchester, 8Great St. Mary's Church, 42, 59

Henry I. , 11Henry III. , 51Henry IV. , 10Henry VI. , 11, 22, 23, 43Henry VII. , 23Henry VIII. , 20, 28, 29, 30Hereward the Wake, 9

Jesus College, 46Jones, Inigo, 37-38, 48

King's College, 10, 14, 22-28King's Hall, 10, 13, 29

Magdalene College, 14, 48, 49Margaret of Anjou, Queen, 43Mary, Queen, 10, 31Michael House, 13, 29Mildmay, Sir Walter, 49Moore, Dr. John, 52

Nevile, Thomas, 30Newnham, 50Newton, Sir Isaac, 31, 45

Parker, Archbishop, 62Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, 43Pembroke College, 13, 37-38Pepys, Samuel, 3, 48Perne, Dr. Andrew, 36Perse, Dr. , 40Peterhouse, 13, 35-36, 51Philip and Mary, 41Pitt Press, 54Pitt, William, 39, 53, 54

Queens' College, 43-45

Richard III. , 23Rickman, Thomas, 17Ridley Hall, 50Roman Cambridge, 6-9Round Church, The, 58

St. Benedict's Church, 42, 57St. Catherine's College, 45-46St. John's College, 14, 15-21St. John's Hospital, 13, 16, 21St. Mary the Less, 36St. Peter's Church, 36, 62Salvin, Anthony, 59Scott, Sir Gilbert, 15, 17Selwyn College, 50Senate House, 52, 53, 62Sidney, Sir William, 49Sidney Sussex College, 14, 49Skeat, Professor, 7, 9Stourbridge Fair, 10, 12Sussex, Frances Lady, 49Symons, Ralph, 49

Tennyson, Lord, 31Thirty-nine Articles, 43Trinity College, 29-31Trinity Hall, 13, 41-42

Valance, Aymer de, 38Via Devana, 8

Walpole, Sir Robert, 24Whewell, William, 32Wilberforce, William, 21Wilkins, William, 24William the Conqueror, 9, 10Williams, Lord Keeper, 16Wordsworth, William, 21, 26, 31Wren, Bishop Matthew, 35Wren, Sir Christopher, 34, 38Wyatville, Sir J. , 49Wykeham, William of, 2