diff options
Diffstat (limited to '12857-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 12857-0.txt | 1429 |
1 files changed, 1429 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/12857-0.txt b/12857-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88fcb8d --- /dev/null +++ b/12857-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1429 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12857 *** + +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 the +short street is part of the north side of King's College Chapel.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PAGE CHAPTER + + 3 I. SOME COMPARISONS + 6 II. EARLY CAMBRIDGE +15 III. THE GREATER COLLEGES +35 IV. THE LESSER COLLEGES +51 V. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, THE SENATE HOUSE, THE + PITT PRESS, AND THE MUSEUMS +57 VI. THE CHURCHES IN THE TOWN + +64 INDEX + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +PAGE ILLUSTRATION + +Frontispiece 1. THE OLD GATEWAY OF KING'S COLLEGE +17 2. THE LIBRARY WINDOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE +24 3. IN THE CHOIR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL +33 4. THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF TRINITY COLLEGE +40 5. THE GATE OF HONOUR, CAIUS COLLEGE +49 6. THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE +56 7. THE CIRCULAR NORMAN CHURCH OF THE HOLY + SEPULCHRE +On 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 and +Lord Carlingford, to the Spanish Ambassador's, where I dined the first +time.... 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 merry +at my defending Cambridge against Oxford._"--PEPYS' _Diary_ (May 5, +1669). + +In writing of Cambridge, comparison with the great sister university +seems almost inevitable, and, since it is so usual to find that Oxford +is regarded as pre-eminent on every count, we are tempted to make +certain claims for the slightly less ancient university. These claims +are an important matter if Cambridge is to hold its rightful position +in regard to its architecture, its setting, and its atmosphere. +Beginning with the last, we do not hesitate to say that there is a +more generally felt atmosphere of repose, such as the mind associates +with the best of our cathedral cities, in Cambridge than is to be +enjoyed in the bigger and busier university town. This is in part due +to Oxford's situation on a great artery leading from the Metropolis to +large centres of population in the west; while Cambridge, although it +grew up on a Roman road of some importance, is on the verge of the +wide fenlands of East Anglia, and, being thus situated off the +trade-ways of England, has managed to preserve more of that genial and +scholarly repose we would always wish to find in the centres of +learning, than has the other university. + +Then this atmosphere is little disturbed by the modern accretions to +the town. On the east side, it is true, there are new streets of dull +and commonplace terraces, which one day an awakened England will wipe +out; there are other elements of ugly sordidness, which the lack of a +guiding and controlling authority, and the use of distressingly +hideous white bricks, has made possible, but it is quite conceivable +that a visitor to the town might spend a week of sight-seeing in the +place without being aware of these shortcomings. This fortunate +circumstance is due to the truly excellent planning of Cambridge. It +is not for a moment suggested that the modern growth of the place is +ideal, but what is new and unsightly is so placed that it does not +interfere with the old and beautiful. The real Cambridge is so +effectively girdled with greens and commons, and college grounds +shaded with stately limes, elms, and chestnuts, that there are never +any jarring backgrounds to destroy the sense of aloofness from the +ugly and untidy elements of nineteenth-century individualism which are +so often conspicuous at Oxford. + +Cambridge has also made better use of her river than has her sister +university; she has taken it into her confidence, bridged it in a +dozen places, and built her colleges so that the waters mirror some of +her most beautiful buildings. Further than this, in the glorious +chapel Henry VI. built for King's College, Cambridge possesses one of +the three finest Perpendicular chapels in the country--a feature +Oxford cannot match, and in the church of the Holy Sepulchre Cambridge +boasts the earliest of the four round churches of the Order of the +Knights Templars which survive at this day. + +But comparisons tend to become odious, and sufficient has been said to +vindicate the exquisite charm that Cambridge so lavishly displays. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +EARLY CAMBRIDGE + +Roman Cambridge was probably called Camboritum, but this, like the +majority of Roman place names in England, fell into disuse, and the +earliest definite reference to the town in post-Roman times gives the +name as Grantacaestir. This occurs in Bede's great _Ecclesiastical +History_, concluded in A.D. 731, and the incident alluded to in +connection with the Roman town throws a clear ray of light upon the +ancient site in those unsettled times. It tells how Sexburgh, the +abbess of Ely, needing a more permanent coffin for the remains of +AEtheldryth, her predecessor in office, sent some of the brothers from +the monastery to find such a coffin. Ely being without stone, and +surrounded by waterways and marshes, they took a vessel and came in +time to an abandoned city, "which, in the language of the English, is +called Grantacaestir; and presently, near the city walls, they found a +white marble coffin, most beautifully wrought, and neatly covered with +a lid of the same sort of stone." That this carved marble sarcophagus +was of Roman workmanship there seems no room to doubt, and Professor +Skeat regards it as clear that this ruined town, with its walls and +its Roman remains, was the same place as the Caer-grant mentioned by +the historian, Nennius. + +In course of time the Anglo-Saxon people of the district must have +overcome their prejudices against living in what had been a Roman +city, and Grantacaestir arose out of the ruins of its former +greatness. In the ninth century a permanent bridge was built, and the +town began to be known as Grantabrycg, or, as the Anglo-Saxon +Chronicle gives it, Grantebrycge. Domesday toned this down to +Grentebrige, and that was the name of Cambridge when a Norman castle +stood beside the grass-grown mound which is all that remains to-day of +the Saxon fortress. What caused the change from G to C is hard to +discover, but when King John was on the throne the name was written +Cantebrige, and the "m" put in its appearance in the earlier half of +the fifteenth century, the "t" being discarded at the same period. It +seems that the name of the river was arrived at by the same process. +Perhaps the oddest feature of the whole of these vicissitudes in +nomenclature is the similarity between the Roman Camboritum and +Cambridge, for the two names have, as has been shown, no connection +whatsoever. + +A map of Cambridgeshire, compiled by the Rev. F.G. Walker, showing the +Roman and British roads reveals instantly that the university town has +a Roman origin, for it stands at the junction of four roads, or rather +where Akeman Street crossed Via Devana, the great Roman way connecting +Huntingdon and Colchester. Two or three miles to the south, however, +the eye falls on the name of a village called Grantchester, and if we +had no archaeology to help us, we would leap to the conclusion that +here, and not at Cambridge, was the ancient site mentioned by the +earlier chroniclers. And this is precisely what happened. Even recent +writers have fallen into the same old mistake in spite of the +discovery of Roman remains on the site of the real Roman town, and +notwithstanding the fact that the two roads mentioned intersect there. +The trouble arose through the alterations in spelling in the name of +the village of Granteceta, or, as it often appears in early writings, +Gransete, but now that Professor Skeat has given us the results of his +careful tracking of the name back to 1080, when it first appears in +any record, we see plainly that this village has never had a past of +any importance, and that the original name means nothing more than +"settlers by the Granta." There is a Roman camp near this village, and +a few other discoveries of that period have been made there, but such +finds have been made in dozens of places near Cambridge. + +It is therefore an established fact that modern Cambridge has been +successively British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman, and the original town, +situated on the north-western side of the river, has extended across +the water and filled the space bounded on three sides by the Cam. + +Being on the edge of the Fen Country, where the Conqueror found the +toughest opposition to his completed sovereignty in England, the patch +of raised ground just outside modern Cambridge was a suitable spot for +the erection of a castle, and from here he conducted his operations +against the English, who held out under Hereward the Wake on the Isle +of Ely. In the hurried operations preceding the taking of the "Camp of +Refuge" in 1071, there was probably only sufficient time to strengthen +the earthworks and to build stockades, but soon afterwards William +erected a permanent castle of stone on this marsh frontier--a building +Fuller describes as a "stately structure anciently the ornament of +Cambridge." In her scholarly work on the town, Miss Tuker tells us how +Edward 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 Mary +in 1557 completed the wiping out of the Norman fortress by granting to +Sir Robert Huddleston permission to carry away the remaining stone to +build himself a house at Sawston! Wherever building materials are +scarce such things have happened, even to the extent of utilizing the +stones of stately ruins for road-making purposes. It thus comes about +that the artificial mound and the earthworks on the north side of it +are as bare and grass-grown as any pre-historic fort which has not at +any 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 the +town during September, Cambridge at an early date became a centre of +commerce, and it had risen to be a fairly large town of some +importance before the Conquest. In the time of Ethelred a royal mint +had been established there, and it appears to have recovered rapidly +after its destruction by Robert Curthose in 1088, for it continued to +be a mint under the Plantagenets, and even as late as Henry VI. money +was coined in the town. + +A bridge, as already stated, was built at Cambridge in the ninth +century, but in 870, and again in 1010, the Danes sacked the town, and +it would seem that the bridge was destroyed, for early in the twelfth +century we find a reference to the ferry being definitely fixed at +Cambridge, and that before that time it had been "a vagrant," +passengers crossing anywhere that seemed most convenient. This fixing +of the ferry, and various favours bestowed by Henry I., resulted in an +immediate growth of prosperity, and the change was recognized by +certain Jews who took up their quarters in the town and were, it is +interesting to hear, of such "civil carriage" that they incurred +little of the spite and hatred so universally prevalent against them +in the Middle Ages. The trade guilds of Cambridge were founded before +the Conquest, and, becoming in course of time possessed of wealth and +influence, some of them were enabled to found a college. + +As England settled down under the Norman Kings, the great Abbey of Ely +waxed stronger and wealthier, and in the wide Fen Country there also +grew up the abbeys of Peterborough, Crowland, Thorney, and Ramsey--all +under the Benedictine rules. To the proximity of these great +monasteries was due the beginning of the scholastic element in +Cambridge, and perhaps the immense popularity of Stourbridge Fair, +which Defoe thought the greatest in Europe, may have helped to locate +the University there. Exactly when or how the first little centre of +learning was established in the town is still a matter of uncertainty, +but there seems to have been some strong influence emanating from the +Continent in the twelfth century which encouraged the idea of +establishing monastic schools. Cambridge in quite early times began to +be sprinkled with small colonies of canons and friars, and in these +religious hostels the young monks from the surrounding abbeys were +educated. Mr. A.H. Thompson, in his _Cambridge and its Colleges_, +suggests that the unhealthy dampness of the fens would have made it +very desirable that the less robust of the youths who were training +for the cloistered life in the abbeys of East Anglia should be +transferred to the drier and healthier town, where the learning of +France was available among the many different religious Orders +represented there. + +In 1284 the first college was founded on an academic basis. This was +Peterhouse. Its founder was Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, who had +made the experiment of grafting secular scholars among the canons of +St. John's Hospital, afterwards the college. Finding it difficult to +reconcile the difficulties which arose between secular and religious, +he transferred his lay scholars, or Ely clerks, to two hostels at the +opposite end of the town, and at his death left 300 marks to build a +hall where they could meet and dine. After this beginning there were +no imitators until forty years had elapsed, but then colleges began to +spring up rapidly. In 1324 Michael House was founded, and following it +came six more in quick succession: Clare in 1326, King's Hall in 1337, +Pembroke in 1347, Gonville Hall in 1348, Trinity Hall in 1350, and +Corpus Christi in 1352. These constitute the first period of +college-founding, separated from the succeeding by nearly a century. + +The second period began in 1441 with King's, and ended with St. John's +in 1509. After an interval of thirty-three years the third period +commenced with Magdalene, and concluded with Sidney Sussex in 1595. A +fourth group is composed of the half-dozen colleges belonging to last +century. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +THE GREATER COLLEGES + +St. John's.--With its three successive courts and their beautiful +gateways of mellowed red brick, St. John's is very reminiscent of +Hampton Court. Both belong to the Tudor period, and both have +undergone restorations and have buildings of stone added in a much +later and entirely different style. Across the river stands the fourth +court 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 succeed +stand in chronological order,--eliminating, of course, Sir Gilbert +Scott's chapel and the alterations of an obviously later period than +the courts as a whole. + +To Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress of the college, or, more +accurately, to her executor, adviser and confessor, John Fisher, +Bishop of Rochester, who carried out her wishes, we owe the first +court, with its stately gateway of red brick and stone. It was built +between 1511 and 1520 on the site of St. John's Hospital of Black +Canons, suppressed as early as 1509. + +[Illustration: THE LIBRARY WINDOW ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE FROM THE BRIDGE +OF SIGHS. From this spot beautiful views are obtained up and down the +river.] + +The second court, also possessing a beautiful gate tower, was added +between 1595 and 1620, the expense being mainly borne by Mary +Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury, whose statue adorns the gateway. +Filling the space between the second court and the river comes the +third, begun in 1623, when John Williams, then Lord Keeper and Bishop +of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York, gave money for erecting +the library whose bay window, projecting into the silent waters of the +Cam, takes a high place among the architectural treasures of +Cambridge. If anyone carries a solitary date in his head after a visit +to the University it is almost sure to be 1624, the year of the +building of this library, for the figures stand out boldly above the +Gothic window just mentioned. The remaining sides of the third court +were built through the generosity of various benefactors, and then +came a long pause, for it was not until after the first quarter of the +nineteenth century had elapsed that the college was extended to the +other side of the river. This new court came into existence, together +with the delightful "Bridge of Sighs," between the years 1826 and +1831, when Thomas Rickman, an architect whose lectures and published +treatises had given him a wide reputation, was entrusted with the +work. The new buildings were not an artistic success, in spite of the +elaborate Gothic cloister, with its stupendous gateway and the +imposing scale of the whole pile. Their deficiencies might be masked +or at least diminished if ivy were allowed to cover the unpleasing +wall spaces, and perhaps if these lines are ever read by the proper +authority such a simple and inexpensive but highly desirable +improvement will come to pass. + +The stranger approaching St. John's College for the first time might +be easily pardoned for mistaking the chapel for a parish church, and +those familiar with the buildings cannot by any mental process feel +that the aggressive bulk of Sir Gilbert Scott's ill-conceived edifice +is anything but a crude invasion. More than half a century has passed +since this great chapel replaced the Tudor building which had +unluckily come to be regarded as inadequate, but the ponderous Early +Decorated tower is scarcely less of an intrusion than when its masonry +stood forth in all its garish whiteness against the time-worn brick of +Lady Margaret Beaufort's court. A Perpendicular tower would have added +a culminating and satisfying feature to the whole cluster of courts, +and by this time would have been so toned down by the action of +weather that it would have fallen into place as naturally as the Tudor +Gothic of the Houses of Parliament has done in relation to Westminster +Abbey. Like Truro Cathedral, and other modern buildings imitating the +Early English style, the interior is more successful than the +exterior; the light, subdued and enriched by passing through the +stained glass of the large west window (by Clayton and Bell) and +others of less merit, tones down the appearance of newness and gives +to the masonry of 1869 a suggestion of the glamour of the Middle Ages. +Fortunately, some of the stalls with their "miserere" seats were +preserved when the former chapel was taken down, and these, with an +Early English piscina, are now in the chancel of the modern building. +The Tudor Gothic altar tomb of one of Lady Margaret's executors--Hugh +Ashton, Archdeacon of York--has also been preserved. + +At the same time as the chapel was rebuilt, Sir Gilbert Scott rebuilt +parts of the first and second courts. He demolished the Master's +Lodge, added two bays to the Hall in keeping with the other parts of +the structure, and built a new staircase and lobby for the Combination +Room, which is considered without a rival in Cambridge or Oxford. It +is a long panelled room occupying all the upper floor of the north +side of the second court and with its richly ornamented plaster +ceiling, its long row of windows looking into the beautiful +Elizabethan court, its portraits of certain of the college's +distinguished sons in solemn gold frames, it would be hard to find +more pleasing surroundings for the leisured discussion of subjects +which the fellows find in keeping with their after-dinner port. There +is an inner room at one end, and continuing in the same line and +opening into it, so that a gallery of great length is formed, is the +splendid library, built nearly three centuries ago and unchanged in +the passing of all those years. + +The library of St. John's is rich in examples of early printing by +Caxton and others whose books come under the heading of incunabula, +but it would have been vastly richer in such early literature had +Bishop Fisher's splendid collection--"the notablest library of books +in all England, two long galleries full"--been allowed to come where +the good prelate had intended. When he was deprived, attainted, and +finally beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as supreme head +of the Church, his library was confiscated, and what became of it I do +not know. Over the high table in the hall, a long and rather narrow +structure with a dim light owing to its dark panelling, hangs a +portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress of the college, and +on either side of this pale Tudor lady are paintings of Archbishop +Williams, who built the library, and Sir Ralph Hare. The most +interesting portraits are, however, in the master's lodge, rebuilt by +Sir Gilbert Scott on a new site north of the library. + +[Illustration] + +It was through no sudden or isolated emotion that Lady Margaret was +led to found this college in 1509, the year of her death, for she had +four years earlier re-established the languishing grammar college, +called God's House, under the new name of Christ's College, and had +been a benefactress to Oxford as well. On the outer gateways of both +her colleges, therefore, we see the great antelopes of the Beauforts +supporting the arms of Lady Margaret, with her emblem, the daisy, +forming a background. Sprinkled freely over the buildings, too, are +the 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 had +shrunk to possessing two brethren only. The interest of this small +foundation of Black Canons would have been small had it not been +attached to Ely, and through that connection made the basis of Bishop +Balsham's historic experiment already mentioned. + +The founding of St. John's by a lady of even such distinction as the +mother of Henry VII. could not alone have placed the college in the +position it now occupies: such a consummation could only have been +brought about by the capacity and learning of those to whom has +successively fallen the task of carrying out her wishes, from Bishop +Fisher down to the present time. To mention all, or even the chief, of +these rulers of the college is not possible here, and before saying +farewell to the lovely old courts, we have only space to mention that +among the famous students were Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Matthew Prior, the poet-statesman; William +Wilberforce, and William Wordsworth. + +KING'S COLLEGE.--Henry VI. was only twenty when, in 1441, he founded +King's College. In that year the pious young Sovereign himself laid +the foundation stone, and five years later it is believed that he +performed the same ceremony in relation to the chapel, which grew to +perfection so slowly that it was not until 1515 that the structure had +assumed its present stately form. + +It was Henry's plan to associate his college at Eton, which he founded +at the same time, with King's. The school he had established under the +shadow of his palace at Windsor was to be the nursery for his +foundation at Cambridge in the same fashion as William of Wykeham had +connected Winchester and New College, Oxford. Henry's first plan was +for a smaller college than the splendid foundation he afterwards began +to achieve with the endowments obtained from the recently-suppressed +alien monasteries. Had the young King's reign been peaceful, there is +little doubt that a complete college carried out on such magnificent +lines as the chapel would have come into being; but Henry became +involved in a disastrous civil war, and his ambitious plans for a +great quadrangle and cloister, three other courts, one on the opposite +side of the river connected with a covered bridge and an imposing gate +tower as well, never came to fruition. Fortunately, Henry's successor, +anxious to be called the founder of the college, subscribed towards +the continuance of the chapel, but he also diverted (a mild expression +for robbery) a large part of Henry's endowments. Richard III., in his +brief reign, found time to contribute £700 to the college, but it was +not 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 the +work 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 single +court which was built is now incorporated in the University Library, +and the existing buildings, all comparatively modern, stand in +somewhat disjointed fashion to the south, and extend from King's +Parade down to the river. Fellows' Building, the isolated block +running north and south between the chapel and this long perspective +of bastard Gothic, was designed by Gibbs in the first quarter of the +eighteenth century, and its severe lines, broken by an open archway in +the centre, are a remarkable contrast to the graceful detail, of the +chapel. Framed by the great arch, there is a delicious peep of smooth +lawn sloping slightly to the river, with a forest-like background +beyond. + +In the other buildings of King's it is hard to find any interest, for +the crude Gothic of William Wilkins, even when we remember that he +designed the National Gallery, St. George's Hospital, and other +landmarks of London, is altogether depressing. Even the big hall, +presided over by a portrait of Sir Robert Walpole, is unsatisfying. It +is the custom to scoff at the gateway and stone arcading Wilkins +afterwards threw across the fourth side of the grassy court of the +college; but, although its crocketed finials are curious, and we +wonder at the lack of resource which led to such a mass of unwarranted +ornament, it is not aggressive, neither does it jar with the academic +repose of King's Parade. + +[Illustration: IN THE CHOIR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. This Chapel and +that of Henry VII at Westminster and St. George's at Windsor, are the +finest examples of the gorgeous fan tracery belonging to the last +phase of English gothic architecture.] + +Owing to the extreme uniformity of the exterior of the chapel the eye +seems to take in all there is to see in one sweeping vision, refusing +subconsciously to look individually at each of the twelve identical +bays, each with its vast window of regularly repeated design. But +there are some things it would be a pity to pass over, for to do so +would be to fail to appreciate the profound skill of the mediaeval +architects and craftsmen who could rear a marvellous stone roof upon +walls so largely composed of glass. In this building, like its only +two rivals in the world--St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle and +Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster--the wall space between the windows +has shrunk to the absolute minimum; in fact, nothing is left beyond +the bare width required for the buttresses, and to build those +reinforcements with sufficient strength to take the thrust of a +vaulted stone roof must have required consummate capacity and skill. +At Eton, where, however, the stone roof was never built, the +buttresses planned to carry it appear so enormous that the building +seems to be all buttress, but here such an impression could never for +a moment be gained, for the chapel filling each bay completely masks +the widest portion of the adjoining buttresses. The upper portions are +so admirably proportioned that they taper up to a comparatively slight +finial with the most perfect gradations. + +Directly we enter the chapel our eyes are raised to look at the roof +which necessitated that stately row of buttresses, but for a time it +is hard to think of anything but the splendour of colour and detail in +this vast aisleless nave, and we think of what Henry's college might +have been had the whole plan been carried out in keeping with this +perfect work. Wordsworth's familiar lines present themselves as more +fitting than prose to describe this consummation of the pain and +struggle of generations of workers since the dawn of Gothic on English +soil: + + 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 the +moulded stonework on either side are painted with "the soft +chequerings" of rainbow hues, and the magnificent glass shows at its +best all its marvellously fine detail, as well as the beauty of its +colour. The whole range of twenty-six windows having been executed +under two contracts, dated 1516 and 1526, there was opportunity for +carrying out a great subject scheme, and thus it was found possible to +illustrate practically the whole Gospel story, culminating in the +Crucifixion in the east window, and continuing into apostolic times +until the death of the Virgin Mary. At the west end is the one modern +window. It represents the Last Judgement. It is safe to say that of +their period this glorious set of windows has no real rival, and it is +hardly possible to do them any justice if the visitor has become a +little jaded with sight-seeing. In one of the windows there is a +splendidly drawn three-masted ship of the period (Henry VIII.'s +reign), high in the bow and stern, with her long-boat in the water +amidships, and every detail of the rigging so clearly shown that the +artist must have drawn it from a vessel in the Low Countries or some +English port. It is one of the best representations of a ship of the +period extant. This is merely an indication of the vivid +archaeological interest of the glass, apart from its beauty in the +wonderful setting of fan vaulting and tall, gracefully moulded shafts. + +The splendid oaken screen across the choir, dividing the chapel into +almost equal portions, was put up in 1536, at the same time as nearly +the whole of the stalls. It is rather startling to see the monogram of +Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, entwined with true lovers' knots, on this +wonderful piece of Renaissance woodwork, for in 1536, the date of the +screen, Anne, charged with unfaithfulness, went to the scaffold. How +was it, we wonder, that these initials were never removed? The screen +also reminds us of the changes in architecture and religion which had +swept over England between the laying of the foundation stone and the +completion of the internal fittings, for, not only had the Gothic +order come to its greatest perfection in this building, and then its +whole traditions been abandoned and a reversion to classic forms taken +place, but the very religion for which the chapel had been built had +been swept away by the Reformation. + +The Tudor rose and portcullis frequently repeated within and without +the chapel constantly remind us of the important part Henry VII. +played in the creation of one of the chiefest flowers of the Gothic +order and the architectural triumph of Cambridge. + +TRINITY COLLEGE.--Oxford does not possess so large a foundation as +Trinity College, and the spaciousness of the great court impresses the +stranger as something altogether exceptional in collegiate buildings, +but, like the British Constitution, this largest of the colleges only +assumed its present appearance after many changes, including the +disruptive one brought about by Henry VIII. In that masterful manner +of his the destroyer of monasticism, having determined to establish a +new college in Cambridge, dissolved not only King's Hall and Michael +House, two of the earliest foundations, but seven small university +hostels as well. The two old colleges were obliged to surrender their +charters as well as their buildings; the lane separating them was +closed, and then, with considerable revenues obtained from suppressed +monasteries, Henry proceeded to found his great college dedicated to +the Trinity. + +There is something in the broad and spacious atmosphere of the Great +Court suggestive of the change from the narrow and cramped thought of +pre-Reformation times to the age when a healthy expansion of ideas was +coming like a fresh breeze upon the mists which had obscured men's +visions. But even as the Reformation did not at once sweep away all +traces of monasticism, so Henry's new college retained for a +considerable time certain of the buildings of the two old foundations +which were afterwards demolished or rebuilt to fit in with the scheme +of a great open court. Thus it was not until the mastership of Thomas +Nevile that King Edward's gate tower was reconstructed in its present +position west of the chapel. On this gate, beneath the somewhat +disfiguring clock, is the statue of Edward III., regarded as a work of +the period of Edward IV. + +Shortly before Henry made such drastic changes, King's Hall had been +enlarged and had built itself a fine gateway of red brick with stone +dressings, and this was made the chief entrance to the college. The +upper part and the statue of Henry VIII. on the outer face were added +by Nevile between 1593 and 1615, but otherwise, the gateway is nearly +a whole century earlier. + +It is interesting to read the founder's words in regard to the aims of +his new college, for in them we seem to feel his wish to establish an +institution capable in some measure of filling the gap caused by the +suppression of so many homes of learning in England. Trinity was to be +established 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 of +the afflicted and distressed." + +To the right on entering the great gateway is the chapel, a late Tudor +building begun by Queen Mary and finished by her sister Elizabeth +about the year 1567. The exterior is quite mediaeval, and all the +internal woodwork, including the great _baldachino_ of gilded oak, the +stalls and the organ screen dividing the chapel into two, dates from +the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the ante-chapel the memory +of some of the college's most distinguished sons is perpetuated in +white marble. Among them we see Macaulay and Newton, whose rooms were +between the great gate and the chapel, Tennyson, Whewell--the master +who built the courts bearing his name, was active in revising the +college statutes, and died in 1866--Newton, Bacon, Wordsworth and +others. + +On the west side of the court, beginning at the northern end, we find +ourselves in front of the Lodge, which is the residence of the Master +of the College. The public are unable to see the fine interior with +its beautiful dining- and drawing-rooms and the interesting +collection of college portraits hanging there, but they can see the +famous oriel window built in 1843 with a contribution of £1,000 from +Alexander Beresford-Hope. This sum, however, even with £250 from +Whewell, who had just been elected to the mastership, did not cover +the cost, and the fellows had to make up the deficit. It was suggested +that Whewell might have contributed more had not his wife dissuaded +him, and a fellow wrote a parody of "The House that Jack Built" which +culminated 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 fellows +took 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 a +flight of steps, and, from the passage to which this leads, we enter +the Hall. It was built in the first decade of the seventeenth century, +and the screen over the entrance with the musicians' gallery behind +belongs to that period. + +[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF TRINITY COLLEGE. Trinity was +expanded 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 old +woodwork in recent times. This beautiful refectory resembles in many +ways the Middle Temple Hall in London. The measurements are similar, +it has bay windows projecting at either end of the high table, a +minstrels' gallery at the opposite end, and well into the last century +was heated by a great charcoal brazier in the centre. The fumes found +their way into every corner of the hall before reaching their outlet +in the lantern. Among the numerous portraits on the walls there are +several 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 and +Bentley. On the other side of the entrance passage are the kitchens +with the combination rooms above, where more notable portraits hang. +The remainder of the court is composed of living-rooms broken by the +Queen's Gate, a fine tower built in 1597 facing King Edward's Gate. It +has a statue of Elizabeth in a niche and the arms of Nevile and +Archbishop Whitgift. + +Nevile's Court is approached by the passage giving entrance to the +hall. The eastern half was built when Nevile was master between 1593 +and 1615, and the library designed by Sir Christopher Wren occupies +the river frontage. To the casual observer this building is a +comparatively commonplace one, built in two stories, but although it +allows space for the arcaded cloister to go beneath it, the library +above consists of one floor and the interior does not in the least +follow the external lines. On great occasions Nevile's Court is turned +into a most attractive semi-open-air ball or reception room. One +memorable occasion was when the late King Edward, shortly after his +marriage, was entertained with his beautiful young bride at a ball +given at his old college. + +Passing out of the court to the lovely riverside lawns, shaded by tall +elms and chestnuts, we experience the ever-fresh thrill of the +Cambridge "Backs," and, crossing Trinity Bridge, walk down the stately +avenue leading away from the river with glimpses of the colleges seen +through the trees so full of suggestive beauty as to belong almost to +a city of dreams. + +There are other courts belonging to Trinity, including two gloomy ones +of 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 their +founding, we come first of all to Peterhouse, already mentioned more +than once in these pages on account of its antiquity, so that it is +only necessary to recall the fact that Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, +founded this the first regular college in 1284. Of the original +buildings of the little hostel nothing remains, and the quadrangle was +not commenced until 1424, but the tragedy which befell the college +took place in the second half of the eighteenth century, when James +Essex, who built the dreary west front of Emmanuel, was turned loose +in the court. His hand was fortunately stayed before he had touched +the garden side of the southern wing, and the picturesque range of +fifteenth-century buildings, including the hall and combination room, +remains one of the most pleasing survivals of mediaeval architecture +in Cambridge. + +Dr. Andrew Perne, also known as "Old Andrew Turncoat," and other names +revealing his willingness to fall in with the prevailing religious +ideas of the hour, was made Master of Peterhouse in 1554, and +subsequently he became Vice-Chancellor of the University. He added to +the library the extension which now overlooks Trumpington Street, and +to him the town is largely indebted for those little runnels of +sparkling water to be seen flowing along by the curbstones of some of +the streets. The chapel was added in 1632 by Bishop Matthew Wren in +the Italian Gothic style then prevalent, and its dark panelled +interior is chiefly noted for its Flemish east window. The glass was +taken out and hidden in the Commonwealth period, and replaced when the +wave of Puritanism had spent itself. All the other windows are later +work by Professor Aimmuller of Munich. Before this chapel was built +the little parish church of St. Peter, which stood on the site of the +present St. Mary the Less, supplied the students with all they needed +in this direction. + +CLARE.--Michael House, the second college, was, as we have seen, swept +away to make room for Trinity, so that the second in order of +antiquity is Clare College, whose classic facade of great regularity, +with the graceful little stone bridge spanning the river, is one of +the most familiar features of the "Backs." The actual date of the +founding of the college by Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of Gilbert de +Clare, was 1342, and the court, then built in the prevalent Decorated +style, continued in use until 1525, when it was so badly damaged by +fire that a new building was decided upon, but the work was postponed +until 1635, and was only finished in the second year of the +Restoration. Although no shred of evidence exists as to the architect, +tradition points to Inigo Jones, whose death took place, however, in +1652. The bridge is coeval with the earliest side of the court, having +been finished in 1640. In the hall, marred by great sheets of +plate-glass in the windows, there are portraits of Hugh Latimer, +Thomas Cecil (Earl of Exeter), Elizabeth de Clare (foundress), and +other notable men. + +PEMBROKE.--Like Clare, Pembroke College was founded by a woman. She +was Marie de St. Paul, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, and on her +mother's side was a great-granddaughter of Henry III. She was also the +widow of Aymer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke, whose splendid tomb is a +conspicuous feature of the Sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. + +Instead of the usual modest beginning with one or two existing hostels +adapted for the purposes of a purely academic society, the foundress +cleared away the hostels on the site nearly opposite historic +Peterhouse, and began a regular quadrangle, the first of the +non-religious type Cambridge had known. An existing hostel formed one +side, but the others were all erected for the special purpose of the +college. A hall and kitchen were built to the east, and on the street +side opposite was a gateway placed between students' rooms. Marie de +St. Paul also received permission from two successive Avignonese Popes +to build a chapel with a bell tower at the north-west corner of the +quadrangle, and to some extent these exist to-day, incorporated in the +reference library and an adjoining lecture-room. Of the other +buildings to be seen at the present time the oldest is the Ivy Court, +dating from 1633 to 1659. Since then architect has succeeded +architect, from Sir Christopher Wren, who built a new chapel in 1667, +to Mr. G.G. Scott, the designer of the most easterly buildings in the +style of the French Renaissance. Between these comes the street front +by Waterhouse, for whose unpleasing façade no one seems to have a good +word. There has indeed been such frequent rebuilding at Pembroke that +the glamour of association has been to a great extent swept away. This +is doubly sad in view of the long list of distinguished names +associated with the foundation. Among them are found Thomas Rotherham, +Archbishop of York, who was Master of Pembroke; Foxe, the great Bishop +of Winchester and patron of learning; Ridley; Grindal, afterwards +Archbishop of Canterbury; Matthew Hutton and Whitgift. Beside these +masters Edmund Spenser, the poet Gray, and William Pitt are names of +which Pembroke will always be proud. + +CAIUS.--In the year following the founding of Pembroke Edmund de +Gonville added another society to those already established. This was +in 1348, but three years later the good man died and left the carrying +on of his college to William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, who had just +founded Trinity Hall. He found it convenient to transfer Gonville's +foundation to a site opposite his own college, and from this time +until the famous Dr. Caius (Kayes or Keyes) reformed it in 1557, the +college was known as Gonville Hall. + +[Illustration: THE GATE OF HONOUR CAIUS COLLEGE. On the left is the +Senate House, in the centre the East End of King's College Chapel, and +on the right the University Library.] + +The buildings now comprise three courts, the largest called Tree +Court, being to the east, and the two smaller called Gonville and +Caius respectively, to the west side, separated from Trinity Hall by a +narrow 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 the +quadrangle. He decided on the style of the French Renaissance, and +struck the most stridently discordant note in the whole of the +architecture of the colleges. The tall-turreted frontage suggests +nothing so much as the municipal offices of a flourishing borough. The +present hall, built by Salvin in 1854, was decorated and repanelled by +Edward Warren in 1909. Two of the three curiously named gateways built +by Dr. Caius still survive, and one of them, the Gate of Honour, +opening on to Senate House Passage, is one of the most delightful +things in Cambridge. Dr. Caius had been a Fellow of Gonville Hall, +and, having taken up medicine, continued his studies at the University +of Padua; and after considerable European travel practised in England +with such success that he was appointed Physician to the Court of +Edward VI. Philip and Mary showed him great favour, and his reputation +grew owing to his success in treating the sweating sickness. Having +acquired much wealth, he decided to refound his old college, and the +Italian Gothic of the two gateways is evidence of his delight in the +style with which he had become familiar at Padua and elsewhere. He +built the two wings of the Caius Court, leaving the Court open towards +the south. The idea of his three gates, beginning with the simple Gate +of Humility, leading to the Gate of Virtue, and so to that of Honour, +is very fitting, for such sermons in stones could scarcely find a +better place than in a university. Caius has many famous medical men, +treasuring the memory of Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the +blood, and of Dr. Butts, who was Henry VIII.'s physician. + +TRINITY HALL.--As already mentioned, Trinity Hall was founded two +years after Gonville made his modest foundation. It is specialized in +relation to law as its neighbour is to medicine. Although +architecturally of less account, its modern work is free from anything +obtrusively out of keeping with academic tradition. Salvin's +uninspired eastern side of the court containing the entrance was built +after a fire in 1852, and is typical of his harsh and unsympathetic +work. Behind the Georgian front of the north side of this court, there +is a good deal of the fabric of the Tudor buildings, and some of the +lecture-rooms, with their oak panelling and big chimneys, are most +picturesque. + +On the west side is the hall, dating from 1743, and the modern +combination room, containing a curious old semi-circular table, with a +counter-balance railway for passing the wine from one corner to the +other. The chapel is on the south side, and is a few years earlier +than the hall. + +CORPUS CHRISTI.--Within two years from the founding of Trinity Hall +Corpus Christi came into being, the gild of St. Benedict's Church, in +conjunction with that of St. Mary the Great, having obtained a charter +for 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 of +college-building, and it has managed to preserve under the shadow of +the Saxon tower of the parish church, which was for long the college +chapel, one of the oldest and most attractive courts in Cambridge. +Several of the windows and doors have been altered in later times, but +otherwise three sides of the court are completely mediaeval. Having +retained this fine relic, the college seems to have been content to +let all the rest go, when, in 1823, Wilkins, whose bad Gothic we have +seen 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 associated +with Corpus Christi. Parker left his old college a splendid collection +of manuscripts, which are preserved in the library. This college has a +strong ecclesiastical flavour, and it is therefore fitting that it +should possess such a remarkable document as the original draft of the +Thirty-nine Articles, which is among the treasured manuscripts. + +QUEENS'.--After the founding of Corpus there came an interval of +nearly a century before the eight colleges then existing were added +to. Henry VI. founded King's in 1441, and seven years later his young +Queen Margaret of Anjou, who was only eighteen, was induced by Andrew +Docket 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 two +previous years of its existence been dedicated to St. Bernard. As in +the case of King's, the progress of Margaret's college was handicapped +by the Wars of the Roses, but fortunately Edward IV.'s Queen, +Elizabeth Woodville, espoused the cause of Margaret's college when +Docket appealed to her for help. + +Above all other memories this college glories in its associations with +Erasmus, who was probably advised to go there by Bishop Fisher. There +are certain of his letters extant which he dates from Queens', and it +is interesting to find that he wrote in a querulous fashion of the bad +wine and beer he had to drink when his friend Ammonius failed to send +him his usual cask of the best Greek wine. He also complained of being +beset by thieves, and being shut up because of plague, but it need not +be thought from this that Cambridge was much worse than other places. + +Of all the colleges in the University Queens' belongs most completely +to other days. Its picturesque red brick entrance tower is the best of +this type of gateway, which is such a distinctive feature of +Cambridge, and the first court is similar to St. John's, with which +Bishop Fisher was so closely connected as Lady Margaret Beaufort's +executor. In the inner court, whose west front makes a charming +picture from the river, is the President's Lodge occupying the north +side. Its oriel windows and rough cast walls of quite jovial contours +overhanging the dark cloisters beneath strike a different note to +anything else in Cambridge. Restoration has altered the appearance of +the hall since its early days, but it is an interesting building, with +some notable portraits and good stained glass. The court, named after +Erasmus, at the south-west angle of the college was, it is much to be +regretted, rebuilt by Essex in the latter part of the eighteenth +century; but for this the view of the river front from the curiously +constructed footbridge would have been far finer than it is. Like the +sundial in the first court, this bridge, leading to soft meadows +beneath 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 Virgin +Martyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria." Undergraduate slang, alas! +reduces all this to "Cat's." It was originally called St. Catherine's +Hall, and is one of the smallest of the colleges. Although not +claiming the strong ecclesiastical flavour of Corpus, it has educated +quite a formidable array of bishops. From Trumpington Street the +buildings have the appearance of a pleasant manor-house of Queen Anne +or early Georgian days, and, with the exception of the wing at the +north-west, the whole of the three-sided court dates between 1680 and +1755. Both chapel and hall are included in this period. + +JESUS.--Standing so completely apart from the closely clustered +nucleus, Jesus College might be regarded as a modern foundation +ranking with Downing or Selwyn by the hurried visitor who had failed +to consult his guide-book and had not previous information to aid him. +It was actually founded as long ago as 1497, and the buildings include +the church and other parts of the Benedictine nunnery of the Virgin +and St. Rhadegund. + +Bishop Alcock, of Ely, was the founder of the college, and his badge, +composed of three cocks' heads, is frequently displayed on the +buildings. The entrance gate, dating from the end of the fifteenth +century, with stepped parapets, is the work of the founder, and is one +of the best features of the college. Passing through this Tudor arch, +we enter the outer court, dating from the reign of Charles I., but +finished in Georgian times. From this the inner court is entered, and +here we are in the nuns' cloister, with their church, now the college +chapel, to the south, and three beautiful Early English arches, which +probably formed the entrance to the chapter-house, noticeable on the +east. In this court are the hall, the lodge, and the library, but the +most interesting of all the buildings is the chapel. It is mainly the +Early English church of the nunnery curtailed and altered by Bishop +Alcock, who put in Perpendicular windows and removed aides without a +thought of the denunciations he has since incurred. In many of the +windows the glass is by Morris and Burne-Jones, and the light that +passes through them gives a rich and solemn dignity to the interior. + +CHRIST'S.--Perhaps the most impressive feature of Christ's College is +the entrance gate facing the busy shopping street called Petty Cury. +The imposing heraldic display reminds us at once of Lady Margaret +Beaufort, who, in 1505, refounded God's House, the hostel which had +previously stood here. Although restored, the chapel is practically of +the same period as the gateway, and it and the hall have both +interesting interiors. From the court beyond, overlooked on one side +by the fine classic building of 1642 attributed to Inigo Jones, +entrance is gained to the beautiful fellows' garden, where the +mulberry-tree associated with the memory of Milton may still be seen. + +[Illustration: THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE. The Large stained +glass window of the Hall is seen on the right, and beyond that the +window of the Combination Room. The Dormer window of Harvard's room is +seen on the extreme left.] + +MAGDALENE.--This college is the only old one on the outer side of the +river. It stands on the more historic part of Cambridge; but although +an abbey hostel was here in Henry VI.'s time, it was not until 1542, +after the suppression of Crowland Abbey, to which the property +belonged, that Magdalene was founded by Thomas, Baron Audley of +Walden. In the first court of ivy-grown red brick is the rather +uninteresting chapel, and on the side facing the entrance the hall +stands between the two courts. It has some interesting portraits, +including one of Samuel Pepys, and a good double staircase leading to +the combination room, but more notable than anything else is the +beautiful Renaissance building in the inner court, wherein is +preserved the library of books Pepys presented to his old college. In +the actual glass-covered bookcases in which he kept them, and in the +very order, according to size, that Pepys himself adopted, we may see +the very interesting collection of books he acquired. Here, too, is +the famous Diary, in folio volumes, of neatly written shorthand, and +other intensely interesting possessions of the immortal diarist. + +EMMANUEL.--The college stands on the site of a Dominican friary, but +Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder, or his executors, being imbued with +strong Puritanism, delighted in sweeping away the monastic buildings +they found still standing. Ralph Symons was the first architect, but +all his excellent Elizabethan work has vanished, the oldest portion of +the college only dating back to 1633. From that time up to the end of +the eighteenth century the rest of the structures were reconstructed +in the successive styles of classic revival. Wren began the work, but +unluckily it was left to Essex to complete it, and he is responsible +for the dreary hall occupying the site of the old chapel. + +SIDNEY SUSSEX.--At the foot of the list of post-Reformation colleges +comes Sidney Sussex, founded, in 1589, by Frances Lady Sussex, +daughter of Sir William Sidney, and widow of the second Earl of +Sussex. During the mania for rebuilding, all the Elizabethan work of +Ralph Symons was replaced by Essex, and in the nineteenth century the +notorious Wyatville, whose Georgian Gothic removed all the glamour +from Windsor Castle, finished the work. + +DOWNING.--The remaining colleges belong to the period we may call +recent. Downing, the first of these, was not a going concern until +1821, although Sir George Downing, the founder, made the will by which +his property was eventually devoted to this purpose as early as the +year 1717. + +RIDLEY HALL came into being in 1879, and is an adjunct to the other +colleges for those who have already graduated and have decided to +enter the Church. + +SELWYN COLLEGE, founded about the same time, is named after the great +Bishop Selwyn, who died in 1877. The college aims at the provision, on +a hostel basis, of a University education on a less expensive scale +than the older colleges. + +Of the two women's colleges, Girton was founded first. This was in +1869, and the site chosen was as far away as Hitchen, but four years +later, gaining confidence, the college was moved to Girton, a mile +north-west of the town, on the Roman Via Devana. Newnham arrived on +the scene soon afterwards, and, considering proximity to the +University town no disadvantage, the second women's college was +planted between Ridley and Selwyn, with Miss Clough as the first +principal. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, THE SENATE HOUSE, THE PITT PRESS, AND THE +MUSEUMS + + +In the early days when the University of Cambridge was still in an +embryonic state, the various newly formed communities of academic +learning had no corporate centre whatever. "The chancellor and +masters" are first mentioned in a rescript of Bishop Balsham dated +1276, eight years before he founded Peterhouse, the first college, and +six years before this Henry III. had addressed a letter to "the +masters and scholars of Cambridge University," so that between these +two dates it would appear that the chancellor really became the prime +academic functionary. But it was not until well into the fourteenth +century that any University buildings made their appearance. + +The "schools quadrangle" was begun when Robert Thorpe, knight, was +chancellor (1347-64), and during the following century various schools +for lecturing and discussions on learned matters were built round the +court, now entirely devoted to the library. Unfortunately, the +medieval character of these buildings has been masked by a classic +façade on the south, built in 1754, when it was thought necessary to +make the library similar in style to the newly built Senate House. +Thus without any further excuse the fine Perpendicular frontage by +Thomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln and fellow of King's, was +demolished to make way for what can only be called a most unhappy +substitute. George I. was really the cause of this change, for in 1715 +he presented Cambridge with Dr. John Moore's extensive library, and +not having the space to accommodate the little Hanoverian's gift, the +authorities decided to add the old Senate House, which occupied the +north side of the quadrangle, to the library, and to build a new +Senate House; and the building then erected, designed by Mr., +afterwards Sir James, Burrough, is still in use. It is a +well-proportioned and reposeful piece of work, although the average +undergraduate probably has mixed feelings when he gazes at the double +line of big windows between composite pillasters supporting the rather +severe cornice. For in this building, in addition to the +"congregations," or meetings, of the Senate consisting of resident and +certain non-resident masters of art, the examinations for degrees were +formerly held. Here on the appointed days, early in the year, the +much-crammed undergraduates passed six hours of feverish writing, and +here, ten days later, in the midst of a scene of long-established +disorder, their friends heard the results announced. Immediately the +name of the Senior Wrangler was given out there was a pandemonium of +cheering, shouting, yelling, and cap-throwing, and the same sort of +thing was repeated until the list of wranglers was finished. Following +this, proctors threw down from the oaken galleries printed lists of +the other results, and a wild struggle at once took place in which +caps and gowns were severely handled, and for a time the marble floor +was covered with a fighting mob of students all clutching at the +fluttering papers, while the marble features of the two first Georges, +William Pitt, and the third Duke of Somerset remained placidly +indifferent. + +Although there is no space here to describe the many early books the +library contains, it is impossible to omit to mention that among the +notable manuscripts exhibited in the galleries is the famous _Codex +Bezae_ presented to the University by Theodore Beza, who rescued it, +in 1562, when the monastery at Lyons, in which it was preserved, was +being destroyed. This manuscript is in uncial letters on vellum in +Greek and Latin, and includes the four Gospels and the Acts. + +It was a pardonable mistake for the old-time "freshman" to think the +Pitt Press in Trumpington Street was a church, but no one does this +now, because the gate tower, built about 1832, when the Gothic revival +was sweeping the country, is now known as "the Freshman's Church." The +Pitt Press was established with a part of the fund raised to +commemorate William Pitt, who was educated at Pembroke College nearly +opposite. + +The University Press publishes many books, and gives special attention +to books the publication of which tends to the advancement of +learning. The two Universities and the King's printer have still a +monopoly in printing the Bible and Book of Common Prayer. + +The magnificent museum founded by Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, is a +little farther down Trumpington Street. It was finished in 1847 by +Cockerell, who added the unhappy north side to the University Library, +but the original architect was Basevi, who was prevented from +finishing the building he had begun by his untimely death through +falling from one of the towers of Ely Cathedral. The magnificence of +the great portico, with its ceiling of encrusted ornament, is vastly +impressive, but the marble staircase in the entrance lobby, with its +rich crimson reds, is rather overpowering in conjunction with the +archaeological exhibits. Plainer, cooler and less aggressive marble +such as that employed in the lobby of the Victoria and Albert Museum +would have been more suitable. A very considerable proportion of the +museum's space is devoted to the collection of pictures--some of them +copies--which the University has gathered. The interesting Turner +water-colours presented by John Ruskin are here, with a Murillo, +reputed to be his earliest known work, and a good many other examples +of 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 shown +in the vast buildings newly erected on both sides of Downing Street, +which has now become a street of laboratories and museums. Now that +the outworks of the hoary citadel of Classicism have been stormed, and +the undermining of the great walls has already begun, the development +of modern science at Cambridge will be accelerated, and in the face of +the urgency of the demands of worldwide competition it would appear +that the University on the Cam is more fitted to survive than her +sister on the Isis. + +[Illustration: THE CIRCULAR NORMAN CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. This +splendid survival of the Norman age is one of the four churches in +England planned to imitate the form of the Holy Sepulchre of +Jerusalem.] + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE CHURCHES IN THE TOWN + + +Almost everyone who goes to Cambridge as a visitor bent on sightseeing +naturally wishes to see the colleges before anything else, but it +should not be forgotten that there are at least two churches, apart +from the college chapels, whose importance is so great that to fail to +see them would be a criminal omission. There are other churches of +considerable interest, but for a description of them it is +unfortunately 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 only +structural relic of the Saxon town now in existence. The church was +for a considerable time the chapel of Corpus Christi, and the ancient +tower still rises picturesquely over the roofs of the old court of +that college. + +Without the tower, the church would be of small interest, for the nave +and chancel are comparatively late, and have been rather drastically +restored. The interior, nevertheless, is quite remarkable in +possessing a massive Romanesque arch opening into the tower, with +roughly carved capitals to its tall responds. Outside there are all +the unmistakable features of Saxon work--the ponderously thick walls, +becoming thinner in the upper parts, the "long and short" method of +arranging the coigning, and the double windows divided with a heavy +baluster as at Wharram-le-Street in Yorkshire, Earl's Barton in +Northamptonshire, and elsewhere. + +Next in age and importance to St. Benedict's comes what is popularly +called "the Round Church," one of the four churches of the Order of +Knights Templar now standing in this country. The other three are the +Temple Church in London, St. Sepulchre's at Northampton, and Little +Maplestead Church in Essex, and they are given in chronological order, +Cambridge possessing the oldest. It was consecrated the Church of the +Holy Sepulchre, and was built before the close of the eleventh +century, and is therefore a work of quite early Norman times. The +interior is wonderfully impressive, for it has nothing of the +lightness and grace of the Transitional work in the Temple, and the +heavy round arches opening into the circular aisle are supported by +eight massive piers. Above there is another series of eight pillars, +very squat, and of about the same girth as those below, and the spaces +between are subdivided by a small pillar supporting two semi-circular +arches. Part of the surrounding aisle collapsed in 1841, and the +Cambridge Camden Society (now defunct) employed the architect Salvin +to thoroughly restore the church. He took down a sort of battlemented +superstructure erected long after the Norman period, and built the +present 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 in +the very centre of the town. It has not, however, always stood forth +in such distinguished isolation, for only as recently as the middle of +last century did the demolition take place of the domestic houses that +surrounded it. And inside, the alterations in recent times have been +quite as drastic, robbing the church of all the curious and remarkable +characteristics it boasted until well past the middle of the +nineteenth century, and reducing the whole interior to the stereotyped +features of an average parish church. + +If we enter the building to-day without any knowledge of its past, we +merely note a spacious late Perpendicular nave, having galleries in +the aisles with fine dark eighteenth-century panelled fronts, and more +woodwork of this plain and solemn character in front of the organ, in +the aisle chapels, and elsewhere. A soft greenish light from the +clerestory 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 is +on rails, making it possible to draw it from the north side to a +central position beneath the chancel arch. This concession to +tradition is explained when we discover the state of the church before +1863, when Dr. Luard, who was then vicar, raised an agitation, before +which the Georgian glories of the University Church passed away. +Before the time of Laud, when so many departures from mediaeval custom +had taken place, we learn, from information furnished during the +revival brought about by the over-zealous archbishop, that the church +was arranged much on the lines of a theatre, with a pulpit in the +centre, which went by the name of the Cockpit, that the service was +cut as short as "him that is sent thither to read it" thought fit, and +that during sermon-time the chancel was filled with boys and townsmen +"all in a rude heap between the doctors and the altar." But this +concentration on the University sermon and disrespect for the altar +went further, for, with the legacy of Mr. William Worts, the existing +galleries were put up in 1735, the Cockpit was altered, and other +changes 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 finer +predecessor, 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 the +church, but thereafter it would appear that the sermon flourished +almost to the exclusion of anything else. + +The diminutive little church of St. Peter near the Castle mound is of +Transitional 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 AND +ESHER. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF CAMBRIDGE. By permission, from _A Concise Guide +to the Town and University of Cambridge_ (J. Willis Clark), published +by Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge.] + + +INDEX + +Akeman Street, 8 +Alcock, Bishop, 46, 47 +Ashton, Hugh, Archdeacon of York, 18 +Audley of Walden, Thomas Baron, 48 + +"Backs," The, 34 +Bicon, Sir Nicholas, 43 +Bolsham, Bishop, 13, 21, 51 +Beaufort, Lady Margaret, 15, 18, 20, 45, 47 +Bede, 6 +Beza, Theodore, 54 +Boleyn, Anne, 28 +Burrough, Sir James, 52, 61 + +Cains College, 39-41 +Caius, Dr., 40 +Cambridge Camden Society, 59 +Cambridge Castle, 7-10 +Cambridge, Origin of Name, 6-9 +Cavendish, Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, 16 +Caxton, William, 19 +Christ's College, 20, 47-48 +Clare College, 36-37 +Corpus Christi College, 13, 42-43, 57 +Curthose, Robert, 11 + +Docket, Andrew, 43 +Downing College, 50 +Downing, Sir George, 50 + +Edward III., 10, 30, 42 +Edward VI., 41 +Edward VII., 34 +Elizabeth, Queen, 33 +Elizabeth Woodville, Queen, 44 +Ely, 6, 9, 12, 21 +Emmanuel College, 48-49 +Erasmus, 45 +Essex, James, 35, 49 + +Fisher, Bishop, 15, 19, 44, 45 + +George I., 52, 53 +Gibbs, James, 23 +Girton, 50 +Gonville, Edmund de, 39 +Gonville Hall, 13, 40 +Grantchester, 8 +Great St. Mary's Church, 42, 59 + +Henry I., 11 +Henry III., 51 +Henry IV., 10 +Henry VI., 11, 22, 23, 43 +Henry VII., 23 +Henry VIII., 20, 28, 29, 30 +Hereward the Wake, 9 + +Jesus College, 46 +Jones, Inigo, 37-38, 48 + +King's College, 10, 14, 22-28 +King's Hall, 10, 13, 29 + +Magdalene College, 14, 48, 49 +Margaret of Anjou, Queen, 43 +Mary, Queen, 10, 31 +Michael House, 13, 29 +Mildmay, Sir Walter, 49 +Moore, Dr. John, 52 + +Nevile, Thomas, 30 +Newnham, 50 +Newton, Sir Isaac, 31, 45 + +Parker, Archbishop, 62 +Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Canterbury, 43 +Pembroke College, 13, 37-38 +Pepys, Samuel, 3, 48 +Perne, Dr. Andrew, 36 +Perse, Dr., 40 +Peterhouse, 13, 35-36, 51 +Philip and Mary, 41 +Pitt Press, 54 +Pitt, William, 39, 53, 54 + +Queens' College, 43-45 + +Richard III., 23 +Rickman, Thomas, 17 +Ridley Hall, 50 +Roman Cambridge, 6-9 +Round Church, The, 58 + +St. Benedict's Church, 42, 57 +St. Catherine's College, 45-46 +St. John's College, 14, 15-21 +St. John's Hospital, 13, 16, 21 +St. Mary the Less, 36 +St. Peter's Church, 36, 62 +Salvin, Anthony, 59 +Scott, Sir Gilbert, 15, 17 +Selwyn College, 50 +Senate House, 52, 53, 62 +Sidney, Sir William, 49 +Sidney Sussex College, 14, 49 +Skeat, Professor, 7, 9 +Stourbridge Fair, 10, 12 +Sussex, Frances Lady, 49 +Symons, Ralph, 49 + +Tennyson, Lord, 31 +Thirty-nine Articles, 43 +Trinity College, 29-31 +Trinity Hall, 13, 41-42 + +Valance, Aymer de, 38 +Via Devana, 8 + +Walpole, Sir Robert, 24 +Whewell, William, 32 +Wilberforce, William, 21 +Wilkins, William, 24 +William the Conqueror, 9, 10 +Williams, Lord Keeper, 16 +Wordsworth, William, 21, 26, 31 +Wren, Bishop Matthew, 35 +Wren, Sir Christopher, 34, 38 +Wyatville, Sir J., 49 +Wykeham, William of, 2 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12857 *** |