-^*\.,^
 
 (
 
 Interior of King's College Chapel. 
 
 From an Etching; hy H. Tousstiiiit-
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 IBtizt I^istorical anD Descriptitie Il5ote0 
 
 BY 
 
 J. W. CLARK, M.A. 
 
 Regist'ar of Cambridge Uni-versity 
 
 FIFTH EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SKELEY AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 38 Grkat Russell Street 
 1902
 
 s..?n=--^^ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Medieval Town . . . . . . i 
 
 II. 
 
 The Story of Peter house. The Market Hill 34 
 
 III. 
 
 Great St. Mary's Church. Clare Hall. Pem- 
 broke College ...... 67 
 
 IV. 
 
 1"hl ]v\rly History of Trinity College . . 94 
 
 V. 
 J'he Further History of Trinity College . 117 
 
 VI. 
 
 King's College ....... 142
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 King's College {continued) . , . .162 
 
 VIII. 
 
 St. John's College. Christ's College . .187 
 
 IX. 
 
 College of St. Mary Magdalene. College and 
 
 University Libraries . . .210 
 
 X. 
 
 GONVILLE AND CaIUS CoLLEGE. QuEENS' COLLEGE. 
 
 Emmanuel College . . . . .229 
 
 XI. 
 
 Jesus College 260 
 
 XII. 
 
 Social Tjfe at Cambridge " 'Tis Sixty Years 
 
 Since" 282
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Interior of King's College Chapel . Frontispiece 
 Gati.-house of Cambridge Castle, from a View 
 
 TAKEN IN 1773 . . .... Page 15 
 
 The Round Church ; or Church of the Holy 
 
 Sepulchre 21 
 
 Inti;rior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 25 
 Corpus Christi College and the Tower of St. 
 
 Benet's 29 
 
 Peterhouse : Exterior of the South Side of the 
 
 Principal Court 37 
 
 The Old Conduit 47 
 
 Market Hill ; with the New Conduit and St. 
 
 Church 51 
 
 (}ate of Entrance, Clare College, as seen from 
 
 THE Interior of the Court . . . -87 
 Oriel Window of the Lodge, Pembroke College, 
 
 now desiroyed, from the garden . . . qi 
 The (]reat Court of Trinity College ... 99 
 The Great Gate of Trinity College . . . 103 
 Neyilf:'s Court at Trinity CoLLEfjE . . .115 
 The Cam near Trinity College, with ihf. Tower 
 
 OF St. John's Chapel . . . . .119
 
 Vlll 
 
 List of Illustrations. 
 
 South Porch of King's College Chapel 
 
 King's College Chapel, from beyond the River 
 
 St. John's College .... 
 
 Gate of Entrance, St. John's College . 
 
 Gateway in ihe Third Court of St. John's 
 
 The Gari)i;n of Christ's College 
 
 Pepvsian Library, Magdalene College . 
 
 Trinity Hall Library 
 
 Carvings in Trinity College Library . 
 
 Gate of Virtue at Caius College . 
 
 North Side of the Gate of Honour, Caius 
 
 College , , .... 
 
 ]>ridge of Queens' College, looking North 
 The Lodge of Queens' College 
 Chapel and Cloister of Emmanuel College, from 
 
 the Garden 
 
 The Senate House and University Library 
 East End of Jesus College Chapel, from 
 
 New Court 
 
 (iATE of Entrance to Jesus College 
 
 Outer Court of Jesus College, looking to the 
 
 South-west Corner .... 
 The Old ]5ridge of St. John's College , 
 Gallery in the President's Lodge at Queens 
 
 College . , , , 
 
 PAGE 
 149 
 
 189 
 
 201 
 
 213 
 219 
 
 239 
 245 
 249 
 
 253 
 
 271 
 
 275 
 
 279 
 293 
 
 313
 
 CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 The Medieval "Town. 
 
 WHEN an antiquary examines a Cathedral 
 which at first sight appears to present 
 uniformity of design, he not unfrequently finds 
 that the choir is of one period, the nave of another, 
 the transepts of a third ; all having been built 
 long subsequently to the foundation of the primi- 
 tive church, whose walls and piers must be disin- 
 terred from underneath the statelier additions of 
 more recent times. Those who would trace the 
 history of one of our populous towns are obliged 
 to pursue much the same process. The fortifica- 
 tions have been pulled down long ago ; half the 
 churches have served as quarries out of which the 
 other half have been built ; and though an old 
 name of a street may here or there survive, the 
 primitive town is hidden away under the modern 
 
 2
 
 2 Cambridge. 
 
 one as completely as is a hermit's cell beneath the 
 Cathedral raised to commemorate his saintly life. 
 A University town, however, though it has out- 
 grown its ancient limits, and been modernised in 
 diverse ways, is less subject to change than almost 
 any other. The colleges guard their territories 
 with jealous care ; they allow of no encroachment ; 
 they alienate no portion of the sacred soil, except 
 on rare occasions to some other College, or to the 
 University, for University purposes ; and, more- 
 over, they gradually acquire so much property in 
 the town, that they can regulate, in some degree, 
 the extent and direction of its development. Thus, 
 though the colleges of Cambridge have been a 
 good deal altered and enlarged since their first 
 foundation, and even since 1690, as is proved by 
 comparing the existing structures with David 
 Loggan's engravings, taken shortly before that 
 year though some have even been entirely re- 
 built ; yet the ancient landmarks have not been 
 obliterated. Time has dealt gently with them 
 on the whole ; revolution, notwithstanding all 
 that has been said to the contrary, has hardly done 
 them severer injury than the destruction of a 
 Virgin's head, or the defacement of a royal 
 scutcheon ; nay, even in regard of ordinary 
 accidents, they have been singularly fortunate. 
 In the words of Fuller :
 
 The Fen- land. 3 
 
 "Whosoever shall consider in both Universities the ill 
 contrivance of many chimnies, hollowness of hearths, 
 shallowness of tunnels, carelessness of coals and candles, 
 catchingness of papers, narrowness of studies, late reading 
 and long watching of scholars, cannot but conclude that an 
 especial providence prcservcth those places. How small a 
 matter hath sometimes made a partition betwixt the fire and 
 the fuel ? Thus an hair's breadth, fixed by a divine finger, 
 shall prove as effectual a separation from danger as a mile's 
 distance. And although both Universities have had sad 
 accidents in this kind, yet neither in number or nature 
 (since the Reformation) so destructive as in other places : so 
 that, blessed be God, they have been rather scare-fires than 
 hurt-fires unto them." 
 
 If, however, the town of Cambridge has been, 
 on the whole, but little altered by comparison 
 with other places that have increased with equal 
 rapidity, a more thorough change has been 
 wrought in the neighbourhood in the last fifty 
 years than in most other parts of England in five 
 hundred. On the one hand, the open country has 
 been enclosed ; on the other, the Fen-land has 
 been drained. Let us try to imagine the con- 
 dition of this latter district in the Middle Age, 
 when Cambridge was a frontier fortress on the 
 edge of the great wild that then stretched away 
 towards the north-east as far as the Wash. It 
 was crossed by only one great Roman Way, the 
 Akeman Street, which led from Cambridge to 
 Brancastcr ; and even this carefully avoided the
 
 4 Cambridge. 
 
 low grounds, passing from island to island with 
 such skill in engineering that not more than nine 
 miles of ^^w had to be traversed between Cam- 
 bridge and the high ground of Norfolk. Right 
 and left of this causeway stretched a sea of peat- 
 moss, all but impassable except to those who were 
 in the secret of its fords and by-ways, traversed 
 by sluggish rivers, and dotted here and there with 
 green islands, chief of which was the central 
 eminence of Ely Isle, the holy hill of Etheldreda, 
 the Camp of Refuge to which the Saxons fled 
 when they made their last determined resistance 
 to the Norman invaders. Notwithstanding all its 
 drawbacks the agues and fevers that racked the 
 inhabitants, the outlaws who plundered them, and 
 the Danish invaders who could easily ascend the 
 rivers, and burn and murder after their manner 
 the Fen-land must have had a beauty and interest 
 of its own, such as is always to be found where 
 Nature is left undisturbed, and bird, and beast, 
 and insect multiply without the interference of 
 man. It is all gone now. Two thousand square 
 miles of the finest corn-land in England have 
 replaced mere and reed-bed ; the amphibious 
 population of the fen " yellow-bellies," as their 
 neighbours of terra firma contemptuously styled 
 them have beconie opulent and portly farmers, 
 so portly indeed that a big hole in a dyke,
 
 The Pen- land. 
 
 5 
 
 through which the water was pouring iti a storm, 
 defying all efforts to restrain it, is said to have 
 been effectually stopped by the simple expedient 
 of the farmer sitting down in it ; and the soil 
 that it was once thought impossible, if not im- 
 pious, to drain, has now become so dry that in 
 a certain hot summer a few years ago water had 
 to be pumped into the Fen instead of out of it. 
 Here and there, as in Wicken Fen, a few acres of 
 primeval wilderness survive to give us some idea 
 of what the rest once was. The ground where 
 the marsh-fern still flourishes is sodden with black, 
 unwholesome water ; the sedge and the reeds are 
 breast-high ; and in summer-time the great 
 swallow-tailed butterflies float lazily about as 
 they did of old. However, as Kingsley said in 
 his beautiful rhapsody on the Fens : 
 
 " Wc shall have wheat and mutton instead, and no more 
 typhus and ague ; and, it is to be hoped, no more brandy- 
 drinking and opium-eating; and children will live and not 
 die. For it was a hard place to live in, the old Fen, a place 
 where one heard ot ' unexampled instances of longevity,' 
 for the same reason that one hears of them in savage tribes, 
 that few lived to old age at all, save those iron constitutions 
 which nothing could break down." 
 
 No doubt the Fen was a hard taskmaster, and 
 some of those who dwelt in it were not gentle 
 either, for chains aiid collars to harness captives,
 
 6 Cambridge. 
 
 and chains wherewith slaves were yoked as they 
 worked, have been found in it ; yet it had a 
 bright side as well as a gloomy one, and parts of 
 it were a very paradise of fertility. Here is a 
 picture of the Isle of Ely, from the Liber 
 Elieusis, as it appeared in the eleventh century. 
 The speaker is a French knight who has been 
 taken prisoner by Hereward, and having been hos- 
 pitably entertained by him, returns to William's 
 camp and describes what he had seen : 
 
 " In our Isle men arc not troubling themselves about the 
 siege ; the ploughman has not taken his hand from the 
 plough, nor has the hunter cast aside his arrow, nor does 
 the fowler desist from beguiling birds. If you care to hear 
 what I have heard and seen with my own eyes, I will 
 reveal all to you. The Isle is within itself plenteously 
 endowed ; it is supplied with various kinds of herbage ; and 
 in richness of soil surpasses the rest of England. Most 
 delightful for charming fields and pastures, it is also re- 
 markable for beasts of chase ; and is, in no ordinary way, 
 fertile in flocks and herds. Its woods and vineyards arc not 
 worthy of equal praise ; but it is begirt by great meres and 
 fens as though by a strong wall. In this Isle there is an 
 abundance of domestic cattle, and a multitude of wild 
 animals J stags, roes, goats, and hares, are found in its groves 
 and by those fens. Moreover, there is a fair sufKcicncy of 
 otters, weasels, and polecats ; which in a liard winter are 
 caught by traps, snares, or by any other device. But what 
 am I to say of the kinds of fishes and of fowls, both those 
 that fly and those that swim : In the eddies at the sluices 
 of these meres are netted innumerable eels, large water- 
 wolves, with pickerels, perches, roaches, burbots, and lam-
 
 The Fen-land. 7 
 
 preys, which we call water-snakes. It is, indeed, said by 
 many that sometimes salmon arc taken there, together with 
 the royal fish, the sturgeon. As tor the birds that abide there 
 and thereabouts, if you are not tired of listening to me, I will 
 tell you about them, as I have told you about the rest. 
 There you find geese, teal, coots, didappers, water-crows, 
 herons, and ducks, more than man can number, especially 
 in winter or at moulting time. I have seen a hundred 
 nay, even three hundred taken at once ; sometimes by 
 bird-lime, sometimes in nets or snares." 
 
 This vast prodigality of life has perished with 
 the morasses and the meres that sheltered it, and 
 year by year, as drainage becomes more extensive 
 and more thorough, the Cambridge market is more 
 scantily furnished from the Fen. The stag, the 
 roe, and the goat have been long extinct, and 
 their existence is only revealed to us by the 
 abundance of their bones that are found in the 
 all-preserving peat. Many another animal is 
 proved by the same evidence to liave once existed 
 in the Fen, or near it ; the gigantic aurochs, which, 
 on the Continent, survived till the Lombard inva- 
 sion of Italv ; the smaller short-horned ox ; the 
 wild cat, marten, badger, otter, bear ; and last, 
 but not least, beaver, in sufficient abundance to 
 show that there must have been numerous colonies 
 of them there. I'he drainage of Whittlesea Mere, 
 completed in 1850., destroyed the last home of 
 one of the most remarkable of British insects,
 
 8 Cambridge. 
 
 the great copper butterfly; "^nd of many birds also. 
 Snipe are said to breed no longer in the Fen; while 
 ruffs and reeves, godwits, spoonbills, bitterns, and 
 herons, are almost as much creatures of the past 
 as the pelican, whose former existence is proved 
 by a couple of his wingbones preserved in the 
 Cambridge University Museum. 
 
 On the western edge of the Fen-land, where the 
 higher ground terminates on the left bank of the 
 Cam in an eminence of considerable height, stood 
 the Roman station of Camboritum. This com- 
 manding position had already been taken possession 
 of by an earlier race, as is shown by the lofty 
 mound called Castle Hill, probably a British 
 earth-work. This was included within the pre- 
 cincts of the Roman fortifications, traces of which 
 can still be recognised. They measured about 
 1,650 feet rom north to south, by 1,600 feet 
 from east to west. At this point the Akeman 
 Street left the Fen, and was crossed, almost at right 
 angles, by a second Roman Way, the Via Devana, 
 which ran from Colchester to Chester. The 
 situation of Camboritum, at the junction of two 
 such important roads, probably saved it from the 
 destruction which overtook so many Roman 
 towns in the havoc of the English conquest, and 
 caused it to be at once occupied by the con- 
 queror. It is not to Cambridge, therefore, but
 
 Camboritum. 9 
 
 to some other Roman station that Bede refers, 
 when he relates how Sexburga, sister of Ethel- 
 dreda, foundress of Ely, sent to seek a marble 
 sarcophagus fit to contain the saint's remains. 
 " The brethren whom she sent," says the his- 
 torian, " took ship and came to a certain ruined 
 town at no great distance, which in the English 
 tongue is called Grantacasstir ; there presently they 
 found, hard by the walls, a white marble coffin, 
 exquisitely wrought, with a lid of the same 
 material." This description does not suit Cam- 
 bridge, where few Roman remains have been 
 discovered ; but, on the other hand, it suits 
 Grantchester exceedingly well, a village about 
 three miles higher up the stream, where there 
 is a well-marked Roman encampment, and where 
 there was evidently an extensive cemetery, for 
 many ancient coffins may still be seen, built into 
 the walls of the church and churchyard. This 
 town was apparently early deserted in favour of 
 Camboritum, which, for the reasons mentioned 
 above, was the more convenient and important 
 station. 
 
 Camboritum stood nearly opposite to the 
 northernmost limit of a considerable bend of 
 the river, which is crossed by a bridge at the 
 bottom of the hill commanded by the camp or 
 castle. As there is evidence that the road which
 
 10 Cambridge. 
 
 passes over this bridge is the southward extension 
 of the Via Deva^m, it is almost certain that the 
 river has always been crossed at the same place. 
 In ancient times fords were used instead of 
 bridges, and, in fact, in the middle of the last 
 century, when the bridge was being repaired, 
 traces of a ford were found in this place. It 
 may therefore be suggested that Camboritum 
 signifies " the ford [ritum) at the bend," a name 
 derived from the position of the high ground, 
 which effectually commanded the passage of the 
 river. 
 
 In the Middle Ages the name Camboritum 
 seems to have been either unknown or forgotten ; 
 Grantebrigge or Cantebrigge is the only name in 
 use, while the river, if a name more distinct than 
 "the running water" is used for it, is called le Ee^ 
 or le Rhee, a name which is still applied to the 
 upper part of its course. The name Granta 
 reappears on Saxton's map of Cambridgeshire 
 (1576) ; and in Spenser's "Faery yueene " (i ^^90), 
 under the form Guanl : 
 
 " Next these the plenteous Ouse came far from land, 
 By many a city and by many a townc, 
 And many rivers taking under-hand 
 Into his waters, as he passeth downc, 
 (The Clc, the Were, the Guant, the Sture, the Rowne) 
 Thence doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit;
 
 The River Cam. 1 1 
 
 My mother, Cambridge, whom, as with a crowne, 
 
 He doth adorne, and is adorn'd of it 
 
 With many a gentle muse and many a learned wit." 
 
 Camden, writing In 1586, recognises the Cam 
 as well as the Granta : " By what name writers 
 termed this River, It Is a question : some call It 
 Grantdy others Camus." On Speed's map of 
 Cambridgeshire (1610) the name Cam occurs 
 alone, written twice, once above, and once below, 
 Cambridge ; Milton personifies It as a river-god 
 in " Lycldas" (1638) : 
 
 " Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
 His mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe ;" 
 
 and on Loggan's map of Cambridge (1688) the 
 words T/ie River Cam are written out in full, 
 without any other designation. On the other 
 hand, so late as 1702, an Act of Parliament for 
 Improving the navigation speaks of the River 
 Cham^ alias the Grant. 
 
 The usefulness of this stream to the Inhabitants 
 of Cambridge whatever name they gave to it 
 was very great. Until the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century It supplied them, to a great 
 extent, with water for household use ; and until 
 the construction of railways it was the principal
 
 1 2 Cambridge. 
 
 highway along which provender of all sorts, fuel, 
 and heavy goods, were brought to the town. 
 This explains the ill-feeling excited at different 
 times as the colleges gradually acquired and closed 
 up the lanes leading to it. We quote a graphic 
 description of the advantages derived from the 
 river which appears in a work called Cantabrigia 
 Depicta^ published in 1763. The name, it will be 
 observed, is still The Grant. 
 
 " The Air of Cafnbridge is very healthful, and the Town 
 plentifully supplied with excellent Water, not only from the 
 River and Aqueduct already mentioned, but from the nume- 
 rous Springs on every Side of it ; some of them medicinal. 
 Nor is it better supplied with Water, than it is with other 
 Necessaries of Life. The purest Wine they receive by the 
 Way of Lynn: Flesh, Fish, Wild-fowl, Poultry, Butter, 
 Cheese, and all Manner of Provisions, from the adjacent 
 Country : Firing is cheap ; Coals from Seven-pence to 
 Nine-pence a Bushel ; Turf, or rather Peat, four Shillings 
 a Thousand ; Sedge, with which the Bakers heat their 
 Ovens, four Shillings per hundred Sheaves : These, to- 
 gether with Osiers, Reeds and Rushes used in several 
 Trades, are daily imported by the River Grant. Great 
 Ouantitics of Oil, made of Flax-Secd, Colc-Seed, Hemp and 
 other Seeds, ground or pressed by the numerous Mills in the 
 Isle of Ely, are brought up this River also; and the Cakes, 
 after the Oil is pressed out, aftbrd the Farmer an excellent 
 Manure to improve his Grounds, By the River also they 
 receive 1500 or 2000 Firkins of Butter every Week, from 
 'Norfolk and the Isle of Ely, which is sent by Waggons to 
 London: Besides which, great quantities are made in the 
 neighbouring Villages, for the Use of the University and
 
 J' he Castle. 13 
 
 Town, and brought fresh to Market every Day, except 
 Mondav. Everv Pound of this Butter is rolled, and drawn 
 out to a Yard in Length, about the Bigness of a Walking- 
 Cane ; which is mentioned as peculiar to this Place. The 
 Fields near Cambridge furnish the Town with the best 
 Saftron in Europe, which sells usually from 24 to 30 Shillings 
 a Pound." 
 
 On the site of Roman Camboritum William the 
 Conqueror founded Cambridge Castle in 1068, on 
 his return from the conquest of York ; and in the 
 following year he took up his abode there while 
 conducting the operations against Ely, where 
 Here ward was commanding in person. At this 
 time the town of Cambridge must have been 
 almost entirely confined to the district round the 
 Castle, still popularly called the Burgh or Borough ; 
 and before William came, it evidently occupied 
 the site of the Roman station, for twenty-seven 
 houses are said to have been destroyed by him 
 to make way for the Castle. The fortifications 
 were confined to the high ground, for it was 
 clearly needless to guard even the passage of the 
 river below. Danger was to be expected from 
 the fen in front, not from the arable land behind, 
 or from the open grass-covered Gogmagog Hills 
 to the south-east, whence the great dyke, called 
 " Devil's Dyke," stretched down to the river by 
 Reche, at the entrance to Burwell Fen, a sure 
 defence from assailants in that direction. The
 
 14 Cambridge. 
 
 further history of the Castle is singularly unevent- 
 ful. No deeds of arms are recorded in connection 
 with it ; it was never taken, nor, so far as we 
 know, ever defended. In the first quarter of the 
 fourteenth century part of it became a prison, and 
 the rest was gradually pulled down. Edward the 
 Third built his college of King's Hall with some 
 of the materials ; Henry the Fifth granted stone 
 and timbers out of it for the erection of the 
 chapel of the same ; and in 1441 Henry the Sixth 
 allowed the provost and scholars of King's 
 College to make similar use of the hall and a 
 chamber adjoining, then unroofed and ruinous. 
 Notwithstanding these grants, the Keep is alluded 
 to as still standing in 1553 ; and in 1642, when 
 the E.arl of Manchester held Cambridge for the 
 Parliament, it appears to have been easily put 
 into an efficient state of defence, with the help of 
 materials seized from Clare Hall, the rebuilding 
 of which had been begun shortly before. We 
 read of breastworks, and bulwarks, and strong 
 fortifications. These were again demolished at 
 the restoration of peace ; but the Gate-house 
 remained until 1842, but little altered from the 
 appearance it presents in our woodcut, which is 
 copied from a view taken in 1773. The County 
 Courts and the Gaol now occupy the site. The 
 Castle Hill, unoccupied by buildings, is the
 
 ^<^,\t\.l> 
 
 C5j*. 
 
 I 
 
 
 ^ 
 ^ 
 
 <0
 
 The Castle Hill. 17 
 
 occasional resort of sight-seers, for the sake of 
 the fine view to bs obtained from it. It used to 
 be a favourite joke to persuade " freshmen " to 
 mount it, in the hope of " seeing the term divide," 
 an operation which they were Jed to believe was 
 attended by certain solemn portents when the 
 Cambridge Calendar announced that " the term 
 divides at midnight." 
 
 At its first origin, then, the town of Cambridge 
 was limited to a few houses round the Castle, and 
 along the street leading to and from the ford at 
 the foot of the Castle Hill. The ford, it must be 
 remembered, must always have been of great 
 importance, for it was the only point at which 
 merchandise and cattle could pass the river on their 
 way from the Eastern Counties to the Midlands. 
 It is conceivable, therefore, that even without the 
 Norman stronghold, and without the University, 
 a town might have grown up at this spot. 
 
 I'he orioin of the University cannot be defined. 
 It did not spring into being in any particular 
 year, or at the bidding of any particular founder ; 
 it grew up gradually, as a voluntary association 
 of teachers and taught, governed by enactments 
 framed by the body itself, and sanctioned or 
 repealed from time to time. It used to be asserted 
 that it owed its origin to the two great Benedictine 
 monasteries of the Fen-land, Croyland and Ely ; 
 
 3
 
 1 8 Cambridge. 
 
 and we know that monks from the latter house 
 did resort to Cambridge for study at a very early 
 date. But they would hardly have gone out into 
 the wilderness to found an institution for which 
 Croyland or Ely would have afforded an equally 
 suitable site ; the fact that they came proves that 
 schools must have been already in existence. More 
 extended research in monastic archives may elicit 
 further facts respecting the early connection of the 
 great religious Orders with Oxford and Cambridge ; 
 for the present w^e will be content with the fact 
 that we owe to the convent of Ely the establish- 
 ment of the collegiate system at Cambridge. 
 Bishop Hugh de Balsham, who before his pro- 
 motion had been sub-prior of the convent, and 
 may have been a student in the schools of Cam- 
 bridge, unquestionably founded Peterhouse in 
 1284. 
 
 By the end of the thirteenth century the town 
 of Cambridge had outgrown the narrow limits 
 that were sufficient for it when the Castle was 
 built, and had extended itself over the level 
 ground on the opposite side of the river, to the 
 right and left of the Roman road, the course of 
 which is marked by the long straight street that 
 runs through Cambridge from north to south, and 
 is called Bridge Street, Sidney Street, and St. 
 Andrew's Street, in different parts of its course.
 
 Foundation of Peterhouse. ig 
 
 Nearest to the Castle, on the right of the street, 
 stood the Hospital of St. John, founded, in all 
 probability, by John Frost, a burgher of Cam- 
 bridge, though subsequently the Bishops of Ely, 
 as Baker, the historian of St. John's, says, " set 
 up for founders and patrons " of it. Into this 
 corporation of regular canons Hugh de Balsham 
 introduced certain secular scholars, under the idea 
 that they would become " one body and one 
 college" [iinum corpus et unum collegium)^ and 
 made due provision for their maintenance inde- 
 pendently of the brethren. The intention was 
 excellent, the result a failure. The two sets of 
 occupants of the house quarrelled bitterly from 
 the first, " the scholars being perhaps too wise, 
 and the brethren possibly over-good," so that they 
 had to be separated. The scholars were removed 
 to the very opposite end of Cambridge, where 
 lodging was found for them outside the town, in 
 two hostels hard by a church then called St. 
 Peter's, which they were permitted to use as their 
 chapel. In order to give an idea of what Cam- 
 bridge was at. this time, let us imagine one of 
 these scholars, on his way from Ely to Cambridge, 
 to ascend the Castle Hill, and let us try to realise 
 the view spread out before him. 
 
 The town was at that time rather like a pear in 
 shape, of which the stalk would be represented
 
 20 Cambridge. 
 
 by the Bridge, a wooden structure of many arches. 
 The west side was bounded by the river ; the 
 east and south by the King's Ditch, constructed 
 by Henry the Third for the defence of the town. 
 It left the river just above Queens' College, and 
 returned to it below the Great Bridge. The 
 Roman Way ran close to the eastern limit of the 
 town, at no great distance from the Ditch. About 
 two hundred yards from the Bridge a second street 
 branched off to the right, dividing the town into 
 nearly equal divisions. This, the present Trump- 
 ington Street, was then called High Street, or 
 High Ward. At the point where it branched off, 
 on the left of Bridge Street, stood one of the four 
 circular churches in England, probably even then 
 of considerable antiquity, called St. Sepulchre's. 
 Round it clustered the Jewry, a quarter of con- 
 siderable extent, for it stretched along the eastern 
 side of High Street far enough to include All 
 Saints' Church. Opposite to this church stood 
 the Hospital of St. John, with extensive gardens 
 and fish-ponds behind it. Beyond the Hospital, 
 to the south, there was a dense network of narrow 
 lanes, with here and there a garden, or a vineyard, 
 or a wharf along the river bank, separating the 
 compact masses of dwelling-houses which extended 
 as far as the Carmelite Friary at the south-west 
 angle of the town. Close to this the High Street
 
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 The Medieval Town. 23 
 
 crossed the King's Ditch by a bridge, to the north 
 of which was Trumpington Gate, perhaps a fortified 
 structure, as the other gates of the town may also 
 have been. Outside this gate, at the commence- 
 ment of a straggling suburb, stood the Church of 
 St. Peter, in the midst of an extensive graveyard. 
 Beyond it was the House of the Brethren of the 
 Penance, or Penitence, of Jesus Christ, otherwise 
 called " Friars of the Sack ; " opposite to which, 
 on the other side of the street, was that of the 
 White Canons of Sempringham. Had the eyes 
 of our imaginary spectator followed the line of 
 the boundary ditch, which must have been well 
 marked by the broad band of unoccupied ground 
 a sort of boulevard that extended along it, he 
 would have seen the then newly-built House of 
 the Augustinian Friars, with the extensive garden 
 ground behind it, which became the Botanic 
 Garden in the last century. Further to the east 
 again, on the left of the Roman Way, was the 
 House of the Dominicans, or Black Friars, after 
 whom that portion of the street was afterwards 
 called " Preachers' Street." At that time the 
 House was probably unfinished, but in later days it 
 became an extensive pile of buildings, with a lofty 
 church. The outline of the nave may still be 
 traced within Emmanuel College, whose founder, 
 Sir Walter Mildmay,in contempt of the old religion,
 
 24 Cambridge. 
 
 boasted that he had turned the Friars' church into 
 a dining-hall, and their refectory into a chapel. 
 Between this and the Round Church was the 
 Franciscan House, which even then was probably 
 extensive, but which afterwards possessed a spacious 
 church, which Ascham described as an ornament 
 to the University, and of which the foundations in 
 Fuller's time could still be traced within the pre- 
 cincts of Sidney Sussex College. At the Reformation 
 the University tried to obtain a grant of it, but 
 without success. The solid walls were gradually 
 destroyed to build other structures, as the items, 
 " stone from the Grey Friars," in the accounts of 
 more than one college, conclusively show. These 
 monastic buildings, except the Dominican Friary, 
 stood close to the outskirts of the little town, 
 but still within the precincts. Beyond them 
 were spacious commons, Cow Fen or Coe Fen, 
 on the west ; then Saint Thomas' Leas ; and 
 lastly, the Green-croft, which extended almost 
 from the Great Bridge to the neighbouring village 
 of Barnwell. In the midst of it, walled about, 
 and overshadowed by trees, stood the Benedic- 
 tine nunnery of St. Rhadegund, afterwards Jesus 
 College ; while Barnwell would be rendered con- 
 spicuous by the great Priory Church of St. Giles. 
 
 Let us return for a moment to the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre, of which we illustrate the
 
 Interior of the Church of the Holy Scpiihlirc. 
 
 From a drawing by A. Brunei Dehainci.
 
 The Round Church. 27 
 
 exterior and the interior. It is reputed to be the 
 oldest of the English round churches, and to have 
 been consecrated in 11 01, though its origin and 
 history are alike unknown. It consists of two 
 distinct portions the ancient round church, and 
 the modern chancel and aisles. This latter portion 
 was rebuilt in 1844, when the church' then in a 
 dilapidated and almost ruinous condition was 
 saved from destruction by the ill-fated Cambridge 
 Camden Society. The late Decorated style was 
 selected by the architect, Mr. Salvin, because there 
 appeared to be evidence that the building which it 
 replaced had been originally constructed during 
 that period. It once contained the famous stone 
 altar, to eject which a decree of the Court of 
 Arches was found necessary. The details of that 
 bitter controversy which, for the time, divided the 
 University into two hostile camps, are not worth 
 reviving. The Society became the object of viru- 
 lent, and most unjust, attacks, and after the seces- 
 sion of the Bishops and most of the principal 
 University dignitaries, headed by the Chancellor, 
 it was removed to London, where it flourished for 
 many years under a new name. 
 
 The round portion, which, with the addition of, 
 perhaps, a small apsidal chancel, was the entire 
 original structure, is forty-one feet in diameter 
 It is composed of a central area, nineteen feet in
 
 28 Cambridge 
 
 '<S' 
 
 diameter, surrounded by an aisle, to which access 
 is obtained through eight massive round arches, 
 resting on cylindrical piers. These support a 
 clerestory, forming a low round tower, to which 
 an upper storey was added in the fifteenth century 
 to be used as a belfry. The weight of this addi- 
 tion nearly ruined the older work beneath it, 
 which was further damaged and disfigured by the 
 introduction of a gallery, and the liberal use of 
 whitewash, while the floor beneath was obstructed 
 by numerous pews of various shapes and sizes. 
 The original round-headed windows had, with one 
 exception, been replaced by Perpendicular inser- 
 tions, and the picturesque porch was concealed 
 beneath a tasteless penthouse of wood. These 
 inappropriate additions were removed in the 
 course of the restoration, the ancient walls were 
 strengthened by a bed of concrete inserted beneath 
 them, and the tower secured by iron bands. The 
 round-headed windows were restored after the 
 pattern of the one remaining, and the tower sur- 
 mounted by an appropriate conical cap covered 
 with grey Northamptonshire slates. The interior 
 was cleared of the vulgar and unsuitable fittings, 
 and properly repaired. It remains as a vestibule 
 to the modern chancel, being from its shape un- 
 suitable for the reception of seats. 
 
 In our imaginary survey of Cambridge, another

 
 Church of St. Benedict. jl 
 
 ancient building, probably the oldest in the town, 
 has been omitted, the Church of St. Benedict. It 
 stood a little to the west of the House of the 
 Augustinian Friars ; and the archaic style of its 
 architecture suggests that it was once the church 
 of an independent village, which was standing 
 on the low ground before the erection of the 
 Norman stronghold on the hill beyond the river. 
 Modern restoration has left hardly a fragment of 
 this early church except the square west tower, of 
 which the upper stage is shown in our woodcut. 
 This remarkable monument has been described 
 with much minuteness by the Rev. D. J. Stewart, 
 from whom the following passage is borrowed : 
 
 " The walls are about three feet thick, constructed 
 throughout of rough stone-work, and strengthened at the 
 quoins externally by thin blocks of hewn stone laid flat 
 and set up on their ends in regular alternate courses an 
 arrangement to which the name of 'long-and-short work' 
 has been given. It consists of three stories, the lowest 
 of which takes up about one half of the whole building, 
 and is finished by a plain projecting string-course. The 
 second storey is somewhat smaller than the lower one 
 on which it stands, and is separated from the third by 
 another rude string-course. This latter storey has not been 
 much meddled with. Jn the middle of each of the four 
 sides tiierc is a window, divided by a central baluster 
 ornamented with a band of rudely carved rings, standing 
 in the middle of the thickness of the wall, and supporting 
 a large stone, or flat abacus, which extends completely 
 through the wall, and from whicii spring two semi-circular
 
 32 Cambridge. 
 
 window-heads cut out of a single stone. On each side ot 
 this central window there is a small one of the plainest 
 kind, with a semi-circular head, wrought out of a single 
 stone. These small windows do not range with the middle 
 one; their sills do nor come down to the string-course; 
 their heads arc higher, and above each, with a single 
 exception, there is a small block of stone, whose length 
 is about twice its width, piicrced through with a round 
 hole." 
 
 The tower is connected with the body of the 
 church by a round-headed arch, plain and massive, 
 with capitals adorned with rudely-carved repre- 
 sentations of animals, characteristic of early work. 
 Of the church that once existed coeval with the 
 tower only a few fragments remain, built here and 
 there into more modern walls. The present nave 
 is of the thirteenth century, and the chancel, of 
 which the east end is shown in our etching, was 
 built in 1872. The building, of nearly equal 
 height, abutting against the south side of the 
 chancel, contained originally an upper and lower 
 chapel, for the use of the students of Corpus 
 Christi College, The former was used as a 
 lecture room as well as a chapel, a custom 
 almost universal in colleges until the end of the 
 seventeenth century. In the north wall there 
 was a window looking into the parish chancel. 
 This building is connected with the college by 
 a picturesque gallery, beneath which is a four-
 
 Church of St. Benedict. 33 
 
 centered archway. This was the original church - 
 way for the parishioners, who entered the nave 
 of their church through a porch, now destroyed, 
 at the west end of the south aisle. The chapel and 
 gallery were erected by Dr. Cosyn, Master of 
 Corpus Christi College, between 1487 and 15 15.
 
 II. 
 
 The Story of Peter house. The Market Hill. 
 
 A STRANGER who walks through the college 
 quadrangles is apt to think that the arrange- 
 ment of their buildings was adopted deliberately 
 upon a plan decided upon at the foundation. 
 This very natural opinion is not, however, the 
 true one. The college system started from small 
 and obscure beginnings. It was impossible to 
 foresee the extent to which it would be subse- 
 quently developed, and in consequence the first 
 buildings were extremely simple, and destitute of 
 some of those distinctive features (as the entrance 
 gate-way and the chapel) which are now the first 
 to command attention and admiration. 
 
 The earliest students who resorted to the 
 University lodged where they could in the houses 
 of the townspeople ; whence, as Dr. Caius tells 
 us, serious disagreement arose ; for the former 
 desired to hire lodgings at a fair price, the latter 
 to let them at an exorbitant one. To remedy
 
 The Story of Peter house. 35 
 
 this, hostels were established, managed by a 
 Principal appointed by the University, where 
 food and lodging were provided at an equitable 
 rate. Caius, writing in 1573, records the names 
 of some twenty of these, which had been in 
 existence within his own recollection (and he was 
 then, he says, sixty-three years old), but at that 
 date they had all come to an end. After the 
 college system had been accepted they became 
 unnecessary. Some few survived for a while, 
 attached to special colleges as a source of revenue, 
 as St. Austin's to King's, and St. Bernard's to 
 Corpus Christi. Gradually, however, the ground 
 they occupied was required for collegiate exten- 
 sion, and the hostel was either pulled down or 
 converted into chambers. 
 
 The principal distinction between these tem- 
 porary residences and the colleges that succeeded 
 them is, that the latter were in all cases governed 
 by a body of statutes imposed by the founder, 
 who further offered inducements to students to 
 resort to his college by holding out the pros- 
 pect of Scholarships and Fellowships ; in other 
 words, of being educated free of cost while 
 an undergraduate, and of obtaining afterwards 
 a provision for a life of study. Besides these, 
 there were the poor scholars {pauperes scolares), 
 now called " sizars," who were lodged as well
 
 36 Cambridge. 
 
 as educated free of charge, and further allowed 
 to make money by doing menial work. For 
 instance, when building operations are going on, 
 we constantly find reference to their employment 
 at daily wages. This system (which has been 
 beneficial in its effect down to our own time, 
 for many of our most distinguished scholars 
 entered the University as sizars) was part of the 
 deliberate purpose that animated the design of 
 "Walter de Merton, who may be called the founder 
 of the whole collegiate system. He sought to 
 attract the most capable men of all classes, and 
 so to raise up secular schools which should check 
 the influence of the monasteries, and through 
 them of the Pope. Merton's code, which was 
 followed at Peterhouse and elsewhere, and that 
 subsequently drawn up by William of Wykeham 
 for New College at Oxford in 1400, well repay 
 attentive study. In a series of pictures of Cam- 
 bridge, however, we purpose to select those points 
 of collegiate history that illustrate the buildings 
 and the social life, rather than the education, 
 which has of late been exhaustively treated of 
 by others. Let us, therefore, return to the 
 establishment of Peterhouse. Our illustration 
 shows the south side next the Fellows' garden, 
 with the Hall, and the turret-staircase that 
 originally led to the Master's chamber. The
 
 'The Story of Peterhouse. 39 
 
 story of the rise and progress of the buildings 
 of this college, which we select as a type of 
 collegiate development, affords an instructive 
 picture of the trials and difficulties that had 
 to be surmounted before the colleges reached 
 their present completeness ; a development which 
 no founder, no matter how wise and far-seeing, 
 could ever have foreseen : 
 
 *' And yet he drcam'd not : we, who every hour 
 Build grain by grain the mass of human power, 
 Must bow before our Master, who but stood 
 And nursed the juices working in the bud. 
 And might not tend the flowering ; who but fed 
 The stream of science at the fountain-head. 
 Now spreads the flower, now roars the stream, and we 
 See but his hope become reality." 
 
 When Bishop Hugh de Balsham established his 
 scholars in 1284, he obtained leave for them to 
 use the neighbouring parish church of St. Peter 
 for their devotions. This was a usual arrange- 
 ment with the first colleges. Thus, Michael 
 House, the second in order of foundation, used St. 
 Michael's Church ; Clare Hall and Trinity Hali, 
 St. John Baptist's ; Gonville Hall (in its original 
 position), St. Botolph's ; King's Hall, Great St. 
 Mary's, or, as it was then called, St. Mary's-by- 
 the-Market. Pembroke Hall, founded in 1347, 
 is the first college ihat had a chapel of its own 
 within the precincts from the beginning.
 
 40 Cambridge. 
 
 The Bishop died within two years after the 
 foundation of Peterhouse. On his death-bed he 
 bequeathed to his scholars 300 marks. With this 
 sum they acquired a considerable area to the west 
 and south of the original hostels, and built a 
 handsome hall {^aulam perpulcram), which is, sub- 
 stantially, the building still in use. The erection 
 of this edifice exhausted their funds, and for more 
 than a century they were unable to extend their 
 buildings. Then they addressed themselves to 
 John de Fordham, Bishop of Ely, with a humble 
 petition, praying that the Rectory of Hinton, near 
 Cambridge, might be appropriated to them ; 
 " For," said they, " the revenue of our house is so 
 small that it barely sufficeth in these days for the 
 support of a Master and fourteen scholars, ac- 
 cording to the ordinances of your predecessors ; 
 nor are our buildings finished, or properly furnished 
 with the necessary offices." The Bishop presently 
 put them in possession of the church. The result 
 of this increase of fortune soon became apparent. 
 In 1424 we find extensive building-works in 
 progress, which may be referred to the range of 
 chambers forming the north side of the court ; and 
 in 143 1 a contract for a library is drawn up with 
 a mason named John VVassyngle of Hinton, The 
 extent of this room, which occupied nearly the 
 whole western side of the court, can still be traced
 
 'The Story of Peterhouse. 41 
 
 beneath the Italian front imposed upon the ancient 
 walls in the last century ; and the spiral stone 
 staircase by which it was approached, to construct 
 which a workman named Reginald Ely was 
 specially engaged, still gives access to the rooms 
 into which it has since been divided. Having 
 provided for their books, the scholars turned 
 their attention to their own bodily wants, and in 
 1450 constructed a new kitchen, which still exists, 
 in the south-west corner of the court, between the 
 hall and the library. Lastly, the Master's chamber 
 was built, between 1460 and 1466, with the room 
 usually called elsewhere " Combination Room " or 
 " College Parlour," but here " the Stone Parlour," 
 beneath it. This latter, which was once remarkable 
 for containing portraits of the principal benefactors, 
 painted on panel, with a commemorative distich 
 inscribed under each, remains to this day in its 
 ancient position, though considerably enlarged 
 and beautified. 
 
 This rapid survey will have shown us that one 
 hundred and eighty years had elapsed before the 
 familiar disposition of buildings round a quadrangle 
 had been achieved ; and even then the fourth side 
 was incomplete. Another century and more went 
 by before any other buildings were undertaken, 
 and then (in 1590) the present library which 
 makes so picturesque an appearance towards the
 
 42 Cambridge. 
 
 street, with its lofty gable and projecting bay- 
 window or rather the western portion of it, was 
 begun in accordance with the Will of Dr. Andrew 
 Perne, Master from 1554 to 1580. During that 
 eventful period he had adroitly changed his 
 opinions several times ; and though on one memo- 
 rable occasion in Mary's reign, to be narrated 
 presently, he appeared to have compromised himself 
 in favour of the Church of Rome, he managed 
 soon after to discover new beauties in the reformed 
 religion, signed the Thirty-nine Articles, and 
 preached a sermon before Queen Elizabeth which 
 her Majesty was pleased warmly to approve. These 
 changes of opinion exposed him to no little 
 ridicule. The wits of the University added a new 
 verb to the Latin language, fernare^ " to change 
 one's opinion." It became proverbial to say of a 
 cloak that had been turned, " It has been Perned." 
 The letters A. P. A. P. on the weathercock of St. 
 Peter's Church were explained to mean " Andrew 
 Perne a Papist," or " Andrew Perne a Protestant," 
 according to the fancy of the reader, and the like. 
 To his college, however, he was uniformly stead- 
 fast in his allegiance ; bequeathing to it his books, 
 with minute directions for their chaining and safe 
 keeping, and money enough to build the new 
 library aforesaid. Nor did he forget the Uni- 
 versity, to whose Library he was a generous
 
 'The Story of Peterhouse. 43 
 
 contributor ; indeed, if his defence had to be 
 undertaken, it might be argued that his course on 
 pubhc occasions was dictated by a wise prudence 
 that changes of opinion were unavoidable in such 
 times as his, when the rehgion of the country- 
 changed three or four times in ten years ; and that he 
 trimmed in matters of outward observance in order 
 to be at hand to help in those that were essential. 
 During all this while the college had been 
 content with the chancel of the parish church for 
 a chapel. It had been rebuilt since the foundation, 
 and joined to the college by a gallery, like that 
 which we have seen at Corpus. In 1625, however, 
 Dr. Matthew Wren, uncle of the celebrated 
 architect, became Master. He, in the words of his 
 biographer, " seeing the publick Offices of Religion 
 less decently perform'd, and the Service of God 
 depending on the Courtesy of others, for want of 
 a convenient Oratory within the Walls of the 
 College," set about the erection of a separate 
 chapel. It was consecrated March 17, 1632, but 
 the exterior decorations and the interior fittings 
 were not completed until some years afterwards, by 
 Bishop Cosin, who laid himself open to bitter 
 censure from the Puritans bv the introduction of 
 a gorgeous ceremonial, incense, Latin service-books, 
 and the like. The cloisters, north and south of 
 the chapel, were erected at the same time. That
 
 44 Cambridge. 
 
 to the south led to the Master's gallery, erected 
 for his use over Dr. Feme's Hbrary. 
 
 Lastly, just a century after the consecration of 
 the chapel, a grand design was prepared for putting 
 a front upon the college, in the most approved 
 Italian style then in fashion. This was the work 
 of Mr. Burrough of Caius College, afterwards 
 Master, who has the credit of having built the 
 Senate House, He proposed to pull down the 
 library, with the two cloisters, and to construct in 
 their room two piles of building of three floors 
 each, connected with the chapel by galleries of 
 equal height, supported on a cloister in the same 
 style. The northernmost building was first under- 
 taken, and is still standing. Happily that cause 
 which has averted so many architectural disasters, 
 want of funds, came to the rescue in this instance, 
 and the library and cloisters were saved from 
 destruction. 
 
 The picturesque turret, or tower-staircase, at 
 the junction of the Hall and Master's chambers, 
 is a characteristic feature of early collegiate foun- 
 dations. By means of it the Master could obtain 
 access to the Combination Room (in which meet- 
 ings for business were held), and to the Hall, 
 without crossing the court. In some colleges the 
 Master's chamber was so arranged that he could 
 reach all the buildings in the same way. For to
 
 The Story of PeterJiouse. 45 
 
 understand the collegiate system, the position of 
 the Master, as at first constituted, must be care- 
 fully borne in mind. The very names given to 
 him in the older statutes, Master (magisier), 
 Keeper (chsIos), Head (^caput)^ not to mention the 
 language in which his duties are defined, and the 
 elaborate analogies in which he is compared to the 
 helmsman of a ship, and to the head, the eye, and 
 the heart of the human body, or even, as at Corpus 
 Christi College, Oxford, to the queen-bee in a 
 hive, all indicate that he was to be a sovereign 
 prince, rather than a constitutional king. The 
 care of the entire community devolved upon him, 
 and though the Deans would assist him in disci- 
 pline, and the Bursars in finance, it was his duty 
 to see that they performed theirs ; in fine, he was 
 " to give his most earnest attention to all matters, 
 spiritual or temporal, within or without, remotely 
 or nearly concerning the House and the inmates 
 thereof; and manfully to defend the rights of the 
 House, that so the scholars might peacefully and 
 diligently pursue their studies, without being 
 hindered by the aforesaid cares and vexations." 
 This is general language ; but in practice it 
 appears that the minutest matters of daily life 
 were referred to him ; and in one college, at least, 
 we find that at night the keys of the gates were 
 brought to hini " upon a clogg." At the begin-
 
 46 Cambridge. 
 
 ning of the sixteenth century, when a more pro- 
 fuse hospitality became the fashion, a gallery was 
 added to his chamber in most colleges. Here, as 
 we have seen, this addition was not made until 
 the middle of the seventeenth century. It must 
 have greatly added to his comfort, for it enabled 
 him to reach the Chapel directly from his rooms. 
 The habit of living in a separate house was a 
 necessary consequence of the permission to marry 
 conceded at the Reformation, 
 
 A stream of clear water runs down each side of 
 Trumpington Street as far as Pembroke College, 
 and was at one time much used for drinking 
 purposes. Those who benefit by it, or are at- 
 tracted by the unusual appearance of running 
 water in a town, do not know that they have to 
 thank for it that same Dr. Perne whom we just 
 mentioned, though he is not responsible for the 
 double channel. Before his time, though there 
 was a public fountain in the market-place, water 
 for domestic use could only be obtained from 
 private wells, or directly from the river. Dr. 
 Perne has the merit of having been the first to 
 suggest that a supply of wholesome water might 
 be obtained from the Nine Wells, a group of 
 springs rising out of the chalk near Great Shelford, 
 a village some three miles to the south. The 
 scheme was carried out in 16 10 by the joint con-
 
 77/1? Old Conduit. 
 
 From a drawing by A, Brutut Debaines.
 
 The Market Hill 49 
 
 tributions of the University, the Colleges, and the 
 Town, 
 
 "as well for the Cleansing, Easement, Benefit, and Com- 
 modity of divers and sundry Drains and Water-Courses, 
 belonging to divers and sundry Colleges, Halls, and Houses 
 of Students within the University of Cambridge, as also for 
 the cleansing and keeping sweet one common Drain or 
 Ditch, commonly called King's Ditch, and for the avoiding 
 of the Annoyance, Infection, and Contagion ordinarily 
 arising thro' the Uncleanness and Annoyance thereof, to the 
 great endammaging of the Healths and Welfare of the 
 People of both the said Bodyes." 
 
 The plan was drawn by Edward Wright, M.A., 
 of Gonville and Caius College, who was accounted 
 the best mathematician of his day ; he also gave 
 to Sir Hugh Middleton the plan of his New 
 River. 
 
 At this time the conduit, of which we give a 
 woodcut, was erected on the Market Hill. It is 
 popularly called Hobson's Conduit, from a mis- 
 taken notion that that celebrated carrier built it, 
 or contributed largely to it. This, however, was 
 not the case. His benefactions to the water- 
 supply of the town were conferred by his will in 
 ] 630. This conduit is no longer in its original 
 position. In 1849 an accidental fire, which could 
 not have been more beneficial had it been the 
 result of deliberate design, destroyed a block of 
 houses between the chancel of St. Mary's and the 
 
 5
 
 50 Cambridge. 
 
 Market Hill. The ground on which they had 
 stood was acquired by the Corporation, and the 
 present spacious Market Place laid out. The old 
 conduit then appeared to civic eyes too poor a 
 structure for so large a space, and it was removed 
 to the end of Trumpington Street, where the 
 stream from the Nine Wells enters Cambridge. 
 The present Gothic structure was set up on the 
 centre of the enlarged Market Hill in 1855. 
 
 This improvement has deprived the Market 
 Place of the air of antiquity that it once possessed, 
 and other changes have done away with many 
 interesting associations. The Cross, which stood 
 at the south-western corner, disappeared about 
 1786, and the Tolbooth in 1790. The street on 
 the north side, called Rose Crescent, marks the site 
 of the Rose Tavern, which enjoyed a considerable 
 reputation in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries. In Pepys' time it appears to have been 
 noted for good wine, to judge from the quantity 
 that he and his friends consumed at it, and the 
 frequent allusions to it in his diaries. In 1768, 
 when the King of Denmark, husband of George 
 the Third's sister, the unfortunate Caroline Ma- 
 tilda, visited the University, attended among other 
 persons by his physician. Dr. Struensee, who was 
 destined shortly after to achieve so tragic a 
 notoriety, he stayed at the Rose, and from
 
 The Market Hill. 53 
 
 a window that looked on the Market Place saw 
 the fireworks and illuminations given in his honour 
 by the town. Professor Pry me records in his 
 " Autobiographical Recollections " that in his 
 undergraduate days (about 1799) there was a room 
 set apart in the Rose Inn as a Coffee-house, to which 
 men resorted to take tea or coffee on summer 
 evenings when there was no fire in their rooms. 
 On the west side the principal object is Great St. 
 Mary's Church, which with the Senate House and 
 Schools, separated fi-om it only by a street, is the 
 centre of University Life, as the Town Hall is of 
 Civic Life. Is it too wild a stretch of fancy to 
 imagine that the changes which removed the 
 material obstacles that separated these two great 
 groups of buildings may foreshadow the speedy 
 removal of the differences that have so long 
 severed the two bodies to whom they belong ? 
 
 Inconvenient as the old Market Place was, it 
 had witnessed several curious scenes. In 1382, 
 just a hundred years after the foundation of Peter- 
 house, the first great explosion of feeling against 
 College encroachments culminated in a serious 
 riot. The ringleader, one James de Grantchester, 
 with the connivance, it is said, of the Mayor, who 
 ought to have known better, got together an 
 armed mob. They first sacked and burnt the 
 houses of the University officials ; then they burst
 
 54 Cambridge. 
 
 open the gates of Corpus Christi College, which 
 they pillaged ; and lastly, proceeding to St. Mary's 
 Church, they possessed themselves of the common 
 chest of the University. From this repository 
 they extracted the charter, bulls, and other muni- 
 ments, which they carried ofF in triumph into the 
 Market Place. There they broke the seals of the 
 charters with clubs ; after which they piled up a 
 huge bonfire, and burnt them all, amid the rejoic- 
 ings of the populace. An old woman, named 
 Margaret Sterr, gathering up the ashes, scattered 
 them to the winds, exclaiming, " Away with the 
 learning of the clerks ! away with it ! " It was 
 at the old Cross in the Market that the Duke 
 of Northumberland's attempt to make poor Lady 
 Jane Grey queen came to a conclusion in which 
 the ludicrous was strangely blended with the 
 tragic. He left London on the July 14, 1553, 
 by order of the Council, with 8000 Foot and 2000 
 Horse, intending to intercept, and if possible to 
 capture, the Lady Mary, who was known to be on 
 her way to London. He reached Cambridge on 
 the following evening, and sending for some Heads 
 of Colleges, and Dr. Sandys, Master of St. 
 Catharine's and Vice Chancellor, bade them sup 
 with him. After supper he desired Sandys to 
 preach before him in the University Church on 
 the next day, which was Sunday. The Doctor,
 
 The Market Hill. 5^ 
 
 not daring to refuse, went home sorely perplexed 
 what to say. He rose at three o'clock hi the 
 mornnig, took up a Bible, and holding it before 
 him, earnestly prayed to God that it might 
 fall open at a suitable text. The book open- 
 ing at the first chapter of Joshua, he caught 
 sight of the words, " And they answered Joshua, 
 saying. All that thou commandest us we will 
 do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will 
 go. According as we hearkened unto Moses 
 in all things, so will we hearken unto thee ; 
 only the Lord thy God be with thee, as He 
 was with Moses." These words he " handled 
 so wisely, and so warily, that his enemies got 
 not so full advantage against him as they 
 expected," says Fuller. On the Monday morn- 
 ing the Duke went to Bury, having learnt 
 that Mary had retired to Framlingham, in 
 Suffolk. The reinforcements that ought to 
 have met him at Newmarket did not come ; 
 his men began to desert ; and he received 
 from the Council " letters of discomfort." 
 Thereupon he returned to Cambridge, where 
 presently he learnt that the Council had pro- 
 claimed Mary queen. The shadow of his com- 
 ing doom mus'L have fallen upon him when 
 he heard the news ; but he seems to have 
 imagined that by prompt acceptance of the
 
 56 Cambridge. 
 
 situation he might save his Hfe. Once more he 
 sent for Dr. Sandys, perhaps out of a chivalrous 
 wish to do what he could to save one whom 
 he had so deeply compromised, and telling 
 him that Queen Mary was a merciful woman, 
 and that he looked for a general pardon, bade 
 him go with him and proclaim her. The other 
 gave him scant comfort : "My life," he answered, 
 " is not dear to me, neither have I said or 
 done anything that urgeth my conscience. But 
 be you assured that you shall never escape 
 death, for if she would save you, those that 
 now rule will kill you." Nevertheless, at 
 about five o'clock, the Duke repaired to the 
 Market Cross with such nobles as were with 
 him, and calling for a herald, proclaimed 
 Mary queen, throwing up his cap with the 
 rest. A few hours afterwards, he was arrested 
 in King's College, where he was staying, by 
 Roger Slegge, Serjeant-at-Arms, and on the 
 following day conveyed a prisoner to London, 
 where he was soon after executed. 
 
 Four years later another event befell in the 
 same place, which showed what clemency even 
 the dead had to expect from the advisers of 
 Mary Tudor. In 1549 two eminent German 
 divines, Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, had 
 been sent to Cambridge by Edward the Sixth
 
 The Market Rill. 57 
 
 to lecture in Divinity and Hebrew. Both died 
 shortly after, and were buried in Cambridge ; 
 Fagius in St. Michael's, and Bucer in St. 
 Mary's. Three thousand persons attended 
 Bucer's funeral. Dr. Matthew Parker, after- 
 wards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached the 
 sermon ; and the learned of the University laid 
 epitaphs on the grave. The doctrines taught 
 by these divines in their lectures were no doubt 
 heretical in the eyes of Roman CathoUcs ; and 
 consequently, when Queen Mary sent Com- 
 missioners to visit the University in January, 
 1557, the very first decision arrived at by the 
 Vice Chancellor (Dr. Andrew Perne) and the 
 Heads, who v/ere probably anxious to gain the 
 goodwill of the Visitors, was, that suit should 
 be made with them " by the University, that 
 Bucer might be taken upp and ordered accord- 
 ing to the law, and likewise P. Fagius." The 
 Visitors, nothing loth, proceeded to the tedious 
 formalities of the citation and condemnation of 
 these obstinate heretics. At the third citation 
 Dr. Perne preached before them in St. Mary's. 
 Many sermons remarkable for bad taste have 
 been delivered in that building, and much strange 
 doctrine. Even in our own time a Bedell of 
 the University has been heard to say that he 
 had attended the sermons twice on every Sunday
 
 5 8 Cambridge. 
 
 for forty years, and was thankful that he was 
 still a Christian. On no other day, however, 
 let us hope, have sacred words been so mis- 
 applied as they were, on that when Dr. Perne 
 selected, of all texts in the Bible, a verse from 
 the Psalms, " Behold how good and pleasant a 
 thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in 
 unity ! " By the 6th of February all legal 
 forms had been satisfied, the bodies had been 
 exhumed, and were guarded by the Mayor and 
 Corporation armed. Early in the morning the 
 Visitors, attended by the University and the 
 town, paraded the principal streets in procession. 
 The Bishop of Chester, gorgeously vested, bore 
 the Host aloft under a canopy supported by 
 four doctors. The Heads of colleges, the 
 Mayor, and the Aldermen, carried lighted 
 torches. As they went they chanted the hymn, 
 " Salve f est a dies'' One untoward incident marred 
 the success of the display. As they came 
 opposite to the Falcon Inn in Petty Cury, the 
 canopy caught fire, combustibles having been 
 thrown upon it, as was thought, from a window. 
 When they reached the Market Place all was 
 ready. A great post had been set up in the 
 centre of it, and a heap of wood laid ready. 
 On their arrival the chests containing the 
 bodies were set up on end and bound to
 
 The Market HilL 59 
 
 the post with iron chains, as if the heretics had 
 been ahve. The fuel was set on fire, and as 
 it flared up a number of books that had been 
 condemned were cast into it, a great crowd 
 looking on, for it happened to be market-day, 
 and the town was thronged with country folk. 
 The fire was scarcely out when the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, one of the Visitors, repaired to St. 
 Mary's, and there preached for full three hours, 
 setting forth Bucer's " vvyckedness and hereticall 
 doctryn." Verily, if martyrs have not been 
 burnt in Cambridge as they were in Oxford, 
 the occasion, and not the will, was wanting. 
 
 In times more modern than those we have 
 been recording, the Market Place has witnessed 
 many another bonfire, many a hard-fought 
 contest, and much effusion of blood. Happily 
 the blood has flowed from no part more vital 
 than the nose ; the bonfires have commemorated 
 only royal anniversaries, or pacific triumphs 
 such as the victory of Smith over Jones for 
 the distinguished honour of representing a ward 
 on the Town Council ; and the battles have 
 been exercises in the " noble art of self-defence " 
 between townspeople and undergraduates 
 " Town " and " Gown," as they are usually 
 denominated in Cambridge. Most of these 
 Homeric encounters have been consigned to
 
 6o Cambridge. 
 
 oblivion, like the kings who lived before 
 Agamemnon, for lack of a bard who should 
 hymn the deeds of daring done on either side. 
 One, however, has been snatched out of the 
 darkness in which the rest lie buried and for- 
 gotten, for it found a Homer in the late Mr, 
 Tom Taylor. Macaulay himself could hardly 
 have been angry at the use made of his metre 
 and his manner in these amusing verses, which 
 we proceed to quote. Their fun and good- 
 humour will form an agreeable contrast to 
 the sadness of the last story which we have 
 told. We shall premise that the events com- 
 memorated befell on this wise. In March, 
 1846, an American dwarf called General Tom 
 Thumb was exhibited in Cambridge. He was 
 shown in the morning for half-a-crown, and 
 in the evening for one shilling, the latter ex- 
 hibition being intended for the townspeople, 
 the former for members of the University, who 
 are popularly believed in Cambridge to be the 
 possessors of boundless wealth. But even as 
 that ingenious contriver of a hen-house, who 
 made a large door for the hens and a small 
 door for the chickens, found that all the birds 
 preferred to use the larger one, so did the 
 promoter of this exhibition behold his room 
 empty in the morning, and crowded in the
 
 The Market Hill. 6l 
 
 evening, not with shopkeepers, but with under- 
 graduates. What great events from little causes 
 spring ! The burghers, indignant at what they 
 regarded as an invasion of their rights, hustled 
 the undergraduates, the undergraduates hustled 
 the burghers; the fight, from a skirmish on 
 the first night, became a battle on the second, 
 and on the third a deliberately organised trial 
 of strength between the opposing forces. It 
 ended in a complete defeat of the under- 
 graduates ; indeed, we have heard that they 
 turned tail and ran away, but this we regard 
 as a base cahminy. The weight of the other 
 side, aided by the truncheons of the police, 
 probably decided the fortunes of the day ; 
 anyhow, the gownsmen fled through Rose Cres- 
 cent into Trinity Street, hotly pursued. When 
 they reached Trinity College, the great gate 
 was opened to admit them, by that time a 
 disordered and grievously wounded mass of 
 men belonging to various colleges and there 
 they passed the night, uncomfortable, but safe. 
 Not long afterwards, the following ballad 
 appeared. The names are of course fictitious, 
 but at the time it was easy to recognise the 
 originals, and the incidents alluded to.
 
 62 Cambridge. 
 
 THE FIGHT OF THE CRESCENT 
 
 A LAY OF MODERN CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 " The sturdy undergraduates 
 
 Are pouring in amain, 
 Up through the fair Rose Crescent, 
 
 The Market Place to gain ; 
 From many a wild wine-party, 
 
 From many a sober tea. 
 From the distant halls of Downing, 
 
 And the courts of Trinity. 
 
 " From lowly Queens' quadrangle 
 
 Where muffins are the go : 
 From Magd'lcne famed for fast men. 
 
 From Cath'rine famed for slow 
 From Caius, where anxious proctors 
 
 To keep the gates shut try : 
 From Clare, where dons chivalrous 
 
 Unlock them on the sly. 
 
 " There be twenty chosen gownsmen, 
 
 The foremost of the band. 
 Pupils of Sambo Sutton, 
 
 To keep the Crescent stand : 
 They can't run if they wished it, 
 
 Perforce they bear the brunt. 
 For the gownsmen in the rear rank 
 
 Push the gownsmen in the front. 
 
 "And all within the Market Place, 
 And Market Hill along, 
 The townsmen, far as words can go, 
 Come it uncommon strong.
 
 The Market Hill. 63 
 
 But as yet no nose is bleeding, 
 
 As yet no man is down ; 
 For the gownsmen funk the townsmen, 
 
 And the townsmen funk the gown. 
 
 " When lo ! a cad comes, brimful 
 
 Of bravery and beer ; 
 " To arms ! to arms ! the borough 
 
 Police will soon be here ! " 
 Through Market Street to eastward 
 
 Each townsman turned his eye, 
 And saw the hats and truncheons 
 
 Rise fast along the sky. 
 
 "And plainly and more plainly, 
 
 Now may each gownsman know, 
 By form and face, by port and pace. 
 
 Each big blue-coated foe. 
 There in the front, fierce Freestone, 
 
 Be-whiskered, may be seen ; 
 And stalwart Serjeant Seabrook, 
 
 With buttons bright and clean ; 
 And Buggins of the mutton fist, 
 And Muggins with the fearful twist, 
 And Hobbs, famed for his waving curls. 
 And Dobbs, adored by servant girls. 
 
 And grufi^ Inspector Greene 
 
 "Then out spake a Fellow-commoner, 
 
 In- voice both sad and slow, 
 And darkly looked he on his friends. 
 
 And darkly on the foe : 
 ' They'll be too many for us. 
 
 Ten to one against the Gown ; 
 Unless wc get to Trinity 
 
 We'll be wollopped by the Town,'
 
 64 Cambridge. 
 
 "Then out spake brave Fitz- Wiggins, 
 
 Though a small-college man : 
 'To keep the Crescent 'gainst the cads 
 
 I'll do the best I can ; 
 And if none will stand beside me. 
 
 Alone I'll face the snobs, 
 Despite fierce Freestone's truncheon, 
 
 And the staves of Hobbs and Dobbs ! 
 
 "Then out spake Sir Tom Noddy, 
 
 A son of Trinity : 
 *Lo ! I will stand at thy right hand. 
 
 And the Crescent keep with thee.' 
 And out spake Merrypcbbles, 
 
 A Johnian was he : 
 'I will abide at thy left side, 
 
 And the Crescent keep with thee.' 
 
 " Fitz-Wiggins floored fierce Freestone, 
 
 Tom Noddy levelled Hobbs, 
 And cheerful Merrypcbbles 
 
 Blacked both the eyes of Dobbs ; 
 And the aggravated townsmen 
 
 Stand all aghast to sec 
 On the flags the unconscious Peelers, 
 
 In the Pass the dauntless Three. 
 And on the Icaguercd Crescent, 
 
 Was none would brave attack ; 
 But those behind cried ' Forward ! ' 
 
 And those in front cried ' Back ! ' 
 
 " Meanwhile their legs the gownsmen 
 Right manfully have plied : 
 And now they've got to Trinity, 
 And the gates arc opened wide.
 
 The Market Hill. 65 
 
 * Come back, come back, Fitz-Wiggins,' 
 
 Loud cried they from the gate ; 
 'Back, Noddy ! Merrypebbles, 
 
 Back, or you'll be too late ! ' 
 
 "But the police are on them, 
 
 And their truncheons thick they ply; 
 Now the Fates save brave Fitz-Wiggins, 
 
 What a terrible black eye ! 
 Though Merrypebbles' head be 
 
 The thickest in the ring, 
 It scarce can 'scape unbroken. 
 
 Such staves must make it ring. 
 
 " Alone stood Sir Tom Noddy, 
 
 But constant still in mind ; 
 Policemen pitching in before, 
 
 And Trinity behind, 
 ' Down with him ! ' cried false Seabrook, 
 
 As he mopped his bloody face ; 
 'Now yield thee,' cried the Inspector, 
 
 ' Now yield thee to our grace ! ' 
 
 *'But brave Tom Noddy never deigned 
 
 An answer, no, not he ; 
 But he floored the Inspector neatly 
 
 As a man might wish to see. 
 And through the storming townsmen 
 
 And the irate police, 
 He fights his passage manfully, 
 
 And he wins the gate in peace. 
 
 "And now, his gown in ribbons, 
 
 In the crowded court he stands. 
 
 And ' to call upon him the next day ' 
 
 Rccci\cs the Dean's commands. 
 
 6
 
 66 Cambridge. 
 
 And then with shouts and clappings, 
 And hip, hip, hurrah, loud. 
 
 He passes on unto his rooms. 
 Borne hy the admiring crowd. 
 
 "But he was rusticated 
 
 By the Dons, that very night ; 
 And when he showed them his black eye, 
 
 They said it served him right 
 But long at our wine parties 
 
 We'll remember how, like bricks, 
 Stout Noddy kept the Crescent 
 
 In eighteen forty-six."
 
 III. 
 
 Great Saint Mary's Church. Clare Hall. 
 Pembroke College. 
 
 THE Church of St. Mary the Great, of which 
 the chancel and tower- were shown in our 
 Jast illustration, demands a more detailed con- 
 sideration that we were enabled to give to it when 
 describing the Market Place. It is not only the 
 largest, but on many grounds the most interesting, 
 church in Cambridge. Though completed at a 
 time when medieval architecture was declining, 
 and though we see it now in a somewhat mutilated 
 condition without the vestry that once stood on 
 the south side of the chancel, and without the 
 tracery that once filled the windows of the aisles, 
 it is still a dignified building. To members of 
 the University it is hallowed by associations that 
 go far to efi^ace any architectural shortcomings ; 
 but the most indifferent observer could hardly fail 
 to admire the lofty nave, admirably lighted by 
 the twenty windows of the clerestory, and still
 
 68 Cambridge. 
 
 preserving its ancient roof of carved oak ; or to 
 acknowledge that the tower, though inferior in 
 beauty to that of the sister church at Oxford, is 
 yet massive and well-proportioned. 
 
 The first connection of the church with the 
 University is lost in that obscurity which 
 necessarily hangs over events separated from our 
 own times by five or six centuries. In all proba- 
 bility it was an arrangement dictated, in the first 
 instance, by convenience, and subsequently main- 
 tained by respect for ancient usage. And, when 
 we find secular ceremonies habitually held in St. 
 Mary's, we must remember that the peculiar 
 respect with which churches are now regarded is 
 a sentiment wholly of modern growth. Through- 
 out the Middle Ages cathedrals and churches, 
 being the largest buildings in the towns, were 
 used for all purposes for which a large covered 
 space was required. The altar alone was regarded 
 as a sacred spot which might not be profaned by 
 unconsecrated hands, and the neighbourhood of 
 which was an inviolable sanctuary. In many 
 cases the formal ceremony of consecration did not 
 extend beyond the slab on which Mass was cele- 
 brated ; and this, made of some material more 
 precious than the table of which it formed a part, 
 was often consecrated by the Pope or by a Bishop 
 at a distance. Gradually the sacred character of
 
 Great Saint Mary's Church. 6g 
 
 the altar extended to the part of the church in 
 which it stood, and the chancel was fenced off by 
 a screen or railing, as a place more holy than the 
 rest of the church ; but the naves were still used 
 for secular purposes until the Reformation, and in 
 many cases down to the days of Archbishop Laud. 
 This medieval sentiment lasted in Cambridge 
 longer than elsewhere. College chapels were used 
 for meetings, acts, disputations, lectures, and even 
 for dramatic performances, quite to the end of the 
 seventeenth century. A survival of this custom 
 subsists to the present day in certain colleges, 
 where declamations, no matter on what subject, 
 are delivered in the chapel. The most remark- 
 able instance of what now-a-days would be re- 
 garded as frightful profanity, but which evidently 
 conveyed no such idea to our forefathers, occurred 
 at the reception of Oueen Elizabeth at King's 
 College, where the Society had no large apart- 
 ment at their disposal except the chapel. They 
 therefore turned the nave, or ante-chapel, into a 
 hall of audience ; and there, on the evening of 
 Sunday, August 6, 1564, after service, performed 
 before Her Majesty a play by Plautus in the 
 original Latin. An additional justification of 
 this treatment of college chapels is to be found in 
 the fact, that in the case of many of them there is 
 no evidence that they were ever consecrated, even
 
 70 Caynhridge. 
 
 so far as the altar was concerned. A license, 
 permitting the more solemn offices of religion to 
 be performed within their walls^ was obtained from 
 the bishop of the diocese, and sometimes even 
 from the Pope ; but this was not considered to 
 preclude the use q{ them for secular purposes. The 
 introduction of the contrary sentiment is seen in 
 the language of the formal Act of Consecration 
 of those erected in later times, in which it is usual 
 to specify the intention of the college to " separate 
 the building for ever from all common and pro- 
 fane uses." 
 
 There is evidence that St. Mary's was in exist- 
 ence so early as 1204, when King John granted it 
 to Thomas de Chimeleye ; and in the last quarter 
 of that century we find it already used by the 
 University as their ordinary place of assemblage, 
 and its bells rung to call the members together, 
 for which purpose those of St. Benedict's were 
 also employed on extraordinary occasions. In 
 1290 it was burnt, with several of the surrounding 
 houses, the catastrophe being ascribed, as usual at 
 that period, to the malice of the Jews. It did 
 not, however, take lo?ig to place it in such a state 
 of repair that it could again be used for service, 
 for in 1303 the first notice of regular University 
 sermons occurs. It was, however, either rebuilt or 
 extensively repaired soon afterwards, for " the
 
 Great Saint Marys Church. 71 
 
 building of St. Mary's Church " was proceeding 
 in 13 1 5, and the altar was consecrated afresh in 
 1 35 1. In 1342 King Edward III. gave the 
 advowson to his foundation of King's Hall, 
 whence it passed to Trinity College, the present 
 patrons. Three different bodies are therefore in- 
 terested in the church : the Master and Fellows 
 of Trinity, the Parish, and the University ; a 
 divided, and sometimes conflicting, authority, 
 which has occasionally been productive of no 
 small account of discord. Towards the end of 
 the fifteenth century the old church was so 
 much decayed, and so incommodious, that the 
 University undertook to rebuild it, little thinking 
 of the length of time the work would take, the 
 sum it would cost, or the difficulty of obtaining 
 funds. " All Church work," says Fuller, " is 
 slow ; the mention of St. Mary's mindeth me of 
 Church work indeed, so long was it from the 
 founding to the finishing thereof." 
 
 Dr. Caius relates, in his " History of the 
 University," that the first stone of the new 
 church was laid in 1478, and that it took forty- 
 one years to build, having been completed in 15 19. 
 This statement probably applies to the present 
 nave, for we find from the " Proctors' Accounts " 
 that the University continued to use some part of 
 the church-^probably the chancel for service.
 
 7 2 Cambridge. 
 
 This must have been of considerable size, for John 
 Alcock, Bishop of Ely, preached before the Uni- 
 versity there in 1488. It is recorded that the 
 discourse was " good and persuasive" {bonum et 
 blandum sermonem), and that it lasted from one 
 o'clock to half-past three, a precedent which has 
 happily not been followed by the Bishop's suc- 
 cessors in that pulpit. Congregations and Com- 
 mencements were held during the rebuilding in 
 the churches of the Austin and Grey Friars. The 
 first stone of the tower was laid on Monday the 
 1 6th of May, 1491, at a quarter to seven o'clock 
 in the evening. *' Would that some kind friend 
 would finish it!" is the aspiration of Dr. Caius, 
 in recording the tardy completion of the nave ; 
 but though the worthy doctor lived for fifty-four 
 years after that event, he left the tower still not 
 more than half built. The tale of its slow and 
 halting progress is curious and instructive. In 
 1 5 1 5 it had not risen as high as the roof of the 
 nave, and was thatched with sedge. The bells, 
 however, were then hung up in it. The parish 
 books show that it advanced slowly after this 
 date; and in 1536 the great west window, a 
 noble specimen of Perpendicular architecture, was 
 glazed. In 1544 one "Father Rotheram " was 
 paid fourpence " for viewing the steeple." He 
 was probably an architect, and the result of his
 
 Great Saint Mary s Church. 73 
 
 inspection was a fresh outburst of building activity 
 in the following year, with materials from the 
 dissolved monasteries, whose churches were 
 eagerly seized upon and used as quairies. We 
 meet with payments for " stone at the Black 
 Friers," " 20 lodes of slate from the late Austen 
 Fryers," " two lodes of lyme from the late White 
 Fryers," and the like. In 1576 the west porch 
 an elegant composition in the cinque-cento style, 
 which was unfortunately replaced in 1850 by the 
 present meaningless door from a design by Sir G. 
 G. Scott was erected, chiefly through the munifi- 
 cence of Sir Walter Mildmay, founder of Emmanuel 
 College, who contributed to it twenty tons of 
 freestone, taken probably from some of the 
 Dominican buildings. At about this time it was 
 contemplated to complete the tower by a spire 
 eighty feet high, to be built out of the materials 
 of Thorney Abbey in Huntingdonshire, and stone 
 contributed by Sir Walter Mildmay from the 
 oolite quarries at King's Cliffe in Northampton- 
 shire. For some unknown, and much to be re- 
 gretted, cause, this design was abandoned. The 
 work which had been so tediously prolonged was 
 now drawing to a close at last. In 1593 the parish 
 authorities, weary of the long delay, took the 
 matter into their own hands, and agreed to finish 
 the building of the steeple. This they accom-
 
 74 Cambridge. 
 
 plished in 1596, when the bells "were all runge' 
 oute and never afore." Twelve years later, in 
 1608, the tower was finally completed by the 
 addition of the cresting, and of the stone balls 
 surmounting the towers, as shown in Loggan's 
 print. This was the work of Robert Grumbold, 
 master-mason of Clare Hall, to whose good taste 
 part, at least, of the design of that College is due. 
 The cresting has long since disappeared, but the 
 balls remained until 1842, when, by the ill-advised 
 zeal of some hot-headed members of the Camden 
 Society, they were thrown down. They were not 
 in themselves beautiful, but they served to mark 
 the interesting historical fact that the tower, begun, 
 as we have seen, when Gothic architecture was a 
 living style, had not been completed until that now 
 called Jacobean was in fashion, and on that account 
 were well worthy of preservation. 
 
 During the building of the church, and during 
 the longer period of one hundred and seventeen 
 years that elapsed from the foundation to the 
 completion of the tower, the University had made 
 great exertions and sacrifices to obtain funds. 
 Dr. Caius records that ,^795 2s. id. was raised by 
 subscription. Among the subscribers were the 
 Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard th^ 
 Third ; King Henry the Seventh, and his mother, 
 the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond and
 
 Great: Saint Marys Church. 75 
 
 Derby ; Dr. Barrow, Chancellor of the Household 
 to King Richard the Third, who gave ^240 for the 
 roof and windows ; John Alcock, Bishop of Ely ; 
 thirty priors and abbots of religious houses through- 
 out England ; and several bishops. The smaller 
 sums given vary from ten pounds to one shilling. 
 The University contributed, between 1478 and 
 1519, the large sum of^555 2s. id., equal to at least 
 ^5jOOO at the present day. In order to obtain 
 funds the University had been obliged to have 
 recourse to the extraordinary expedient of sending 
 the Proctors on a journey round the country to 
 collect money. They were absent for twenty days. 
 The letters that they carried were composed by 
 Roger Skelton, Poet Laureate, in terms, we may 
 suppose, of moving supplication. Unfortunately 
 none of these compositions have been preserved. 
 This was at the beginning of the work. Subse- 
 quently the usual means of obtaining money were 
 resorted to. The affluent were besieged with 
 begging-letters ; and collections were made at the 
 public Commencements, and in the different col- 
 leges. James Tabor, Registrar of the University 
 in 1600, records : 
 
 "The steeple was not finished when I cunie to Cambridge, 
 but was covered with Thackc, and then Mr. Pouley Apothe- 
 cary first, and after liim Jolui Warren, undcrtooke the worke, 
 and had collections in the several Colledges. ] well remember
 
 76 Cambridge. 
 
 in Bennett Coll. \vherc I was first Pcntioner, as Pentioncrs 
 wc all gave at the first collection zs a peece, Fellows loj a 
 pecce, and Scholars of the house lid a pecce, Fellow 
 Commoners 51 a pecce, or more as their Tutors thought 
 fitting. And so a second collection when that would not 
 serve ; and these two contributions, with money usually 
 gathered of strangers at Commencements, could not be Icsse 
 than about ;^8oo or ^^looo," 
 
 The completion of the Tower was, unfortu- 
 nately, signalised by the death of John Warren. 
 The occurrence is commemorated by the following 
 curious epitaph in the church : 
 
 A speaking stone 
 Reason may chaunce to blame ; 
 
 But did it knowe 
 Those ashes here do lie 
 
 Which brought the Stones 
 That hid the Steeple's shame, 
 
 It would affirm 
 There were no Reason why 
 
 Stones should not speake 
 Before theyr Builder die. 
 
 For here John Warren 
 Sleeps among the dead 
 
 Who with the Church 
 His own Life finished. 
 
 Anno Domini 1608. Dec. 17. 
 
 As our business is with the church as connected 
 with the University rather than as an ecclesiastical 
 structure, we will pass over the curious accounts 
 that have been preserved of the splendid rood-loft
 
 Great Saint Mary's Church. 77 
 
 completed in 1523, only to be destroyed by order 
 of Archbishop Parker in 1564; of the putting up 
 and pulling down of altars according as Mary or 
 Elizabeth occupied the throne ; of the " wiping " 
 of " ymages" out of the windows ; and of the 
 sums realised by the sale of vestments and furni- 
 ture. ^ The first gallery for the accommodation of 
 the University authorities was set up in 16 10, for 
 the US2 of the Doctors. At that time the Bachelors 
 and Scholars all stood, under pain of paying a fine 
 of 3s. 4d. apiece if adult ; if not, of being " openly 
 corrected in the comon scholes with the rodde : " 
 and it was the privilege of those who had taken 
 superior degrees to listen to the sermons with their 
 heads covered. To this day in St. Mary's it is 
 customary to listen to the " bidding prayer " 
 standing, and not to kneel when the Lord's Prayer 
 is said after it, but only to cover the face with a 
 hat or cap. The following curious picture of the 
 condition of the church, and of the use to which 
 it was put by the University, is extracted from a 
 statement forwarded to Archbishop Laud in 1636: 
 
 " St. Mary's Church at every great Commencement is 
 made a Theater, and the Prcvaricatour's Stage, wherein lie 
 
 ' I must acknowledge my obligations to Messrs. Sanders 
 and Venablcs' " Histf)rical and Architectural Motes on Great 
 St. Mary's Church, Cambridge." Cam. Antiq. Soc. Octavo 
 Publications, No. X.
 
 7 8 Cambridge. 
 
 Acts and setts forth his prophane and scurrilous jests besides 
 diverse other abuses and disorders then suftcred in that place. 
 All the year after a parte of it is made a Lumber House for 
 y Materials of y" Scaftblds, for Bookbinders' dry Fats, for 
 aumerie Cupboards, and such like implements, which they 
 know not readily where else to put. The West windows 
 are half blinded up with a Cobler's and a Bookbinder's Shop. 
 At the East end are Incroachments made by diverse Houses, 
 and the Vestry is lately unleaded (they say) with purpose to 
 let it ruine or to pull it down. The Seats many of them 
 are lately cooped up high with wainscot. 
 
 "The Service Pulpit is sett up in the midst, a good dis- 
 tance below the Chauncell, and looks full to the Belfrie, so 
 that all Service, second Service and all, (if any be) is there 
 and performed that way. 
 
 "The Service there (which is done by Trin. Coll.) is 
 commonly posted over and cut short at y pleasure of him 
 that is sent thither to read it. 
 
 " When the University comes in for the Sermon the 
 chancell (the higher part of it) is filled with boyes and 
 Townsmen, and otherwhiles (thereafter as the Preacher 
 is) with Tozv?iiWOfnen also, all in a rude heap betwixt y 
 Doctors and ye Altar. In y Bodie of the church Men, 
 Women, and Scholers thrust together promiscuously, but in 
 y'' place onely before y Pulpit, which they call ye Cock Pitt, 
 and which they leave somewhat free for masters to sitt in. 
 The rest of y*^ churchc is taken up by the Townsmen of 
 y*' Parrishe and their families, which is one reason among 
 others that many Scholers pretend for not coming to this 
 churche. Tradesmen and prentices will be covered when 
 the University is bare." 
 
 It had been customary, from the earliest times, 
 to fit up St. Mary's Church for the ceremonies 
 usual at degrees with temporary galleries and plat-
 
 Great Saint Mary''s Church. 79 
 
 forms, the extent and number of which depended 
 on the importance of the ceremony. At Queen 
 Ehzabeth's visit the stage extended from the 
 tower-arch to the chancel. We shall not attempt, 
 on this occasion, to describe the curious system 
 by which every candidate for a degree was obliged 
 to keep one or more " acts " and " opponencies ; '' 
 that is, to maintain a thesis of his own, and to con- 
 trovert one propounded by another. Besides these 
 " acts," the University at the great Commencement 
 deliberately appointed a person to the office of 
 Pr<varicator, or Varier. He was expected to 
 " vary " the questions proposed, to set them in a 
 ludicrous light, and in the course of his speech to 
 allude to topics of the day, and even to indulge 
 in personalities. He usually spoke in Latin, but 
 English verse might occasionally be introduced ; 
 and when another form of buffiDonery, called a 
 " Musick Speech," was allowed, it was wholly in 
 English. Such a " chartered libertine " as this 
 might easily make himself intolerable. Even the 
 most famous of the " Mus'ck Speeches," that 
 spoken by Dr. Roger Long, afterwards Master 
 of Pembroke, in 17 14, is a strange composition 
 for a learned body to have listened to on a solemn 
 public occasion, and there are some lines in it too 
 gross for quotation. The Commencement on this 
 occasion was attended by Thoresby, the well-known
 
 8o Cambridge. 
 
 antiquary. He records in his diary that " the 
 Prasvaricator's speech was smart and ingenious, 
 attended with volleys of hurras : the vocal music, 
 etc. was curious." The whole ceremony occupied 
 seven or eight hours. The following extract will 
 give an idea of Dr. Long's humour. At a previous 
 Commencement the conduct of the ladies had been 
 thought indecorous, and in consequence they were 
 condemned to sit in the chancel as a punishment : 
 
 "The humble Petition of the Ladies, who are all ready to be 
 
 eaten up with the Spleen, 
 To think they are to be lock'd up in the Chancel, where 
 
 they can neither see nor be seen ; 
 But must sit i' the Dumps by themselves all stevv'd and 
 
 pent up. 
 And can only peep through the Lattice like so many 
 
 Chickens in a Coop ; 
 Whereas last Commencement the Ladies had a Gallery 
 
 provided near enough 
 To see the Heads sleep, and the Fellow-Commoners take 
 
 Snuff. 
 'Tis true for every Particular how 'twas order'd then we 
 
 can't so certainly know, 
 Because none of us can remember so long as Sixteen Years 
 
 ago ; 
 Yet we believe they were more civil to the Ladies then, 
 
 and good Reason why, 
 For if we all stay'd at home your Commencement wou'dn't 
 
 be worth a Fly : 
 For at Oxford last Year this is certainly Matter of Fact, 
 That the Sight of the Ladies and the Music made the best 
 
 Part of their Act.
 
 Great Saint Marys Church. 8 i 
 
 Now you should consider some of us have been at a very 
 
 great Expence 
 To rig our selves out, in order to see the Doctors commence : 
 We've been forc'd with our Manteau-makers to hold many 
 
 a Consultation, 
 To know whether Mourning or Colours wou'd be most like 
 
 to be in Fashion : 
 We've sent to Town to know what Kind of Heads and 
 
 Ruffles the Ladies wore. 
 And have rais'd the Price of Whalebone higher than 'twas 
 
 before ; 
 We've got Intelligence from Church, the Park, the Front- 
 
 box and the Ring, 
 And to grace St. ALiry's now wou'dn't make our Cloaths up 
 
 in the Spring. 
 In F'loun( cs and Furbelows many Experiments have been 
 
 try'd, 
 And many an old Gown and Petticoat new scour'd and 
 
 dy'd/ 
 Some of us for these three Months have scarce been able 
 
 to rest, 
 For studying what sort of Complexion wou'd become us 
 
 best ; 
 And several of us have almost pinch'd our selves to Death 
 
 with going straight lac'd, 
 That we might look fuller in the Chest, and more slender 
 
 in the Waste. 
 And isn't it now intolerable after all this Pains and Cost 
 To be coop'd up out of Sight, and have all our Finery lost.-"'' 
 
 The convenience of these stages tor the accom- 
 modation of a hirge assemblage probably led to the 
 erection of side-galleries in 1735, which were paid 
 for out of a legacy from the munificent Mr, 
 
 7
 
 82 Cambridge. 
 
 William Worts. 7\t the same time the University 
 rearranged the central space called in a former 
 extract " the Cock-Pit," and down to a few 
 years ago " the Pit," where the Masters of Arts 
 sat on benches placed sideways. At the west 
 entrance of this enclosure, right in the centre of 
 the church, a gigantic pulpit was erected, with 
 reading-desk and clerk's desk to match a por- 
 tentous mass of woodwork, so lofty that the 
 preacher stood nearly on the same level as the 
 occupants of the galleries. It was octagonal in 
 form, like the lower stage of a pagoda ; and it was 
 ascended by an internal staircase, an arrangement 
 that produced a most ludicrous effect, for the 
 preacher, solemnly conducted by one of the 
 Esquire Bedells to the foot of the towering struc- 
 ture, disappeared for a few moments, and then was 
 seen slowly emerging at the top, head foremost. 
 At this time the chancel was separated from the 
 nave by what Cole calls " a beautiful and lofty 
 Screen, with a Canopy and Spire Work," which 
 had been set up in 1640. Within this the Heads, 
 Doctors, and other University dignitaries, were 
 seated on stalls, arranged in two rows along the 
 north and south walls, as at present. But, about 
 1757, these great persons had apparently become 
 discontented with what they regarded as an inferior 
 position, and, as Cole records :
 
 Great Saint Marys Church. &3 
 
 "By the advice and contrivance of my vvortliy friend 
 James Burrough, late one of y*^ Esquier Bedels, and now 
 Master of Gonville and Caius College, the Chancel is quite 
 altered, and y"^ Church appears to much less advantage than 
 it used to look ; for the Stalls and Fine Screen are taken down 
 in the Chancell, and a Gallery built with an arched top of 
 Wainscot, highly ornamented indeed with Mosaic carving, 
 but very absurd in the design : both as the Doctors who sit 
 there are generally old men, sometimes goutified, and not well 
 able to get upstairs, and also are made to turn their backs on 
 the Altar, which is not so decent, especially in an Uni- 
 versity." 
 
 This wonderful gallery, officially termed " the 
 Throne " or the " Doctors' Gallery," but by a 
 rather profane, and very silly, pun, always spoken 
 of familiarly as " Golgotha^'' was a large room. It 
 occupied the whole width, and about half the 
 length, of the chancel, and was fitted with seats 
 rising in tiers one above the other. The back was 
 formed of large panels of oak. The Vice-Chan- 
 cellor sat in a capacious arm-chair in the centre of 
 the front row. It should be mentioned that the 
 tower-arch also was blocked by the organ, which 
 had a gallery in front of it. This latter affected 
 to be of stone and in the Gothic style, but was 
 really of plaster. When a popular preacher occu- 
 pied the pulpit, and the church was quite full, it 
 must be admitted that the effect was good, and 
 members of the University could see and hear 
 exceedingly well. But those who had planned the
 
 84 Cambridge. 
 
 arrangement had forgotten, or did not care to 
 remember, that a church is built for other purposes 
 than to hear sermons in, and Archdeacon Hare did 
 not speak too strongly when he called St. Mary's 
 " an example of the world turned topsy-turvy." 
 However, when the late energetic Vicar, the Rev. 
 H. R. Luard, undertook to get " Golgotha " and 
 its accompaniments removed, he encountered much 
 vexatious opposition from all parties interested 
 in the church. The old difficulties in obtaining 
 funds were renewed. It took ten years to get 
 ^3,300 together ; and the present excellent and 
 decorous arrangements were not completed until 
 1864. 
 
 In speaking of the completion of the tower of 
 St. Mary's we mentioned Clare Hall. This beau- 
 tiful college, which more than any other in the 
 University, has the appearance of having been 
 built at one time, was really the work of more 
 than two centuries. The east side of the quad- 
 rangle was begun in 1638, after a furious con- 
 troversy with its powerful neighbour. King's 
 College, respecting its position, for it had pre- 
 viously stood close to the street, in a line with the 
 east end of the existing chapel. The Society of 
 Clare Hall, being anxious to set their college back 
 seventy feet from the street, asked King's College 
 to grant them part of their Butt Close, that they
 
 Clare Hall. 85 
 
 might have ground for recreation on the left bank 
 of the Cam. In order to be sure of obtaining this, 
 they procured a royal mandate, directing King's 
 College to grant their request, without waiting for 
 the answer of that college. Indignant at this want 
 of confidence, King's College commenced an inter- 
 change of bitter invectives with Clare Hall, which 
 are not a little amusing. Here is a specimen. It 
 must be remembered that by King's College, the 
 Old Court, opposite to Clare as it was then placed, 
 is meant. 
 
 " The Anszvcr of Clare-Hall to certaijie Reaso?is of Kings College 
 touch'mg Butt-close. 
 
 " I. To the first wc answer : 1. That y* annoyance of 
 y'' vvindes gathering betwecne y Chappcll and our Colledgc 
 is farre greater and more detriment to y' Chappcll, then any 
 bencfitt which they can imagine to receiue by y*^ shelter of 
 our CoUcdge from wind and Sonne. 
 
 " 2. That y Colledgc of Clare-hall being sett so nearc as 
 now it is, they will not only be sheltered from wind and 
 sunne, but much deprived both of ayrc and light, 
 
 " 3. That y'-' rcniovcall of Clare Hall 70 feet westward 
 will take away little or no considerable privacy from their 
 gardens and walkcs : for v' one of their gardens is tarrc 
 remote, and y'' nearer fenced with a very high wall, and a 
 vine spread upon a long frame, under which they doe and 
 may privately walke." 
 
 A Reply of King's CoUcdge to f Answer of Clare-Hall. 
 
 "I. The wind so gathering breeds no detriment to our 
 Chappcll, nor did ever putt us to any reparacions there. The
 
 86 Cambridge. 
 
 upper battlements indeed at y* west end haue sometimes 
 suffered from y^ wind, but y wind could not there be 
 straightncd by Clare Hall, w'^'' scarce rcaclicth to y^ fourth 
 part of y height. 
 
 " 2, No whit at all, for our lower Story hath few windowcs 
 y' way : the other are so high y' Clare-Hall darkens them 
 not, and hath windowes so large y* both for light and ayre 
 no Chambers in any Coll. exceed them. 
 
 " 3. The farther garden is not farre remote, being scarce 
 25 yards distant from their intended building ; y nearer is 
 on one side fenced w"' a high wall indeed, but y' wall is 
 fraudulently alleaged by them, and beside y purpose ; for 
 y' wall y' stands betweene their view and y garden is not 
 much aboue 6 foot in height : and y' we haue any vine or 
 frame there to walke under is manifestly untrue." 
 
 At last a royal letter settled the controversy, 
 and Clare Hall obtained the ground they coveted. 
 The east and south sides were finished in 1642. 
 Soon afterwards the work was interrupted by the 
 Civil War, and when Evelyn visited Cambridge in 
 1654 he remarked of this college : "Clare-Hall 
 is of a new and noble designe, but not finish'd." 
 Work on the west side, begun in 1640, was not 
 resumed until 1662. It went on slowly, for by 
 the end of 1669 the southern half only, with the 
 gate leading towards the bridge, had been com- 
 pleted. The north side was built between 1683 
 and 1689 ; the north half of the west side 
 between 1705 and 171 5 ; and the chapel between 
 1763 and 1769. Our illustration shows the gate
 
 Caie of Entrance^ Clare Colle^i^^e, as seen from 
 the Interior of the Court. 
 
 From a. draivin !<y A. Brunei Delaines.
 
 Clare Hall. 89 
 
 of entrance in the east front, as seen from the 
 interior of the court. The style of the earlier 
 portions is transitional between the Elizabethan 
 and the Renaissance ; and in the buildings erected 
 subsequently, though the classical fashions of a 
 later time are apparent, the earlier style has been 
 so skilfully followed that the harmony of the 
 general effect is not disturbed. 
 
 Clare Hall was founded originally in 1326, and 
 refounded in 1338 by Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady 
 Clare, The first half of the same century 
 witnessed the foundation of two other colleges 
 King's Hall, founded by Edward the Third in 
 1337 ; and Pembroke Hall, founded by Marie de 
 St. Paul in 1347. She was daughter of Guy de 
 Chatillon, Comte de St. Paul in France ; and 
 married Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, 
 who is said to have been killed in a tournament 
 on his wedding day, though truth compels us to 
 state that he really died prosaically in his bed 
 three years afterwards. King's Hall was after- 
 wards developed into Trinity College by Henry the 
 Eighth. These noble and royal founders have 
 been happily commemorated by Gray in his In- 
 stallation Ode : 
 
 " (jicat Edward, with the lilies on his brow 
 
 From haughty Gallia torn, 
 And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn
 
 90 Cambridge. 
 
 That wept her bleeding Love, and princely Clare, 
 And Anjou's heroine, and the paler rose, 
 The rival of her crown and of her woes, 
 
 And either Henry there, 
 l'^,^ ' The murdcr'd saint, and the majestic lord, ' '^^ 
 
 That broke the bonds of Rome." 
 
 It was in Pembroke that Gray himself resided 
 from 1756 till his death in 1771. He had 
 previously lived at Peterhouse, where he had been 
 made the victim of a practical joke. He was 
 very much afraid of fire, and had been careful 
 to provide himself with a rope-ladder of the 
 proper length to reach from his window to the 
 ground. Some young men who lived on the same 
 staircase raised an alarm of fire one night. Gray 
 hastily attached his ladder, and descended ; not, 
 however, on to the ground, but into a water-butt 
 that his mischievous young friends had placed to 
 receive him. This outrage on a distinguished 
 man of letters does not appear to have aroused 
 either sympathy or indignation in those rough 
 roystering days. Gray laid a formal complaint 
 before the authorities of Peterhouse ; and, soon 
 after, " not thinking that his remonstrance was 
 sufficiently attended to," as Mason puts it, sought 
 more congenial quarters on the opposite side of 
 the street. " 1 left my lodgings," he writes to 
 Wharton, " because the rooms were noisy, and the
 
 Oriel Window of the Lodge ^ Penibrolcc College, now 
 destroyed, from the Garden. 
 
 From a draiving by A. Bruitet Dehaiius.
 
 Pembroke College. 93 
 
 people of the house uncivil ; this is all I would 
 chuse to have said about it." At that time Dr. 
 Roger Long, with whom Gray had been intimate 
 for some years, was Master of Pembroke, and he 
 and the Fellows received the fugitive poet, with 
 as much deference, he says, as if he had been 
 Mary de Valence in person. The rooms he is 
 believed to have occupied are on the ground floor 
 at the west end of the " Hitcham Building," 
 which forms the south side of the second court. 
 Above them are those subsequently occupied by 
 William Pitt, With the exception of this court 
 which the hand of the spoiler has spared but 
 little remains of the college of his day ; the old 
 Master's lodge, the old hall, and the south side of 
 the principal quadrangle, have all been pulled 
 down within the last few years. We forbear to 
 express an opinion on a proceeding that has 
 already excited many recriminations, but confine 
 ourselves to perpetuating, as far as we can, the 
 beautiful oriel of the old lodge, with its quaint 
 garden. The chapel, on the left of the picture, 
 was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, nephew of 
 Dr. Matthew Wren, Bishop of l{|y, who built it 
 as a thank-offering to God for his deliverance 
 from the Tower in 1659, after an imprisonment ot 
 eighteen years, and " in a grateful remembrance of 
 his first education which was in that Place received."
 
 IV. 
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 
 
 " ' I ^O the giory of God and advantage of the 
 A realm, 1 >r the promotion of science, philo- 
 sophy, liberal a, :s, and theology," Henry VIII, 
 founded Trinity College. It has been the good 
 fortune of the House to have been, .represented 
 at nearly all periods of its existence by men who 
 have been impressed with the full significance of 
 these weighty words. In consequence, the history 
 of Trinity College has been, to a great extent, the 
 history of the Univers'ty. Within its walls have 
 originated the majority of those schemes for the 
 promotion of a liberal education which have enabled 
 Cambridge to keep a foremost place in science and 
 literature; while the College itself, by encouraging 
 among its members, a variety of studies, and 
 thoroughness in each, has been saved from those 
 ignoble and harrowing controversies into which 
 less widely-cultured bodies are prone to fall, and 
 so to fritter away their lives and waste their
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 95 
 
 educational opportunities. Hence it is that the 
 College can rehearse so grand a roll of names, 
 names of men famous in theology, in science, in 
 literature, in public life, such as no other College 
 in either University can put forward; hence also 
 the reassuring fact that up to the present time 
 there has been no sign of degeneracy, no hint 
 
 "That greatness hath no charter as ot yore, 
 And men revolt from claims of sovereign lore, 
 And the bold majesty of mental strife 
 Hath lost its force in our distracted life ; 
 And though the circles widen, fainter gleam 
 All new emotions on the mirror-stream." 
 
 The motives that animated Henry VIII. to 
 establish this splendid foundation have not been 
 recorded. There is a tradition that it was due to 
 the suggestion of Dr. John Redman, one of his 
 chaplains, who was the last Master of King's 
 Hall, and became the first Master of Trinity 
 College an appointment which shows that the 
 King did not propose to destroy, but only to 
 extend, the foundation of his predecessors ; but 
 it seems more probable to account for it on the 
 supposition that Henry desired to mark the age 
 of that Reformation", to which he had himself so 
 largely contributed, by some signal effort in the 
 cause of education, on a grander scale and with 
 larger endowments than the world had yet
 
 96 Camh'idge. 
 
 witnessed, so as to leave no cause for regretting 
 the loss of the monasteries on the ground of the 
 diminution of facilities for learning, which it had 
 been part of their system to encourage. It is 
 likely, too, that he may have wished to' leave 
 behind him in Cambridge a more enduring fame 
 than his predecessor, Henry VI,, was likely to 
 acquire by King's College, or even than the Lady 
 Margaret by her flourishing College of St. John's. 
 That education in a far wider sense than was 
 usual at that time was intended by him is clear 
 from the full statement of his views in the 
 preamble to the charter. After referring to the 
 special reasons he had to be thankful to Almighty 
 God for peace at home, for successful wars abroad, 
 and, above all, for the introduction of the pure 
 truth of Christianity into his kingdom, and the 
 defence of it against the heresies and wicked abuses 
 of the Papacy on the one hand and unbelief on 
 the other, he sets forth his intention of founding 
 a college " to the glory and honour of Almighty 
 God, and of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for 
 increase and strengthening of Christianity, extir- 
 pation of error, development and perpetuation of 
 religion, cultivation of wholesome study in all 
 departments of learning, knowledge of languages, 
 education of youth in piety, virtue, self-restraint, 
 and knowledge, charity towards the poor, and
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 97 
 
 relief of the afflicted and distressed." Could any 
 scheme for a liberal education have then been 
 devised upon a wider, or less sectarian base than 
 this, or one better able to maintain itself among 
 changes of opinion and altered modes of thought? 
 It is probable that the very general expressions of 
 this carefully-worded charter saved the College in 
 (^ueen Mary's reign ; for no personal feeling on 
 her part in favour of her father's schemes could 
 have protected an institution endowed mainly out 
 of the suppressed monasteries, had the objects of 
 its foundation been more narrow. As it was, so 
 tar from suppressing it or despoiling it, she was 
 enabled to increase its revenues by further endow- 
 ments derived from the same sources. 
 
 A description of the site on which the present 
 stately quadrangles stand, and of the small 
 collegiate institutions that occupied it insti- 
 tutions so small that the microscope of archso- 
 logical research has to put on a very high power 
 indeed to discover the existence of some of them 
 is full of instruction. Like the fliggot of sticks 
 in the old fable, when united and amalgamated, 
 their strength is unassailable ; but individually 
 they were powerless for any good result, and 
 would probably have fallen into irremediable 
 ruin had not a strong hand bound them together. 
 As a general rule, reform comes better from 
 
 8
 
 98 Cambridge. 
 
 within ; but there are occasions when it can only 
 be effected by judicious interference from without. 
 It is easy to imagine the clamour that must 
 have been excited by Henry the Eighth's drastic 
 measures. Unless academic nature was very 
 different indeed in those days from what it is at 
 present, there must have been much talk of vested 
 rights and founders' wills ; but could those who 
 first established the hostels and colleges that he 
 absorbed now witness the result, it is difficult not 
 to believe that they would applaud the strong- 
 willed king whose sweeping policy abolished their 
 well-meant but feeble establishments. 
 
 When Henry VIII. founded Trinity College 
 the ground was occupied by two colleges King's 
 Hall and Michael House and several hostels. 
 The names of seven at least of these have been 
 preserved. They were not all in existence in 
 1548, having been in some instances absorbed 
 by their neighbours ; but their position has been 
 put beyond all doubt by recent researches. 
 They were Gregory's Hostel, Crouched Hostel, 
 Physwick Hostel, St. Margaret's Hostel, 
 Tyled Hostel, Garret or St. Gerard's Hostel, 
 and Ovyng's Inn. The main course of the 
 River Cam wa,s the same then as now, but a 
 branch of it ran from the end of Garret 
 Hostel Lane to a point near the north end of
 
 ^.1 

 
 The Early History of Trinity College. loi 
 
 the present Library, separating off an oval piece 
 of common ground, called Garret Hostel Waste. 
 Neither this waste, however, which is now the 
 green in front of the Library, nor any of the 
 ground occupied by the avenue and walks, was 
 at that time the property of the College. Of the 
 site on the right bank of the river, the northern 
 half where the Great Gate, Chapel, Bowling 
 Green, and Master's Lodge now stand was 
 occupied by the buildings of King's Hall, and 
 by a wharf called " Dame Nichol's Hythe," or 
 " Cornhythe." A lane leading to this wharf 
 started from a point in High Street close to the 
 present Great Gate, thence crossed the Great 
 Court diagonally, and so reached the river close to 
 the junction of the above-mentioned stream with 
 it. This lane was called the " King's Childer 
 Lane," " King's Hall Lane," or simply " Road to 
 Dame Nichol's Hythe." It was further used for 
 the conduit- pipe which supplied the convent of 
 the Franciscans, on whose site Sidney College was 
 subsequently built, and which now supplies the 
 Fountain in the middle of the Great Court of 
 Trinity College, and the tap at the Great Gate, 
 still so largely used by the neighbours. This 
 latter supply is of great antiquity, for in the 
 fourteenth century we find the occupier of the 
 house close to it called William Atte-Conduit 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAI Tt^OKNTA 
 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 I02 Cambridge. 
 
 a combination with which we are more familiar 
 in the names of Atwood and Atwater, The 
 southern half of the site was subdivided into two 
 nearly equal parts by a lane which ran from north 
 to south. It started from the point in the present 
 Trinity Lane where the " Queens' Gate " now 
 stands, and ran northwards until it met the 
 previously mentioned lane. According to Dr. 
 Caius, it was called " le foule lane." At the time 
 of the foundation of King's Hall it provided a 
 more direct communication between Milne Street 
 and Bridge Street than exists at present through 
 Trinity Lane ; but when Dr. Caius wrote, the 
 eastern half of King's Hall Lane had been 
 absorbed by that college, and " le foule lane " was 
 the only means of access to Dame Nichol's Hythe. 
 The traffic through it was probably considerable ; 
 whence the unsavoury designation by which it has 
 become known to posterity. Lastly, the piece of 
 ground between the south-western portion of the 
 site and Garret Hostel Lane was occupied by the 
 two hostels of Ovyng and Garret. 
 
 Of the nine institutions above mentioned the 
 oldest was Michael House, founded in 1324 by 
 Hervey de Stanton, Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 to Edward II. As was the case with most early 
 colleges, the founder established his scholars, who 
 were only seven in number at the beginning, in an
 
 The Great Gate of Trinity College. 
 
 From a drawing by A Brunei Debahies.
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 105 
 
 ordinary dwelling-house, which he had bought for 
 a hundred marks from Roger de Buttetourte. 
 Subsequently, as benefactions accrued to them, a 
 hall, a kitchen, and ranges of chambers were con- 
 structed, with a conspicuous gate of entrance from 
 the highway, now called Trinity Lane, directly 
 opposite to the end of Milne Street. The court 
 could not have measured more than one hundred 
 feet from east to west, by fifty feet from north to 
 south ; yet room was found for a Master, eight 
 Fellows, three Chaplains, and four Bible Clerks, 
 besides undergraduates and servants. The hall 
 was on the west side, and there is reason to believe 
 that it was preserved until near the end of the 
 eighteenth century, and that it is the building with 
 a high roof, buttresses, and an oriel window, shown 
 by Loggan in his view of Trinity College, at the 
 south-west corner of the Great Court. The com- 
 munity had no chapel of their own, but, down to 
 the time of their absorption in Trinity College, 
 continued to use the church of St. Michael for 
 their devotions. Besides the dedication to St. 
 Michael, the house was established in honour of 
 the Holy and Undivided Trinity, St. Mary, and 
 All Saints. It is therefore from this small estab- 
 lishment that the name of Trinity College was in 
 all probability derived. 
 
 Physwick Hostel occupied the ground at the
 
 io6 Cambridge. 
 
 corner of Foul Lane and Trinity Lane, opposite 
 to Michael House. It derived its name from a 
 Bedell of the University, William Physwick, who 
 bequeathed it to Caius College, or, as it was then 
 called, Gonville Hall, in 1393. In the middle of 
 the following century it absorbed St. Margaret's 
 Hostel, a smaller establishment adjoining it on the 
 north. The entire extent of the ground thus 
 occupied could not have measured more than two 
 hundred feet by one hundred and fifty. This 
 limited extent, however, did not prevent Physwick 
 Hostel from acquiring considerable celebrity. It 
 was managed in rather a different way from other 
 hostels, as Dr. Caius has recorded with some 
 minuteness in his history : 
 
 "It was not let out to hire," he says, " as the others were, 
 but remained the private property of Gonville Hall. It was 
 a tiny college [piaillufn collegium) rather than a hostel, into 
 which the superabundant youth of Caius College could over- 
 flow as into a colony. It was administered by two Principals 
 -the one exterior, the other interior who managed the 
 finances, and direcfcd the studies of the inmates. The 
 former was appointed by the Master of Caius College, the 
 latter elected by the students themselves, who were between 
 thirty and forty in number. It flourished and maintained its 
 reputation for many years, educating many eminent and 
 learned men, some of whom were summoned to fill honour- 
 able positions in the parent college, others to hold offices of 
 state." 
 
 The curious arrangement which provided that
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 107 
 
 the selection of one of the Principals should be 
 made by those whom he was to instruct, is quite 
 without parallel in university institutions. One 
 would like to know something more about it ; 
 what limitations, if any, were imposed upon their 
 choice ; and whether the Head of Caius College 
 was allowed a veto upon the regulations of the 
 hostel, or made suggestions as to the course of 
 study to be adopted there. Without some such 
 control life might have been pleasant in Physwick 
 Hostel, but could hardly have been profitable 
 according to academic ideas. Of the other hostels 
 whose position has not yet been mentioned, we 
 know that St. Katharine's Hostel stood next to 
 Physwick Hostel to the east ; that Tyled Hostel 
 was in High Street (now Trinity Street) ; and that 
 Crouched Hostel and Gregory's Hostel, which 
 stood north of Michael House, were after vvards 
 united under the latter name. All were probably 
 small buildings, perhaps only single houses, let out 
 to individuals for the accommodation of students. 
 They are only worth mentioning as showing the 
 number of these institutions that were once in 
 existence, before the establishment of colleges 
 rendered them unnecessary. 
 
 The ancestor in direct line of Trinity College, and 
 the most important, though not the most ancient, 
 foundation, was King's Hall. In 13 i 7 we find King
 
 io8 Cambridge. 
 
 Edward II. maintaining scholars at Cambridge, 
 whom he addresses as "our dear clerks, John de 
 Baggeshote and twelve other children of our chapel 
 at the University of Cambridge ;" and in 1336 King 
 Edward III. purchased for them a dwelling-house 
 and garden of Robert de Croyland. His charter, 
 dated 7th of October, 1337, mentions thirty-two 
 scholars. The house, to be called the King's Hall 
 of Scholars, or King's Hall, is described as " near 
 the Hospital of St. John ; " and has been ascer- 
 tained with tolerable certainty to have occupied 
 a considerable part of the eastern half of the 
 northern division of the site of Trinity College. 
 It must have been of larger size than medieval 
 houses in general, for it was capable, without 
 alteration, of containing the scholars and their 
 Master. The Master only had a room to himself ; 
 from two to six scholars were lodged in each of 
 the others. These scholars were probably sent to 
 college at about the age when modern boys go to 
 a public school ; and their position was not very 
 different from that of boys on the foundation of 
 Eton or Winchester. They were clothed and fed 
 at the royal expense ; and the accounts that have 
 come down to us, copies of which were sent by 
 the Master to the King, record every detail of 
 their expenditure. So minute are these accounts 
 giving all the names of the inmates of the house,
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 109 
 
 down to the cook's son, a lad called " petite 
 Wille" that it would not be difficult, had we 
 time and space enough^ to reproduce almost all the 
 daily doings of the inmates : how they lived, what 
 they ate, and what they drank. We may perhaps 
 attempt this on some future occasion. It is usual 
 to suppose that medieval living was coarse and 
 rough ; but, at any rate, they had table-cloths and 
 napkins in hall ; and their food was plentiful and 
 varied. A few random extracts from one of these 
 volumes (ranging from 1337 to 1351) are all that 
 we have space for now. In the first place, we find 
 yearly charges for the scholars' robes and furs (pro 
 rohis et furruris), which it appears they had some- 
 times considerable difficulty in procuring, for in 
 1342 special mention is made of an expenditure 
 of nearly five pounds, " when suit was made for 
 our gowns ; " and the refusal of some Fellows to 
 contribute is noticed with no little acrimony. In 
 this year there is a curious entry : " For knives 
 and pen-cases and ink-horns given to our friends 
 at court, I 8j-. 2<^." Knives were apparently con- 
 sidered the most acceptable present for gaining a 
 person's goodwill ; for hardly a year passes without 
 a charge for them, with the names of those to 
 whom they were given. The brewery and the 
 stable are frequently mentioned, and great care 
 was taken of the garden ; in each year we meet
 
 no Cambridge. 
 
 with charges for seeds, usually parsley and garlic, 
 and for work done to the vines. A piece of 
 ground was specially set apart for their cultivation, 
 and entries such as the following are frequent : 
 " To one pruning the vineyard, id." The culture 
 of vines was pretty general in Cambridge and the 
 neighbourhood in the fourteenth century. There 
 are references to it in most early college accounts ; 
 and at Ely a certain sunny slope is called " the 
 vineyard " to this day. There is, however, no hint 
 that amateur -wine-making was ever attempted ; 
 or that a college butler of those days ever com- 
 mended his liquors with " The port, sir, I know 
 is good, for I made it myself" On the contrary, 
 there is ample evidence that red wine {vinum 
 ruheum^ le claret) was imported yearly from abroad. 
 At King's College the founder made hospitable 
 provision for the supply of two casks of Gascony 
 wine every year ; and a charge for making "ver- 
 juice " from the college grapes shows that vinegar 
 for salads was probably the only liquid they pro- 
 duced. Numerous entries for poles and posts and 
 frames for the vines point to their use in providing 
 shady retreats from the summer sun. The study 
 of a few of the early codes of college statutes, 
 joined to that of such account-books as these, 
 shows that every college was intended to contain 
 within the precincts all that was necessary for the
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 1 1 1 
 
 religion, the studies, and the recreation of the 
 inmates, as in a modern public school. The most 
 minute directions for the dress and deportment of 
 the scholars are given in the statutes. A pre- 
 cedent for this had been set by Walter de Merton 
 at Oxford, who prescribes generally that his 
 scholars are to be dressed decorously, to cultivate 
 seemly behaviour, to be quiet in Hall and listen to 
 a reader, or, if obliged to address each other, to 
 speak Latin. These directions were elaborated in 
 subsequent codes at Cambridge, Special vanities 
 in dress are forbidden by name ; such as, red or 
 green shoes, girdles enriched with gold or silver, 
 rings on the fingers, swords and daggers, long hair 
 or beards ; neither dogs, falcons, nor hawks might 
 be kept, nor tournaments attended. At King's 
 College no scholar might go beyond the gates 
 unless accompanied by a Fellow, another scholar, 
 or a servant. Latin is to be used at meals ; but 
 at King's Hall French was permitted as an alter- 
 native. The Bible, however, was to be read aloud 
 during dinner, so that the cultivation of colloquial 
 Latin could not have made much progress. Li 
 contrast to this severity of discipline, the comfort 
 and economical living of the students was every- 
 where considered. Their bread was baked, and 
 their beer brewed, within the College walls. Salt 
 provisions were much used, and on fist-days salt
 
 112 Cambridge. 
 
 fish. This was bought in large quantities at 
 Lynn Mart or Ely Fair, and stowed in the College 
 storehouse till required. Their clothes were 
 washed in the College laundry, and their chins 
 shaved by the College barber. Exercise was pro- 
 vided according to the extent of the grounds. A 
 College with a large garden could find room fiDr 
 archery. Of the sixteen older Colleges thirteen 
 had bowling-greens, nine had tennis-courts, and 
 eight had both. In the winter the performance of 
 plays took place. These were usually the classical 
 compositions of Plautus or Terence, but in later 
 times an original comedy was occasionally per- 
 mitted. It is time, however, to leave these 
 domestic details, and return to the buildings. 
 
 It was not long before the limits of Robert 
 de Croyland's messuage proved too narrow for the 
 community, and by the beginning of Richard the 
 Second's reign we find them engaged in building 
 operations. Colleges especially newly-founded 
 ones do not build rapidly, and it was not until 
 1425 that the usual quadrangular area was com- 
 pleted. This was a diminutive court about forty 
 feet square, on the northern limit of the site, just 
 behind the north-west corner of the present chapel. 
 Small as it was, it contained all the necessary 
 offices hall, oratory, parlour, kitchen, bakehouse 
 and access to these different buildings was
 
 The Early History of Trinity College. 1 1 3 
 
 obtained from a cloister. In a few years the 
 west side of the college was prolonged south- 
 wards as far as the boundary lane, and returned 
 along It eastwards. Opposite to " Foul Lane " a 
 large gateway with four turrets was constructed, 
 adorned with the royal arms, and a figure of a 
 king, carved in stone and painted. This is the 
 statue of King Edward III., Tertius Edwardus 
 FAMA SUPER ^THERA NOTus, as the inscription 
 records which gave its name to the gate, and 
 which is still to be seen in a seventeenth-century 
 niche adorning the mutilated remnants of the 
 original structure. Up to the middle of Edward 
 the Fourth's reign the parish churches of All 
 Saints and St. Mary's had been used by the king's 
 scholars for their devotions, but they then built 
 a chapel private to themselves. There is reason 
 to believe that it stood, in part, on the same 
 ground as the existing chapel does, and some 
 fragments of its walls are probably imbedded 
 in the more modern ones. Lastly, at the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century, an extension of the 
 site towards the south having been at last effected, 
 and the eastern half of the old " King's Hall 
 Lane " closed, the foundation of the splendid gate 
 of entrance was laid. It was not completed until 
 1535, and was the last work executed by the 
 conmiunity of King's Hall before their dissolution. 
 
 9
 
 114 Cambridge. 
 
 When the union of the colleges, whose history 
 and position we have thus briefly traced, had 
 been brought about> the old thoroughfares were 
 closed, and the new college found itself in 
 possession of a number of buildings, scattered 
 over the area of the Great Court, but not con- 
 nected together by any unity of plan. The Society 
 possessed, besides various buildings in which their 
 members might be lodged, at least three halls, 
 but only one chapel, of no great size, no con- 
 venient master's lodge, and no regular ranges of 
 chambers suitable for a community consisting, 
 probably, of about three hundred persons. After 
 executing a number of necessary repairs, they built 
 a proper lodging for the Master. Next, the chapel 
 was undertaken, which was begun in 1555, and 
 completed, or at any rate the eastern portion of 
 it, in 1564, as the date on the eastern gable shows. 
 There is a tradition that the founder had himself 
 intended to build a chapel in this position ; and 
 it is unquestionable that (^ueen Mary and Queen 
 Elizabeth both interested themselves in its pro- 
 gress. We may console ourselves, therefore, when 
 the beauty of the building is called in question, as 
 it often is, by reflecting that the design may have 
 been suggested by Henry VIII., and was certainly 
 carried out by his daughters.
 
 V. 
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 
 
 THE Great Court of Trinity College, of which 
 we have already given an illustration, is the 
 largest in either University, having an area of 
 90,180 square feet ; while that of Christ Church, 
 Oxford, the next largest, with which it is natural 
 to compare it, has an area of only 74,520 square 
 feet. Nor is it in mere size that the Cambridge 
 quadrangle is superior. The irregularity both of 
 its dimensions and of the position of its buildings 
 produces a more pleasing architectural effect than 
 the formal correctness of Wolsey's design at 
 Oxford. Though at first sight it appears to be 
 completely regular, it is in reality exactly the 
 reverse. The sides that are opposite to each 
 other are not of the same length, none of the 
 angles are right angles, and the fountain is not 
 placed at the intersection of the diagonals. In 
 criticising the two quadrangles, however, it must 
 be remembered that that of Christ Church was
 
 1 1 8 Cambridge. 
 
 never completed by the founder, and has since 
 been added to and altered in a very unsuitable 
 manner ; while the success of the Great Court 
 of Trinity is due to a fortunate accident rather 
 than to a deliberate effort of genius on the part 
 of the architect. 
 
 The transformation of the Great Court is due 
 entirely to the taste and energy of Dr. Thomas 
 Nevile, who became Master in 1593. He, as 
 Fuller quaintly puts it, " answering his anagram 
 most heavenly, and practising his own allusive 
 motto, ne vile velis," not only transformed the 
 incongruous buildings into the stately order we 
 admire at present, but erected, at his own charge, 
 the additional court which still bears his name. 
 He called to his aid an experienced architect, 
 Ralph Symons, who had built Emmanuel College 
 (1584-86), and who afterwards built Sidney 
 Sussex College (1596-98), and the second court 
 of St. John's College (i 598-1 602). Under his 
 direction those portions of the older collegiate 
 structures that could not be incorporated into a 
 quadrangular arrangement were pulled down, and 
 the eastern and western sides of the quadrangle, 
 with the Queens' Gate in the latter, were erected. 
 One portion alone of the older buildings was con- 
 sidered either too beautiful, or too historically 
 interesting, to be wholly swept away. The Gate
 
 1 hi Cam ficar Tun ty College, ti-itli the loii,cr 
 of St. John's Chapel. 
 
 i'lOiH an Etching hy A. Briinet Debaiiics.
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 121 
 
 of Edward III. was then standing at the end of 
 a range of chambers projectuig into the area of 
 the court at right angles to the chapel. It was 
 obviously necessary to pull it down, but, in order 
 to preserve at least the facade, it was erected 
 afresh against the west end of the chapel, the west 
 window of which was blocked to receive it. To 
 Nevile we owe also the lovely fountain, erected 
 in 1602, the Hall, erected in 1604, and the 
 northern half of the Master's lodge, with the 
 dining-room and large drawing-room over it. 
 An additional storey was added to the great gate, 
 with the statue of Henry VIII, on the exterior, 
 and those of King James, his Queen, and Prince 
 Charles, on the interior. Nevile must further be 
 thanked for the acquisition of the ground on 
 which the New Court now stands, and of the 
 spacious gardens beyond the river, where the 
 avenue of lime-trees was afterwards planted- the 
 portion between the bridge and the road, in 1674, 
 and that between the college and the bridge, 
 in 1 7 16. The distant spire of the village church 
 of Coton was formerly visible at the end of this 
 delightful arcade of trees, framed in green foliage, 
 whence the avenue used to be pointed to as a 
 type of a College Fellowship being a long, but 
 not unpleasant road, with a church at the end 
 of it. But " the old order changeth, giving place
 
 122 Cambridge. 
 
 to new ; " and ecclesiastical rewards are no longer 
 looked forward to as the natural close of a suc- 
 cessful academic career. 
 
 The Hall, the west side of which is well shown 
 in the drawing which illustrates our last chapter, 
 was copied, with certain alterations, from that 
 of the Middle Temple. The same illustration 
 exhibits the plan of Dr. Nevile's Court, which is 
 a building of two floors, raised upon the arcades 
 of a spacious and well-proportioned cloister. 
 When first built, each side was subdivided by 
 pilasters into compartments of four arches each. 
 They were richly ornamented, and must have 
 broken the uniformity of the wall in a very 
 agreeable manner. Other and smaller pilasters 
 divided the windows of the first floor. These 
 latter were alternately solid, and pierced to receive 
 the spouts which discharged the rainwater, not, 
 as at present, into drains, but on to the floor 
 of the court below. The second storey was 
 finished off by a series of picturesque gables, 
 one over each window. These details have been 
 preserved to us in one of Loggan's admirable 
 views, taken in or about 1688, without which 
 their existence would never have been suspected. 
 In 1755 the stone of which the walls were built 
 had become decayed, and the whole structure 
 was considered dangerous. Mr. Essex, a local
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 123 
 
 architect, whose life was spent in destroying that 
 which ought to have been preserved, was called 
 in ; and under his direction the walls were se- 
 curely built, the whole system of decoration was 
 swept away, and the picturesque gables were re- 
 placed by a balustrade of a heavy classical cha- 
 racter, whose only merit is that it harmonises 
 exceedingly Vv'ell with that of the Library on 
 the west side of the Court. 
 
 It should be mentioned that Nevile's Court was 
 originally shorter by two compartments, or eight 
 arcades, than it is at present. These were supplied 
 by the munificence of Sir Thomas Sclater, Mr. 
 Humphry Babington, and other benefactors, aided 
 by the College funds, after the erection of the 
 Library which was commenced by the exertions of 
 Dr. Barrow, Master, in 1675. 'The architect was 
 Sir Christopher Wren. A contemporary annalist 
 records the following curious story respecting it : 
 
 "They say that Dr. Barrow pressed the Heads of the 
 University to build a Theatre, it being a Profanation and 
 Scandal that the Speeches should be had in the University 
 Church, and that also be deformed with Scaffolds and defiled 
 with rude Crowds and Outcries. This Matter was fjrmally 
 considered at a Council ot the Heads, and Arguments of 
 Difiiculty and want of Supplies went strong against it. Dr. 
 Barrow assured them that if they made a sorry Building, 
 they might fail of Contributions ; but if they made it very 
 magnificent and stately, and at least exceeding that at
 
 124 Cambridge. 
 
 Oxford, all Gentlemen of their Interest would generously 
 contribute. But sage Caution prevailed, and the Matter, at 
 that Time, was wholly laid aside. Dr. Barrow was piqued 
 at this Pusillanimity, and declared that he would go straight 
 to his College, and lay out the Foundations of a Building to 
 enlarge his back-court, and close it with a stately Library, 
 which should be more magnificent and costly than what he 
 had proposed to them, and doubted not but, upon the 
 Interest of his College, in a short Time to bring it to 
 Perfection. And he was as good as his Word, for that very 
 Afternoon, he, with his Gardiners and Servants, staked out 
 the very Foundation upon which the Building now 
 stands : and the admirable Disposition and Proportion on 
 the Inside is such as touches the very Soul of any one who 
 first sees it." 
 
 A more noble repository for books it would be 
 hard to find. The great architect fortunately 
 condescended to design the book-cases, desks, 
 seats, and other internal fittings ; so that the 
 interior, as well as the exterior, bears the impress 
 of his perfect taste and excellent judgment. The 
 floor is paved with black and white marble, set in 
 squares ; and ranged along the sides, against the 
 cases, are marble busts of the chief worthies of 
 the College, many due to the chisel of Roubiiiac, 
 among which those of the naturalists, Ray and 
 Willoughby, are pre-eminent for beauty of execu- 
 tion. At the end furthest from the door, in the 
 middle of the central space, is the statue of Lord 
 Bvron by Thorwaldsen, originally intended for
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 125 
 
 Westminster Abbey. It has been objected that 
 Lord Byron is not the greatest name in literature 
 that Trinity College could produce, and that 
 therefore the place of honour in the library should 
 not be assigned to him. When a sculptor can 
 execute a finer statue of a greater man, it will be 
 time to dethrone him. Meanwhile, let the work 
 of art remain, a fitting companion to the busts 
 that had been put there before it. 
 
 The Great Court remained as Nevile left it 
 until the Mastership of Dr. Richard Bentley 
 ( 1 700-1 742), a period which has achieved an 
 unfortunate notoriety for a series of the most 
 extraordinary and bitter disputes between the 
 Master and the Fellows. At the time of 
 Bentley's appointment to this important office, he 
 had just triumphantly routed a formidable array 
 of wits and critics who had ventured to assert the 
 genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris. It was 
 admitted by those best qualified to pronounce an 
 opinion that Bentley's victory was crushing and 
 complete ; nor does it now appear that he over- 
 stepped the proper limits of literary controversy. 
 At the time, however, his opponents did not 
 know when they were beaten. An anonymous 
 pamphleteer took refuge in abuse, and brought 
 out "A Short Account of Dr. Bentley's Humanity 
 and Justice to those Authors who have written
 
 126 Cambridge. 
 
 before him, &c., &c. ; " and another, Dr. Garth, 
 affected to consider Bentley's adversary, Mr. Boyle, 
 as the victor in the fray. In his poem, " The 
 Dispensary," the following couplet occurs : 
 
 "So diamonds take a lustre from their foil, 
 And to a Bcntlcy 'tis we owe a Boyle." 
 
 Bentley's once famous " Dissertation " has long 
 since taken its place in the list of books that are 
 much talked of but little read ; and he is better 
 known in Cambridge by the undignified squabbles 
 that disgraced his Mastership, or by the bitter 
 lines of Pope, who, in the " Dunciad," makes him 
 introduce himself to Dullness as 
 
 " Thy mighty Scholiast, whose unwearied pains 
 Made Horace dull and humbled Milton's strains ; 
 Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain, 
 Critics like me shall make it prose again." 
 
 It might have been expected that the Master- 
 ship of such a college as Trinity would have been 
 regarded by a man of his studious habits as a 
 peaceful haven, where he might pursue his 
 favourite occupations for the rest of his life 
 without let or hindrance. The result, however, 
 was exactly the reverse. From the very com- 
 mencement of his tenure of office, he set himself 
 in opposition to the Fellows ; and from that time
 
 The Further History of Trinity College, ii'j 
 
 until his death he worked amidst the din of 
 incessant battle, rather than in that serene at- 
 mosphere of University existence, which is popu- 
 larly believed to be unruffled by the tempests 
 that agitate the outer world. It must be admitted 
 that it would have required no ordinary tact and 
 temper to make his appointment the success that 
 the advisers of the Crown intended it to be. He 
 was from the first unpopular, as a member of St. 
 John's College ; and he did not improve matters 
 by replying to a congratulation in the words of 
 the Psalm, " By the help of my God I have leaped 
 over the wall." Again, he was sent to Trinity 
 as a reformer. The college had been declining 
 in numbers and reputation for some years ; the 
 kindness and good-nature of the two preceding 
 Masters, Dr. North and Dr. Montague, had 
 produced a relaxation of discipline, which had in 
 turn caused both good manners and literature to 
 decline ; appointments to Fellowships and Scholar- 
 ships had been made from favour of the ruling 
 powers, and not from merit only, as should have 
 been the case then, and has always been the case 
 since ; and, lastly, education was in a transitional 
 state the old learning of the schoolmen was neg- 
 lected and despised, and a more vigorous system 
 having not yet been adopted, the college was in an 
 intermediate state of torpor, from which it needed
 
 128 Cambridge. 
 
 a vigorous intellect to awaken it. Those, how- 
 ever, who are content to doze away their lives in 
 an easy routine are certain to resent the passionate 
 eagerness of a thorough reformer. Interference 
 from any one would, at that time, have en- 
 countered violent opposition at Trinity. But a 
 college of which Newton and Cotes were Fellows 
 would soon have declared itself on the side of 
 literary and scientific progress ; and it is sad to 
 think of the opportunity that Bentley missed, 
 thanks to his own perverse and headstrong 
 character. For it is clear that, notwithstanding 
 ail that happened, there was a party ready to 
 support him on all occasions so long as support 
 was possible ; and that party consisted of the best 
 and most learned men in the University. 
 
 The story of Dr. Bentley's career has been 
 admirably told by Bishop Monk.i In his clear 
 and accurate narrative the reader who desires to 
 know more about this dismal period, will be able 
 to follow the shifting fortunes of the combatants : 
 Bentley's first attacks upon a society that he 
 heartily despised, and for a time frightened into 
 abject submission ; the appearance of Serjeant 
 Miller on the scene, under whose valiant leader- 
 
 ' "The Lite of Richard Bentley, D.D., Master of Trinity 
 College."' By James Henry Monk, D.D., Lord Bishop of 
 Gloucester. 2 vols., 8\'o. I-ondon, 1833.
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 129 
 
 ship the Fellows turned the tide of war against 
 their enemy by an appeal to the Master's Visitor, 
 Bishop Moore of Ely ; Bentley's hairbreadth 
 escape from deprivation by the sudden death of 
 the Bishop, followed shortly afterwards by that 
 of the Queen ; down to the humiliation of the 
 Doctor on a totally different count by an over- 
 whelming vote of the Senate, when, on the 17th 
 of October, 17 18, a grace for degrading him was 
 carried by a majority of fifty-eight votes, and, 
 as a contemporary diarist records, " The great Dr. 
 Bentley was reduced to be a bare Harry-Soph, 
 being not able to gain above fifty votes in the 
 whole University ; though a great many did 
 indeed stay away, that they might not offend him 
 by voting against him ; yet one hundred and eight 
 appeared against him." 
 
 The dispute began over a complete repair to 
 the Master's Lodge, which involved external as 
 well as internal changes, for Bentley insisted upon 
 the introduction of sash-windows towards the 
 Great Court ; and further, without specific autho- 
 rity from the Seniors, built the handsome staircase 
 which leads to the first floor. When these altera- 
 tions were first proposed, it was stated bv him 
 that they would cost ;/^3CO or ,^^400, at least so it 
 was said ; and when at last the expense was found 
 to be three or four times that amount, the Seniors, 
 
 10
 
 1 30 Cambridge. 
 
 who had meanwhile become greatly irritated against 
 Bentley for his arrogant assumption of imperial 
 power, disregard of themselves, and seclusion from 
 the society of the Fellows, refused to sanction the 
 payment. It was on this occasion that he inquired 
 "whether they had forgotten his rusty sword?" 
 and when the Bursar forbade the workmen to 
 proceed, he told him " he would send him into the 
 country to feed his turkeys." Shortly after this 
 the indignant Master showed the College that he 
 could use his sword to some effect ; for he went 
 the length of refusing his sanction to the election 
 of any Fellow to a College Preachership (which 
 was at that time necessary in order to hold Church 
 preferment together with a Fellowship) until the 
 money was paid. After a resistance of two years, 
 the Seniors yielded. Bentley's next great archi- 
 tectural work was the internal decoration of the 
 Chapel, with oak panelling and stalls, and an 
 organ, built by the celebrated Father Smith. The 
 Fellows were persuaded to subscribe a year's 
 dividend each ; an unfortunate measure for them, 
 for, in the vears 1703 and 1704, owing to the great 
 expenses of the College, only half a dividend had 
 been received. They, therefore, found their income 
 anticipated, and actual distress was the result in 
 several cases. All the comfort they got, however, 
 from their pitiless tyrant was that " he expected
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 131 
 
 their complaints, but that it would be all one twenty- 
 years hence." Shortly after this, in consequence 
 of an attempt to alter the system of dividends, 
 thirty of the Fellows plucked up courage, and 
 drew out a case against their Master, which they 
 submitted to the Bishop of Ely. It is a most 
 curious and entertaining document, being thrown 
 into an interrogative form, as the following 
 paragraphs show : 
 
 "Why did you according to your own Will and Pleasure 
 cause so many and so large Rooms to be wainscottcd in your 
 said Lodge, which could only be designed to entertain 
 Boarders therein for your private Gain, and make many 
 other costly and needless Alterations and Additions, and 
 that without the Advice, Consent, or Direction of the Senior 
 Fellows, or the Bursars, or either of them, as the said 
 College-Statutes require ? 
 
 "Why were the several Punishments, Disgraces, and In- 
 juries, imposed on several Fellows, and many Scholars, 
 during your Mastership, without any hearing, statutable 
 Convictions, or Authority ; and that in an insolent manner, 
 by saying, Hie est Indus jocusque, you were not warm yet, or 
 to that Effect? 
 
 "Why did you use scurrilous Words and Language to several 
 of the Fellows, particularly by calling Mr. Eden an Ass, and 
 Mr. Rtisely the College Dog, and by telling Mr. Coc^ he 
 would die in his Shoes, and calling many others Fools and 
 Sots and other scurrilous Names ; and also use several other 
 Expressions contrary to the 20th Chapter of the said College 
 Statutes, as Farewell Peace to Trinity College, and many 
 others of the like Nature ? 
 
 " Why did you prophanely and blasphemously use and
 
 132 Cambridge. 
 
 apply several Expressions in Scripture ? As, He that honours 
 me, I will honour. I set Life or Death before you, choose you 
 zvhether, or to that effect ? " 
 
 To this challenge Bentley was not slow in 
 replying. He presently drew up, in the form of 
 a " Letter to the Bishop of Ely," a bitter invective 
 against those who had presumed to prefer against 
 him a complaint, which he politely describes as 
 "the last struggle and effort of vice and idleness 
 against virtue, learning, and good discipline." 
 Here, however, we must conclude our brief 
 narrative of this great quarrel, which, as it lasted 
 for nearly forty years, illustrated and augmented 
 by numerous controversial pamphlets by both 
 actors and spectators, is an almost inexhaustible 
 mine for the study of academic opinions and 
 customs of that time. 
 
 The classical facade imposed upon the Lodge 
 by Bentley lasted till 1842, when the Mastership 
 of Dr. Whewell was inaugurated by a restoration 
 of the front, though unfortunately the semicircular 
 oriel was not rebuilt. Towards this work Mr. 
 Beresford-Hope contributed ^^ 1,000 an act of 
 munificence commemorated by an inscription on 
 the oriel. At that time Dr. Whewell was not so 
 popular as his great talents and high character 
 ought to have made him. A brusque and some- 
 what haughty manner was mistaken for pride ; and
 
 The Fur i her History of Trinity College. 133 
 
 the conjunction of his name with Mr. Hope's in 
 the inscription gave rise to much indignant and 
 unfavourable comment. A wag composed a 
 parody on " The House that Jack built," which 
 began thus : 
 
 " This is the House that Hope built. 
 This is the Master, rude and rough, 
 Who lives in the House that Hope built. 
 These are the Seniors, greedy and gruff, 
 Who toady the Master, rude and rough. 
 Who lives in the house that Hope built." 
 
 The only other important alteration to the 
 court is the construction of the Combination 
 Room, in 177 1, under Essex, to effect which a 
 hideous Italian front replaced the picturesque oriel 
 shown by Loggan. 
 
 The New Court or, as it was intended to be 
 called, the King's Court, because George IV. 
 contributed towards the cost of it _^ 1,000 was 
 begun in 1823. The architect was Mr. Wilkins. 
 The ceremony of laying the first stone was the 
 occasion of a feast, which feast was the occasion of 
 a serious diff^erence of opinion between the Master 
 and Seniors on the one hand, and the undergraduate 
 members of the College on the other. It was 
 decided that the latter might come to dinner if 
 they chose, but might not stay to hear the speeches 
 afterwards. Indignant at what they regarded as a
 
 134 Cambridge. 
 
 slight on their good breeding, they preferred to 
 stay away altogether ; and, much to the surprise 
 of the Fellows, the lower part of the hall remained 
 empty. The next day the following poetical 
 epistle from an undergraduate of Trinity to a 
 friend at Oxford made its appearance. The 
 motto was intended to indicate the preference 
 shown to the masters of arts, who wore black 
 gowns, over the undergraduates, who wore blue 
 ones : 
 
 " Out spake the Rover to his gallant crew. 
 Up with the blac\ flag, and down with the blue^^ 
 
 "There was a feast, a mighty feast, 
 
 For Science and the Gown ; 
 The College buildings were increased, 
 
 The Speaker was come down ; 
 And men of war, and men of prayer, 
 And men of every sort were there, 
 Peer and Professor, Monk and Mayor, 
 
 And Simeonite and sinner ; 
 Sweating and swearing, fretting and frying ; 
 Bowing and bustling, crowding and crying ; 
 And very fond of speechifying, 
 
 And very fond of dinner. 
 
 Then looking big, and looking blue. 
 Out-spake unto his gallant crew 
 The gracious king of Trinity : 
 
 ''Tis contrary to rule and right 
 That we, the Seniors, should invite.
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 135 
 
 To see us drink and hear us speak, 
 The beardless bunglers in bad Greek, 
 
 The learners of Latinity. 
 We will not make the striplings sick 
 With claret and with rhetoric ; 
 The stream of eloquence and liquor 
 Shall only flow for Vice and Vicar, 
 The Court and Caput sweetly blent, 
 And members of the Parliament, 
 
 And Doctors of Divinity. 
 'Tis proper for young men to pay, 
 And keep the peace, and keep away; 
 They'll find the dinner quite a treat. 
 And hear the band, and eat the meat ; 
 But to stay drinking^strange vagary 
 For men in statu pupillari.' 
 
 All undergraduates are vermin 
 
 The conclave did that day determine^ 
 
 For tear of noise and squeeze. 
 The Master should remove at once 
 The emptiness of dish and dunce, 
 Thick beer and thirsty bachelor, 
 Plum-pudding and pert pensioner. 
 
 Young scholar and old cheese. 
 That all unseen and all unheard, 
 The ancient ones might be absurd ; 
 That all might join in port and pranks. 
 In reasoning and returning thanks ; 
 That Medallists might praise the haunches, 
 And Wranglers fight about the branches ; 
 And sober Tutors drain the bottle. 
 And pedants quote from Aristotle ! 
 A child might see how this would end.
 
 136 Cambridge. 
 
 Hot were our passions, O my friend, 
 
 And very hot the weather. 
 We all resolved, in either court. 
 To cut the business very short, 
 
 And cut it altogether. 
 
 Was it a most atrocious sin 
 
 To hurry to the 'Eagle Inn,' 
 
 And there to fret, and there to fume, 
 
 In a great passion and small room ? 
 
 Perhaps it was. I only know, 
 
 I sat me down at five or so, 
 
 And dined upon a charming plan, 
 
 Clean cloth, stewed eels, and Mary Anne. 
 
 I am egregiously witty, 
 
 And Mary Anne is rather pretty; 
 
 And so we grew immensely merry. 
 
 And drank the Doctor's health in sherry." 
 
 Before leaving Trinity College, it will be 
 interesting to mention where some of the great 
 men who have made the College famous resided. 
 Sir Isaac Newton occupied, from 1679 to 1696, 
 the rooms on the first floor to the north of the 
 Great Gateway. The space between the chapel 
 and the entrance to the College is laid out as a 
 garden, which, in those days, and until a few years 
 ago, was rendered private by a high wall. This 
 was attached to the rooms in question. In 
 Newton's time, as Loggan's print shows, it was 
 laid out in trim flower-beds, with three trees close 
 to the staircase leading down to it. In the next
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 137 
 
 century the rooms were assigned to Dr. Richard 
 Walker, whose close friendship for, and subser- 
 vience to, Bentley, has gained him a niche in the 
 " Dunciad." When the great critic appears, 
 
 " His hat, which never vail'd to human pride, 
 Walker with rev'rence took, and laid aside : " 
 
 and at the end of his speech he cries, 
 
 " ' Walker ! our hat ; ' nor more he deigned to say ; 
 But, stern as Ajax' spectre, strode away." 
 
 It is recorded that during Walker's time every 
 relic of Newton's studies and experiments was 
 " respectfully preserved to the minutest par- 
 ticular," and pointed out to visitors " with the 
 most circumstantial precision." The noble statue 
 of him, by Roubiliac, which occupies the place of 
 honour at the west end of the ante-chapel, was 
 given in 1755 by Dr. Robert Smith, Master. 
 The beauty of it as a work of art has been amply 
 recognised by the best judges. Chantrey called it 
 " the noblest of our English statues," and Words- 
 worth has recorded how he used to lie awake at 
 night and think of it, when the moonlight shone 
 upon 
 
 " The antc-chapel, where the statue stood 
 Of Newton, with his prism and silent face ; 
 The marble index of a mind for ever 
 \^oyaging through strange seas of thought alone."
 
 138 Cambridge. 
 
 In the rooms under these William Makepeace 
 Thackeray resided. It was probably in remem- 
 brance of them that he placed Henry Esmond in 
 " comfortable rooms in the great court close by 
 the gate, and near to the famous Mr. Newton's 
 lodgings." The rooms next the chapel, on the 
 ground-floor of the same staircase, belonged to 
 Macaulay. His biographer, Mr. Trevelyan, after 
 recording this fact, proceeds as follows : 
 
 " From the door of these rooms there runs a flagged path- 
 way which affords an acceptable relief from the rugged 
 pebbles that surround it. Here, as a Bachelor of Arts, he 
 would walk, book in hand, morning after morning, through- 
 out the Long Vacation, reading with the same eagerness and 
 the same rapidity, whether the volume was the most abstruse 
 of treatises, the loftiest of poems, or the flimsiest of novels. 
 That was the spot where in his failing years he specially 
 loved to renew the feelings of the past ; and some there are 
 who can never revisit it without the fancy that there, if any- 
 where, his dear shade must linger." 
 
 Lord Byron's rooms are said to have been on 
 the north side of Nevile's Court, those on the first 
 floor on the west side of the central staircase. His 
 own account of the wild life that he led in them, 
 with the " large assortment of jockeys, gamblers, 
 boxers, authors, parsons, and poets," that he 
 gathered together, are probably parts of that love 
 of exaggeration of his own defects which was one 
 of his strangest characteristics. The tame bear,
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. 139 
 
 " his new friend, the finest in the world," who was 
 " to sit for a fellowship," was not, however, kept 
 in College, as is often reported, but in a more 
 appropriate locality a stable in the Ram Yard. 
 Another legend places Byron's rooms at the west 
 end of the first floor on the south side of the same 
 court ; and it was to these that Countess Guiccioli, 
 then Madame de Boissy, the lady who had been 
 the object of his last and most enduring attach- 
 ment, had been directed, when, some thirty years 
 after her lover's death, she made a pilgrimage to 
 Cambridge for the purpose of seeing the place 
 where he had lived as a young man. She had given 
 no notice of her visit, and the gentleman to whom 
 she brought a letter of introduction was not at 
 home when she arrived. On the stairs she met 
 one of the Senior Fellows, of whom she inquired 
 if she could see Byron's rooms, of which he was 
 himself the occupier. He, thinking she was an 
 ordinary sightseer, with a taste for romantic poetry, 
 good-naturedly acquiesced. She examined the rooms 
 carefully for some moments, and took her leave. At 
 dinner afterwards, the gentleman whom she had 
 meant to visit, having found her letter and card, 
 mentioned his disappointment at having missed 
 her. " Ah ! " said the other, " so that was Countess 
 Guiccioli ! I thought the lady took an uncommon 
 interest in the rooms I showed her I " Byron did
 
 1 40 Cambridge. 
 
 not make a good impression in College. Those 
 who remembered him never spoke kindly of him, 
 and stories are still current of his bad taste and his 
 morbid sensitiveness. Once, on going out of Hall, 
 he forgot himself so far as to mimic the gestures 
 of the Master as he walked behind him towards 
 the Combination Room. He was fond of boxing, 
 and affected the society of Jackson, the celebrated 
 pugilist, with whom he often walked and drove in 
 public. When his tutor, Mr. Tavel, remonstrated 
 with him on being seen in company so much be- 
 neath his rank, he replied, *' Really, sir, I cannot 
 understand you. With the single exception of 
 yourself, I can assure you that Mr. Jackson's 
 manners are infinitely superior to those of the 
 Fellows of the College whom I meet at the high 
 table." The late Master of Magdalene, Mr. 
 George Neville Grenville, when a freshman, was 
 one day at his rooms to take wine after the early 
 dinner in Hall. When the party separated to 
 attend a concert in the Senate House, Byron and 
 Neville walked together. The pavement was 
 narrow, and Neville fell behind Byron out of 
 politeness. Instead of thanking him for his cour- 
 tesy, Byron exclaimed, " Ah ! I see what it is ; 
 you want to spy out my deformity." 
 
 The two Tennysons, Alfred and Charles, never 
 had rooms in College. The former lodged at first
 
 The Further History of Trinity College. I41 
 
 in the Rose Crescent ; afterwards the brothers had 
 rooms together in a house opposite the Bull Hotel. 
 Arthur Hallam " kept " in the New Court, on the 
 central staircase of the south side, in the set of 
 rooms on the first floor to the right as the staircase 
 is faced. The stanzas in " In Memoriam," where 
 the poet says, " Up that long walk of limes I past, 
 to see the rooms in which he dwelt," have become 
 the parent of a tradition that Hallam's rooms were 
 on the west side of the court. The plain sense 
 of the words, however, is, that he entered the New 
 Court by the avenue, and so came to the well- 
 known staircase. 
 
 "Another name was on the door : 
 I linger'd; all within was noise 
 Of songs, and clapping hands, and boys 
 That crashed the glass and beat the floor ; 
 
 Where once we held debate, a band 
 Of youthful friends, on mind and art 
 And labour, and the changing mart. 
 
 And all the framework of the land."
 
 VI. 
 
 King's College. 
 
 THE history of Trinity College, growing as it 
 did out of the small medieval foundations 
 of Michael House and King's Hall, led us away 
 from the distant times in which they were first 
 established almost to our own days. The stately 
 chapel of King's College, however, the last 
 thoroughly medieval structure erected in Cam- 
 bridge,- which, notwithstanding the changes and 
 chances of the long period that elapsed between 
 its foundation and completion, bears indelibly the 
 stamp of the age in which it was planned, will 
 carry us back to the period in University history 
 from which we diverged. 
 
 The fourteenth century had witnessed the es- 
 tablishment, within less than thirty years, of no 
 less than five colleges : Clare Hall, Pembroke 
 Hall, Gonville Hall, Trinity Hall, and Corpus 
 Christi College, all founded between 1326 and
 
 Kings College. 143 
 
 1352. After this there is a break of nearly a 
 century, during which nothing was done either by 
 royal or private munificence. The accession of 
 Henry the Sixth was the signal for a fresh depar- 
 ture. Not only did he found his own magnificent 
 college, but his Queen, Margaret of Anjou, 
 established a second in its immediate neighbour- 
 hood in 1448. As Fuller quaintly puts it : 
 " Indeed, as Miltiades' trophy in Athens would 
 not suffer Themistocles to sleep, so this Queen, 
 beholding her husband's bounty in building King's 
 College, was restless in herself with holy emulation 
 until she had produced something of the like 
 nature. A strife wherein wives, without breach 
 of duty, may contend with their husbands which 
 should exceed in pious performances." She pro- 
 posed to call it the College of St. Margaret and 
 St. Bernard, but after her husband's deposition the 
 name was changed. Andrew Docket, the first 
 master, who had been appointed to that office by 
 Queen Margaret, hastened with pardonR,ble sub- 
 servience to ingratiate himself with her successor, 
 and so cleverly did he manage that Elizabeth 
 Woodville consented to be named as co-foundress, 
 and the college became " the Queens' College of 
 St. Margaret and St. Bernard," now familiarly 
 known simply as Queens' College. This foundation 
 was succeeded by that of St. Catharine's College,
 
 1 44 Cambridge. 
 
 founded in 1475 ^Y Robert Wodelarke, third 
 Provost of King's College. 
 
 It was on the 12th of February, 1441, when 
 Henry of Windsor was only nineteen years old, 
 that he signed the charter of his first foundation 
 for a Rector and twelve scholars only, which he 
 proposed to call " The Royal College of St. 
 Nicholas," in commemoration of the saint on 
 whose day he had been born. This college would 
 have been no larger than those previously founded, 
 and moreover, from the nature of the ground, 
 was incapable of future extension. It is difficult 
 to understand how the Commissioners employed 
 by the King one of whom was Dr. John 
 Langton, then Master of Pembroke Hall and 
 Vice-Chancellor of the University came to select 
 a site so cramped and so inconvenient. It had 
 Milne Street, then one of the principal thorough- 
 fares of the town, on the west ; the University 
 Library and Schools on the east ; and a public 
 lane on the north. On the south side only, which 
 was also the narrowest, had it any outlet at all, 
 and even there the ground available for that 
 indispensable appendage to a medieval college, 
 a garden, was extremely narrow. We ought, per- 
 haps, to be grateful for the selection of ground 
 which the scholars presently discovered to be too 
 small for their accommodation ; for they lost no
 
 Kings College. 145 
 
 time in petitioning the King to provide them with 
 ampler habitations, and it was partly in consequence 
 of that prayer of theirs that he acquired the larger 
 site, and planned the noble college whereof Stow 
 remarks " that if the rest of the house had 
 proceeded according to the chappell (as his full 
 intent and meaning was) the like colledge could 
 scarce have been found againe in any Christian 
 land." 
 
 There were, however, other motives determining 
 the King's action in this matter. It must be 
 remembered that shortly before the foundation of 
 the college at Cambridge, on October 11, 1440, 
 he had signed the charter of foundation of Eton 
 College. Previous to this, in July of the same 
 year, he had visited Winchester, and studied 
 carefully, from personal observation, the working 
 of William of Wykeham's system of education. 
 It does not appear, however, that he all at once 
 conceived the idea of connecting his school and 
 college together ; in fact, there is evidence that he 
 at tirst intended that the two should be indepen- 
 dent. Subsequently, however, either from personal 
 conviction or from the influence of those about 
 him, he determined that his Eton scholars should 
 participate in the Cambridge foundation. In the 
 charter granted to King's College, July 10, 1443, 
 he says : 
 
 II
 
 146 Cambridge. 
 
 "It is our fixed and unalterable purpose, being moved 
 thereto, as we trust, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
 that our poor scholars of our Royal foundation of St. Mary 
 of Eton, after they have been sufiiciently taught the first 
 rudiments of grammar, shall be transferred thence to our 
 aforesaid College of Cambridge, which wo will shall be 
 henceforth denominated Our College Royal of St. Mary and 
 St. Nicholas, there to be more thoroughly instructed in a 
 liberal course of study, in other branches of knowledge, and 
 other professions." 
 
 Furthermore, in order to " weld the two colleges 
 together in an everlasting bond of brotherhood," 
 he ordains that the name of Rector shall be 
 abolished, and the Eton title of Provost be adopted 
 for the Head ; and that for all time the college 
 shall be known by the title of " Provost and 
 Scholars," and have all the rights and privileges 
 before granted to it. 
 
 The acquisition of the new site was begun at 
 once, A fresh commission was issued for the pur- 
 pose, and as each parcel of ground was obtained, 
 it was conveyed to the college. The task was 
 beset with difficulties that would have daunted a 
 mind less firmly resolved on carrying out the end 
 in view than the King's ; difficulties, indeed, that 
 would have been insuperable except by royal 
 influence, backed by a royal purse. The ground 
 on which King's College now stands was then 
 densely popula*-ed. It occupied nearly the whole
 
 Kings College. 1 47 
 
 ot" the parish of St. John Baptist, whose church is 
 beheved to have stood near the west end of the 
 chapel. Milne Street crossed the site from north 
 to south, in a direction that may be easily identified 
 from the two ends of the street that still remain, 
 under the names of Trinity Hall Lane and 
 Queens' Lane. The space between Milne Street 
 and Trumpington Street, then called High Street, 
 was occupied by the houses and gardens of different 
 proprietors, and was traversed by a narrow 
 thoroughfare called Piron Lane, leading from 
 High Street to St. John's Church. At the corner 
 of Milne Street and this lane, occupying the 
 ground on which about half the ante-chapel now 
 stands, was the small college called God's House, 
 founded in 1439 by William Byngham, for the 
 study of grammar, which, as he observes in his 
 petition to Henry VL for leave to found it, " is 
 the rote and grounde of all other sciences." On 
 the west side of Milne Street, between it and the 
 river, were the hostels of St. Austin, St. Nicholas, 
 and St. Edmund, besides many dwelling-houses. 
 This district was traversed by several lanes, 
 affording to the townspeople ready access to the 
 river, and to a wharf on its bank called Salthithe. 
 No detailed account has been preserved of the 
 negotiations necessary for the acquisition of this 
 ground, between six and seven acres in extent, and
 
 14S Cambridge 
 
 in the very heart of Cambridge. From some of 
 the conveyances, however, we get curious and 
 significant glimpses of the hard terms enforced by 
 the vendors, who naturally were not loth to seize 
 so golden an opportunity for enriching themselves ; 
 and of the heart-burnings that the sequestration 
 of so much property for college purposes gave rise 
 to. The greatest offence appears to have been 
 given by the closing of the lanes leading down to 
 the river, which, as we explained in the first 
 chapter, was of primary importance to medieval 
 Cambridge as a highway. In five years' time, 
 however, the difficulties were all got over ; the 
 town yielded up, though not with the best grace, 
 the portion of Milne Street required, and all the 
 other thoroughfares ; the hostels were suppressed, 
 or transferred to other sites ; the church of St. 
 John was pulled down, and the parish united to 
 that of St. Edward, whose church bears evidence, 
 by the spacious aisles attached to its choir, of the 
 extension rendered necessary at that time by the 
 addition of the members of Clare Hall and Trinity 
 Hall to the number of its parishioners. By a 
 charter confirmed by the Parliament of 1449, the 
 splendid site was conveyed to the Provost and 
 Scholars, together with the ground beyond this 
 river, now the college gardens ; ample revenues 
 were granted to them ; and the Founder bade
 
 South Porch of Kjjig's College Chapel. 
 
 J' >oiii a tiyaii'hi:; /)' /J. Ilrunct Dchaiiu's.
 
 Kings College. 1 5 1 
 
 them take possession of the new site, erect buildings 
 upon it, and flourish there " as well or even better 
 than they and their predecessors had done on the 
 site originally assigned to them." 
 
 The buildings of the extended college were 
 commenced by the laying of the first stone of 
 the chapel, on St. James' Day (July 25th), 1446. 
 The buildings of Eton had been begun just five 
 years before, July 3, J 441. Neither of these 
 colleges was completed according to the inten- 
 tions of the Founder, and we should be left to 
 conjecture what those intentions were had he 
 not fortunately committed to writing his detailed 
 scheme for both in a document called " The 
 Will of King Henry the Sixth." The term 
 " Will " does not signify a testament, but an 
 expression of his deliberate purpose with regard 
 to the arrangement of the buildings, the payment 
 of the principal workmen, and the assignment 
 of funds to defray the expense. This document, 
 signed in March, 1448, is on several grounds 
 one of the most remarkable works in the 
 English language. The design which it describes 
 is a marvellous union of beauty and convenience, 
 and the measurements of the different parts are 
 set down so clearly and so exactly that a 
 ground-plan can without much difficulty be 
 constructed from them; minute details of work-
 
 152 Cambridge. 
 
 men and their wages are carefully entered into ; 
 ample funds are provided out of the revenues 
 of the Duchy of Lancaster and vested in the 
 hands of trustees ; future contingencies are 
 guarded against by every precaution that legal 
 ingenuity could invent ; and, lastly, in a strain 
 of earnest eloquence, that becomes almost tragic 
 when we consider the fate that befell the 
 writer and his works within a few years, he 
 exhorts those to whom these trusts are com- 
 mitted to discharge them in all points faithfully. 
 We will describe briefly the design for 
 King's, premising that that for Eton bears a 
 general resemblance to it, sufficiently close to 
 prove that both were derived from a common 
 original Wykeham's College at Winchester. 
 The design for Eton being executed more 
 immediately under the King's own supervision, 
 was constantly altered, and, had it ever been 
 completed, would probably have resulted in 
 something very difi'erent from what we find 
 described in the Will. That for King's, on 
 the contrary, so far as it was carried out, is 
 exactly what we find described therein, except 
 in some minute particulars, which may be 
 neglected in a general description. The chapel, 
 288 feet long by 40 feet broad, was to form 
 the north side of the quadrangle, of which the
 
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 ^ 
 
 e 
 
 "Jl 
 
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 p 
 
 ^ 
 
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 King's College. 155 
 
 east and west sides were to " close vnto bothe 
 endes of the chirche " that is, were to abut 
 against the chapel, which would, therefore, 
 have been an integral part of the quadrangle, 
 instead of standing apart, as it now does, like 
 a model on a board. This quadrangle would 
 have measured 238 feet from east to west, by 
 230 feet from north to south. The gate of 
 entrance would have been in the same position 
 as at present, in the middle of the east side ; 
 that side and the south side would have been 
 occupied by chambers ; the west side by a 
 lecture-room, with a library over it, and by the 
 buttery and hall. The Provost's lodge would 
 have been at the intersection of the west and 
 south sides. The Provost's offices and the 
 college kitchen were behind the hall. At the 
 west end of the chapel separated from it in 
 all probability by an interval such as exists at 
 New College, Oxford, and as was directed in 
 the Will for Eton, " for to sette in certain 
 trees and floures behoueful and conuenient for 
 the service of the chirche " there was to be 
 a burial-ground, measuring 175 feet from north 
 to south, by 200 feet from east to west. It 
 was to be surrounded by a cloister, and in the 
 middle of the west side there was to be a 
 belfry, 1 20 feet high to the corbel-table, with
 
 156 Cambridge. 
 
 four angle-turrets, crowned with pinnacles. 
 Access to the grounds beyond the river was 
 provided by a bridge, in the centre of the 
 western side of the site ; and all the circuit 
 of the college was to be defended by a high 
 wall, with towers at intervals. The approach 
 to the bridge was also to be guarded by a 
 tower ; there was to be a second gateway in the 
 wall next the street, crowned with turrets ; a 
 tower was to give access to the hall ; and there 
 were to be staircase-towers in the inside of the 
 court. Thus the four turrets of the chapel, 
 which have often been criticised for their exact 
 uniformity, would only have been a portion 
 of a forest of spires, small and great, rising 
 above the roofs ; and they were all so arranged 
 that, when viewed from a distance, they would 
 not have interfered with one another, but each 
 would have had its own proper and befitting 
 position. At the conclusion of the Will the 
 King names fourteen persons, into whose charge 
 he commits the various trusts before rehearsed. 
 They were the Bishops of Winchester and St. 
 Asaph, the Earls of Devon, Salisbury, 
 Northumberland, and Shrewsbury, the Lord 
 Clifford, the Lord Wells, and the Provosts 
 of Eton and King's, with others of less note. 
 Of these the first-named, W^illiam Waynflete,
 
 Kings College. 157 
 
 whom Henry had promoted from the Master- 
 ship of Winchester to be first Head Master, 
 then Provost, of Eton, was the one whom he 
 evidently regarded as a personal friend, whom 
 he could trust implicity to carry out his wishes. 
 He thus commits the supreme direction of the 
 whole scheme to him : 
 
 " Furthermore, for the final perfourmyingof my seid wil to 
 be put eflcctuclly in execucion, I, considerying the grete 
 discrecion of the seide worshepful fader in god William 
 nowe Bisshop of Wynchestre, his high trought and feruent 
 zele which at alle tymcs he hath haddc and hath vnto my 
 wccl, And whiche I haue founde and proued in hym, and 
 for the grete and hool confidence whiche I haue vnto hym 
 for thoo causes wol that he not oonly as Surucour, but 
 also as executor and director of my seid wil, be priuee 
 vnto allc and euery execucion of the pcrfourmyng of my 
 same wil, and that his consente in any wise be hadde 
 therto." 
 
 Finally, he appeals to his trustees generally by 
 the most solemn of all considerations : 
 
 "And that this my seid wil in euery poynt before 
 rcherccd may the more effectually be executed .1. not 
 oonlv pray and desire but also exortc in Crist require and 
 charge allc and euery of my seid feftecs myn Executours 
 and Surucour or Surueours in the vertuc of the aspercion 
 of Christes blessed blodc and of his pcyncful passion that 
 they hauyng god and mync cntcnt oonly before their eycn, 
 not Icttyng for drcde or fauour of any pcrsoune lyuing of 
 what estat degree or condicion that he be truly fcithfully
 
 158 Cambridge. 
 
 and diligently execute my same vvil, and euery part thereof, 
 as they wol answere before the blessed and drcdcful visage 
 of our Lord Jhesu in his most fcreful and last dome, when 
 euery man shal most streitly be examined and demed after 
 his demeritees. 
 
 " And furthermore, for the more sure accomplisshement 
 of this my said wil I in the most entier and most feruent 
 wise pray my said heirs and successours, and euery of thcym, 
 that they shewe them self wel-willyng fcithful and tender 
 lovers of my desire in this behalf; And in the bowelles 
 of Christ our alder iuste and streit Juge, exorte theym to 
 remember the terrible comminations and full fearful 
 imprecations of holy scripture agayns the brekers of the 
 lawe of god, and the letters of goode and holy werlces, the 
 which imprecations Holy Scripture reherscth in the booke 
 of Deuteronomy, saying, ' If thou wilt not hearken unto 
 the voice of the Lord thy God, all these curses shall cotne 
 upon thee and overtake thee : cursed shalt thou be in the city, 
 and cursed shalt thou be in the field : cursed shalt thou be 
 when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 
 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuJ^e, in 
 all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be 
 destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness 
 of thy doings whereby thou hast for sa\en me.^^' 
 
 As is generally the case with medieval build- 
 ings, the designer of this elaborate piece of 
 collegiate architecture is unknown. In the case 
 of Eton, even tradition is silent ; in the case of 
 King's, it names Nicholas Close, one of the 
 original Fellows, who received a grant of arms 
 from the King for the pains he had taken in 
 promoting the royal buildings, and who was
 
 Kings College. i 59 
 
 certainly overseer of the works at their com- 
 mencement. There is, however, no proof that 
 he furnished the design. One point alone 
 seems certain, namely, that both colleges were 
 undoubtedly planned by the same person ; and, 
 considering how anxiously the King himself 
 watched over the progress of Eton, changing the 
 design repeatedly, and noting in his own hand 
 the altered dimensions that he wished to 
 introduce, it is surely not unnatural to suppose 
 that he may himself have planned the whole 
 scheme, for the realisation of which he displayed 
 an anxiety more keen than he is likely to have 
 felt for any plan devised by the ingenuity of 
 others. In the arrangement of details, however, 
 he was doubtless assisted. At Eton we find 
 that his friend, the Marquis of Suffolk, not 
 only supervised the expenditure, but was con- 
 sulted from time to time on points referred to 
 him by the clerk of the works, among others 
 on the design of the hall. Waynflete again, 
 who, from the terms in which he is spoken of 
 in the Will, unquestionably enjoyed his entire 
 confidence, may well have had something to do 
 with originating the whole scheme. He was a 
 practical architect, as we see from his own 
 foundation, Magdalene College, Oxford ; and 
 his connection with Winchester may account for
 
 1 60 Cambridge. 
 
 the general resemblance already noticed between 
 the design of Henry the Sixth and that of 
 Wykeham. 
 
 There is good reason for believing that the first 
 stone of the chapel was laid by King Henry in 
 person, after which it proceeded slowly and halt- 
 ingly, for the disasters that befell prevented the 
 regular payment of the money assigned for the 
 works even from the first, down to his deposition. 
 The beautiful white magnesian limestone which 
 marks the limit of the work done in his reign, is 
 another proof of the close connection that he 
 wished to maintain between King's and Eton. 
 It was obtained from a quarry at Hudleston, 
 near Sherburne, in Yorkshire, which he had 
 acquired from the owner, Henry Vavasour, for 
 the joint use of the two foundations. The stone 
 was quarried at their joint expense, and then 
 divided between them. There is evidence, that 
 for the last two years or more before King 
 Henry's deposition the works must have been 
 almost, if not quite, stopped ; and in 1460 money 
 was actually sent from Cambridge to him at 
 Northampton, just a week before the disastrous 
 battle at which he was taken prisoner. The 
 inmates of the college must have been profoundly 
 discouraged ; their anxiety is shown, more elo- 
 quently than by mere words, by the numerous
 
 Kings College. i6i 
 
 payments to servants sent to London, to New- 
 market, to Royston, to Barkway, to obtain intelli- 
 gence (^p7'o novis audiendis). Anything was better 
 than the state of wretched uncertainty they were 
 in. At last, when the news of his death came, it 
 is said that the workmen, who were sawing a 
 block of limestone, threw down their tools, believ- 
 ing that the works were at end, and left it half 
 sawn in two. The story may have been invented 
 afterwards to account for the presence of the 
 stone, which lay upon the college green until 
 1724, when it was used as the foundation-stone 
 of the Fellows' Building ; but it was certainly 
 believed at that time, for it is alluded to in the 
 inscription then engraved upon it. After this 
 catastrophe, though the works did not cease 
 entirely, as is commonly supposed, they made 
 but little progress until near the end of the reign 
 of Edward the Fourth, who was then moved to 
 give one thousand marks, probably through the 
 intercession of the Provost, Walter Field, who 
 had been one of his chaplains. The sum obtained, 
 however, was too small to accomplish much ; nor 
 could the ;/^700 which Richard the Third con- 
 tributed have effected much more. After his 
 death the building ceased entirely for twenty-four 
 years, a break in the work with which the first 
 period of the construction of the chapel ends. 
 
 12
 
 Kings College (^continued). 
 
 A FEW months before the close of his lifcj 
 -^^~^ King Henry the Seventh determined to 
 complete the building with which the name of 
 his uncle was so intimately associated. It had 
 been accepted, as we have seen, even by Edward 
 the Fourth and Richard the Third, as a royal 
 possession which the kings of England were 
 bound to finish. If they had been interested in 
 it, much more ought he to be so, of whom Henry 
 of Lancaster had foretold that he would be his 
 successor, a tradition which Shakespeare has thus 
 commemorated : 
 
 "'King Henry. My Lord of Somerset, what youth is that 
 
 Ot whom you seem to have so tender care ? 
 Somerset, My liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Rich- 
 mond. 
 Ki/ig Henry. Come hither, England's hope. \_Lays his hand 
 on his head.~\ 
 
 If secret powers 
 Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts,
 
 King's College. 163 
 
 This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. 
 
 His looks are full of peaceful majesty, 
 
 His head by nature framed to wear a crown, 
 
 His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself 
 
 Likely in time to bless a regal throne. 
 
 Make much of him, my lords, for this is he 
 
 Must help you more than you are hurt by me." 
 
 Henry Tudor " loved to accumulate treasure," 
 says his biographer ; but to do honour to his 
 departed uncle, whose crown he had inherited, he 
 was prepared to lay aside his accustomed penu- 
 riousness. Policy, as well as superstition, probably 
 influenced him in this. Popular feeling through- 
 out England had come to believe that " Henry's 
 holy shade " was working miracles. Pilgrims had 
 crowded to the grave at Chertsey, where his corpse 
 had first been laid before its removal to Windsor ; 
 and his image on the rood-screen at York had 
 become an object of passionate adoration. A 
 formal recognition of his saintly merits by a regular 
 canonisation had once been seriously meditated. 
 It was to be accompanied by a removal in state of 
 his remains from Windsor to Westminster, there 
 to be deposited in the new chapel. The Pope had 
 agreed to perform his part in the ceremony ; but 
 at the last moment it was abandoned, as Holinshed 
 would have us believe, on account of the great 
 cost it would have entailed : " so the king left oflF 
 his suite in that behalfe, thinking better to save
 
 1 64 Cambridge. 
 
 his n onie than to purchase a new holidaie of St. 
 Henri with so great a price." But when he 
 tound himself stricken with a mortal disease, 
 which no sacrifice of his ill-gotten wealth could 
 cure, he began to think whether another and a 
 better use could not be made of it. That such 
 was the temper of his mind is evident from his 
 Will, in which an extravagance of devotion and 
 almsgiving takes precedence of all other pro- 
 visions. After brief directions for his sepulture 
 and his tomb, he directs that " forthwith and im- 
 mediately after our decesse " ten thousand masses 
 shall be s.nd at Westminster and in London " for 
 the remission of oure synnes, and the weale of 
 our Soule ; " two thousand pounds are to be dis- 
 tributed in alms " betwix the houre of oure 
 decesse, and th' ende of the daie of our Sepul- 
 ture ; " all debts are to be paid, and all wrongs 
 redressed ; the revenue of certain lands, to the 
 value of one hundred marks, is to be expended in 
 yearly and weekly obits, with tapers, torches, and 
 lights, burning "continuelly and perpetuelly, while 
 the world shall endure, about our Towmbe ; " 
 hospitals are to be founded, "for as much as we 
 inwardly consideir, that the seven workes of 
 Charitie and Mercy bee most profitable, due, and 
 necessarie, for the salvacion of man's soule ; " 
 largess is to be given to cathedral chapters and
 
 King's College. 165 
 
 religious houses ; the works at Westminster ana 
 elsewhere are to be completed ; images of the 
 King are to be set up on the shrines of the Con- 
 fessor and of St. Thomas of Canterbury ; and 
 lastly, King Henry the Sixth is to be royally 
 honoured and commemorated, " for the singular 
 trust that we haue to the praires of our said 
 Uncle." Eton had been completed already by 
 the pious care of Waynflete ; it remained for him 
 to complete the sister college at Cambridge, " that 
 thereby shuld not be onely a notable acte and a 
 meritorious werke perfited, which else were like 
 to grow to desolacion and never to haye ben done 
 and accomplisshed, but also diuine seruice there 
 hereafter be mayntened and supported to thonour 
 and laude of Almighty God, thencrese of cunnyng 
 and doctrine of his laws in edifyng and encrese of 
 our faithe." Moreover, King Henry the Seventh 
 had had ample opportunities of seeing with his 
 own eyes the sad condition of the chapel, for in 
 the course of his reign he had visited Cambridge 
 five times. The last occasion was on the eve of 
 St. George's Day, April 22, 1506, on his way to 
 the shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham. He was 
 received with all the quaint solemnities usual at 
 that period, the University and the religious 
 orders attending him to Queens' College, where 
 he stayed. Having rested awhile, he "did on his
 
 1 66 Cambridge. 
 
 Gowne and Mantell of the Gartier," and, accom- 
 panied by the Knights of the Order, proceeded to 
 King's College Chapel, which had been decorated 
 for the occasion with paper scutcheons of the 
 knights' companions arms. There he kept the 
 eve of the festival, and the festival itself, with the 
 usual ceremonies. This chapel must have been 
 the old chapel, which stood between the present 
 one and the Old Court ; but, as he proceeded to 
 it from Queens' College, he must have passed so 
 close to the unfinished chapel, that he could not 
 fail to be struck by its incompleteness. At that 
 time the east end alone had been roofed in, while 
 the whole ante-chapel was probably a grass-grown 
 enclosure, with walls not more than eight feet 
 high. 
 
 The Will was signed 31 March, 1509 ; but 
 work had been resumed in May, 1508, with a 
 staff of at least 140 workmen of different trades, 
 paid for by the King ; and a week before the Will 
 was signed he had conveyed to the college ^^5,000, 
 with directions to his executors to supply such 
 further sums " as shall suffice for the perfite 
 finisshing and perfourminge of the same werkes." 
 In consequence they contributed a second sum of 
 /^5,ooo in 15 12. The first of these two sums was 
 probably expended in finishing the walls ; the 
 second in constructing the great vault, a glorious
 
 King's College. 167 
 
 specimen of the fan-vaulting then in fashion, and 
 in raising the battlements and pinnacles. The 
 stonework was probably finished by July, 15 15. 
 Much, however, still remained to be done ; and 
 the college humbly solicited Henry Vllf. to glaze 
 the windows the scheme for which, there is 
 reason to believe, had been already sanctioned by 
 his father and to furnish stalls and pavement. 
 Ten years elapsed before he found time (or money) 
 to undertake so important a task, and it was not 
 until 1526 that contracts for the windows were 
 signed. These documents prove that these splendid 
 pictures in glass were all executed by Englishmen 
 except four, the patterns for which were to be 
 given by the Englishmen to Flemings resident in 
 England. They had been begun by Barnard 
 Flower, the King's glazier, about 15 15, but he 
 dying before he had finished more than four 
 windows, and possibly the armorial bearings in the 
 tracery, the rest were entrusted to Galyon Hoone, 
 Richard Bownde, Thomas Reve, James Nicholson 
 (F^nglishmen) ; Francis Williamson, and Symon 
 Symondes (Flemings) ; all described simply as 
 " glasyers," resident in London or Southwark. 
 The designs were to be approved by three persons 
 selected by the College : Dr. Robert Hacomblen, 
 the Provost, William Holgylle, Master of the 
 Savoy, and Thomas Larke, Archdeacon of Nor-
 
 1 68 Cambridge. 
 
 wlch. It was covenanted that the entire work 
 should be finished by May, 1531. The west 
 wnidow was included in one of the contracts ; but 
 there is not the slightest fragment of evidence that 
 it was ever executed. It is often alluded to in the 
 accounts, and repairs to it are often necessary. 
 They are, however, always executed in white 
 glass. Again, it is almost impossible to suppose 
 that so large a surface of coloured glass, had it 
 ever been painted, could have perished completely. 
 Some fragments of it would have remained, either 
 in the tracery or in some other part of the chapel. 
 It has been suggested sometimes that in the four 
 windows next to it, on the north and south sides, 
 which are now in a sad state of ruin and confusion, 
 we have the displaced glass of the west window. 
 This hypothesis is wholly inadmissible. Those 
 windows form part of the regular series ; and 
 their present condition is due, in some degree, to 
 defective painting originally, but far more to the 
 fact that they have been mended by ignorant per- 
 sons, who have put the component pieces together 
 inaccurately. 
 
 As these windows are the most important speci- 
 mens of English glass-painting that have been 
 preserved, a brief notice of the arrangement and 
 treatment of the subjects depicted in them must 
 now be given. No precise distribution of the
 
 Kings College. 169 
 
 subjects is mentioned in the contracts. It is 
 merely agreed that the windows are to be filled 
 "with good, clene, sure, and perfyte glasse and 
 Oryent Colours and Imagery of the Story of the 
 olde lawe and the newe lawe after the fourme, 
 maner, goodeness, curyousytie, and clenelynes in 
 euery poynt of the glasse wyndowes of the kynges 
 newe Chapell at Westmynster ; And also accord- 
 yngly and after such maner as oon Barnard Flower 
 glasyer late deceessed by indenture stode bounde to 
 doo." They were, therefore, to be, in some degree, 
 a reproduction of the windows in Henry the 
 Seventh's Chapel at Westminster ; and, also, a con- 
 tinuation of the series commenced fifteen years 
 before by Barnard Flower, and interrupted by his 
 death. Unfortunately, the contract made with 
 Flower is lost, and the windows at Westminster 
 have been destroyed, so that we are without infor- 
 mation as to the two series that were to be fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 Of the twenty-six windows, twenty-five are 
 filled with ancient glass, of which the east window, 
 as usual, contains the Crucifixion. In the remainder 
 " the story of the olde and newe lawe " is depicted 
 in the following manner. Each window contains 
 five lights, divided by a transom. The central 
 light contains four figures, called " Messengers " - 
 two above and two below the transom -who carrv
 
 lyo Cambridge. 
 
 scrolls or tablets, or some device on which a text 
 may be inscribed, descriptive of the pictures in the 
 lights to the right and left of them. There are 
 four pictures to each window. Those in the lower 
 tier exhibit, with one or two exceptions, scenes 
 taken out of the New Testament. They proceed 
 in regular sequence, commencing at the north-west 
 corner with the Birth of the Virgin. This and the 
 window next to it are occupied with her legendary 
 history ; the third window contains the Annuncia- 
 tion and the Nativity ; the fourth the Circumcision 
 and the Adoration of the Magi ; the fifth the Puri- 
 fication and the Flight into Egypt ; the sixth the 
 Idols of Egypt falling down before the Infant Jesus 
 and the Massacre of the Innocents ; the seventh and 
 following windows the principal events in the life 
 of Christ before the Crucifixion. On the south side at 
 the east end we find the Entombment, the Resurrec- 
 tion, and the other events recorded in the Gospels, 
 ending with the Ascension and the Descent of the 
 Holy Spirit in the sixth window. These are 
 succeeded by the principal scenes in the lives of St. 
 John, St. Peter, and St. Paul, as recorded in the 
 Acts of the Apostles. In the last two windows 
 the series resumes the legendary history of the 
 Virgin, and ends with her Assumption and Corona- 
 tion. The upper series consists of pictures out of 
 the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, or legendary
 
 King's College. 171 
 
 history, selected on account of their supposed 
 parallelism with those of the former series ; but 
 occasionally this system is interrupted, and the 
 upper lights continue the story exhibited in the 
 lower, as in the history of the Virgin, and the 
 scenes from the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 A bare enumeration of the subjects, however, 
 can give but a poor idea of these glorious paint- 
 ings. What first arrests the attention is the 
 singularly happy blending of colours, produced by 
 a most ingenious juxtaposition of pure tints. The 
 half-tones, so dear to the present generation, were 
 fortunately unknown in the days when they were 
 set up. Thus, though there is a profusion 
 of brilliant scarlet, and light blue, and golden 
 yellow, there is no gaudiness. Again, all the glass 
 admits light, without let or hindrance, the shading 
 being laid on with sparing hand, so that the greatest 
 amount of brilliancy is insured. This is further 
 enhanced by a very copious use of white, or 
 slightly yellow, glass. It must not, however, be 
 supposed that a grand effect of colour is all that 
 has been aimed at. The pictures bear a close 
 study as works of art. The figures are rather 
 larger than life, and boldly drawn, so as to be well 
 seen from a great distance ; but the faces are full 
 of expression and individuality, and each scene 
 is beautiful as a composition. They would well
 
 172 Cambridge. 
 
 bear reduction within the narrow limits of an easel 
 picture. As examples of special excellence maybe 
 cited, the Manua in the Wilderness, where the 
 woman, seated with her starving child in her lap, 
 offers a wonderful picture of despair ; the Entry 
 into Jerusalem ; the Maries at the Tomb of Christ ; 
 the Descent into Hell ; and the Resurrection. 
 Again, what richness of imagination is shown in 
 the forms of angels and demons ! How beautiful 
 are the rosy plumes of the angel that witnesses the 
 Baptism of Christ ; how weird and fantastic is the 
 demon that mocks at the sufferings of Job, or the 
 doomed spirit that glares at the Saviour, who has 
 broken into his domain, and is standing on the 
 gates of Hell ! 
 
 Careful examination shows that these paintings 
 bear evidence of execution by various hands, as 
 might indeed be expected from the number of 
 persons who were parties to the contracts. More- 
 over, they are of unequal merit, not merely in 
 execution, but in design. It is evident, therefore, 
 that, subject to the observance of a certain 
 sequence, the treatment of a particular scene was 
 left to the " glaziers " who executed it. This at 
 once destroys the tradition that the designs were 
 furnished by Albert Diirer or Hans Holbein. 
 There is no doubt that a German or Flemish 
 influence is discernible in some of the sub-
 
 King's College. 173 
 
 iects ; but that is no more than might be 
 expected, when we consider the number of sets of 
 pictures illustrating the Life and Passion of Christ 
 that had appeared in Germany and Flanders 
 during the half-century preceding their execution. 
 These, of which one of the best known is the 
 " Mirror of Human Salvation " (Speculum humane 
 Sahationis), usually contained illustrations of the 
 life of Christ, accompanied by scenes out of the 
 Old Testament, and not unfrequently preceded, 
 as here, by the legendary life of the Virgin. 
 Again, a resemblance has been observed between 
 some of them and the treatment of the same 
 subject by Raphael, and he has been named as the 
 designer. Italian influence, however, had already 
 been felt in Flanders, and may not improbably 
 have affected England also ; for, considering the 
 frequent intercourse between England and Rome, 
 it would have been strange if the great and sudden 
 impulse given to religious art by the painter 
 whom the Pope had selected for the decoration of 
 the Vatican, had been without its effects on English 
 art also. 
 
 The value of these designs, and of those of a 
 smaller and far inferior series at Fairford, in 
 Gloucestershire, as indications of F^nglish art, has 
 been frequently recognised. Horace Walpole 
 held that " the artists who executed them (the
 
 1 74 Cambridge. 
 
 windows at King's College) would figure as 
 considerable painters in any reign ; " and Vandyke 
 " often affirmed to Charles I. that many of the 
 figures in the Fairford windows were so exquisitely 
 done that they could be exceeded by no pencil." 
 Again, in answer to the frequent observations that 
 they cannot be of English work because artists 
 so distinguished would certainly have produced 
 other works of equal merit, it may be urged that 
 the art of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance 
 was devoted almost exclusively to the decoration 
 of churches, and was expended upon two most 
 perishable materials, glass and plaster ; and that 
 at the Reformation first, and during the Civil War 
 afterwards, it was one of the chief objects of the 
 Puritans to sweep the whole of that art away. 
 Relics of it are occasionally found that testify to 
 the extent and the excellence of it. When the 
 frescoes executed at Eton in Edward the Fourth's 
 reign were discovered in 1847 Mr. Street "had 
 no hesitation in saying that these paintings are the 
 finest which have yet been discovered in England ; 
 more artistic, and as full of religious feeling as any, 
 and most interesting as having most probably been 
 executed by Florentine artists, who, for aught we 
 know, may have been the pupils of the Beato 
 Angelico, or his friends ; as they were the con- 
 temporaries of Francia, of Perugino, and of
 
 King's College. 175 
 
 Ghirlandaio." It now turns out, however, that 
 they were the work oi a. man with the plainest of 
 plain English names William Baker. Again, as 
 regards glass, the whole series of windows at 
 Westminster, from which those at King's were 
 copied, has perished ; the windows of Great St. 
 Mary's, in Cambridge, by Nicholson, and those 
 of St. Mary Overey, in Southwark, by Galyon 
 Hoone, both glaziers employed here, have equally 
 disappeared. There is hardly any cathedral, or in- 
 deed any large church, which has not the same story 
 of devastation to tell. That these windows them- 
 selves should have been saved is a marvel ; and 
 how it came to pass is not now exactly known. 
 The story that they were taken out and hidden, or 
 as one version of it says, buried, may be dismissed 
 as an idle fabrication. More likely the Puritan 
 sentiments of the then Provost, Dr. Whichcote, 
 were regarded with such favour by the Earl of 
 Manchester during his occupation of Cambridge, 
 that he interfered to save the chapel and the 
 college from molestation. For there is ample 
 evidence in the account-books to prove that the 
 Society was not in any way interfered with ; and 
 though soldiers were quartered in the college, they 
 do not appear to have committed any damage 
 other than the most trivial. The detriment that 
 the glass has suffered is due to ignorant glaziers
 
 176 Cambridge. 
 
 by whom it was repaired on may occasions during 
 the last century ; and so frequent and so thorough 
 have been those repairs, that it is a wonder, not 
 that the damage is so great, but that anything has 
 been preserved. The series, left unfinished, as we 
 have shown, was worthily completed in 1879. In 
 that year the west window was filled with a noble 
 representation of the Last Judgment, executed by 
 Messrs. Clayton and Bell, and given by Francis 
 Edmund Stacey, formerly Fellow. 
 
 The windows having been completed, the 
 wood-work was undertaken. The organ-screen, 
 or, as it was called down to the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, the '* rood-loft,' and the 
 stalls, but without the canopies, were set up 
 between 1531 and 1535, as is proved by the occur- 
 rence of the initials of Anne Boleyn, entwined with 
 those of the king, in many places upon them. 
 The chapel was probably first used for service in 
 1536, just ninety years after the first stone had 
 been laid. 
 
 Many changes had been introduced into the 
 fabric during that long period ; the simple 
 massiveness of the Founder's work, which he 
 desired should " procede in large fourme, clene 
 and substantial, laying a parte superfluite of to 
 grete curious werkes of entaille and besy 
 molding," is in strong contrast with the ob-
 
 King's College. ijy 
 
 trusive heraldry that marks the portion constructed 
 by Henry the Seventh and his executors. There, 
 and in the glass above, his right to the crown, and 
 the victory by which he won it, are again and 
 again commemorated, with a frequency of repeti- 
 tion that seems to betray the consciousness of 
 usurpation. The dragon of Cadwallader, "the 
 dragon of the great Pendragonship," and the 
 greyhound of Cecilia Neville, wife of Richard, 
 Duke of York, support the arms of England in 
 each *' severy " of the ante-chapel ; the rose and 
 the portcullis (his " altera securitas" as he termed 
 it, intimating that as the portcullis was the second 
 defence of a fortress when the gate was broken 
 down, so he had a second claim to the crown 
 through his mother, daughter of John de Beaufort, 
 whose castle in Anjou was typified by this emblem 
 of it) cling to the vaulting-shafts ; the antelopes 
 of the Founder are associated indeed with his own 
 magnificence, but only upon the external but- 
 tresses ; while the red rose of Lancaster, the 
 hawthorn bush, and the crown (alluding to the 
 legend of the recovery of it on Bosworth Field), 
 are profusely displayed in the tracery of the 
 windows. In his son's work again the influence 
 of those foreign workmen who were so largely 
 introduced into England in that century, becomes 
 apparent. The delicate arabesques in low relief, 
 
 13
 
 178 Cambridge 
 
 and the classic moldings of the screen, with the 
 curious absence of all religious symbols in the 
 profuse decoration that covers every part of it, 
 are Italian rather than English. Unfortunately 
 all record of its construction has been lost ; and 
 it is only from internal evidence that we can 
 guess at the history of what it is no exaggeration 
 to say is the most beautiful piece of wood-work 
 out of Italy. For some now unknown and much- 
 to-De-regretted cause, the canopies of the stalls 
 were not completed at the same time. It is 
 supposed that the walls were hung with tapestry 
 until Thomas Weaver gave the somewhat clumsy 
 series of shields of arms, with the pilasters that 
 separate them, in 1633. The present canopies 
 were made in 1678, and the panel-work beyond 
 them in 1679, by a Cambridge wood-carver, 
 Cornelius Austin. The canopies are poor imita- 
 tions of the older work, but the panels are excel- 
 lent specimens of that period, and the artist who 
 executed them deserves to be rescued from 
 oblivion. The present reredos was put up by 
 " the ingenious Mr. Essex," at the end of the 
 last century (1770-75). It is an attempt to 
 imitate Gothic work, meritorious in intention 
 rather than successful. 
 
 This is, however, the only serious deformity in 
 the chapel. It seems as though the respect in
 
 Kings College. 179 
 
 which the Founder was held protected his works, 
 and those erected in his name by his successors. 
 No brush of paint has marred the beauty of the 
 screen ; and even Puritan fanaticism spared the 
 windows. The chapel is still, within and without, 
 :he noblest structure ever raised for collegiate 
 v^orship. Well might Wordsworth exclaim : 
 
 "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 ; 
 Ijke thoughts whose very sweetness yicldeth proof 
 That they were born for immortality." 
 
 No part of the Founder's design except the 
 chapel was executed ; none, indeed, was begun 
 except a portion of the eastern range of chambers. 
 When Gibbs was employed in 1724, he designed 
 a noble quadrangle in the classical style then in 
 fashion, of which, however, the west side alone 
 was built; and when the college was again enabled 
 to resume the completion of the buildings in the
 
 i8o Cambridge. 
 
 present century, they unfortunately were induced 
 to employ Wilkins. That self-sufficient and 
 ignorant architect, though he affected to build in 
 a style which he dignified by the name of Gothic, 
 discarded the Founder's plan, obliterated the 
 toothings which then remained at the south-east 
 corner of the chapel, and built towards the street 
 a screen of open work, with a gate of entrance in 
 the centre, consisting of a crowd of tall and 
 meaningless pinnacles clustered round a central 
 mass. It used to be appropriately nicknamed 
 " The decanter and wine-glasses." Yet, so strange 
 are the fluctuations in popular opinion, that when 
 a short time since it was proposed to pull it down, 
 and erect an appropriate building on its site, a 
 great cry arose in its favour. It was all at once 
 forgotten that by its erection the last hope had 
 been lost of seeing the chapel as the Founder 
 meant it should be seen, and that in itself it was 
 mongrel and absurd. The epithets " gracious," 
 *' beautiful," and many another laudatory term, 
 were applied to it. The proposal was whirled 
 away in a tempest of indignation, and the screen 
 remains for the present, though let us hope not 
 for ever, to inform one more generation at least 
 how devoid of real architectural taste was the first 
 quarter of the nineteenth century. Opposite to 
 the chapel Wilkins erected a hall, with a pre-
 
 King's College. l8i 
 
 tentious roof of plaster-work, an oriel in the 
 middle, and the meaningless peculiarity of two 
 lanterns, though, in justice to him, it should be 
 mentioned that this last and crowning absurdity 
 was forced upon him by the architects Nash and 
 Wyatt, whom the College consulted, and com- 
 pelled Wilkins to follow. Into the original use of 
 these contrivances they did not care to inquire. 
 Moreover, though any building at King's College 
 must to a certain extent commemorate the Founder, 
 Wilkins covered his work with emblems that 
 commemorate only the Tudors, roses and port- 
 cullises ! Lastly, he actually persuaded the Col- 
 lege to allow him to " gothicize " Gibbs' beautiful 
 work, for which remarkable achievement his design 
 is extant, but lack of funds fortunately prevented 
 such a disaster. 
 
 No account of King's College would be com- 
 plete without some narrative of the famous enter- 
 tainment of Queen Elizabeth there, from Saturday, 
 August 5th, to Thursday, August loth, 1564. 
 The preparations for her visit had been long and 
 costly, for even in the previous year the account 
 f)r the expenses of the chapel is mainly filled 
 with the items of expenditure for putting up the 
 wooden theatre on which a play was to be re- 
 presented before her. She herself resided in the 
 Provost's Lodge, which then stood between the
 
 1 82 Cambridge. 
 
 east end of the chapel and the street ; some of 
 her ladies were lodged in the Fellows' chambers, 
 and her maids of honour at Caius College. Tem- 
 porary kitchens were set up against the wall that 
 divided the College from St. Austin's hostel, 
 which stood nearly where the present Hall does. 
 The south vestry of the chapel became her 
 Council Chamber, the lower hall of the " Pro- 
 vost's Place," as the lodge was termed, her 
 Guard Chamber, and the room above it the 
 Presence Chamber. The great officers of state 
 were distributed among the other colleges. The 
 whole University was present to attend her, but 
 it is difficult to understand where they could have 
 been themselves accommodated, so vast were the 
 numbers of her retinue. 
 
 There are several accounts of her visit, which 
 enter minutely into the tedious ceremonies in 
 which she apparently found pleasure. The fol- 
 lowing description of what occurred is extracted 
 from Baker's " History of St. John's College" : 
 
 "The queen made her entrance on the 5th of August, by- 
 Queens' College, where a large gate was hung cross the 
 street from that college to the opposite house (now the 
 printing-house), guarded by the queen's servants ; the two 
 lanes near King's College were likewise barred up and 
 guarded to keep out the crowd. All the passage from 
 Queens' College to the west end of King's College chapel was 
 lined with scholars ; the doctors stood nearest the chapel,
 
 Kings College. 183 
 
 the Vice-Chancellor, with the senior doctor and orator, upon 
 the lowest step. Within the chapel (the inner part whereof 
 was hung with tapestry and arras of the queen's) were the 
 provost with his fellows in their copes, making a lane where 
 she was to pass towards the choir. 
 
 " Her majesty entered the town on horseback in a gown 
 of black velvet pinked, a caul upon her head set with pearis 
 and precious stones, with a hat spangled with gold and a 
 bash of feathers, attended by Garter King-at-Arms with the 
 other great officers of the crown, with other lords and ladies 
 very numerous, the Chancellor riding near her, describing 
 the order and degree and quality of the scholars ; and as she 
 passed the scholars loudly proclaimed Viz'at Regi/ia, to which 
 she often replied Gratias ago. 
 
 " As soon as she came to the west end of the chapel, every 
 one alighted from their horses except the queen, and there 
 the Chancellor delivered up the staves, and the public orator, 
 Mr. Master, kneeling down, made an oration, wherein, whilst 
 he enlarged upon her majesty's praises, she ohen shook her 
 head and bit her lips, and sometimes broke out in these 
 expressions, non est z'eritas and uti?iafn ; but when he praised 
 virginity, she commended the orator and bid him continue 
 there. In conclusion, she gave him a just encomium, par- 
 ticularly admiring his memory, as he well deserved that 
 could go on half an hour without pause or hesitating, whilst 
 the queen's horse was curvetting under her, and she herself 
 making remarks upon the different periods of his speech. 
 Then she alighted and advanced towards the chapel under 
 a rich canopy supported by four of the principal doctors, 
 when, after Te Demn begun by the provost and sung with 
 the organ, and after evening song solemnly had, etc., she 
 departed to her lodging, as she went thanking Crotl that had 
 sent her to this University, where she was so received as she 
 thought she could not be better. 
 
 " Tlie next day being Sunday, Dr. Perne in his cope
 
 184 Cambridge. 
 
 preached a Latin sermon before her majesty in King's chapel 
 upon this text, Ofrifiis anijna subdita sit, etc. About the 
 midst of his sermon she sent the lord Hunsden to will him 
 to put on his cap, which he did unto the end ; and after the 
 sermon was over, ere he could get out of the pulpit, she 
 signified to him by the Lord Chamberlain, that it was the 
 first that ever she heard in Latin, and she thought she never 
 should hear a better. 
 
 " In the evening she heard prayers again in the chapel; 
 and this day had been well spent, had not the conclusion 
 been very different from the rest of the day. For the same 
 day late and in the same place one of Plautus' comedies (his 
 Aulularia) was acted before her by torches upon a stage 
 erected in the chapel to that purpose, which she stayed out, 
 though it held in acting till twelve o'clock at night. 
 
 " It would be very tedious to give a narrative of the pro 
 ceedings of the following days, and of the several acts and 
 disputations held before her majesty. It was philosophy and 
 divinity that she attended to most, and was best pleased with 
 these performances. Mr. Bing the respondent in philosophy, 
 acquitted himself well ; and it was then observed that as Mr. 
 Cartwright, one of his opponents, expressed more heat, so 
 Mr. Preston showed better manners, whom the queen took 
 particular notice of and dubbed him her scholar. But no 
 man acquitted himself so well as Mr. Hutton, the respondent 
 in divinity, to the satisfaction and admiration of all his 
 auditors ; and it was to that day that he owed his future 
 preferments. The queen favoured him in her looks, her 
 words, and actions ; and though Dr. Perne, one of his 
 opponents, disputed upon him very warmly and very 
 learnedly, yet he, that had given such content whilst he 
 preached upon Omnis anima, etc., lost himself in the opinion 
 of the queen for having touched too freely upon the power 
 of excommunicating princes, though it were only by way of 
 argument : so nice a thing it is to approach majesty upon
 
 Kings College. 185 
 
 any pretence or at any distance, especially where majesty is 
 at its full height, as it then was ! 
 
 " For, however it may have been since, it was then in this 
 manner her majesty was received in our congregations or 
 assemblies. At her entrance all men were upon the knee, 
 nor did any one presume to rise till leave was given ; and 
 after they were up, no one presumed to sit till leave was 
 given the second time by an express allowance. The 
 greatest peer, the Duke of Norfolk, and the greatest 
 favourite, Robert Dudley, addressed her majesty upon the 
 knee, as they then did, when they desired her to dismiss the 
 University with an oration." 
 
 The accounts printed by Nichols, in his " Pro- 
 gresses of Queen Elizabeth," contain a few details 
 that are worth quoting, in addition to Baker's 
 more succinct version of what took place. When 
 the public orator praised virginity, she, who prided 
 herself on being the Semper Eadem^ exclaimed, 
 " God's blessing of thyne heart ; there continue." 
 Again, at the conclusion of the disputations in 
 Great Saint Mary's Church, she made a Latin 
 oration, in which she distinctly promised to 
 emulate the example of those princes, her ances- 
 tors, the monuments of whose piety she had been 
 beholding : 
 
 "My age," she said, "is not yet so far advanced; nor 
 again is it so long since I began to reign, but that before I 
 pay my last debt to nature (if cruel Atropos do not too soon 
 cut the thread of my life), I may erect some passing good 
 work. And from this design, so long as I have any life left,
 
 1 8 6 Cambridge . 
 
 I shall never depart. And if it should happen that I must 
 die before I can complete this thing ; yet will I leave some 
 famous monument behind me, whereby both my memory 
 shall be renowned ; and I, by my example, may excite others 
 to the like worthy actions ; and also make you all more 
 ready to pursue your studies." 
 
 When she spoke, pleased with the reception she 
 had had, which she candidly admitted was " alto- 
 gether against her expectation," she no doubt 
 sincerely intended to found a new college, or 
 further to endow an existing one. The University, 
 however, heard no more of the royal benefactions. 
 
 The stage, for the dramatic entertainment, was 
 built right across the ante-chapel, at the west end, 
 occupying " the breadth of the church from the 
 one side to the other, that the chappels might 
 serve for houses," that is, for dressing-rooms for 
 the performers. In depth it was equal to the 
 breadth of two chapels. The Queen sat on the 
 south side, where " was hanged a cloth of state." 
 The ladies and gentlewomen of the court stood on 
 the rood-loft, or, as we call it, the organ-screen ; 
 and the " choyce officers of the Court " on the 
 steps under the same. The guard stood on the 
 ground by the stage side, each man holding " in 
 his hand a torch-staff, for the lights of the play." 
 The performers were " certain selected persons, 
 chosen out of all colleges of the town, at the 
 discretion of Mr. Roger Kelke, D.D."
 
 VIII. 
 
 St. John's College. Christ's College. 
 
 THE position of the Hospital of St. John the 
 Evangelist has been already described. Into 
 the history of that foundation it would be beside 
 our present purpose to enter. It will be sufficient 
 to mention here that towards the end of the 
 fifteenth century it began to fall into decay, both 
 moral and material. The accusations that were 
 brought against so many religious houses at that 
 time were preferred against the brethren. Mr. 
 Thomas Baker, the historian of St. John's College, 
 tells us that " they were certainly very dissolute in 
 their lives and prodigal in their expenses, not in 
 charity and hospitality which they were obliged to 
 by their rule and order, but in excess and riot, and 
 in gratifying their own sinful lusts." A disorderly 
 house, such as this, must have been of evil example 
 in the University, and its suppression was only a 
 t|uestion of time. About 1502, Dr. John Fisher, 
 Master of Michael House, who, from the proxi- 
 mity of his own college to the hospital, was in a
 
 1 8 8 Cambridge. 
 
 position to know, perhaps only too well, the state 
 of affairs there, was made chaplain and confessor 
 to the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond and 
 Derby, mother of King Henry the Seventh. 
 From the vantage-ground of that exalted position 
 he set himself to compass the conversion of the 
 hospital into a college under the patronage ot the 
 Countess. He had probably no difficulty in 
 interesting his mistress in the scheme. She had 
 visited Cambridge in 1505, and again in 1506, on 
 which occasions, no doubt, she had opportunities 
 of learning by personal inspection the wants of the 
 University. In May of the former year she had 
 refounded the ancient educational establishment 
 called God's House by the title of Christ's College, 
 and endowed it, besides other possessions, with the 
 Abbey of St. Mary of the Meadows {de pratis)^ at 
 Creyke, in Norfolk. She had, therefore, herself 
 set an example of utilising, in the direction of 
 education, religious foundations for whose special 
 objects the necessity was no longer recognised. 
 Holding apart, as she did, by a wise abstention, 
 from interference in affairs of state, she found a 
 congenial occupation in the patronage of science 
 and literature. Wynkyn de Worde, one of the 
 most distinguished of our early printers, styled 
 himself " Printer unto the moost excellent pryn- 
 cesse my lady the kynge's moder." She had
 
 ^' 

 
 The Lady Margaret. 191 
 
 instituted readerships in divinity in both Universi- 
 ties which still perpetuate her name, and here in 
 Cambridge she had founded a preachership as well. 
 Though, as has been v^ell pointed out, *' her 
 outw^ard existence belonged to the medieval past," 
 and she lived almost the life of a nun of the most 
 ascetic order, the acuteness of her intelligence led 
 her to perceive that a new light had dawned upon 
 the horizon ; that changes were not far distant in 
 which any merely conventual foundations would 
 perish, and any collegiate institutions would as 
 certainly survive. In the previous century she 
 would have founded a religious house, and perhaps 
 have died as its Abbess ; in her own time she 
 became the foundress of educational establishments 
 of which we have possibly not yet seen the com- 
 plete development. 
 
 Her character was delineated by her devoted 
 friend and counsellor, Bishop Fisher, in the com- 
 memorative sermon preached by him after her 
 death, in language which is as interesting as a 
 specimen of the best English of the time, as for 
 the picture it gives of the illustrious lady whom 
 he knew and loved so well : 
 
 "She was bounteous and lybcral to every person of her 
 knowledge or acquaintance. Avarice and covctyse she most 
 hated, and sorowcd it full mochc in all persons, but especially 
 in ony that belong'd unto her. She was also of syngular
 
 192 Cambridge. 
 
 easyness to be spoken unto, and full curtayse answere she 
 would make to all that came unto her. Of mcrvayllous 
 gentvlcness she was unto all folks, but specially unto her 
 owne, whom she trusted and loved ryghtc tenderly. Un- 
 kynde she woldc not be unto no creature, ne forgetfull of 
 ony kyndness or servycc done to her before, which is no lytel 
 part of veray nobleness. She was not vengeable, ne cruell, but 
 redy anone to forgete and to forgyve injuryes done unto her, 
 at the lecst desyre or mocyon made unto her for the same. 
 Mercyfull also and pyteous she was unto such as was grevyed 
 and wrongfully troubled, and to them that were in poverty 
 or sekeness or any other mysery. To God and to the 
 Chirche full obedient and tractable, serchynge His honour 
 and plesure full besyly. A wareness of her self she had 
 alway to eschewe every thyng, that myght dishonest ony noble 
 woman, or distayne her honour in ony condycyon. Fryvelous 
 thyngs, that were lytell to be regarded, she wold let pass by, 
 but the other that were of weyght and substance, wherein 
 she might proufyte, she woldc not let for any payne or labour, 
 to take upon hande. 
 
 " All Englonde for her dethe had cause of wepynge. The 
 poor creatures that were wonte to receyve her almes, to 
 whom she was always pyteous and mercyfull ; the studentes 
 of both the Unyversytees, to whom she was as a moder; all 
 the learned men of Englonde, to whom she was a veray 
 patroness ; all the vcrtuous and devoute pcrsones, to whom 
 she was as a lovynge syster; ail the good relygyous men and 
 women, whomc she so often was wonte to vysyte and com- 
 forte ; all good preests and clercks, to whome she was a true 
 dcfendresse ; all the noblemen and women, to whome she was 
 a myrroure and cxamplcr of honoure ; all the comyn people 
 of this realme, for whome she was in theyr causes a comyn 
 medyatrycc, and toke right grete displeasure for them ; and 
 generally the hole realm hathc cause to complayne and to 
 morne her dethe."
 
 Sl John's College. 193 
 
 She died 29th of June, 1509,111 the midst of the 
 rejoicings over her grandson's marriage and coro- 
 nation. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, 
 and Erasmus wrote her epitaph. Anxious as she 
 had been to see her second college well established 
 before her death, that gratification was not vouch- 
 safed to her. The legal formalities necessary for 
 the suppression of the Hospital were so tedious 
 that it was not "utterly extinguished," as Baker 
 calls it, till January 20, 1510 ; when it fell, as 
 the same historian observes, " a lasting monument 
 to all future ages, and to all charitable and 
 religious foundations, not to neglect the rules or 
 abuse the institutions of their founders, lest they 
 fall under the same fate." The executors of the 
 Lady Margaret, now that she was no longer 
 present to lend her own powerful aid to the 
 undertaking, had other and more serious diffi- 
 culties to encounter, which need not be related 
 here. However, they adhered firmly to their 
 purpose, and were successful. The college was 
 begun in or about 151 1, and the first court was 
 carried on, without interruption, until it was com- 
 pleted. The college was formally opened by 
 Bishop Fisher, July 29, 15 16. The position of 
 the court then erected was determined by one of 
 the buildings of the Hospital, which was altered 
 into a chapel for the new foundation, and formed 
 
 H
 
 194 Cambridge. 
 
 the greater part of the north side. The west side 
 contahied the hall, buttery, and kitchen ; the 
 south side a range of chambers ; and the east side 
 the library, with chambers beneath it. The 
 Master's Lodge was placed in the angle between 
 the north and west ranges, but a portion of it 
 was prolonged into the north range, where a 
 picturesque oriel window enabled the Master to 
 command the court. Unfortunately it has now 
 become impossible to realise the original aspect of 
 this quadrangle, as preserved for us by Loggan. 
 The south side was cased with stone in a pseudo- 
 Italian style by Essex in 1772 ; and between 1862 
 and 1869, under the direction of Sir G. G. Scott, 
 the hall was lengthened, the old chapel pulled 
 down, and a new chapel, magnificent it is true, but 
 singularly inappropriate both in style and design, 
 was erected beyond the ancient^ limits of the quad- 
 rangle. The beautiful gate of entrance, shown in 
 our illustration, has happily survived these changes. 
 It is of red brick with stone quoins. The lavish 
 decoration of the space between the arch ajid the 
 windows commemorates the foundress and" her son. 
 The central shield, bearing the arms of England 
 and France quarterly, is supported by the ante- 
 lopes of Beaufort. Beneath it is a rose. To the 
 right is a portcullis, to the left a rose, both 
 crowned. Daisies, the particular emblem of the
 
 Gate of r/iffatue, St. JoJufs Cones;c 
 
 J' I 0/1/ ,1 d/a-Mz/ig by II. J oz/ssa/ztt.
 
 SL John's College. laj 
 
 Lady Margaret, are scattered over the whole com- 
 position. They appear in the crown above the 
 portcullis ; they cluster beneath the string-course ; 
 and mixed with other flowers they form a ground- 
 work to the heraldic devices. The statue of St. 
 John in the central niche was carved in 1662, to 
 replace an older statue removed during the Civil 
 War. There is evidence that formerly the arms 
 were emblazoned in gold and colours, and that the 
 horns of the antelopes were gilt. 
 
 The second court, a spacious quadrangle, con- 
 siderably larger than the first, was commenced in 
 1598. The architect was Ralph Symons, whose work 
 at Trinity has been already recorded, and the builder 
 Gilbert Wigge of Cambridge. It was finished 
 in 1 602 " in a manner," says Baker, " ruinous to 
 the undertakers and not over advantageous to 
 the College." It appears that Wigge got into 
 pecuniary difficulties, and was imprisoned for debt 
 during the progress of the work, the college 
 having to release him from durance vile ; and 
 further, that no inconsiderable part of the cost fell 
 upon the Master and Fellows. Mary Cavendish, 
 Countess of Shrewsbury, had originally under- 
 taken to defray the entire cost, but she found 
 herself unable to pay more than 2,j6o, instead 
 of ^3,400, the amount of the contract. For some 
 private reasons she wished that her share in the
 
 198 Cambridge. 
 
 work should remain unknown. Such attempts, 
 however, whether in Hterature or in benefactions, 
 are rarely successful, and her case was no exception 
 to the general rule. After remarking that "she is 
 justly entitled to the foundation of the whole, what 
 she did being wholly owing to her favour, and what 
 she left undone being owing to her misfortunes," 
 the historian adds : 
 
 "It is certain the secret was out before the building was 
 up, and that both she and the lord her husband were known 
 to be at the bottom of the design, though from a clause in the 
 contract it seems to have been at first a secret, where the 
 undertakers oblige themselves to leave room over the gate for 
 such arms as the College should afterwards set up there, which 
 are now the arms of Talbot and Cavendish," 
 
 In Baker's time the building was thought to be 
 " slight and crazy," and that it would " never live 
 up to the age of the first court." These anticipa- 
 tions have happily been falsified by the event. The 
 second court has, in fact, suffered less than the first, 
 and is still a beautiful specimen of the architecture 
 of the period when It was erected. 
 
 Secrecy seems to have been the rule in this college 
 where buildings were concerned; for it was at- 
 tempted with regard to the third court in much 
 the same way, and with the same amount of success, 
 as for the second. In 1617a new library was re- 
 quired. Leave was obtained from the Countess of
 
 SL John's College. 199 
 
 Shrewsbury to build one " adjoining her ladyship's 
 court," and the college set abou: collecting funds, 
 but money came in slowly. Before the foundation 
 had been laid, however, " an unknown person " 
 came forward and offered ^1,200 to that use, if it 
 were sufficient, " but would neither advance higher, 
 nor yet was willing to admit a partner." As may be 
 imagined, a donation clogged with such a condition 
 as this caused considerable trouble ; but at last the 
 " unknown person " gave way, and agreed to give 
 about ^^250 more, with which the beautiful Library 
 forming the north side of the third court was 
 erected. The foundations of the west end are 
 laid in the river, above which the lofty oriel rises. 
 It is a singularly picturesque structure of red brick 
 with stone dressings. The date, 1624, inscribed 
 upon it in large figures of white stone, marks the 
 completion of that portion of the building only, for 
 it was not ready for the books until the spring of 
 1628. In the course of the tedious negotiations 
 entailed by the strange conditions of the gift, the 
 anonymous benefactor '* owned and declared him- 
 self to be the founder." He turned out to be Dr. 
 John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Keeper 
 of the Great Seal. The remaining two sides of 
 this third court were not begun for rather more 
 than half a century afterwards. The foundations 
 were laid in 1669, and the whole completed in
 
 200 Cambridge. 
 
 four years; the expense being defrayed by numerous 
 benefactors, this time not anonymous. By the time 
 that those ranges of chambers were built the Gothic 
 style had given way to the classical. Some attempt, 
 however, was made to assimilate the new building 
 to the old, and no want of harmony is perceptible. 
 Our wood-cut shows the gate in the centre of the 
 west side, a picturesque structure in three floors, 
 recalling in its general outline the gates of Clare 
 Hall. 
 
 The need for still further accommodation at the 
 beginning of the present century prompted the 
 erection of yet a fourth court ; the Society recog- 
 nising their obligation to retain their undergraduate 
 members, as far as possible, within the precincts of 
 the college. The shape of the ground eastward of 
 the Cam seemed to preclude all chance of building 
 in close proximity to the other courts ; and a site 
 was selected on the left bank of the river opposite 
 to the library. On this Mr. Rickman raised a 
 lofty and pretentious structure, capable of accom- 
 modating a great number of persons. There, 
 however, its merits end. It should be mentioned in 
 justification of the architect that the ground, which 
 in the seventeenth century was occupied by a 
 number of fish-ponds, as Loggan shows, offered 
 such an insecure foundation that a large sum of 
 money had to be spent upon concrete. Hence
 
 Gateway in the TJiird Court 
 of St. JoJnis. 
 
 From a ilra-vimr hv A. Bninet Dc-hainrf.
 
 Sl Johns College. 203 
 
 much that should have been executed in stone was 
 worked in wood or plaster, and the portions out 
 of sight are of plain white brick. The general 
 design, however, shows that a thorough knowledge 
 of the history and theory of architecture is not 
 sufficient to make a practical architect. This court 
 is joined to the older college by a very picturesque 
 bridge in a Gothic style, usually spoken of as "The 
 Bridge of Sighs," from a superficial resemblance to 
 the so-called structure at Venice, by which its 
 general outlines may have been suggested. Beyond 
 the new court are the extensive gardens, on the 
 western side of which is the delightful '^ Wilder- 
 ness," where a narural profusion of wild flowers, 
 overshadowed by lofty trees, contrasts agreeably 
 with a carefully kept bowling-green. This is the 
 spot commemorated by Wordsworth in " I'he 
 Prelude," but his favourite tree is now no more. 
 
 "All winter long, whenever free to choose, 
 Did I by night frequent the College grove 
 And tributary walks ; the last, and oft 
 The only one, who had been lingering there 
 Through hours of silence, till the porter's bell, 
 A punctual follower on the stroke of nine, 
 P.ang, with its blunt, unceremonious voice, 
 Inexorable summons. Lofty elms, 
 Inviting shades of opportune recess, 
 Bestowed composure on a neighbourhood 
 Unpcaccful in itself. A single tree,
 
 204 Cambridge. 
 
 With sinuous trunk, bouglis exquisitely wreathed, 
 Grew there ; an ash, which Winter for himself 
 Decked out with pride, and with outlandish grace : 
 Up from the ground, and almost to the top, 
 The trunk and every master-branch were green 
 With clustering ivy, and the lightsome twigs 
 The outer spray profusely tipped with seeds 
 That hung in yellow tassels, while the air 
 Stirred them, not voiceless. Often have 1 stood, 
 Foot-bound, up-looking at this lovely tree 
 Beneath a frosty moon. The hemisphere 
 Of magic fiction verse of mine perchance 
 May never tread ; but scarcely Spenser's self 
 Could have more tranquil visions in his youth, 
 Or could more bright appearances create 
 Of human forms with superhuman powers. 
 Than I beheld, loitering on calm clear nights, 
 Alone, beneath this fairy-work of Earth." 
 
 Wordsworth resided in this college from 1787 
 to 1 79 1. His rooms were in the first or entrance- 
 court, as he tells us in the same poem : 
 
 "The Evangelist Saint John my patron was : 
 Three Gothic courts are his ; and in the first 
 Was my abiding-place, a nook obscure. 
 Right underneath, the college kitchens made 
 A humming sound, less tuneable than bees. 
 But hardly less industrious, with shrill notes 
 Of sharp command and scolding intermixed." 
 
 Like Byron, Wordsworth misunderstood the 
 University, He came up with enthusiastic ideas, 
 formed in lonely hours among the hills and dales
 
 Christ's College. lo^ 
 
 of Westmoreland ; and when he found that those 
 among whom he was thrown were not all that he 
 had expected them to be, he laid the fault on the 
 institutions, and not on the persons whose lives 
 offended him. Hence he became careless of 
 academic honours ; and is said to have passed the 
 week before his degree in reading '* Clarissa Har- 
 lowe " ; an action that would have been most 
 prudent had he been ready for examination, but 
 unprepared as he was, could be due only to indif- 
 ference or to ostentation. 
 
 Having spoken of the great college which the 
 Lady Margaret was prevented by death from 
 seeing in its completeness, let us say a few words 
 about her first foundation Christ's College. It 
 occupies the site of the Grammar College, called 
 God's House, which was first placed near Clare 
 Hall, as we have related in our account of King's 
 College. The site being required by King Henry 
 the Sixth, he allowed, and probably assisted, 
 William Bingham the founder, to acquire a new 
 site in what was then called Preachers' Street, after 
 the Dominican Friars. It was intended that the 
 Society should consist of a master, called Proctor, 
 and twenty-four scholars. The revenues, how- 
 ever, were insufficient ; and when the Lady Mar- 
 garet's attention was drawn to it, the number of 
 scholars was only four. She was influenced in her
 
 2o6 Cambridge. 
 
 action, if we may believe tradition, by her con- 
 fessor, Bishop Fisher, who, on the same authority, 
 had been a member of it when he first entered the 
 University. Partly from her own resources, and 
 partly through her influence with her son, she 
 endowed it with sufficient revenues ; changed the 
 name to Christ's College, " from her singular 
 devotion to the name of Jesus Christ ; " gave to it 
 a body of statutes, and lived to see the quadrangle 
 completed. Part of the Master's Lodge she re- 
 served to her own use, and may perhaps have even 
 resided in it ; for Fuller says that she once came to 
 the College " to behold it when partly built, and 
 looking out of a window, saw the Dean call a 
 faulty scholar to correction, to whom she said, 
 ^ Lente, lente. Gently, gently !' as accounting it 
 better to mitigate his punishment than procure his 
 pardon." The old quadrangular arrangement may 
 be traced in this college more easily than elsewhere 
 behind the classical facing imposed upon the old 
 walls in the last century. The chapel is on the 
 north side; the east side contains the Master's 
 lodge, and the hall; and the south and west sides 
 are occupied by chambers. In the centre of the 
 latter is a noble gateway, flanked by towers, and 
 decorated with the arms and emblems of the foun- 
 dress. The position of the lodge, between the 
 hall and the chapel, illustrates well the ancient
 
 Christ's College. 
 
 207 
 
 arrangements for the convenience of the Head ; and 
 an external turret-stair, Hke that at Peterhouse, 
 
 
 The Gardcji of Chn'sfs College. 
 
 From a dia^iniiii hy If. 'I'l'u^snint, 
 
 may still be seen on the side next the garden. The 
 beautiful building eastward of the older quadrangle
 
 2o8 Cambridge. 
 
 was completed about 1642. It is, of course, in 
 the classical style of that period, and tradition re- 
 cords that the architect was Inigo Jones. Whether 
 this be true or not, the artist who designed it was 
 unquestionably of first-rate ability, and he has 
 produced one of the most admirable specimens of 
 architecture in the University. The garden behind 
 it, perhaps the most delightful of all the collegiate 
 gardens of Cambridge, contains the aged mulberry- 
 tree, its trunk protected by an embankment of 
 earth, and its decrepit branches supported on 
 wooden props, which an unvarying tradition asserts 
 to have been planted by Milton. He resided here 
 for seven years, from February, 1 625, to July, 1632. 
 His rooms were on the left side of the court as it 
 is entered from the street, the first-floor rooms on 
 the first staircase on that side. They consist at 
 present of a small study with two windows look- 
 ing into the court, and a very small bedroom 
 adjoining. They do not seem to have been 
 altered since his time. His biographers, as is well 
 known, have all recorded that his first tutor, Mr. 
 Chappell, caused him to be flogged; and much has 
 been written both to support and to discredit the 
 story. The public correction of undergraduates 
 had not then been given up ; for so late as 1649, 
 Henry Stubbe, afterwards a writer of repute, was 
 flogged in the Hall of Christ Church, Oxford.
 
 Christ's College. 209 
 
 for " insolent and pragmatical conduct." If true, 
 it is at least remarkable that none of Milton's 
 numerous enemies in after-years should have re- 
 proached him with it ; and the language he uses 
 in 1642 shows that he had come to think as lightly 
 of it as men do now-a-days of " swishings " at 
 school, and that his superiors also had not been 
 slow to forget the conduct that led to it. 
 
 "I acknowledge publicly," he says, '*with all grateful 
 mind, that more than ordinary respect which I found, above 
 any ot my equals, at the hands of those courteous and learned 
 men, the Fellows of that College wherein I spent some 
 years ; who, at my parting, after I had taken two degrees, as 
 the manner is, signified many ways how much better it would 
 content them that I would stay ; as by many letters full of 
 kindness and loving respect, both before that time and long 
 after, I was assured of their singular good affection towards 
 me," 
 
 15
 
 IX. 
 
 College of St. Mary Magdalene. College and 
 University Libraries. 
 
 THE College of St. Mary Magdalene originated 
 in two messuages granted by Henry VI. in 
 1428 to the Benedictine House of Croyland for the 
 convenience of those monks who wished to study 
 at Cambridge. Out of these messuages, or on 
 their site, a house was gradually constructed for 
 the general use of the Benedictine Order, ' dif- 
 ferent monasteries building different portions ; thus 
 Ely built one chamber, Walden a second, Ramsey 
 a third," says Dr. Caius ; and so late as 1777 Cole 
 saw the arms of Ely in the spandrels of the door 
 at the north-west corner of the court. Gloucester 
 College at Oxford, now Worcester College, was 
 constructed in a precisely similar manner for the 
 same Order. The chapel probably belongs to this 
 period of the history of the house. It was at first 
 called simply " The Monks' Hostel ; " but, before 
 1483, it had acquired the name of Buckingham
 
 Magdalene College. 2 1 1 
 
 College, from Henry Stafford, second Duke, who 
 was beheaded by Richard III. in that year. The 
 reason for its connection with him has not been 
 recorded ; but it is evident that he had placed it 
 under the patronage of his family, for his son, 
 Edward Stafford, built the hall in 15 19. Bucking- 
 ham College naturally ceased when the superior 
 house, Croyland Abbey, surrendered to Henry VIII. 
 in 1539 ; but the continuity was never sensibly 
 broken, and within two years and a half it was 
 refounded under its present name by Thomas, 
 Lord Audley of Walden, to whom the King had 
 granted it. He died suddenly in 1544, having 
 probably made no change in the buildings, which 
 evidently did not then form a complete quadrangle ; 
 for we find the Duke of Norfolk, who had married 
 the daughter and sole heiress of the founder, under- 
 taking, in 1564, to pay '^ 40/. by year till they had 
 builded the quadrant of their College." The 
 College was probably completed, partly by his 
 liberality, partly by that of Sir Christopher Wray, 
 a subsequent benefactor, before the end of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 The main interest of Magdalene College at 
 present is the possession of the library formed by 
 Mr. Samuel Pepys, which is contained in a separate 
 building beyond the quadrangle to the east. This 
 was not built on purpose to contain it," as is gene-
 
 2 1 2 Cambridge. 
 
 rally supposed, but was approaching completion at 
 the time when Pepys determined to bequeath his 
 library either to Trinity College or to Magdalene 
 College. The name of the architect, and the pre- 
 cise date of the structure an extremely beautiful 
 one, as our woodcut shows are unfortunately 
 alike unknown. Regarding the disposition of his 
 library, Pepys committed to writing, as part of his 
 Will, what he modestly terms his " present thoughts 
 and inclinations " in the matter, among which, after 
 stating that he prefers a private college to the 
 Public Library of the University, and Magdalene 
 College to Trinity College, " for the sake of my 
 own and nephew's education therein," he expresses 
 a wish " that a fair roome be provided on purpose 
 for it, and wholely and solely appropriated thereto ; 
 and if in Magdalen, that it be in the new building 
 there, and any part thereof, at my nephew's selec- 
 tion." There accordingly it is now deposited, and 
 the name " Bibliotheca Pepysiana " has been in- 
 scribed on the front of the building, according to 
 his desire, together with his motto, " Mens cujusque 
 is est quisque^' and the date 1724, when the death 
 of his nephew, Mr. Jackson, put the College in 
 possession of the bequest. 
 
 Pepys had begun his life at Cambridge as an 
 undergraduate in 1650. He had been entered at 
 Trinity, but, before his residence commenced there,
 
 
 ViiUhl J wU I
 
 Magdalene College. 215 
 
 had removed to Magdalene. He does not appear 
 to have ever taken a degree, and, perhaps, did not 
 stay Jong at the University. Throughout his busy 
 life, however, he preserved a warm affection for 
 Cambridge, and for his own college in particular, 
 which he frequently visited, as his amusing diary 
 records. The last time that he came there, during 
 the period of the diary, was in May, i668, of 
 which visit he has left the following characteristic 
 description : 
 
 " Here lighting [at Cambridge], I took my boy and two 
 brothers, and walked to Magdalene College: and there 
 into the butterys, as a stranger, and there drank my belly- 
 full of their beer, which pleased me, as the best I ever 
 drank : and hear by the butler's man, who was son to Goody 
 Mulliner over against the College, that we used to buy. 
 stewed prunes of, concerning the College and persons in 
 it ; and find very icw, only Mr. HoUins and Pechcll, I 
 think, that were of my time. Thence, giving the fellow 
 something, away walked to Chesterton, to see our old walk, 
 and there into the Church, the bells ringing, and saw the 
 place I used to sit in, and so to the ferry, and ferried over 
 to the other side, and walked with great pleasure, the river 
 being mighty high by Barnewell Abbey : and so by Jesus 
 College to the town, and so to our quarters, and to supper." 
 
 The collection is a very interesting one, not 
 only from the intrinsic value of the books, 
 pamphlets, maps, various illustrations of naval 
 matters at that day, and a vast mass of fugitive 
 contemporary literature, such as broadsides,
 
 2 1 6 Cambridge. 
 
 placards, street ballads, and the like, in- 
 dispensable to the historian or antiquary engaged 
 in the investigation of the troublous times in 
 which Pepys lived ; but also from the fact that 
 most of the volumes are in the bindings of his 
 time, and are still in the very bookcases of 
 mahogany, glazed, in which they were placed 
 by him in 1666. Pepys records the arrival of 
 his bookcases, on August 24th in that year, with 
 much enthusiasm : 
 
 " Up, and despatched several businesses at home in the 
 morning, and then comes Simpson to set up my other new 
 presses for my books ; and so he and I fell to the furnishing 
 of my new closett, and talcing out the things out of my old; 
 and I kept him with me all day, and he dined with me, and so 
 all the afternoone, till it v/as quite darke, hanging things, 
 that is, my maps, and pictures, and draughts, and setting up 
 my books, and as much as we could do, to my most extra- 
 ordinary satisfaction ; so that I think it will be as noble 
 a closett as any man hath, and light enough, though, indeed, 
 it would be better to have had a little more light." 
 
 Many subsequent entries record the almost 
 childish pleasure he derived from this new 
 arrangement, and the solace he found, in the 
 midst of many distracting cares, from cataloguing 
 and ticketing his books. The diary does not 
 say anything about the way in which he got 
 them together. He does not exult, as most 
 bibliomaniacs do, over the acquisition of each
 
 College Libraries. 217 
 
 new treasure. He only speaks generally, in 
 the document quoted above, of " the infinite 
 pains, and time, and cost employed in my 
 collecting, methodising, and reducing the same 
 to the state it now is." 
 
 The mention of the Pepysian Library suggests 
 a few remarks on other similar repositories for 
 books in the colleges and university. At first 
 the stock of books, or rather manuscripts, in 
 a college was so scanty, that a chest or two in 
 the muniment-room or chapel was probably 
 sufficient for their accommodation. As soon, 
 however, as the college system had definitely 
 taken root, we find the acquisition of books 
 recorded, and a library taking its place in every 
 quadrangle. The erection of that of Peterhouse, 
 in 1 43 1, has been already mentioned. It 
 occupied, originally, nearly the whole of the 
 western side of the principal court, and must 
 have been an excellent specimen of a medieval 
 library. These libraries were usually long, 
 narrow, and rather low rooms, lighted by 
 numerous windows in the side-walls, which were 
 placed tolerably near together, and at no great 
 height above the floor. There was also a 
 sinfde and larger window at one or both ends. 
 This arrangement was dictated by the necessity 
 for affording ample light to the readers ; for
 
 2 1 8 Cambridge. 
 
 the more valuable books, or perhaps all those 
 of which there was only a single copy, were 
 not allowed to be taken out by any one, and 
 for greater security were attached by iron chains 
 to a bar fixed in front of the shelves. It was 
 therefore necessary, especially in college libraries, 
 where readers might be expected to be numerous, 
 to provide facilities for consulting a large number 
 of books at the same time. On this account 
 medieval libraries are usually far larger than 
 would be expected fVom the number of books 
 contained in each of them. The bookcases 
 projected from the wall between each pair of 
 windows, and usually consisted of only one 
 shelf, raised three or four feet above the 
 ground. Between each pair of bookcases there 
 was a bench to accommodate the reader, directly 
 in front of the window. The books stood with 
 rheir leaves turned outwards instead of their 
 backs as at the present day, and the titles were 
 written in ink across the closed leaves. The 
 chains were usually attached to the left-hand 
 cover, so that they did not get in the reader's 
 way, and they were sufficiently long to enable 
 him to take down the volume he wanted to 
 consult, and place it on his knees, or on a desk 
 immediately under the shelf on which the 
 volumes stood. Where there was more than
 
 College Libraries. 
 
 219 
 
 one shelf the chains belonging to the upper 
 shelf were, of course, longer than those belong- 
 ing to the lower one. It was part of the duty 
 of a librarian, in those days, to see that the 
 chains did not get tangled. 
 
 One ot these ancient libraries exists almost un- 
 
 Trinity Hidl Librciry. 
 
 altered at Merton College, Oxford. The seats 
 are still there, and the sii^gle shelf, though altered 
 to suit modern re juirements, can easily be 
 made mit. Another, equally curious, is to be 
 seen at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. It is not so 
 ancient, dating only from the early part of the
 
 2 20 Cambridge. 
 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, but it has been even 
 lessed ahered, and is one of the most quaintly 
 picturesque rooms in the University. The book- 
 cases offer the peculiarity of a desk, at the top, 
 placed just so high that a student had his choice 
 of placing his book upon it and standing to read 
 it, or of sitting in the more usual way. The 
 earliest bookcases were plain even to rudeness, 
 being made of strong thick planks roughly nailed 
 together ; but gradually ornamentation was ad- 
 mitted, and some of the bookcases set up in the 
 seventeenth century are richly carved and deco- 
 rated. After the invention of printing, the 
 number of books had of course increased, and 
 the practice of chaining, though not abandoned, 
 was no longer universal. From the earliest times 
 certain volumes had been reserved for the use 
 of the Fellows, and were distributed annually 
 among them. The statutes in some colleges 
 prescribe minutely the assignment of these books. 
 They were to be brought back once a-year, and 
 their condition examined, after which they were 
 re-distributed, but the same book was not to be 
 assigned a second time to the same person, and 
 so forth. By this system the libraries became 
 gradually divided into what was called an outer 
 and an inner library. The former contained the 
 books that might be taken out, the latter the
 
 College Libraries. 221 
 
 more valuable ones that could only be consulted 
 in the building itself. These remained chained 
 down to the end of the last century in many 
 instances. The increase in the number of 
 volumes, however, had caused an alteration in 
 the shape and arrangement of the bookcases. It 
 was impossible any longer to afford the space 
 required by the old system. First the seat 
 between the windows was removed, and replaced 
 by a low bookcase. Then the space under the 
 window was utilised, and so the libraries became 
 subdivided into classes, and the books were sorted 
 according to their subject. The seat for the 
 reader was attached to the lowest shelf, on which 
 he sat with his back to the books a far less 
 comfortable arrangement for him than the old 
 one had been. When chaining went completely 
 out of f^ishion, the seat was taken away, and 
 replaced by a low plinth. The end of the seat, 
 however, survived in many cases as a piece of 
 rich carving, shaped like a wing, of which there 
 is an excellent example in the old library of 
 Pembroke College, fitted up in 1690, possibly 
 from the design of Sir Christopher Wren, who 
 had designed the new chapel, after which the old 
 chapel was utilised for the purpose of a library. 
 In Trinity College we have a splendid and 
 undoubted specimen of Wren's taste and skill
 
 222 Cambridge. 
 
 in designing woodwork. Chaining was, of course, 
 
 Carving in Trinity Colle.^^ :^..-i..,_.. 
 
 no longer used for libraries newly built at 
 that time, and he desia;ned his bookcases 
 
 Carving in Trinity College Library. 
 without reference to it. They are placed at
 
 College Library. 223 
 
 right angles to the walls, but the sills of the 
 windows are so high that other cases, parallel 
 to the walls, join those at right angles to them, 
 so that the library is divided into a series of 
 compartments of noble proportions, each fitted 
 with a table and desk (also designed by him) 
 for convenience of study. The cases are of 
 Norway oak, classical in style, to suit the build- 
 ing ; and they are ornamented with cherubs' 
 heads, and wreaths of flowers, leaves, and fruit, 
 in lime-wood, by the celebrated Grinling Gibbons. 
 We figure two of the heads, and one of the most 
 characteristic of the wreaths of fruit and foliage. 
 
 The University was slow in acquiring public 
 buildings of its own, and the Common Library, 
 as a building, did not come into existence before 
 the middle of the fifteenth century, though 
 Dr. Richard Holme's bequest of books, some 
 of which yet remain, dates from 1424. The 
 portion set apart for books was then the first 
 floor of the south side of the quadrangle. Two 
 lists of books one made about 1435, ^'^^ ^^^ 
 other dated 1473 have fortunately been pre- 
 served. On the latter, a former librarian, Mr. 
 Bradshaw, after indicating various points of 
 interest, made the following remarks : 
 
 "A still more interesting point in the list of 1473 is that 
 it shows us the books arranged in classes, with stalls on the
 
 224 Cambridge. 
 
 north side looking into the quadrangle, and desks on the 
 south side looking out towards the then rising chapel of 
 King's College; and we are able to form some judgment 
 of the relative importance of the different studies of the 
 place from noticing the classes allotted to each subject. 
 Our historians are very fond of telling us that the libraries 
 of the later middle ages were choked with the writings of 
 the schoolmen, that the Bible and the earlier fathers of the 
 Church had been supplanted by Petrus Lombardus and his 
 commentators. A glance at the arrangement of the Uni- 
 versity library in 1473 will show how false this assumption 
 is, and a cursory examination of the history of most of our 
 libraries will show that the great bulk of scholastic writers 
 were added to our collections by the benefactors of the 
 seventeenth century, when facts shew that these subjects 
 were very deeply studied, though it is not always convenient 
 for those writers to remember it who seek to depreciate as 
 contemptible everything that was studied before the Refor- 
 mation. The last four classes on each side of the room were 
 devoted to Theology, represented by the Bible text and the 
 leading commentators, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, the Glossa 
 Ordinaria, Cardinal Hugo, Nicholas de Lyra, and others. 
 One class only, next to the preceding, was set apart for 
 Tkeologia disputata, the Master of the Sentences and his 
 expositors. The next three on the same side were devoted 
 to Canon Law; and the remaining class on the same side 
 to Civil Law. On the north side, after the four classes 
 allotted to Theology, Moral Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, 
 and Medicine had each one stall, and the remaining one was 
 given to Logic and Grammar, including, besides, such books 
 as Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lucan, and Claudian." 
 
 It would be beyond our purpose and our limits 
 to attempt a history of the University Library
 
 University Library. 225 
 
 an enterprise which would require a volume rather 
 than an essay. We have been led to mention 
 it merely on account of its connection with the 
 life and studies of the place, on which we shall 
 shortly have occasion to speak at greater length. 
 Unfortunately, at Cambridge we have no such 
 voluminous annals as the Bodleian has, and few 
 volumes which go back to a remote antiquity. 
 The hatred of the old literature prevalent in the 
 reign of Edward the Sixth caused the destruction 
 of the library of that day as rubbish or worse, 
 and in the last century books were stolen out 
 of the building wholesale. The statement sounds 
 incredible, but is nevertheless literally true, that 
 between 1715 and 1750 the pillage was so 
 unlimited that the only wonder is that any valu- 
 able books have been left. The neglect of 
 libraries during the first half of the eighteenth 
 century was almost universal. A learned German, 
 Zachary Conrad von Uffenbach, who visited Cam- 
 bridge in 1 7 10, gives a deplorable though amusing 
 picture of the state of things he witnessed. At 
 Caius College, for instance, the librarian was not 
 to be found, and all the books that were to be 
 seen were in a miserable attic, haunted by pigeons, 
 and so dusty that the visitor was forced to take 
 off his ruffles before he could examme them. 
 The University Library was not quite so neglected 
 
 16
 
 226 Cambridge. 
 
 as that ; nor were the librarians so needy as one 
 of those at the Bodleian, who had to be " per- 
 suaded " by the donation of a guinea before he 
 would show certain manuscripts ! Our traveller, 
 however, found the printed books " very ill 
 arranged, in utter confusion, and could not see 
 the manuscripts on account of the absence of the 
 librarian. Dr. Laughton, which vexed me not 
 a little," he says, " as Dr. Ferrari (his guide) 
 highly extolled his great learning and courtesy, 
 rara avis in his terris." On a future visit, he 
 not only succeeded in seeing the coveted volumes, 
 but, as one that interested him " was torn at 
 the end, the beadle or library-keeper, who was 
 present, gave me a leaf, which I took with me 
 as a curiosity." Soon after Uffenbach's visit the 
 Cambridge Library received the great accession 
 of books from which its present importance may 
 be said to date the library of Dr. John Moore, 
 Bishop of Ely, containing thirty thousand volumes, 
 which was purchased in 1715 by King George 
 the First for _^6,ooo, and given to the University 
 at the suggestion, it is said, of Lord Townshend. 
 The University had presented a loyal address to his 
 Majesty, which had given him so much pleasure 
 that he selected this substantial method of testi- 
 fying his approbation and goodwill. Oxford had 
 taken a different view of the political situation,
 
 University Library. 227 
 
 and when the library was sent to Cambridge the 
 following epigram appeared : 
 
 "King George, observing with judicious eyes 
 The state of both his Universities, 
 To Oxford sent a troop of horse ; and why? 
 That learned body wanted loyalty. 
 To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning 
 How much that loyal body wanted learning." 
 
 Cambridge was not slow in publishing an answer, 
 written by Sir Thomas Browne, the founder of 
 the prize for epigrams : 
 
 "The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse. 
 For Tories know no argument but force ; 
 With equal skill, to Cambridge books he sent. 
 For Whigs admit no force but argument." 
 
 Additional space was required for so large 
 an addition ; and it was therefore determined, in 
 1722, to build a new Senate House, so as to 
 set free for books the old meeting-place of the 
 University, then called the Regent House, now 
 the Catalogue Room of the Library. The present 
 Senate House having been completed (in 1730), 
 it was thought desirable to alter the Library, so 
 as to provide still further accommodation, and to 
 make it correspond in style with the Senate House. 
 To effect this, the picturesque fi^ade, built by 
 Bishop Rotherham about 1475, was ruthlessly
 
 228 Cambridge. 
 
 ciragged down (in 1754), and replaced by the 
 present east room, with the whole classical faf^'ade. 
 The central gateway alone was saved from destruc- 
 tion by the then possessor of Madingley Hall, 
 where it is still used as the entrance to the stables.
 
 X. 
 
 Gonvllle and Caius College. ^ueens^ College. 
 Emmanuel College 
 
 WE must now go back in chronological order, 
 and mention one of the most beautiful 
 and celebrated colleges in the University that, 
 namely, which owes its present designation to the 
 great English physician of the sixteenth century. 
 Dr. Caius. Since his time it has been specially 
 devoted to the study of medicine. It was founded 
 originally on a different site, and by a different 
 person. In 1348 Edward the Third granted his 
 license to Edmund Gonevill (as the name is there 
 spelt), rector of Terrington, in Norfolk, to found 
 a college of twenty scholars, who were to be in- 
 structed " in dialectic and other sciences," on 
 a site that he selected in a street called Lurte- 
 burghlane. This site, of no great extent, stood 
 behind the churchyard of St. Botolph, at the 
 north-east corner of what is now Corpus Christi 
 College. The founder proposed to call his college
 
 230 Cambridge. 
 
 " The Hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed 
 Virgin ; " but so long a title being found incon- 
 venient, it soon became popularly known as 
 Gonville Hall. Three years after the foundation 
 Gonville died, and bequeathed his college to the 
 care of William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, 
 who was himself engaged at the same time in 
 establishing his own college of Trinity Hall, 
 which he had founded in 1350, for scholars in 
 Canon and Civil Law. One of his first acts was 
 to remove his friend's college to a. site nearer to 
 his own, where extension would be less difficult. 
 This removal took place in 1353. The old site 
 became the orchard of Corpus Christi College, 
 and Gonville's scholars, partly by altering two 
 large houses belonging respectively to John de 
 Cambridge and John Goldcorne which occupied 
 no inconsiderable portion of their new site 
 partly by building (through the contributions 
 of various benefactors), established themselves in 
 what is now the inner court of Gonville and Caius 
 College. The Italian taste of the last century 
 has hidden away the picturesque medieval 
 structures that were still to be seen in 1688 : 
 and a casual visitor will find it hard to believe 
 that the old college is there, hidden away under 
 the modern facing. Such, however, is the case, and 
 a few years since, when a new window was being
 
 Caius College. 231 
 
 put into the Combination Room, one of the quaint 
 two-light windows of the fourteenth century was 
 exposed to view, in a tolerably perfect condition. 
 
 Gonville's scholars remained content with this 
 narrow site, and apparently made no attempt 
 at enlarging it for two centuries. On September 
 4, 1557, it was refounded as Gonville and Caius 
 College, by Dr. John Keys, better known under 
 the Latinised form Caius ; since which time, 
 to use Fuller's language, " as in the conjunction 
 of two Roman Consuls, Bibulus and Caius Julius 
 Caesar, the former was eclipsed by the lustre of 
 the latter ; so this his namesake Caius hath in 
 some sort obscured his partner, carrying away the 
 name of the College in common discourse." The 
 second founder had passed his undergraduate days 
 in the older college, where he had obtained the 
 degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1533 ; after which 
 he became Principal of Physwick Hostel, a small 
 educational establishment affiliated to Gonville 
 Hall ; and apparently continued to reside in 
 Cambridge until 1539. This makes his " Historv 
 of the University," notwithstanding many errors, 
 so valuable a record for the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century. There is good reason for 
 believing that at first he turned his attention 
 to divinity ; but his foreign travels, and his 
 studies in Italian Universities, diverted him to
 
 232 Cambridge. 
 
 medicine, to which he devoted himself steadily 
 for the rest of his life. On leaving Cambridge 
 he took up his abode in the University of Padua, 
 where he gave lectures on the Greek language, 
 and obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 
 1 54 1. During a portion of his residence in that 
 University he occupied the same house as the cele- 
 brated Andre Vesale better known by his Latin 
 name Vesalius the first of those great anatomists 
 who braved popular prejudice, and insisted on the 
 importance of the dissection of the human body 
 as the basis of all medical and surgical knowledge. 
 On leaving Padua he travelled through Italy, 
 visiting the most famous cities, and especially 
 searching their libraries for manuscripts of the 
 ancient authors on medicine. In 1544, he re- 
 turned to England, and practised as a physician 
 at Cambridge, Shrewsbury, and London, where 
 he was appointed physician to Edward the Sixth, 
 and afterwards to Queen Mary and Queen Eliza- 
 beth. He became President of the College of 
 Physicians in 1555, an office which he retained 
 for five years. Previous to his election he had 
 been in the habit of delivering lectures on 
 anatomy for the benefit of the surgeons of 
 London the fruit, doubtless, of his Italian 
 studies and personal intercourse with Vesalius. 
 He must, therefore, have been a very prominent
 
 Caius College. 233 
 
 person in the medical world a circumstance that 
 will sufficiently account for the use that Shake- 
 speare has made of his name when he wished 
 to introduce a physician into the " Merry Wives 
 of Windsor," without any necessity for supposing 
 that direct reference to him was intended by the 
 poet. The comedy, moreover, may be dated 
 1 60 1, twenty-eight years after the death of Caius ; 
 who, besides, was not a Frenchman as there repre- 
 sented, but the son of English parents, and born 
 and bred at Norwich. 
 
 His return to his college as co-founder and 
 generous benefactor for it was part of his scheme 
 to found and endow fellowships and scholarships 
 was naturally succeeded by his elevation to the 
 Mastership (January 24, 1559) a dignity which 
 he accepted with reluctance, and the emoluments 
 of which he systematically declined. These he 
 generously expended on new buildings, of which 
 he laid the first stone on the west side of the 
 court that was afterwards called Caius Court, 5th 
 of May, 1565, at four o'clock in the morning. 
 His object in founding his college afresh was the 
 promotion of sound learning. The inscription 
 on the foundation-stone summed up these inten- 
 tions in four significant words : " Johannes Caius 
 posuit sapienti^e*' with a solemn prayer that all 
 v/ho dwelt therein might be virtuous, learned, and
 
 234 Cambridge. 
 
 patriotic. It may at first sight appear strange that 
 he should have allowed six years to elapse between 
 his acceptance of the Mastership and the com- 
 mencement of the buildings. Probably the 
 intervening period was spent in acquiring the site, 
 and in storing up materials. This forethought 
 will account for the short time occupied in the 
 actual construction, for the last stone is stated by 
 himself in his " Annals," of which the manuscript 
 is preserved in the college, to have been laid on 
 the first day of September, just four months after 
 the work had been begun. The eastern side of 
 the quadrangle was taken in hand soon afterwards, 
 and probably finished with equal rapidity, but its 
 progress is not so minutely recorded. 
 
 The design of the buildings erected by Dr. 
 Caius is stated, according to college tradition, to 
 have been brought by him from Padua. The 
 agreeable notion, however, that while he was 
 living abroad he was thinking of his college and 
 planning its extension, is unsupported by any 
 evidence whatever. He was at Padua, as we have 
 seen, in 1541, eighteen years before he was made 
 master of his college, and twenty-four years before 
 he began to build. How could he have " so fore- 
 cast the years " as to imagine his future elevation 
 to wealth and position .? Again, the design is not 
 Italian, either in conception or in style. The
 
 Gilie of Virtue (it Cains Collci:^?. 
 
 I'toiii a drawins; !>y H. Toussnint
 
 Caius College. 237 
 
 buildings of the University at Padua, which he 
 might have thought of imitating, and with which 
 he must, of course, have been familiar, for they 
 were built by Sansovino or Palladio about 1493, 
 are totally different from those he afterwards 
 erected. They are built round a court, in a 
 heavy, classical style, with a profusion of shafts, 
 cornices, and battlements ; whereas the design of 
 Dr. Caius, as our illustration of his Gate of Virtue 
 shows, is thoroughly Gothic in general plan and 
 outline, with only a subtle touch of the Renais- 
 sance here and there in a molding or a detail. It 
 is just possible that the inscription on the founda- 
 tion-stone, and the words of the prayer uttered 
 by Dr. Caius at the ceremony, may have been 
 suggested by the inscription on the entrance to 
 the University at Padua, in which the same 
 thoughts are expressed : " Sic ingredere ut te if so 
 quotidie doctior^ sic egredere ut indies fatrice 
 Christian ce que reipublica utilior evadasT The 
 words are difficult to translate literally, but the 
 general sense is, " So enter that thou may est become 
 daily more learned than thou hast been ; so leave 
 that day by day thou mayest become more useful to 
 thy country and to Christendom.'' 
 
 The arrangement of the Caius Court two 
 parallel ranges of buildings connected on the south 
 by nothing more substantial than a wall of
 
 238 Cambridge. 
 
 moderate height with a gate in the centre was 
 certainly dictated by sanitary considerations, and 
 therefore was probably his own, for in his thirtieth 
 statute he directs that the south side is never to 
 be enclosed, " for fear the air should become foul." 
 The symbolism which governed the names he gave 
 to the gates is English of the days of Elizabeth 
 rather than Italian. The college was to be entered 
 from the outer street through a low postern called 
 the Gate of Humility. In this spirit the student 
 was to pass aloi:ig a stately avenue of trees till he 
 reached the lofty and beautiful Gate of Virtue. 
 This is sometimes called the Gate of Wisdom, 
 because the inscription on the foundation-stone 
 given above has been inscribed in later times on 
 its western facade. In the spandrils of the arch, 
 through which the Caius Court would be entered, 
 are figures of angels, bearing the one a wreath 
 and a palm, the other a cornucopia and a purse : 
 emblems of the gifts that Virtue has in store for 
 those who follow her. Lastly, the gate by which 
 the college would be left on the south side was 
 called the " Gate of Honour," because it led to 
 the schools in which University honours were 
 conferred . 
 
 This last, the design of which is directly 
 attributed to Dr. Caius in the " Annals " as con- 
 tinued by his successor in the Mastership, though
 
 Norlh Side of the Gate of Honour^ Cains College. 
 
 I' rotii a ilraiuin^ by II Toiissaint.
 
 Cat us College. 241 
 
 not built until after his death, is much more 
 classical in feeling than any other building in the 
 college. It consists of a square mass, enriched 
 with fluted columns bearing pediments, above 
 which rises a hexagonal superstructure, originally 
 ornamented with numerous shafts, pinnacles, and 
 dials. Unfortunately, it was built of very perish- 
 able stone, and the delicate carvings are fast 
 crumbling away. Among the decorations were 
 the heraldic cognisances of the Doctor, the quaint 
 symbolism of which must be stated in the words 
 of the original grant, which confers upon 
 
 "John Caius, gentleman, and his postcrite, thcis Amies 
 and creste with thappertenances as here aftre followith ; that 
 is to say, gold scraycd with flowrc gentle, in the myddle of 
 the cheyfe scngrene resting vppon the heades of ij scrpcntcs 
 in pale, their tayles knytt together, all in propre color, rest 
 ingc vppon a square marble stone vert, betwenc theire brestes 
 a boke sable, garnyshed gewles, buckles gold, and to his crest 
 vpon thclmc a dove argent, bekyd, and membred gewles, 
 holding in his bcke by the stalke flowrc gentle in propre 
 colour, stalked verte, set on a wreth golde and gewles, man- 
 telled gewles, lyned argent, buttoned golde." 
 
 Of this elaborate device the grant vouchsafes the 
 following explanation. It should be premised that 
 " sengrene " is house-leek, and " flower gentle " 
 amaranth. 
 
 " Betokening by the boke Lerning, by the two Scrpcntes 
 resting vpon the stjuare Marble Stone, Wisdomc with grace 
 
 17
 
 24 2 Cambridge. 
 
 founded and stayed vpon vertues stable stone ; by sengrcne 
 and flower gentle Immortalite that neucr shall fade ; as 
 though thus I shulde say, Ex prudetitia et Uteris, virtutis pctra 
 firmatis, iaunnrtalitas ; that is to say. By wisdomc and Icrniiig, 
 grafted in grace and vertue men come to Immortality." 
 
 Dr. Cams died July 29, 1573. He was buried 
 in the chapel, under an elaborate altar-tomb, about 
 which he had himself given directions some three 
 weeks before his death. The two sentences 
 inscribed on it by his friends, " Vivit -post funera 
 Virtus " and " Fui Caius" are simple and beauti- 
 ful. In 17 19 his grave was opened, and the 
 following striking description was written by an 
 eye-witness : 
 
 "This brings to my mind what I saw about a.d. 1719, in 
 Caius College Chapel. I remember that when they were 
 then repairing and beautifying that Chapel, ye workmen had 
 broke a hole either by accident or design into Dr. Caius' 
 grave, wch was a hollow place lin'd with brick on ye north 
 side of ye Chapel at a little distance from his monument wen 
 is a mural one. The lid of ye coffin was oft' when I look'd in 
 with a candle fixed in a long cleft stick wch ye workmen 
 turnish'd me with and with wch I cou'd survey ye sepulchre 
 very easily. The sides of ye coffin were remaining, tho' in a 
 disjoynted and rotten condition. The body seem'd to have 
 been a very lusty one, and ye coffin was pretty full of it; the 
 filcsh was of a yellowish black colour, and yielded to ye least 
 touch of ye stick and fell to pieces. The eyes were sunk 
 deep into their sockets. A long grey beard much like that 
 wch we sec in y*^ picture ot him, only this was grown very 
 rough by long time ; I think it was then about 145 years
 
 Cuius College. 243 
 
 from ye time of his death. I touch'd his beard with ye stick 
 and turn'd it a little on one side ; it accordingly lay on one 
 side, having lost all manner of elasticity : I therefore brought 
 it back to its right place again. The sight occasion'd in me 
 serious reflections, and I went away with such a regard as I 
 thought due to ye memory of so considerable a mann as Dr. 
 Caius had been." 
 
 We have seen how earnest Dr. Caius had been 
 in imparting medical knowledge to others, and how 
 firmly he held to the importance of a knowledge 
 of anatomy as a principle of medical study. 
 He was a travelled man, too, an accomplish- 
 ment rare in that age, and his intercourse with 
 foreign men of science might have imparted to 
 him ideas less narrow than those which had 
 hitherto governed the colleges of Cambridge. Yet 
 his statutes are in no way an improvement upon 
 those of his predecessors. He makes no attempt 
 to found a scientific college on broad principles, 
 the main lines of which would have been suitable 
 to all time. It is true that he obtained a royal 
 license to allow dissection of the human body ; 
 but his statute headed " Anatomia" is principally 
 occupied with directions about burying the body 
 after dissection in St. Michael's Churchyard with 
 due reverence. Of the thirteen Fellowships, only 
 two are to be held by medical men ; but in this 
 particular he may have felt himself fettered by his 
 predecessor, Bishop Hateman, for he regarded three
 
 244 Cambridge. 
 
 only of the Fellows as peculiarly his own. His 
 own third Fellow, however, is to be a theologian. 
 The study of medicine is inculcated in only one 
 statute, and in it no better system is suggested 
 than disputations in the college chapel ; a course 
 which, unless very careful precautions are taken, 
 and preliminary examinations are held, may easily 
 degenerate into a barren recurrence of question and 
 answer, such as Moliere has so mercilessly ridiculed 
 in his " Malade Imaginaire." The rest of the hun- 
 dred and seven chapters into which this curious code 
 is divided are occupied with minute directions for 
 regulating the daily life of the students, the care 
 of the buildings, and the management of the 
 estates matters which might well have been left 
 to the good sense of the officers of the college. For 
 instance, it is gravely prescribed that no member 
 of the college is to enter a tavern more than twice 
 a-year ; no one is to presume to set foot on the 
 leaden roof of the Gate of Virtue, except to repair it; 
 the other gates are to be opened and shut at stated 
 hours ; the rents of the estates are never to be 
 diminished or increased, and so forth. But we 
 must not linger any longer over this interesting 
 subject, for we have something to say about 
 Queens' College. 
 
 The history of the foundation has been already 
 recounted. The buildings of the principal quad-

 
 ^eens College. 247 
 
 rangle were at once put in hand, and completed by 
 the end of 1448 or the beginnhig of 1449. They 
 are built of red brick, in a simple style that recalls 
 the earlier portions of Eton College, The quad- 
 rangle is entered through a massive gateway in 
 two stories, flanked by octagonal towers ; and there 
 are square towers at each external angle. The east 
 and south sides are occupied by rooms, the north 
 side by the chapel and library, and the west side 
 by the hall, kitchen, and other offices. This portion 
 of the college retains its ancient aspect more 
 thoroughly than any other in the University. 
 Beyond the principal court is a smaller one, extend- 
 ing to the river. A picturesque building in red 
 brick, probably coeval with the rest, extends along 
 the river bank, with a cloister on the side next the 
 court. Cloisters also extend along the north and 
 south sides, with the intention, no doubt, of pro- 
 viding a passage dry-shod from the rest of the 
 college to the western building. Over the north 
 cloister is the wooden gallery of the President's 
 Lodge a singularly beautiful specimen of that 
 usual appendage to a sixteenth-century house, and 
 quite unaltered. There are three picturesque oriels 
 on either side, not placed op[)Osite to each other, as 
 a modern architect wcjuld infdlibly have constructed 
 them, but alternately, so that the whole space 
 within is equally well lighted. In former days the
 
 248 Cambridge. 
 
 oriels rose above the roof, with diminishing stages 
 of lead-work, crowned by iron vanes of excellent 
 design. These ornaments, alas ! have been swept 
 away ; and it was only by accident that the gallery 
 itself escaped destruction, for in the last century 
 " the ingenious Mr. Essex " was employed to 
 construct what was then called a " new and 
 elegant " building along the west front. He began 
 at the south angle, and having erected a mon- 
 strously ugly range of chambers along Silver 
 Street, proceeded to do likewise along the river- 
 side. He pulled down some thirty feet of the old 
 work, and would have destroyed the whole had 
 funds been forthcoming. But fortunately they ran 
 short, and the Lodge was saved. 
 
 It was in this college that the celebrated 
 Erasmus resided during part, at least, of the time 
 that he spent in Cambridge. " Queens' Colledge," 
 says Fuller, " accounteth it no small credit there- 
 unto that Erasmus (who. no doubt might have 
 pickt and chose what House he pleased) preferred 
 this for the place of his study for some years in 
 Cambridge. Either invited thither with the fame 
 of the learning and love of his friend Bishop 
 Fisher, then Master thereof, or allured with the 
 situation of this Colledge so near the River (as 
 Rotterdam his native place to the Sea), with plea- 
 sant walks thereabouts." His memory is per-
 
 ^eens College. 
 
 249 
 
 petuated by a walk on the west side of the Cam 
 called Erasmus' Walk ; and his study, high up in 
 the tower at the south-west angle of the court, is 
 
 'Ike Lodi^c of (2'i ecus' Collci^e. 
 
 Still pointed out. The following curious passage, 
 written, it is true, nearly a century and a half after- 
 wards, but by a bellow of the College who could
 
 2 5^ Cambridge. 
 
 hardly have been misinformed, pleasantly describes 
 the traditional belief : 
 
 "The staircs which rise up to his studie at Oueens' 
 College in Cambr. doe bring into two of the fairest 
 chambers in the ancient building ; in one of them, which 
 lookes into the hall and chief court, the Vice-President 
 kept in my time; in that adjoyning, it was my fortune to 
 be, when fellow. The chambers over arc good lodgeing 
 roomes ; and to one of them is a square turret adjoyning, 
 in the upper part of which is the study of Erasmus ; and 
 over it leads. To that belongs the best prospect about 
 the colledge, viz. upon the river, into the corne-fields, and 
 countrey adjoyning. So y' it might very well consist with 
 the civility of the House to that great man (who was no 
 fellow, and I think stayed not long there) to let him have 
 that study. His sleeping-rome might be either the Vice- 
 President's, or, to be neer to him, the next. The room for 
 his servitor that above it, and through it he might goe to 
 that studie, which for the height and neatncsse and prospect, 
 might easily take his pliancy." 
 
 There are some amusing allusions in his letters 
 to his discomforts, which appear to have been 
 much the same as those commonly experienced 
 by foreigners in a strange country. The climate, 
 the drink, the encouragem.ent he met with in his 
 lectures, are all subjects for grumbling. " I can- 
 not go out of doors for the plague," he says, 
 writing to a friend in 1510; "I am beset with 
 thieves, and the wine is no better than vinegar." 
 Again, in August, 151 1, we read, "I shall stay
 
 Emmanuel College. 25 1 
 
 some days at least in this college. I have not as 
 yet submitted myself to an audience, for I am 
 anxious to take care of my health first. I do 
 not like the ale of this place at all, nor are the 
 wines particularly palatable. If you could manage 
 to send me a cask of Greek wine, the very best 
 that can be bought, you would be doing your 
 friend a great kindness, but mind that it be not 
 too sweet." The wine evidently came, and was 
 of the proper quality, for in October following he 
 writes, " I am sending you back your cask, which 
 I have kept by me longer than I otherwise should 
 have done, that I might enjoy the perfume at 
 least of Greek wine. My expenses here are 
 monstrous, and not a farthing to be gained. 1 
 have been here not quite five months, and yet 
 have spent sixty nobles ; while certain members 
 of my class have presented me with just a single 
 one, which they had much difficulty in persuadirig 
 me to accept." Notwithstanding all these draw- 
 backs, however, which are very likely exaggerated 
 for his friend's amusement, he stayed at Cambridge 
 for upwards of seven years, giving lectures in 
 Greek and Theology. 
 
 In the next place we must say a few words 
 about Emmanuel College, of which we have 
 figured a small portion. It was mentioned in a 
 previous article that the site chosen for it was that
 
 252 Cambridge. 
 
 of the Convent of the Black Friars, or Friars 
 Preachers. They were dispossessed by King 
 Henry VIII. ; but for some reason, now unknown, 
 their buildings escaped the destruction that fell 
 on those of the Carmelites and Franciscans ; and 
 when Sir Walter Mildmay obtained possession 
 of them forty years afterwards, his architect, 
 Ralph Symons, was able to adapt some of them 
 to collegiate purposes with hardly any alteration. 
 This College, and Sidney Sussex College, founded 
 in 1594 by the will of the Lady Francis Sidney, 
 Countess of Sussex, on the site of the Franciscan 
 house, are the first Protestant foundations. Sir 
 Walter was himself a staunch Puritan, and Queen 
 Elizabeth is reported to have said to him, " Sir 
 Walter, I hear that you have erected a Puritan 
 foundation." " No, Madam," he replied ; " far 
 be it from me to countenance anything contrary 
 to your established laws ; but I have set an 
 acorn, which, when it becomes an oak, God alone 
 knows what will be the fruit thereof." The 
 charter granted to him by the Oueen is dated 
 nth of January, 1584. Therein his foundation 
 is described as " a College of Theology, Science, 
 Philosophy, and Literature, for the extension of 
 the pure Gospel of Christ our only Mediator, to 
 the honour and glory of Almighty God " ; and in 
 the preface to his Statutes he refers to the
 
 Emmanuel College. 255 
 
 " schools of the prophets " mentioned in the 
 Old Testament, to the learning that St. Paul 
 had acquired at the feet of Gamaliel, and to the 
 incessant watchings of the Levites in the Temple, 
 as parallels to the learning that should be stored 
 up, and the watchfulness that should be displayed, 
 in order to extirpate Papistical heresies and diffuse 
 the true Gospel of Christianity. The principles 
 of the founder were encouraged so well by his 
 immediate successors that, in 1629, Archbishop 
 Laud described Emmanuel College as a nursery of 
 Puritanism ; and during the Commonwealth no 
 less than eleven of the Heads of Colleges im- 
 posed by those in authority were selected from 
 Emmanuel. Evelyn, who visited Cambridge in 
 1654, speaks of it as "that zealous house"; and 
 in later days it is referred to as " the pure house 
 of Enmianuel." 
 
 The view of Emmanuel College in Loggan's 
 work shows buildings so different from the 
 present ones, that were it not for the chapel 
 it would be difficult to recognise their identity. 
 In 1688 the entrance to the College was in 
 Emmanuel Street, through a small court, open 
 to the north. From this the principal coint was 
 entered, of which the west side, where the gate of 
 entrance now is, was occupied by chambers. It is 
 probable that these were contrived out of part of
 
 2^6 Cambridge. 
 
 the conventual buildings. The Hall, as now, 
 was on the north side, and a range of chambers, 
 called " The Founder's Range," was on the south 
 side. The building called " The Brick Building," 
 at right angles to this of which a small portion 
 is shown in our illustration was begun in 1633, 
 and is an excellent specimen of the style of that 
 period. The chapel, with the cloisters by which 
 it is joined to the north and south sides of the 
 quadrangle, is due to the energy of Dr. Bancroft, 
 Master from 1662 to 1665, who afterwards, when 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, became famous as the 
 author of the petition of the seven Bishops 
 against the Declaration of King James II. The 
 architect was Sir Christopher Wren. He evidently 
 borrowed the general idea of the composition from 
 Peterhouse. The space over the cloister, however, 
 serves at Emmanuel the double purpose of a 
 passage for the Master to the chapel, and of a 
 picture-gallery in connection with the Lodge an 
 original feature, due, in all probability, to the 
 ingenuity of Wren. In his first design he 
 intended to build the chapel and cloister in red 
 brick, with stone dressings, the effect of which 
 would have been far more picturesque than the 
 uniform stonework which was substituted for it. 
 The reasons for the alteration have not been 
 recorded. The " Founder's Range " was rebuilt
 
 The Setiate House ajid JJjih'crsity Liliraiy. 
 
 l<rom a drawing by A. Brunei Diiuina. 
 
 i8
 
 Emmanuel College. 259 
 
 in 17 1 9, and in 1769 the west front was changed 
 to its present appearance, after a design prepared 
 by Sir James Burrough in 1752. He died in 
 1764, and the execution was entrusted to Essex, 
 A contemporary records that the plan " was 
 departed from in almost every instance, and in 
 some considerably improv'd." 
 
 Under the hospitable guidance of "rare Richard 
 Farmer," Master from 1775 to 1797, the Com- 
 bination Room, called Emmanuel Parlour, acquired 
 a great reputation for geniality and good-fellow- 
 ship. It is said to have been open every evening 
 " to those who loved pipes and tobacco and 
 cheerflil conversation." Dr. Farmer was not 
 merely a Shakespearean critic, he delighted in the 
 stage as a spectator, and during the period of 
 Sturbridge fair went regularly every evening to 
 the theatre there with his friends. 1 hose who 
 disapproved of this dramatic enthusiasm nick- 
 named them " Ihc Shakespeare (jang." They 
 were most indulgent critics, and contributed 
 greatly to the success of the performance by 
 uniformlv applauding everything and everybody. 
 
 Our woodcut shows the fa^'ade of the University 
 Library, of which we have already spoken.
 
 XI. 
 
 "Jesus College, 
 
 ABOUT the middle of the twelfth century 
 a Benedictine sisterhood, consisting of a 
 prioress and eleven nuns, established themselves 
 in the middle of the Greencroft a piece of 
 common ground, which we described in our 
 imaginary survey of Cambridge as extending 
 from the eastern limits of the town along the 
 riverside as far as the village of Barnwell. This 
 site they obtained by the favour of Malcolm IV., 
 King of Scotland, in virtue of his rights as Earl 
 of Huntingdon. Very little is known of the 
 history of the convent. The sisterhood seems to 
 have been regarded with special favour by the 
 ecclesiastical magnates of those days ; for we find 
 privileges granted to them, not only by the 
 Bishops of Ely, who were patrons of the House 
 in virtue of their office, but by the Bishop of 
 Norwich, the. Bishop of -Lincoln, and even the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. In the thirteenth
 
 Jesus College. 261 
 
 century, when insurance offices were unknown, 
 the damages done by a fire or storm had to be 
 repaired by voluntary contributions. On such 
 occasions episcopal favour (if it could only be 
 obtained), applied a powerful spur to the charity 
 of the faithful, who, in days when news travelled 
 slowly, might otherwise have never heard of the 
 disaster, still less have contributed to repair it. 
 A few facts have come down to us, supported by 
 documentary evidence still existing in the Treasury 
 of Jesus College, which show how valuable eccle- 
 siastical favours must have been to the Nuns of 
 Greencroft. In 1254 the Bishop of Norwich grants 
 a relaxation of twenty-five days' penance to all bene- 
 factors to the nunnery, whether for the sustenance 
 ofthenuns, or the building of their church. In 
 1268 the Bishop of Lincoln gives them leave to 
 collect alms for the same purpose. In 1277 the 
 Bishop of Norwich issues a circular letter to the 
 clergy and laity of his diocese, calling upon them 
 to afford any assistance to the nuns, who were in 
 difficulties from the sudden ruin of their bell- 
 tower. In 1 3 13 the Archdeacon of Ely recom- 
 mends them as persons deserving of charity, 
 because they have lost their entire property {bona 
 omnia) by a fire; and in the following year the 
 Bishopof Ely confirms certain indulgences granted 
 to them by his brother bishops for the same object.
 
 262 Cambridge. 
 
 In 1376 the Bishop of Ely interferes again, and 
 grants an indulgence of forty days i.e., a remis- 
 sion of penance imposed for misdeeds to be valid 
 for that period to all who shall contribute to a 
 fund for making good their losses by another fire. 
 Lastly, in 1390, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 grants them a similar indulgence, part of their 
 habitation having been blown down by a storm. 
 Besides these special contributions, their annual 
 revenue derived from houses and lands, chiefly in 
 Cambridge, became extensive, and they were enabled 
 to erect a magnificent church, the relics of which 
 may still be seen in the chapel of Jesus College. 
 In all monasteries the church invariably exceeded 
 the other buildings in size and splendour ; but, at 
 the same time, it is reasonable to suppose that the 
 refectory, dormitory, cloister, &c., would be 
 erected in a style that would not offer too marked 
 a contrast to that of the church. At the close of 
 the fifteenth century, John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, 
 obtained leave from Henry VII. to suppress the 
 nunnery, and to replace it by Jesus College, con- 
 ferring on the new corporation the revenues, as 
 well as the site and buildings, of the sisterhood. 
 If we are to believe the account given in the pre- 
 amble to the Charter, which is dated June 12, 
 1497, this act was occasioned by the misconduct 
 of the nuns. This, however, is at least doubtful.
 
 Jesus College. 263 
 
 At that time suppression of monasteries had 
 come within the range of practical politics, as we 
 say now-a-daysj and when the extinction of a given 
 House had been decided on, it was obviously 
 advisable to silence popular clamour by making 
 the case against it as strong as possible. A second 
 suppression of a religious house at Cambridge 
 that, namely, of St. John's Hospital took place 
 twelve years afterwards, and the reasons, as stated 
 in the charter of St. John's College, are so 
 curiously similar to those given in the case of the 
 nuns of St. Rhadegund, that it will be interesting 
 to compare them. We have translated them, and 
 print them side by side. 
 
 The House or Priory of The House or Priory of the 
 the Nuns of St. Rhadegund, Brethren of St. John the 
 its lands, tenements, rents, Evangelist, its lands, tcne- 
 posscssions, buildings, as well ments, rents, possessions, 
 as its effects, furniture, buildings, as well as its 
 jewels, and other ecclesias- effects, furniture, jewels, and 
 tical ornaments, piously and other ornaments of the 
 charitably conferred upon church, conferred upon the 
 the said house or priory in said house or priory in former 
 former times, have now been times, have now been so 
 so grievously dilapidated, de- grievously dilapidated, de- 
 sl roved, wasted, alienated, stroyed, wasted, alienated, 
 diminished, and made away diminished, and made away 
 with, by the carelessness, im- with, by the carelessness, pro- 
 providence and dissolute digality, improvidence, and 
 conduct of the prioress and dissolute conduct of the 
 nuns of the aforesaid Hrjuse prior, masters, and brethren
 
 264 
 
 Cambridge. 
 
 or Priory, occasioned by the 
 neighbourhood of the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge ; and 
 the nuns themselves have 
 been reduced to such want 
 and poverty that they are 
 unable in any way to perform 
 Divine Service, or their ac- 
 customed duties, whether of 
 religion, mercy, or hospitality, 
 according to the original 
 ordinance of their founders, 
 or even to maintain them- 
 selves, inasmuch as their 
 number has now been 
 reduced to two, whereof one 
 has entered a religious house 
 elsewhere, and the other is 
 leading a life of sin. 
 
 of the aforesaid House or 
 Priory ; and the brethren 
 themselves have been re- 
 duced to such want and 
 poverty that they are unable 
 to perform Divine Service, 
 or their accustomed duties 
 whether of religion, mercy, 
 or hospitality, according to 
 the original ordinance of 
 their founders, or even to 
 maintain themselves, by 
 reason of their poverty and 
 want of means of support ; 
 inasmuch as for a long while 
 two brethren only have been 
 maintained in the aforesaid 
 House, and these are in the 
 habit of straying abroad in 
 all directions beyond the pre- 
 cincts of the said religious 
 House, to the grave dis- 
 pleasure of Almighty God, 
 the discredit of their Order, 
 and the scandal of the Church. 
 
 The identity of the charges brought against 
 these two rehgious bodies cannot be due to mere 
 accident ; and it is almost impossible to believe 
 that the brethren and the nuns should have fallen 
 into precisely the same delinquencies, or that the 
 number left in the House should have been two 
 in each case. It might almost be conjectured that
 
 Jesus College, 265 
 
 the officials who drew royal charters kept in their 
 bureau a passage ready to meet the case of the 
 suppression of a religious house, and used it on 
 occasion, with the mere alteration of name and 
 place. 
 
 A few parchment rolls detailing the receipts and 
 expenses of these unfortunate ladies have been 
 preserved, from which we gain some insight into 
 the way in which they spent their money, and the 
 style in which they lived. The first of these is 
 for 1449-50 ; and certainly lends no support to 
 the episcopal charges of poverty and want of 
 thrift. The receipts may be roughly stated at 
 ^80, equivalent at least to ^1,000 at the present 
 day. They are derived from the rents of farms 
 in the country and houses in Cambridge ; receipts 
 for dues payable in the market, and profits from 
 the fair which the House was allowed to hold on 
 the Festival of the Assumption ; the sale of corn 
 and stores ; tithes; and payments from the Vicar 
 of St. Clement's Church. 
 
 The expr'nses indicate a well managed and hos- 
 pitable community. There are repairs to their 
 own buildings, and to their farms, with the 
 purchase of stock and agricultural implements. 
 A horse bought at the fair of St. John Baptist, 
 costs 9s. 4d. ; but another, bought of Richard 
 Baker, of Bumstede, only 4s. 'J'here are many
 
 2 66 Cambridge. 
 
 charges for bleeding and shoeing the horses ; the 
 shoes and nails being bought, as usual, in gross, 
 and laid up in the storehouse for use. Labour on 
 the farm and garden occupies a considerable space. 
 We meet with the yearly wages of the ploughman 
 and the shepherd, charges for manure, for pruning 
 trees, fattening pigs, washing and shearing sheep, 
 &c. The wool was brought to the Convent, and 
 there utilised. A couple of women are hired to 
 spin it ; and Roger Rede of Hynton is paid 
 3s. 5d. "for weaving 77 ells of woollen cloth for 
 the livery of the servants." Other persons are 
 engaged to shear it and full it. Lastly, William 
 Judde, of St. Ives, receives 9s. 9d. for dyeing it 
 green and blue. " Our lady's servants," as the 
 retinue of the Prioress is called, must have made 
 a brave show when they donned their new gar- 
 ments ! The roughness which we are too apt 
 to associate with medieval habits seems to have 
 been absent from the Refectory, for we read of the 
 purchase of " boardcloths " and table-napkins, 
 and of linen bought for the Naprie, probably the 
 linen-closet The charges for the Guest Hall, 
 that universal adjunct to a medieval monastery, 
 whether for men or women, indicate a somewhat 
 profuse hospitality. In addition to the ordinary 
 charges for beef, pork, mutton, and veal, and for 
 a whole cow, which perhaps was bought to be
 
 "Jesus College. 267 
 
 salted, there is a special charge " for bread, ale, 
 beef, mutton, lamb, veal, pork, hens, chickens, 
 eggs, butter, and fish, fresh-water and sea, bought 
 for eating in the Guest Hall, as set forth in detail 
 in a paper-book (Examined against this account, 
 11/. yj. \\dy These items, amounting to almost 
 one-seventh of the entire income of the House, 
 must surely refer to some extraordinary festivity. 
 Two other rolls coitain similar items. The last 
 of the series, that for 148 1-82, just fifteen years 
 before the suppression, shows a considerable falling- 
 off from the former prosperity of the House. 
 The receipts have fallen to ^38 15s. 8Jd. ; a 
 condition of things which lends some colour to 
 Bishop Alcock's charges. It is much to be re- 
 gretted that the series should be so broken. Were 
 it complete much light would be thrown on that 
 supremely interesting question the real condition 
 of the Monasteries at the time of their suppression. 
 Jesus College is approached by a long gravelled 
 path between high walls, popularly called " The 
 Chimney." The distance of the church from 
 the street, about seventy yards, was probably 
 dictated by a wish for privacy ; but it is 
 not so easy to decide why the nuns placed it on 
 the south side of their buildings, instead of on the 
 north, having regard to the great extent of their 
 site. It is evident that this must have been the
 
 268 Cambridge. 
 
 arrangement of the nunnery, as it is of the college, 
 for, otherwise, Bishop Alcock would hardly have 
 deviated from the more usual plan, which wisely re- 
 served the warmer south side of the quadrangle for 
 the rooms in which the students were to live. 
 The church was 185 feet long within the walls. 
 It was planned in the form of a cross, with a 
 central tower and transepts. The choir, 65 feet 
 long by 23 feet broad, had chapels on its north 
 and south sides for about half its length, opening 
 into it by two pier-arches in each wall. The 
 transepts are 24 feet broad, and 28 feet long. 
 The nave, 86 feet long and 24 feet broad, had 
 originally seven pier-arches, and north and south 
 aisles. It must have been, as Professor Willis said, 
 " An admirable specimen of the architecture of 
 its period, and two of the best preserved remain- 
 ing portions, the series of lancet-windows on the 
 north and south sides of the eastern limb, and the 
 arcade that ornaments the inner surface of the 
 tower-walls, will always attract attention for the 
 beauty of their composition." But a large and 
 complex church was obviously unsuited to the 
 requirements of a college, and under the direction 
 of Bishop Alcock, " the side-aisles, both of the 
 chancel and the nave, were entirely removed, the 
 pier-arches by which they had communicated with 
 the remaining central portion of the building were
 
 "Jesus College. 269 
 
 walled up, and the place of each arch was 
 occupied by a Perpendicular window of the 
 plainest description. The walls were raised, a 
 flat roof was substituted for the high-pitched 
 roof of the original structure, large Perpendicular 
 windows were inserted in the gables of the chancel 
 and south transept, and lastly, two-thirds of the 
 nave were cut off from the church by a wall, and 
 fitted up partly as a Lodge for the Master, partly 
 as chambers for students, 
 
 " As for the portion set apart for the chapel of 
 the college, the changes were so skilfully effected, 
 and so completely concealed by plaster within and 
 without, that all trace and even knowledge of the 
 old aisles was lost ; but in the course of the 
 preparations for repairs in 1846, the removal of 
 some of the plaster made known the fact that the 
 present two south windows of the chancel were 
 inserted in walls which were themselves merely 
 the filling-up of a pa-r of pier-arches, and that 
 these arches, together with the piers upon which 
 they rested, and the responds whciice they sprang, 
 still existed in the walls. When this key to the 
 secret of the original plan of the church had been 
 supplied, it was resolved to push the inquiry to 
 the uttermost ; all the plaster was stripped oft 
 the inner face of the walls; piers and arches wei'e 
 brought to light again in all directions ; old
 
 270 Cambridge. 
 
 foundations were sought for on the outside of 
 the building, and a complete and systematic 
 examination of the plan and structure of the 
 original church was set on foot, which led to 
 very satisfactory results." ^ 
 
 It would lead us beyond the purpose of these 
 descriptive notes to enter upon a detailed descrip- 
 tion of the church. For this we refer our readers 
 to Professor Willis himself He has shown that 
 it was erected between 1 150 and 1245, so that the 
 style varies from the Norman of the north 
 transept to the Early English of the choir ; and 
 that " during that period the work was carried on at 
 several different times, and with changes of plan, 
 each of which was on a more enlarged scale of 
 dimensions than its predecessor, and showed the 
 increased and increasing wealth of the builders." 
 Those who visit the chapel should specially note 
 the piscina, a lovely example in the Early English 
 style. It was evidently thought to be something 
 out of the common, even in the thirteenth 
 century, for it was copied in the parish church 
 of Histon in Cambridgeshire, and at St. John's 
 Hospital. 
 
 ^ " The Architectural History of the University of 
 Cambridge." By the late Robert Willis, M.A., F.R.S. : 
 edited by John Willis Clark, M.A., 3 vols., 8vo, 1886. Vol. 
 ii. p. 124.
 
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 Jesus College. 273 
 
 In the interval between Bishop Alcock's time 
 and the restoration of which Professor Willis 
 speaks, the chapel had met with the usual 
 treatment. The chancel alone was used for 
 service ; a wall, pierced with a door in the Ionic 
 style, divided it off from the nave ; it had a flat 
 ceiling, and plain woodwork, the whole of Alcock's 
 magnificent stalls having been turned out in 
 short, as the taste of fifty years ago expressed 
 itself, it had " an air of great elegance and 
 beauty." The work begun in 1846 was a real 
 restoration ; for the destroyed portions were re- 
 placed, so far as funds, and the needful arrange- 
 ments of the college, would allow. It was 
 impossible to open out the nave, or to rebuild its 
 aisles ; but the north aisle of the choir was rebuilt 
 on the old foundations, with an organ-chamber 
 beyond ; and the eastern triplet was re-constructed 
 from fragments found in the east wall which 
 Alcock had rebuilt. This triplet is shown in our 
 view of the chapel. In a subsequent alteration 
 of the Master's Lodge, fragments k^{ a west door 
 the existence of which Professor Willis had 
 always suspected were discovered, but this feature 
 could not be preserved. It indicates that part of 
 the church must have been separated off by screens 
 for public use. Probably this portion was called 
 the Church of St. Rhadegund, and gave origin to 
 
 19
 
 274 Cambriage. 
 
 the belief that a separate parish church of that 
 name once existed. 
 
 A cloister was an essential part of all monas- 
 teries. We commonly conceive the monastic 
 life as a private life. It would be nearer the 
 truth to call it a public life. In monasteries 
 the inmates dined together in the Refectory, 
 slept together in the dormitory, worshipped 
 together in the church, and lived together in 
 the cloister. There they kept their books, either 
 in small cupboards cut out of the thickness of 
 the wall, or in wooden presses ; and retired 
 thither for study after dinner, each sitting in 
 his " carrell," as it was called. In the cloister, 
 too, the novices were taught, and certain cere- 
 monies performed on stated days. There also 
 recreation was permitted, and exercise was taken. 
 In colleges a cloister was not required, except 
 for exercise in wet weather ; and therefore 
 only appears occasionally, as a separate court 
 subsidiary to the main quadrangle, round which 
 were grouped the buildings primarily required 
 for the collegiate life. Jesus College, however, 
 proves its monastic origin by being the only 
 college in either University in which the principal 
 quadrangle is cloistered. This cloister now rests 
 on open arches, but originally it had in their 
 place windows of three lights, glazed, as shown
 
 Gate of Kntraihc to Jesus Collii;c 
 
 from a drawing iy A, I: I'liini',
 
 Jesus College. 277 
 
 in Loggan's print. The alteration was made in 
 the middle of the last century, to admit more light 
 and air. Bishop Alcock grouped the usual build- 
 ings required for a college round the cloister of 
 the nuns, which he increased by the breadth of the 
 north aisle of the church, which he pulled down. 
 He placed the Hall on the north side, the Library 
 on the west side, and the pantry, larder, kitchen, 
 &c., in the angle between these two buildings. 
 The Master's Lodge is now partly at the south 
 end of the west range, partly in the altered nave 
 of the chapel, partly in the short range which 
 connects the principal quadrangle with the gate 
 of entrance. This beautiful structure, of red brick 
 with stone quoins, is ascribed to Bishop Alcock on 
 internal evidence only. Originally it rose above 
 the buildings to the right and left of it like a 
 tower ; but, since aJditional floors have been 
 added to them, its proportions appear somewhat 
 dwarfed. Professor Willis' description of its 
 distinctive features is worth quotation : 
 
 " Tlic picturesque red-brick gateway-tower of Jesus 
 College (1497), although destitute ot angle-turrets, is yet 
 distinguished from the ground upwards by a slight relief, by 
 stone quoins, and by having its string-courses designedly 
 placed at different levels from those of the chambers on each 
 side of it. The general disposition of the ornamentation ot 
 its arch and of the wall above it furnished the model for the 
 more elaborate gate-houses at Christ's College and St. John's
 
 278 Cambridge. 
 
 College. The ogee hood-mold rises upwards, and the stem 
 of its finial terminates under the base of a handsome 
 tabernacle which occupies the centre of the upper stage, 
 with a window on each side of it. Each of the spandrel 
 spaces contains a shield, and a larger shield is to be found in 
 the triangular field between the hood-mold and the arch." 
 
 This gate gives access to an outer court, like 
 the curia of a monastery. On the west side 
 it is open, but has ranges of buildings on the 
 three others : on the north side a range built 
 in 1638 -41, but ingeniously designed so as to 
 harmonise exceedingly well with the earlier 
 buildings ; on the south side the range containing 
 the gate of entrance ; and on the east side the 
 kitchen, library, &c., of the principal quadrangle. 
 
 Of late years the great increase in the number 
 of students at Jesus College has rendered neces- 
 sary a corresponding increase of accommodation. 
 There are now four courts, in lieu of the two 
 which formerly sufficed for the inmates. A 
 "New Court" has been formed beyond the 
 " Outer Court," by building a range of chambers 
 nearly parallel to the range completed in 1641. 
 Some modern offices, and a range of chambers 
 built in 1822, form the east side of this court, 
 which, like its neighbour, is open to the west. 
 Subsequently an extensive range of buildings 
 was erected eastward of the chapel, so as to make
 
 
 ^' 
 
 7f^ 
 
 
 1^ ^^i? 

 
 Jesus College. 281 
 
 the latter building a more prominent feature of 
 the college than it had been heretofore. When 
 we add that besides these structures two houses 
 for married tutors have been built, and are 
 occupied, we shall have completed our enumera- 
 tion of the changes by which Jesus College 
 has been made to harmonise with modern ideas.
 
 XII. 
 
 Social Life at Cambridge. " 'Tis Sixty Years 
 bince. 
 
 IN our previous articles we have given a series 
 of historical notices concerning the most 
 important colleges. These have related chiefly 
 to the buildings, though from time to time we 
 have had occasion to mention the social life and 
 studies of the place. We now propose to say some- 
 thing more about this department of University 
 History ; for just as the records of a nation are 
 incomplete when they treat only of public affairs, 
 so any account of Cambridge would be imperfect 
 if the writer did not try to describe, some at 
 least of the changes that have taken place, from 
 time to time, in the habits, the tastes, and the 
 pursuits of the academic body. The Universities 
 must always reflect the tastes and opinions of the 
 country, and therefore we find that these changes 
 have been more rapid and more thorough during 
 the last half century than during any previous
 
 Social Life. 283 
 
 period. On this account we shall not attempt to 
 go back to any very distant date in our researches, 
 though occasionally it will be necessary to mention 
 the habits of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
 turies by way of illustration. It will be sufficient 
 for our purpose to sketch that Cambridge which 
 came to an end with the introduction of railroads, 
 gas, and other innovations peculiar to this century ; 
 and, in order roughly to indicate the period from 
 which we start, we have ventured to borrow a title 
 from the author of " Waverley." 
 
 To begin with, it must be borne in mind that 
 the town of Cambridge was very different then 
 from what it is now ; indeed, with the exception 
 of the destruction of the great religious houses, 
 it had not been much altered during the four 
 centuries since the period at which we attempted 
 to sketch its aspect in our first chapter. The 
 country round about it was quite unenclosed, and 
 to the south and south-cast a man on horseback 
 might gallop for miles, uninterrupted by a single 
 fence. The ground where the now populous 
 " New Town " stands was then a swamp, where 
 sportsmen were sure of snipe, and the road that 
 now leads to the railway-station was an elevated 
 causeway, with this marshy ground to the right of 
 it. The velvety turf of Gogmagog Hills had not 
 then been ploughed up, and a bustard was still
 
 284 Cambridge. 
 
 occasionally to be seen there. The streets could 
 hardly have been worse paved than they are at 
 present, but some of them were much narrower. 
 A row of ancient houses stood where the lawn in 
 front of King's College now is, at a distance varying 
 from ten to twenty feet in advance of the present 
 iron fence. Trumpington Street, in this part 
 of its course, was nowhere more than twenty-five 
 feet w^ide, and as the upper stories of the houses 
 projected beyond those beneath them, it used to 
 be maintained, graphically rather than delicately, 
 that a man could spit across it. The only light 
 used at night in the streets was oil. Only one 
 post came in, and one went out in the twenty-four 
 hours. There were no public conveyances. If a 
 gentleman did not keep his own carriage, he must 
 walk. Ladies went out at night in sedan chairs. 
 At the end of the previous century there had been 
 only one umbrella, according to Professor Pryme ; 
 and this was kept at a shop in Bene't Street, and 
 let out by the hour. Passenger traffic was by 
 coaches, which were numerous and well appointed, 
 but slow ; goods traffic by waggons, or by barges 
 on the Cam, which was still, as in the Middle 
 Ages, an important highway, along which all the 
 fuel coals, sedge, and turf as well as a consider- 
 able quantity of provisions, was brought to the 
 town. A long frost, therefore, meant death by
 
 Social Life. 285 
 
 cold, aggravated by hunger ; and instances are 
 on record of the burnnig of every article of 
 furniture that could be dispensed with. The 
 shops were exceedingly primitive. Most of them 
 were open, like stalls, and closed at night with a 
 single wide shutter that let down, and was used 
 to display the goods on during the day. The 
 principal purchases of stores of all kinds were 
 made at the two great annual fairs, Midsummer 
 Fair and Sturbridge Fair, The latter was by far 
 the more important of the two, and until the 
 introduction of railways must have been the chief 
 event of the year, not only in Cambridge, but 
 on the whole eastern side of England. The 
 temporary buildings required for it were com- 
 menced, by custom, on the 24th of August in 
 each year, and the fair itself was solemnly 
 proclaimed by the University on the 17th of 
 September. The Vice-Chancellor, attended by 
 the Bedells, Registrary, Proctors, and other 
 officers, proceeded to the Senate House at eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon, where the Senior Proctor 
 provided mulled wine, sherry, and cakes. These 
 delicacies disposed of, the company proceeded in 
 carriages to the fair, where the formal proclamation 
 was read bv the Registrary in three difi-'erent 
 places. The company then alighted at one of the 
 permanent structures, called '* The Tiled Booth,"
 
 2 86 Cambriage. 
 
 where they elbowed their way through a crowd of 
 the ordinary customers of the house to an upstairs 
 room, called " The University Dining Room." 
 There they partook of oysters, ale, and porter. 
 Thus fortified they walked in one of the streets of 
 the Fair, called " Garlick Fair Row," until it was 
 time to return to " The Tiled Booth " for dinner. 
 The University was very unpopular at the Fair, 
 and it seems to have been usual to hustle the 
 magnates, and to make their progress to their 
 dinner as difficult as possible. Mr. Gunning, 
 Esquire Bedell from 1789 to 1854, describes this 
 curious entertainment, which was not abolished 
 until 1842, while the proclamation by the Univer- 
 sity survived until the Award Act of 1856 : 
 
 " The scene which presented itself on entering the dining- 
 room I can describe most accurately, for the dishes and their 
 arrangement never varied. Before the Vice-Chancellor was 
 placed a large dish of herrings ; then followed in order a neck 
 of pork roasted, an enormous plum-pudding, a leg of pork 
 boiled, a pease-pudding, a goose, a huge apple-pie, and a 
 round of beef in the centre. On the other half of the 
 table the same dishes were placed in similar order, the 
 herrings before the Senior Proctor, who sat at the bottom. 
 From thirty to forty persons dined there ; and although the 
 wine was execrable, a number of toasts were given, and 
 mirth and good humour prevailed to such an extent as is 
 seldom to be met with at more modern and more refined 
 entertainments. At about half-past six the dinner-party 
 broke up, and, with scarcely an exception, adjourned to the 
 theatre,"
 
 Social Life. 287 
 
 In the palmy days of the Fair the space occu- 
 pied by it was about half a mile square, divided 
 into streets, which were distinguished by separate 
 names, such as " Booksellers' Row," " Cooks' 
 Row," " Cheapside," The Duddery," '' Garlick 
 Fair Row," &c. In each of these some special 
 trade was represented, as in Leipsic Fair at the 
 present day. The amount of business done was 
 enormous. In " The Duddery," where woollen 
 stuffs were sold, _^ 100,000 worth of goods is 
 reported to have been sold in less than a week, 
 besides the quantity ordered by London traders, 
 while elsewhere wool to the value of ^^50,000 or 
 ^"60, coo was disposed of, and hops to an equal 
 amount. The Horse Fair, held on September 
 14th, was always the most crowded day ; but the 
 numbers that assembled during the whole three 
 weeks that the Fair lasted were very great. Not- 
 withstanding the vast concourse of people, the 
 Fair is described to have been like " a well- 
 governed city," where order was carefully and 
 successfully preserved. There was a Court of 
 Justice, of the kind called " Pie Powder Court " 
 elsewhere, where the Mayor of Cambridge, or his 
 deputy, sat daily. On Sundays Divine service was 
 held in the principal open space, and a sermon 
 preached from a pulpit placed in the open air, by 
 the minister of Barnwell parish, or by some one
 
 2 88 Cambridge. 
 
 appointed by him. In addition to serious business 
 there was, of course, plenty of amusement. It 
 was a time of licensed frolic, into which all classes 
 entered with equal zest and gaiety. The dramatic 
 entertainments were managed by the company of 
 the Norwich Theatre, one of the best provincial 
 houses, and were well attended ; while the wives 
 of county magnates, of University dignitaries, 
 and even of Heads of Houses, danced at the ball 
 which was given on some particular evening in one 
 of the booths. In the case of Midsummer Fair, 
 when the days were longer, ladies used to get up 
 tea-parties with the view of walking in the Fair 
 afterwards. 
 
 The popularity of the theatre at the Fair was 
 evidently very great in the last century, especially 
 with members of the University. When Mr. 
 Gunning was a candidate for the office of Esquire 
 Bedell, in September, 1789, he mentions that 
 after a morning spent in canvassing, he never 
 failed to go to the theatre in the evening, feeling 
 sure that if an elector had arrived at Cambridge 
 in the course of the day, he should meet him 
 there. In 1808, when Professor Sedgwick was 
 reading with pupils at Ditton, a village on the 
 Cam, not tar below Barnwell, his chief amusements 
 seem to have been the theatre ; and his letters tell 
 us that he constantly met his friends there. In
 
 Social Life. 289 
 
 later times, when a permanent building had re- 
 placed the temporary structure at the Fair, it 
 maintained its popularity until railways enabled 
 everybody to get to London. Most of the cele- 
 brated actors of the present century have acted on 
 that miniature stage ; and the last three weeks of 
 the Long Vacation were looked forward to with 
 eagerness by the play-loving portion of the com- 
 munity. So late as 1834, Mrs. Frere, wife of the 
 Master of Downing, bespoke the performance, and 
 one of her party has recorded in his diary that 
 the pieces selected were well acted. Thirty years 
 ago, when I was an undergraduate, the theatre 
 used to open as usual, but the audience was, to say 
 the least of it, thin. Some of us went regularly, 
 but the pieces performed usually belonged to what 
 is so oddly called the legitimate drama, and I am 
 afraid that we received " Ingomar," " Pizarro," 
 " Hamlet," and " The Stranger," with derisive 
 merriment. 
 
 In early times undergraduates lived three and 
 f )ur together in a room ; and even I^'ellows could 
 not always have a room to themselves. The 
 arrangements for this svstem differed in tlifterent 
 colleges, and it would be beside our pri. sent pur- 
 pose to go into the matter n:inutely. A certain 
 aniount of privacy was ensured by the contrivance 
 of small studies {mus.ra), separated off by a lath- 
 
 20
 
 290 Cambridge. 
 
 and-plaster partition from the rest of the room. 
 The beds were in the undivided portion, and the 
 inmates retired into these closets for work. As 
 colleges increased their buildings, the system was 
 gradually given up, but it was still in fashion at 
 St. John's so late as 171 1, as is seen by the 
 following letter, which puts the advantages and 
 disadvantages of it very forcibly. The writer is 
 the father of Ambrose Bonwicke, who had entered 
 there as pensioner in the autumn of the previous 
 year, Ambrose had written to say that he had 
 arranged for his brother Philip to share his room 
 with him, and wished for leave to introduce a 
 friend also : 
 
 "I thank you and your tutor for the promise of the 
 chamber for Phil, and think there may be some conveniencies 
 in admitting a third, but there may also be some incon- 
 veniencies which I shall lay before you. By the grace of 
 God this lad may continue very good, and your society may 
 contribute towards itj but should it be otherwise, you will 
 not know how to get clear of him again. Besides if he be 
 not exactly of your principles, tho' he be otherwise very 
 good, 'twill be very inconvenient ; and you cannot at all 
 times converse so freely with your brother, as 'twill be 
 necessary you should. I had hopes that your brother might 
 share with you in Mr. R^yper''s favour, and fear this third 
 chum may be an obstacle to that. Another thing is, if Phil. 
 should have the small-pox, there will be no room, for you to 
 set up a bed for that time ; and you know I do not care you 
 should lye with any other but your brother. If this lad has 
 never had that distemper, he may unhappily bring the infec-
 
 Social Life. 291 
 
 tion into your chamber. Besides, I should not like him for 
 a chum for you, if liis dialect be ungenteel, for fear that 
 infection should reach you, as well as your brother. Yet 
 after all, I have a great concern for so hopeful a lad as vou 
 describe him, and wish vou might enjoy each other's society 
 in the daytime, tho' you sleep not together ; neither am 1 
 against that, it you can make me easy as to the foregoing 
 particulars." 
 
 By the end of the century, however, the present 
 plan of living in lodgings in the town had been 
 accepted, though not without many misgivings 
 and attempts to stop it, or to limit it ; attempts 
 which have been rene^^'ed in our own time. 
 Let us hope that the system, which is not a good 
 one, may one day be superseded. In the davs 
 when rooms were shared, the furniture was ex- 
 ceedingly simple. There was " a standing bed- 
 stead " for the Fellow, supposing one of the 
 occupants to be a Master of Arts ; a " trundle- 
 bed " for the undergraduate, which during the 
 davtime was pushed under the " standing-bed" of 
 his superior ; a " leaden laver with a troughe or 
 spoute to wasshe with;" a table, with forms or 
 stools, not chairs ; and a few shelves for their 
 books and clothes. In many cases the walls were 
 bare, the floors were of mud, and the roofs open 
 to the rafters. Subsequently they vvere made more 
 comfortable, and during the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries wainscot was generally introduced,
 
 292 Cambridge. 
 
 and occasionally hangings of " green say." These 
 luxurious additions to primitive simplicity were 
 not, however, universal, and probably marked the 
 presence of a wealthy or luxurious occupant. 
 The poet Gray is said to have been " the first, 
 and for a long while the only person in the 
 University who made his rooms look pretty. He 
 took care that his windows should be always full 
 of mignonette or some other sweetly-scented 
 plant, and he was famous for a pair of huge 
 Japanese vases, in blue and white china." Up to 
 ten or fifteen years ago simplicity was the rule and 
 not the exception ; and even the fathers of the 
 present generation would never have dreamt of 
 decking out their apartments with the china and 
 other knick - knacks which " culture " now 
 demands. 
 
 Dress, independently of cap and gown, was 
 formerly watched by the authorities with jealous 
 care, and deviations from established custom 
 summarily checked. At the beginning of the 
 century, *' shorts of any colour, and white 
 stockings, were the only regular academical 
 dress," gaiters being forbidden. In 18 12 an 
 order was made by the Seniors of Trinity and 
 St. John's that students who appeared in hall or 
 chapel in pantaloons or trousers should be con- 
 sidered as absent. So late as 18 15, Dr. Mansel at
 
 -'^'^'^fy 
 
 &^ 
 
 

 
 Social Life 295 
 
 Trinity threatened to put an undergraduate " out 
 of commons " that is, to deprive him of the 
 means of obtaining food from the college, for 
 appearing in hill in trousers instead of breeches 
 and gaiters. Shoes were worn on the feet ; boots 
 being especially forbidden. The change to 
 trousers took place between 1820 and 1830. 
 The older members of the University resisted the 
 innovation, and Dr. Proctor, Master of St. 
 Catharine's, who did not die till 1844, vvore knee- 
 breeches, when in full dress, to the last ; and Dr. 
 Chapman, Master of Caius, who died in 1852, 
 always rode in breeches and top-boots. When 
 the writer was an undergraduate, the Dean at 
 Trinity constantly reproved those who wore their 
 gowns over a light-coloured coat ; and occasionally 
 such unruly persons were sent out of hall to change 
 the offending garment for one of a sober grey or 
 black. Professor Pryme gives the following inte- 
 resting account of the customs of his undergraduate 
 time (1799-1803) in these matters : 
 
 "It was usual for the undergraduates, or at least the more 
 particular ones, to dress daily tor the dinner in hall in white 
 waistcoats and white silk stockings, and there were persons 
 who washed them tor us, as things too special for a common 
 laundress. There were two or three unilergrailuates who 
 wore powder. The rest ot us wore our hair curled. It was 
 thought very rustic and unfashionable not to have it so. 
 Wigs were still worn by the Dons and Heads, with two or
 
 296 Camhriage, 
 
 three exceptions. Cory, the Master of Emmanuel, was, I have 
 heard, the first to leave his off, complaining of headache. 
 Dr. Barnes, of Peterhouse, preserved his to the last. In Mr. 
 Daniel Sykes's time, which was twenty years before mine, 
 ihe Senior Fellows of Trinity wore wigs, and he was, as he 
 told me long afterwards, concerned in a practical joke con- 
 cerning them. There was a barber's shop just within the 
 gate of Trinity, near Bishop's Hostel, where the Fellows 
 were powdered and the wigs dressed. It existed even in 
 my time. Sykes and some others bribed the barber one 
 Saturday night, when he had the Sunday wigs to dress, to 
 give them up ; and getting out upon the library parapet 
 placed them on the heads of the four statues which face the 
 hall. The next day the Seniors missing their best wigs were 
 in a state of great excitement, and obliged to go to dinner in 
 their old ones. Coming out of Hall into Neville's Court,' 
 and looking up, they saw them on the statues. The per- 
 petrators were never found out." 
 
 So la^e as the summer of 1832, Professor 
 Pryme himself appeared at a dinner-party in his 
 own house in nankeen breeches, tied at the 
 knees with bunches of coloured ribbons, a bkie 
 coat with brass buttons, and a buff waistcoat. 
 
 College barbers have not been long extinct. 
 The last was Robert Bendall of Peterhouse, who 
 died in 1879. -^^ ^^^*^ ^^ come round the 
 college in the morning, wake the men for chapel, 
 and shave them the lazy ones in bed. Dr. 
 Woodham of Jesus, who did not take his 
 Master of Arts degree till 1842, has been heard 
 to say that he has seen a hairdresser curl the
 
 Social Life. 297 
 
 Fellows' hair in the Combination Room before 
 they went to the Bachelors Ball. In the old 
 statutes of Trinity the barber was on the founda- 
 tion, like the cook. Most colleges had a barber's 
 shop. At King's, each Fellow paid for his own 
 shaving, but that of the Provost was defrayed by 
 the college. Until the popularity of the Volunteer 
 movement cast a military air over civilian manners, 
 the cultivation of beards and moustaches was 
 not allowed by the authorities. Dr. Whewell 
 set his face steadily against the practice ; and so 
 late as 1B57 a scholar of Trinity, who was 
 afterwards elected to a fellowship, having returned 
 at the beginning of the October term with these 
 two ornaments on his countenance, was requested 
 by the Dean to remove them. He was a good- 
 looking fellow, and deeply deplored the loss of 
 so important an addition to his personal attrac- 
 tions. His regrets found vent in song, and he 
 published a new " Rape of the Lock," with 
 which the Dean was so much amused, that 
 he requested a copy, and a version in Latin 
 elegiacs. A few of the lines are worth quo- 
 tation : 
 
 " Farewell ! too little and too lately worn I 
 
 Let the rude breezes hear ye where they list: 
 For this defied I the chill dews of morn ? 
 In rain or sunshine ne'er a chapel inissc;d ?
 
 298 Cambridge. 
 
 Dean ! is thy seat so lofty that its snows 
 
 Have sunk into thy heart and settled there ? 
 
 Can my beard mar the heaven of thy repose ? 
 So great a man, and such a little hair ! " 
 
 The hours at which meals have been taken 
 at different periods have been curiously altered. 
 To begin with dinner. In 1550, dinner in hall 
 was at ten o'clock and supper at five. This 
 was in accordance with the general practice of 
 the country, where, as Holinshed says, " The 
 nobilitie, gentrie, and students do ordinarilie go 
 to dinner at eleven before noon, and to supper 
 at five, or between five and six, at afternoone. 
 The merchants dine and sup seldome before 
 twelve at noon and six at night, especiallie in 
 London." In the seventeenth century the hours 
 had moved on to eleven and six, except during 
 Sturbridge Fair, when supper was served at nine ; 
 and in the next century we find Oxford students 
 dining at twelve, to the great distress of a Con- 
 servative of that day, who notes in his diary, 
 " When laudable old customs alter 'tis a sign 
 learning dwindles." However, at Cambridge the 
 hour of twelve was maintained till near the end 
 of the century in all the colleges, and the students 
 afterwards attended regularly at the disputations 
 in the schools, which began at two. About 1785 
 the hour had been changed to one o'clock, and in
 
 Social Life. 299 
 
 some colleges to two o'clock in vacatioii. Next 
 the hour became three o'clock, upon which altera- 
 tion Dr. Watson, then Regius Professor of 
 Divinity, writing in 18 18, thus laments himself: 
 
 " An evil custom has, within these few years, been intro- 
 duced into the University, which will in its consequences 
 destroy our superiority over Oxford, and leave our scholastic 
 exercises in as miserable a state as theirs have long been. It 
 is the custom of dining late. When I was admitted 
 [November, 1754], and for many years after, every college 
 dined at twelve o'clock, and the students after dinner flocked 
 to the philosophical disputations which began at two. If the 
 schools either of philosophy or divinity should ever be 
 generally destitute of an audience, there will be an end of 
 all scholastic exertions. I remember having seen the divinity 
 schools (when the best act by Coulthurst and Milner, 
 Arcades ambo was keeping that I ever presided at, and 
 which might justly be called a real academic entertainment), 
 filled with auditors from the top to the bottom ; but as soon 
 as the clock struck tlirce, a number of Masters of Arts 
 belonging to colleges which dined at three slunk away from 
 this intellectual feast; and they were followed, as might have 
 been expected, by many undergraduates. I say, 'as might 
 have been expected,' for in all seminaries of education 
 relaxaticjn of discipline begins with the seniors of the 
 society.' 
 
 It is always amusing to get the same event 
 described from two different points of view, and 
 therefore we will digress for a moment to quote 
 Gunning's description of this act, at which he was 
 present :
 
 joo Cambridge. 
 
 " The first opponent was Mr. Coiilthurst, of Sidney 
 (afterwards Vicar of Halifax) ; he and the Respondent had 
 been repeatedly Moderators and Examiners, and in the dis- 
 charge of the duties of those offices had displayed consider- 
 able talent and attainments. In other respects no two men 
 could be more dissimilar. Milner was a man of immense 
 size, with a stentOi'ian voice; Coulthurst was remarkably 
 small, with an extremely' low but distinct voice. Milner 
 began his answer before the other had propounded his 
 argument, and Coulthurst continued his argument after it 
 had been answered. In point of fact, they both spoke at 
 the same time, and neither paid the least attention to what 
 the other said. The Professor two or three times made an 
 ineffectual attempt to enforce the acknowledged laws of 
 disputation, but they took no notice of his remarks, although 
 uttered in his usual solemn and dignified manner. He con- 
 sequently resumed his seat in despair, uttering only the two 
 words, ' Arcades atnbo,' and they were allowed to finish the 
 disputation in their own way." 
 
 On another occasion Dr. Watson drew public 
 attention, in a very amusing manner, to the real 
 reason of gentlemen leaving the schools in such 
 haste ; namely, in order to reach their college hall 
 in time to save the fine a bottle of wine that 
 was then the invariable penalty for appearing five 
 minutes after the bell had ceased ringing. The 
 Vice-Chancellor's weekly dinner-parties were at 
 that time given on Sundays, at half-past one, and 
 his whole company went with him to St. Mary's, 
 where the sermon then began at three. Early in 
 the present century the dinner-hour advanced to
 
 Social Life. 301 
 
 four o'clock, at which it remained until a few 
 years ago. 
 
 When dinner was early there was supper in the 
 hall first at six or seven, and afterwards at a 
 quarter before nine. The meal, however, was not 
 a favourite one, as undergraduates preferred to 
 sup in their own rooms, as more sociable. They 
 used to form themselves into parties, and each 
 man ordered the dish he fancied to be carried to 
 the room in which the entertainment was to take 
 place. The host supplied bread, butter, cheese, 
 and beer, with a *' beaker " or large teapot full of 
 punch, which v/as kept on the hob. Wine was 
 not allowed. As these parties used to take place 
 at about eight o'clock, they could not have been 
 very different from a plain dinner at the present 
 dav. 
 
 The dinner at three or four o'clock was a great 
 inducement, especially among the l^'ellows, and in 
 winter, to cultivate the habits of deep drinking 
 that were, unfortunately, so common at the begin- 
 ning of the century. At the meal itself little or 
 no wine was taken, but at its close the company 
 retired to the Combination Room, where they not 
 unfrequently sat till supper-time, after which meal 
 those who were sober enough had " beakers " in 
 their own rooms ; and so to bed, as Mr. Pepys 
 would have said. The twelve davs of Christmas
 
 302 Caynbridge. 
 
 were, of course, kept in a specially exuberant 
 fashion ; songs, toasts, and sentiments, were given 
 in Combination Rooms, and I have heard Professor 
 Sedgv^ick relate how fortunate the Fellows of 
 Trinity once thought themselves in securing the 
 society of an Irish captain during that season, 
 whose comic humour and vocal powers were of no 
 ordinary kind. The practice of giving toasts was 
 always observed on feast-days in Combination 
 Rooms, and extended to private wine-parties, with 
 the same observances that Sheridan has introduced 
 into the supper scene in " The School for Scandal." 
 " The host," says Professor Pryme in his " Remi- 
 niscences," " named a Vice-President, and toasts 
 were given. First, a lady by each of the party, 
 then a gentleman, and then a sentiment. I re- 
 member one of those latter ' The single married, 
 and the married happy.' Some of them were puns, 
 and some not very decorous. Every one was 
 required to fill a bumper to the toasts of the 
 President, the Vice-President, and his own." How 
 formal this system must have been, and how 
 destructive of all rational conversation ! At the 
 parties of some of the " fastest " men, it was not 
 unusual to break the feet off the glasses in order 
 that bumpers might be drunk to all the toasts ; 
 and so long as a single bottle of wine remained in 
 the host's cellar his friends continued to drink, no
 
 Social Life. 303 
 
 matter how late the hour might be. Early in the 
 present century, hov/ever, a resolute effort was 
 made by a f^w popular men to stop all attempts to 
 force the unwilling to drink, to be temperate them- 
 selves, to separate at chapel time, and not to return 
 afterwards. These rules were soon accepted gene- 
 rally, and uproarious wine-parties ceased. When 
 the writer was an undergraduate it was the custom 
 to give one in each term, to which a man asked his 
 entire acquaintance, quite without reference to the 
 capacity of his rooms to contain them. Those who 
 came early got seats those who did not remained 
 standing and after a decent interval went away. 
 Sometimes if the host "kept" in lodgings he 
 engaged a band of music. Itinerant musicians 
 used to walk the streets, and when they saw that 
 a wine-party was going on anywhere, sent upstairs 
 to offer their services. The whole affair was very 
 harmless, but very dull. The custom has died a 
 natural death of late years, since a later hour for 
 the hall-dinner has been accepted in most colleges. 
 A journey was not a thing to lie lightly under- 
 taken sixty years since, and therefore a great many 
 of the Fellows, especially those whose homes were 
 in distant parts of England, resided in Cambridge 
 all the year round. Eor the same reason visits from 
 strangers were rare events. General society, too, 
 could scarcely be said to exist at CambridG;e during
 
 304 Cambridge. 
 
 the first quarter of the century. Hence the same 
 persons were in the habit of meeting, day after 
 day ; and, as a natural consequence, treated each 
 other with a rough-and ready familiarity. Plainness 
 of speech, to an extent that would now-a-days shock 
 ears polite, characterised ordinary conversation ; 
 and humorous stories were " Elizabethan " in their 
 phraseology. Personalities, such as would not now 
 be tolerated anywhere, were freely indulged in ; 
 and " satires or lampoons on particular people," 
 like Sir Benjamin Backbite's " little productions," 
 circulated in the same manner, *' by giving copies 
 in confidence to the friends of the parties." One 
 of the principal authors in this style was Lord 
 Mansel. Many of his epigrams, though he was 
 Master of Trinity, and Bishop of Bristol, need the 
 decent obscurity of a learned language; but one or 
 two may be quoted. The following was on the 
 marriage of the Master of Corpus Christi College 
 (then called Bene't College), a very thin man, with 
 an equally thin lady : 
 
 " Saint Paul has declared, that persons though twain 
 In marriage united one flesh shall remain ; 
 But had he been by when, like Pharaoh's kine pairing, 
 Dr. Douglas of Benet espoused Miss Mainwaring, 
 The Apostle, methinks, would have altered his tone, 
 And cried, These two splinters shall make but one bone ! " 
 
 The following satirised the conduct of Hinch-
 
 Social Life. 305 
 
 cliffe, Master of Trinity and Bishop of Peter- 
 borough, who put a wretchedly bad singer into 
 the college choir because he had a vote for Peter- 
 borough : 
 
 "A singing-man and yet not sing ! 
 
 How justify your patron's bounty ? 
 Forgive mc ; you mistake the thing : 
 My voice is in another countv ! " 
 
 Manse), after he became Master of Trinity, 
 was a grand personage, full of his own importance, 
 and disdainful to those whom he regarded as his 
 inferiors. It is to him that Byron refers in his 
 "Thoughts suggested by a College Examination": 
 
 " High in the midst, surrounded by his peers, 
 Magnus his ample front sublime uprcars ; 
 Placed on his chair of state, he seems a god, 
 While Sophs and Freshmen tremble at iiis nod." 
 
 The following story affords a good illustration 
 of his character. Sir Busick Harvvood, Professor 
 of Anatomy, between whom and Mansel there 
 had been a teud of long standing, gave a breakfast 
 in the garden of his house, near Kmmaiiucl 
 College. Being anxious to show every coii- 
 sideration to the great man, he placed a young 
 nobleman, who was at the time an undergraduate 
 of Trinity, at the same table, unconscious or 
 oblivious of the fact, that it was sacrilege to bring 
 
 21
 
 3o6 Cambridge. 
 
 a human being so low in the social scale of the 
 University " between the wind and his nobility." 
 Before breakfast was half over, Mansel got up 
 suddenly, ordered his carriage, and took his leave. 
 Next morning Lady Harwood entreated her 
 husband to go to Trinity Lodge and inquire 
 whether he was ill, or whether they had un- 
 consciously offended him in any way. Sir 
 Busick, most unwillingly, acceded to her urgent 
 solicitations. He found Mansel in his study, 
 looking, like Mr. Nupkins, " gloomily grand, and 
 savagely vexed." " I have come, my Lord, on 
 the part of myself and Lady Harwood, to in- 
 quire " began the Professor. Before he could 
 
 finish his sentence Mansel thundered out, " Sir 
 Busick, I am a peer of the realm, God knows how 
 
 unworthy " " God knows, and so do I," said 
 
 the other, and vanished. 
 
 Li the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
 Tutor and Pupil stood in a close and even 
 affectionate relation to each other. We have 
 seen that occasionally they occupied the same 
 chamber ; and it must further be remembered 
 that the number of students proceeding to 
 degrees was infinitely smaller than at present, 
 so that a tutor could not only educate all 
 his pupils, but understand their characters by 
 personal intercourse. Sir Symonds d'Ewes, who
 
 Social Life. 307 
 
 was admitted at St. John's in 161 8, speaks 
 frequently in his diary of Mr. Richard Holds- 
 worth, whom he styles " my loving tutor," and 
 records his gratitude for his kindness in taking 
 walks with him and treating him as an equal. 
 By degrees those relations were done away with. 
 Various reasons, such, for instance, as the follow- 
 ing, have been assigned for the change. Older 
 men ceased to share rooms with undergraduates ; 
 increase in numbers made intercourse ceremonious 
 and insincere ; political differences brought about 
 suspicion and estrangement. Whatever may 
 have been the cause, the broad fact remains 
 that little by little a spirit of donnishness crept 
 into the University, and soon reigned supreme 
 there. For a century or more the older and 
 the younger men saw very little of each other. 
 A fellow-commoner now and then sought the 
 society of the Fellows whom he met at the 
 high table ; but more frequently he regretted 
 his isolation from the men of his own age and 
 standing, and made his escape as soon as dinner 
 was over. This change of feeling was another 
 instance of the way in which the Universities 
 reflect the tone of the country. In the last 
 century a man addressed his father as "Sir,"' 
 and, so far as we can judge from contemporary 
 literature, regarded him with fear, and not un-
 
 3o8 Cambridge. 
 
 frequently with dislike. In the first half of 
 the present century the new hterary tastes and 
 new political opinions that became prevalent 
 among young men, notwithstanding the almost 
 proverbial Toryism of young Englishmen, made 
 the breach wider still. A college tutor, popularly 
 supposed to stand towards his pupils in the 
 relation of a father, came to know so little 
 about them, that the following anecdote is not 
 incredible. One of the tutors of a large collece 
 desired his servant to go and invite a pupil, 
 whom he had not seen for some time, to take 
 wine with him after hall. "Mr. So-and-so, sir .^ 
 He died three terms ago." " You ought to tell 
 me when my pupils die," replied the Don. We 
 do not vouch for the literal accuracy of this 
 incident, but it illustrates the estrangement that 
 existed between those who ought to have been 
 teachers and those who should have been taught. 
 It is almost needless to add that unruliness and 
 excess became the rule, rather than the exception ; 
 and sixty years since the morality and the 
 behaviour of the young men at the University 
 was not of the best. The famous or perhaps 
 we should rather say infamous letter of Mr. R. 
 M. Beverley to the Duke of Gloucester (then 
 Chancellor of the University), published in 1833, 
 had, no doubt, a germ of truth beneath the gross
 
 Social Life. 309 
 
 exaggerations and wilful misrepresentations with 
 which it is filled. The pamphlet is now almost 
 forgotten, or remembered only for the manlv 
 and crushing reply that it elicted from Professor 
 Sedgwick a denunciation that Junius himself 
 might not have disdained to sign. At the time 
 of its publication, however, it made a great noise, 
 and the numerous replies to it that were published 
 are a proof that it was not all invention. If a 
 malevolent scribbler were to write such an article 
 in such a style now-a-days, not a soul would 
 think it worth his while to answer a word. 
 
 Many causes have contributed to bring about 
 a better state of things since ; and nothing could 
 be healthier than the feeling that now exists 
 between authorities and undergraduates. As an 
 instance of the resentment that was sometimes 
 excited before this excellent consummation was 
 eflected, we will refer to the amusing squabble 
 about attendance at chapel at Trinity in 1838. 
 At the beginning of the Lent Term in that year, 
 the Master and Seniors had agreed " that all 
 Undergraduates, Scholars, and Foundation Sizars, 
 do attend chapel eight times at least in every 
 week, that is, twice on Sunday atid or.ce on 
 every other dav," on pain of sundry penalties ; 
 and finally, after three formal admonitions from 
 Dean, Tutor, and M;Kster, '*the offender shall,
 
 3IO Cambridge. 
 
 ipso facto, be removed from the College, either 
 entirely, or for one or more Terms." This novel 
 severity v\as met by a singular expedient. A 
 number of men enrolled themselves as " 'The 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Under- 
 graduates -f one or more of their number made 
 a point of attending every chapel, and noted the 
 attendance of the Fellows. The result was 
 published in a weekly paper, which was cir- 
 culated in Cambridge, and even in London, 
 where it found its way into the Clubs and some 
 of the newspapers. The remarks that these 
 impudent youngsters appended to their weekly 
 records are very entertaining. On February 24th, 
 the second week of the existence of the institu- 
 tion, we read : 
 
 " The Society, though gratified to find that their labours 
 have had the effect of producing more regularity on the 
 whole, among the Fellows, will not relax in their endeavours 
 to promote the cause of Religion. Eight Chapels are all that 
 they require to be kept, and should any Fellow, through 
 illness, be unable to attend, on sending a note to the Secretary 
 of the Society, he will be excused." 
 
 On March 3rd it is announced that : 
 
 " A prize for general regularity and good behaviour when 
 in Chapel has been instituted by the Society, who are as 
 anxious to reward merit as they are to punish immorality. 
 But, whilst they thus wish to instil into the minds of the
 
 Social Life. 311 
 
 Fellows those Religious feelings which, owing to a bad 
 education, they may possibly be without, the Society most 
 distinctly declare that they shall not be guided merely by an 
 outward shov/ of religion. It is not, therefore, enough to go 
 merely eight times a week to Chapel, and when there to 
 litter the responses so loud as to attract attention, or otherwise 
 disturb the prayers of Undergraduates. Such conduct will at 
 all times be severely punished. But there will be a general 
 examination of the Fellows at the end of each term, when 
 they will be classed according to their merits." 
 
 On March loth the following note appeared : 
 
 " The Society regret much that during the last week great 
 laxity has prevailed among the Fellows in general with 
 regard to their attendance in Chapel. This is the more to 
 be lamented, as they had been for the two previous weeks so 
 much more regular than usual. This irregularity cannot 
 proceed from ill health, for they have been constantly to 
 Hall, although they are 7iot compelled to go there more than 
 Five times each week. The Society, however, still hope 
 that in the ensuing week they will be able to make a more 
 favourable report both of their attendance in Chapel as also 
 of their good conduct when there. As was before stated, any 
 Fellow who shall, owing to any wine-party, or other suilicient 
 reason, be prevented from attending, will be excused on 
 sending a woic prez'iously to the Secretary of the Society, and 
 his absence will be counted as presence." 
 
 Then they drew up an average of the attcnda'ce 
 of each Fellow for a month, in a tabular form, with 
 the average for each of the four weeks exactly 
 calculated. Of the seventeen Fellows one has zero 
 appended to his name, another "75, and even
 
 312 Cambridge. 
 
 the three tutors do not exceed 6|, 6, and 4. 
 No wonder we find the foot-note, " Why 
 then do they not set us a better example? 
 This observation went to the root of the 
 whole matter. The Fellows did not so 
 much as attempt to understand the Under- 
 graduates. It would not be difficult to find 
 individual instances of friendship and sympathy ; 
 but as a general rule the two bodies were 
 opposing forces who regarded each other with 
 suspicion and dislike. " The place would be 
 agreeable enough to live in, were it not for the 
 Town and the Undergraduates," said a learned 
 Professor. But to return to Trinity, At the 
 end of the sixth week the Masters and Seniors 
 altered their regulations, and announced that 
 they would be content with six chapels in each 
 week instead of eight. The undergraduates on 
 their side announced that the " Chapel Lists " 
 would be discontinued ; and, as a last shot at 
 the now retreating enemy, they published a Class 
 List, in the form used at a college examination, 
 in which the Fellows were divided into four 
 classes, according to their number of attendances. 
 Two names appear in italics below the last 
 class, as not worthy to be classed at all. The 
 first class contained only three names : those 
 of the Senior and Junior Dean, and of Mr.
 
 Social Life. 315 
 
 Perry, afterwards Bishop of Melbourne. The 
 former, being obliged in virtue of their office to 
 attend twice daily, were held to be disqualified 
 for the prize with which it was intended to 
 reward the most regular attendant at chapel. 
 Mr. Perry, therefore, who had attended sixty- 
 six times during the period of examination, 
 received a copy of the Bible, handsomely bound, 
 and the following note was appended to the 
 last publication of the Society : 
 
 "The Prize Medal for regular attendance at chapel, and 
 good conduct when there, has been awarded to Mr. Perry, 
 who has passed an examination highly creditable to ' himself 
 and family.' He was only 18 marks below the highest 
 number which he could possibly have gained. It is, there- 
 fore, to be hoped Mr. P. will be more regular and do still 
 better next term. 
 
 " N.B.- With respect to the two Gentlemen who are not 
 classed, the Secretary need hardly say that he docs not envy 
 them their feelings on the present occasion." 
 
 Our sketches of University life and manners 
 would be incomplete without some reference to 
 the Heads of Colleges. In an earlier chapter we 
 described the position of the I lead before the 
 Reformation when he was in reality, and not 
 merely in name, the supreme director of the body 
 corporate over which he presided. After the 
 Reformation, when permission to marry had been
 
 3 1 6 Cambridge. 
 
 conceded, and the simple Master's chamber of 
 earlier days had been enlarged into a comfortable, 
 not to say luxurious, Lodge, the Master of 
 necessity lived apart from the Fellows of his 
 college. The government of the University was, 
 to a great extent, in the hands of the Heads, who, 
 in the case of numerous offices, had the right of 
 nominating two candidates for election, of whom 
 the Senate chose one ; and, moreover, as assessors 
 to the Vice-Chancellor, they acquired by custom a 
 far wider power than had been conceded to them 
 by statute. Nothing could be imagined better in 
 theory than that the persons who represented 
 individual colleges should form the united govern- 
 ment of the University ; and so long as the Heads 
 associated with the Fellows in daily intercourse 
 the scheme probably worked well. But after they 
 began to live apart, they had fewer opportunities 
 of appreciating the ideas and feelings of even 
 their own colleges ; and as these became larger it 
 became impossible for the Head to perform the 
 multifarious duties that had been imposed upon 
 him in simpler times. Consequently the Heads 
 were constrained, by the necessities of their 
 unfortunate position, to separate themselves from 
 the rest of the University, and to associate only 
 with one another. 
 
 This preface is necessary for the right under-
 
 Social Life. 317 
 
 standing of the condition of Society which we 
 purpose briefly to illustrate. What we are about 
 to say refers, it must be remembered, to a state of 
 things which died a natu"il death with the EHza- 
 bethan statutes. Moreover, the persons to whom 
 our remmiscences allude have all passed away, and 
 their sayings and doings have become the common 
 property of the public. 
 
 Sixty years since society at Cambridge was 
 divided broadly into two classes those who were 
 Heads of Houses and those who were not. The 
 former were the aristocracy ; and no Grand Duke 
 of a minute territory, no cathedral dignitary, no 
 Head Master of a great school -no, not even Dr. 
 Keate himself in his most autocratic days was 
 ever hedged about with a more awful dignity, or 
 exacted a more implicit obedience. " You ought 
 to remember, sir, the immeasurable distance 
 between an undergraduate and the Master of his 
 college," said Dr. Mansel, on a certain occasion, 
 to an unlucky youngster who ventured to address 
 him. For this speech there might have been 
 some justification ; but there was none for the 
 spirit of arrogance and self-assertion that was the 
 peculiar characteristic of those seventeen oligarchs 
 towards even the oldest and ablest of the academic 
 body. From the hour that an individual became 
 Master of his college, he was raised (in his own
 
 3 1 8 Cambridge. 
 
 estimation) into a higher region, whence he looked 
 down with contemptuous pity on the less-favoured 
 many, even though some of them might have been 
 his oldest and most intimate friends. Damon and 
 Pythias might have taken their daily walks to- 
 gether along the Trumpington Road for many years; 
 but should Damon be elected Master, he would 
 next day give Pythias two fingers, and address 
 him formally as Mr. Pythias in conversation or in 
 writing. When a Head of a college gave a dinner- 
 party sixty years since, he invited Heads only. 
 That exceptions to this rule were so rare that they 
 may be neglected in a general statement of the 
 characteristics of the Order. If such an invitation 
 was issued, it was a royal command, and not even 
 the death of an intimate friend was admitted as 
 an excuse. This exclusiveness survived to com- 
 paratively modern times to such an extent that 
 even after a more general intercourse was per- 
 mitted, and Heads had begun to visit Professors, 
 the only son of the host was not allowed to dine 
 at his own father's table because, forsooth, the 
 Master of his college was expected there as a 
 guest ! At the beginning of the present century. 
 Dr. Mansel had condescended to unbend some- 
 what, and to give less solemn entertainments. 
 That august person had six unmarried daughters, 
 and possibly some thoughts of their settlement in
 
 Social Life. 319 
 
 life may have influenced him. Professor Pryme 
 relates that evening parties at Trinity Lodge were 
 not uncommon at which music was given, and 
 sometimes " a dance was improvised, for which 
 the Master would himself turn an organ." That, 
 however, was in 1 809 ; but twenty years later a 
 far greater exclusiveness had become the rule. So 
 complete was the social severance between the 
 Heads and the rest of the University that con- 
 siderable curiosity was felt by each half of the 
 academic world as to the sayings and doings of 
 the other. " What do you talk about in your 
 society ! " said the wife of a Head to the wife of 
 a Professor in 1829, "is it amusing.^" Just 
 about that time, however, a bold innovation was 
 made, which stirred the University to its depths. 
 Mr. Serjeant Frere had just been made Master of 
 Downing, and, being an enlightened person who 
 had passed most of his life in London, saw no 
 reason why the good folks of Cambridge should 
 not amuse themselves according to the fishions 
 of the metropolis. So Mrs. l^rere, who sang 
 divinely, gave musical parties in the Lodge itself, 
 and tableaux vivants also, which were much 
 admired ; and at last (I vow my hand shakes so 
 with horror at the very thought of it that I can 
 hardly make my pen write down the awful 
 profanation) she got up The Rivals and The Critic
 
 320 Cambridge. 
 
 in the College Hall ! One of her first evening 
 parties took place after a solemn symposium given 
 to an assemblage of Heads. They had not been 
 made aware of what was about to happen, and it 
 was remarked afterwards, by the wife of one of 
 them, " Some people came in in the evening of 
 course we went away." 
 
 University society is subject to very frequent 
 changes, as the older members leave and the 
 younger take their places. In the second quarter 
 of the present century it was more than usually 
 brilliant. The long dinners in College Hall had 
 been given up, except on rare occasions of high 
 festival, and the Fellows delighted to go into 
 general society of an evening. There were musical 
 parties, under the auspices of Professor Smyth and 
 Mrs. Frere, dramatic entertainments, sparingly and 
 somewhat grudgingly permitted, and numerous 
 dinner-parties, enlivened by conversation which 
 ranged from the deepest to the lightest themes. 
 Men of the highest literary and scientific distinc- 
 tion such men as Dr. Whewell, Dr. Peacock, 
 Mr. Thirlwall, Dr. Turton, Mr. Hare, Mr. 
 Worsley, and Professor Sedgwick drew each 
 other out, capped each other's stories, or took 
 opposite sides in argument. At times, especially 
 if Dr. Whewell were present, conversation became 
 a monologue. It was said by Sydney Smith that
 
 Social Life. 321 
 
 " Science was his forte and omniscience his foible." 
 He delighted in taking up a subject, and delivering 
 his opinions upon it, while the rest of the com- 
 pany listened respectfully. Some might be dis- 
 appointed of an opportunity for placing their own 
 witticism, or for urging their own views ; but the 
 speaker handled his theme in so masterly a style, 
 that his hearers accepted his despotic ways without 
 a murmur. Once, and once only, says tradition, 
 an attempt was made to dethrone him. A party 
 of the Fellows of his own College got up carefully 
 the subject of Chinese music, and adroitly turned 
 the conversation towards it in the Combination 
 Room. Mr. Whewell joined in for a while, and 
 then became silent, while they went on, delighted 
 at the thought that for once the conversation was 
 in their own hands. The triumph, however, was 
 short-lived, for Whewell presently thundered out, 
 " Ah ! I see you have been getting up an article I 
 wrote some years ago in an Encyclopaedia ; but: I 
 have altered my views since then." Miss Caroline 
 Fox tells us in her charming diary that when 
 Whewell met them in Cornwall in 1859 her 
 father " got from him a formal contradiction of 
 the choice story about Chinese music, which was a 
 pity, but he says he never wrote on the subject, 
 only on Greek music," The imaginary incident, 
 however is very characteristic of Whewcll's as- 
 
 22
 
 322 Cambridge. 
 
 tonishing familiarity with all sorts of out-of-the- 
 way subjects ; and, it may be added, of his habit 
 of laying down the law in an imperious fashion 
 which made him extremely unpopular with those 
 who did not understand him. Professor Sedgwick 
 did not engross the conversation as Whewell did. 
 His own geniality inspired those with whom he 
 came into contact, and any party at which he was 
 present was sure to go off well. He had a really 
 marvellous aptitude for story-telling. The adven- 
 tures of Elizabeth Woodcock, for instance, who was 
 buried in the snow near Cambridge in February, 
 1799, for eight days, grew, in his narrative of 
 them, into a wonderfully dramatic story, humorous 
 and pathetic by turns ; and his recollections of his 
 earlier days were as picturesque as they were 
 amusing. One of these, relating to Mr. William 
 Pugh, shall be given in his own words : 
 
 " Mr. Pugh, before he had been Fellow of Trinity for 
 long (he was elected about 1790) was deeply affected by the 
 horrors of the French Revolution. He was a man of great 
 reading and studious habits ; and, among other things, was 
 engaged upon the catalogue of the printed books in the 
 University Library. There, instead of reading only the title- 
 pages, he read the works themselves through, and thus, while 
 he got on slowly with the catalogue, he laid up a vast store 
 of knowledge, especially in the pamphlets published at that 
 time ; so much so, that when Dr. Parr dined in Trinity 
 College some thirty years afterwards, Pugh, though he had 
 been mad in the interval, and for twenty years had never
 
 Social Life. 323 
 
 opened a book, was yet able, from his excellent memory, to 
 quote pages and pages from the pamphlets of that time. 
 Pugh and Dr. Parr were of opposite politics ; Pugh was a 
 strong Conservative, Parr an equally strong Whig ; so that 
 when the former \vas seen to take the chair as Vice-Master, 
 with Parr on his right hand, everyone expected an un- 
 pleasant scene. But, luckily, the conversation turned upon 
 the literature of the early years of the French Revolution, 
 with which Parr was equally well acquainted. So for hours 
 and hours they capped each other with stories and quotations ; 
 till at last Pugh referred to a pamphlet 'which,' said he, 
 'I wonder had so little influence, and so little popularity ; 
 for I was very much struck with one passage in particular ; 
 and if you would like to hear it. Dr. Parr, I think I can repeat 
 it to you.' He then proceeded to repeat without hesitation 
 about a page and a half, after which he rose to go, and 
 turning to Dr. Parr, said, 'I thank you. Doctor, for the very 
 pleasant evening we have had together ; and as for that 
 pamphlet, I think you know more of the author than I do.' 
 So saying, he left the room. When he was gone. Parr said, 'I 
 was the author of that pamphlet, but it fell dead. I have 
 never read it since, and I give you my honour that I could 
 not have repeated a line of it myself.' 
 
 "Well, about his madness. For a long while he was very 
 strange ; he dreaded the society of everybody; he never left 
 his rooms for any purpose whatever; he would not let his 
 bed-maker enter them, but, at a stated hour every day, used 
 to open the door a little, take in his breakfast, and slam it to 
 again. One morning, very early, he was seen by the porter 
 to walk across the court in a mistrustful manner, looking 
 behind him, and to the right and left, with the utmost circum- 
 spection, and so go into the Bowling Green, which in those 
 days was not closed with a grating as it is now. On his 
 shoulders he carried a large white bundle. This he was seen 
 to carry to the terrace overlooking the river, and there pitch
 
 324 Cambridge. 
 
 it over into the Cam. Search was made for it, and it was 
 fished up. It was found to contain all his dirty linen, re- 
 mains of his food, &c., which had become too foul to be 
 endured longer. This was not thought sufficient proof of 
 insanity to warrant his being sent out of residence. Soon 
 after, however, the town was thrown into consternation by 
 the frequent breaking of the lamps. Night after night several 
 were found broken, no one knew by whom. The Mayor 
 offered a reward, but still the culprit remained undetected. 
 At last the College porter observed that Pugh was in the 
 habit of going out after the gates were closed. So a servant 
 was set to watch, and, the next time Pugh went out, followed 
 him at a distance. He went down Jesus Lane, and, when he 
 came to the Common, turned to the left along Jesus' Ditch. 
 There he presently went down to the water's edge, and, from 
 among flags and weeds, brought up a long stick. This he 
 seized, and hurried back to the street. No sooner had he 
 got there than the frenzy seemed to seize him. He gnashed 
 his teeth, and rushed along like a madman. Presently he 
 caught sight of a lamp, made for it, and exclaiming with 
 a loud oath ' You are Robespierre ! ' dashed it to pieces 
 with his stick. So he went on with the others, crying out 
 ' Danton ! ' 'St. Just ! ' and other names, till he had broken 
 six or eight. Then he returned to the ditch, hid his 
 stick, and made his way back to College. After this he 
 was requested to leave, and put under the care of a keeper. 
 He recovered, however, and returned to College, and, though 
 he had still a somewhat wild look, behaved with perfect 
 propriety. His judgment was considered extremely good, 
 and in the Fellowship Examination his opinion was preferred 
 to that of most other examiners. His memory was such that 
 he could trust to it when others had to refer to the author, 
 as in the case of the Greek tragedians." 
 
 With this anecdote our reminiscences of the
 
 Social Life. 325 
 
 Social Life of Cambridge sixty years since must 
 come to an end. When those of the present de- 
 cade are written the annalist who takes the subject 
 in hand will have a very different picture to draw. 
 He will find the number of undergraduates more 
 than doubled, and engaged in a multiplicity of 
 studies and interests, which offer a lively contrast 
 to the sameness of the course along which their 
 ancestors were compelled to plod. He will have 
 to notice, too, the realisation of the dreams of that 
 Princess whose educational views were set forth by 
 the Poet Laureate ; and though there are as yet 
 no "sweet girl graduates" tripping to the Senate 
 House on Degree Day, there are signs which in- 
 dicate that even that alteration may be nearer than 
 some suppose. In the opinion of many excellent 
 well-wishers to Cambridge the death-knell of her 
 fame as a place of education would be sounded if 
 this were to be brought about, or if in sundry 
 other ways that we need not further particularise 
 she were to accept changes that begin to be 
 demanded, with no uncertain sound, from without. 
 We do not share these apprehensions ; we believe 
 firmly that 
 
 "The old order changeth, giving place to new. 
 And God fulfils Himself in many ways, 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
 
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