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 (LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OP 
 CAUFORNIA 
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 the College 
 
 monographs
 
 THE COLLEGE 
 
 MONOGRAPHS 
 
 Edited and Illustrated by 
 EDMUND H. NEW 
 
 TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 W. W. ROUSE BALL. 
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 R. F. SCOTT. 
 
 KING'S COLLEGE, 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 C. R. FAY. 
 
 MAGDALEN COLLEGE, 
 OXFORD 
 
 THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 NEW COLLEGE, 
 OXFORD 
 
 A. O. PRICKARD. 
 
 MERTON COLLEGE, 
 OXFORD 
 
 REV. H. J. WHITE.
 
 ST. JOHN'S 
 
 COLLEGE 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT FORSYTH \SCOTT 
 
 FELLOW AND SENIOR BURSAR 
 OF THE COLLEGE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 EDMUND H. NEW 
 
 1907 : LONDON : J. M. DENT & CO. 
 NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON 6^ CO. 

 
 All Rights Reserved
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 II. SOME INTERIORS . . <. . . . 13 
 
 III. THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN (CIRCA 
 
 1135-1511) . . : . . 35 
 
 IV. THE FIRST CENTURY (1511-1612) . 40 
 V. THE SECOND CENTURY (1612-1716) 52 
 
 VI. THE THIRD CENTURY (1716-1815) 66 
 
 VII. THE CURRENT CENTURY . . 74 
 
 VIII. SOCIAL LIFE ... . .86 
 
 INDEX .... 109 
 
 VII
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Entrance Gateway . .' . Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Plan of College Buildings . . ' . x 
 
 Bag of Flowers ; detail of Carving over 
 
 Entrance Gateway . . . . 3 
 
 The Second and Third Courts from the 
 
 Screens ...... 6 
 
 The Gatehouse from the Churchyard of All 
 
 Saints . . . . . .12 
 
 Monument of Hugh Ashton in the Chapel . 19 
 The Hall from the Second Court . . 24 
 
 Interior of the Library . . . 34 
 
 The Old Bridge . . . . , 41 
 
 The Hall and Chapel Tower from the Second 
 
 Court . . . . -53 
 
 The College Arms (in the Third Court] . 58 
 The Chapel Tower from the River . . 67 
 The College Chapel from the Round Church 75 
 The New Court from Trinity College Bridge 87 
 
 The " Bridge of Sighs ". . v . 98 
 
 viii
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 ST. John's College was founded in 1511, 
 in pursuance of the intentions of the 
 Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King 
 Henry VII. 
 
 Approaching the College from the street 
 we enter by the Great Gate. The gate- 
 way with its four towers is the best example 
 of the characteristic Cambridge gate, and 
 dates from the foundation of the College. 
 It is built of red brick (the eastern counties 
 marble), dressed with stone. The street 
 front of the College to the right and left 
 remains in its original state, except that 
 after the old chapel and infirmary of the 
 Hospital of St. John (to which allusion will 
 be made hereafter) were pulled down, the 
 north end was completed by a block of 
 lecture rooms in 1869. 
 
 The front of the gate is richly deco- 
 rated with heraldic devices, full of historical 
 meaning and associations. The arms are 
 those of the foundress ; the shield, France 
 
 A
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 (ancient) and England quarterly, was the 
 royal shield of the period ; the bordure, 
 gobonny argent and azure (the argent in 
 the upper dexter compartment), was the 
 " difference " of the Beauforts, and is only 
 slightly indicated. The supporters, two 
 antelopes, come from Henry VI. There 
 is no crest above the shield, and heraldic 
 rules are against its use by a lady, but on 
 her seal the Lady Margaret used the Beau- 
 fort arms as above ensigned, with a coronet 
 of roses and fleur-de-lis, out of which issues 
 an eagle, displayed or ; and this device of 
 coat and crest is used by the College. The 
 arms on the gate are surrounded by badges, 
 the Portcullis of the Beauforts, the Tudor, 
 or Union, rose, each surmounted by a crown. 
 Besides these we have daisies (marguerites), 
 the badge of the Lady Margaret, and some 
 flowers, which are not so easily identified. 
 Certain vestments and embroideries, which 
 belonged to the Lady Margaret, of which 
 a list has been preserved, are described as 
 " garnishede with sophanyes and my ladyes 
 poisy," or, " with rede roses and syphanyes." 
 The sophanye was an old English name for 
 the Christmas rose, and there seems little 
 doubt that these flowers on the gate are 
 meant for Christmas roses. The carving 
 on the right, under the portcullis, where 
 these emblems seem to be growing out of 
 something resembling a masonic apron, is 
 very curious. 
 
 Above the gate are two sets of rooms, 
 2
 
 THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 The* upper set has been used from the 
 beginning as the Treasury or Muniment 
 Room of the College ; the set immediately 
 above the arch is now an ordinary set of 
 rooms. In this set resided, during his 
 college career, Lord Thomas Howard, a 
 son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, after- 
 
 BAG OF FLOWERS OVER ENTRANCE GATEWAY 
 
 wards himself first Earl of Suffolk and 
 Baron Howard de Walden. He fought 
 against the Armada in 1588, and com- 
 manded the expedition to the Azores in 
 1591 ; the fame of Sir Richard Grenville of 
 the Revenge has somewhat eclipsed that of 
 his leader in the latter case ; the reader may 
 recall Tennyson's Ballad of the Fleet. 
 
 To the left of the gate it will be observed 
 that five windows on the first floor are of 
 3
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 larger size than the rest ; this was the 
 original position of the Library ; the books 
 were removed in 1616 to a room over the 
 Kitchen, and later to the present Library. 
 According to tradition Henry Kirke White, 
 the poet, occupied, and died in, the rooms 
 on the ground-floor next the tower ; he lies 
 buried in the old churchyard of All Saints', 
 across the street. 
 
 Entering the gate the Hall and Kitchen 
 face us, and preserve much of their original 
 appearance. But right and left the changes 
 have been great. The old Chapel was 
 swept away in 1869 its foundations are 
 marked out by cement ; at this time the 
 Hall was lengthened, and a second orie.l 
 window added. The range of buildings on 
 the south was raised and faced with stone 
 about 1775, when the craze for Italianising 
 buildings was fashionable ; it was then in- 
 tended to treat the rest of the Court in 
 like manner, but fortunately the scheme 
 was not carried out. 
 
 If we walk along the south side of the 
 Court we may notice on the underside of 
 the lintel of G staircase the words, " Stag, 
 Nov. 15, 1777." It seems that on that 
 date a stag, pursued by the hunt, took 
 refuge in the College, and on this stair- 
 case ; the members of the College had just 
 finished dinner when the stag and his pur- 
 suers entered. On the next staircase, F, 
 there is a passage leading to the lane with 
 the Kitchen Offices, this passage is some- 
 4
 
 THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 time* known as " The Staincoat " ; the 
 passage leading from the Screens into the 
 Kitchen is still sometimes called "The 
 Staincoat," or "The Stankard." These 
 curious names really mean the same thing. 
 It appears that in times past a pole was 
 kept, probably for carrying casks of beer, 
 but on which the undergraduates seem also 
 to have hoisted those of their number, or 
 even servants, who had offended against the 
 rules and customs of the College ; this pole 
 was called the Stang, and the place or pass- 
 age in which it was kept the Stangate Hole, 
 with the above variations or corruptions. 
 
 Reserving the Chapel for the present we 
 pass through the Screens, the entrance to 
 the Hall being on the right, to the Kitchen 
 on the left. We enter the Second Court. 
 This beautiful and stately Court was built 
 between 1599 and 1600 (the date 1599 
 may be seen on the top of one of the water- 
 pipes on the north side), the cost being in 
 great part provided by Mary, Countess of 
 Shrewsbury, a daughter of Sir William 
 Cavendish by the celebrated Bess of Hard- 
 wick, and wife of Gilbert, seventh Earl of 
 Shrewsbury. The original drawings for 
 the Court, and the contract for its con- 
 struction, almost unique documents of their 
 kind, are preserved in the Library. The 
 whole of the first floor on the north side 
 was at first used as a gallery for the Mas- 
 ter's Lodge ; it is now used as a Combina- 
 tion Room. Over the arch of the gate on 
 5
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 the western side of the Court is a statue of 
 the Countess, with her shield (showing the 
 arms of Talbot and Cavendish impaled); 
 these were presented to the College by 
 
 VIEW FROM THE SCREENS 
 
 her nephew, William Cavendish, Duke of 
 Newcastle. 
 
 A pleasing view of the Court is got by 
 standing in the south-west corner and 
 looking towards the Chapel Tower, with 
 an afternoon sun the colouring and group- 
 ing of the buildings is very effective. 
 
 Passing through the arch we enter the 
 Third Court ; this was built at various 
 6
 
 THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 timeS during the seventeenth century. On 
 the north we have the Library, the cost 
 of which was chiefly provided by John 
 Williams, a Fellow of the College, suc- 
 cessively Dean of Westminster, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, and Archbishop of York; he was 
 also Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to 
 James I. As originally built the Library 
 occupied the upper floor only, the ground- 
 floor being fitted up as rooms for the 
 accommodation of the Fellows and scholars, 
 on a special foundation of Bishop Williams, 
 but this lower part is now all absorbed into 
 the Library. The southern and western 
 sides of the Court were built between 1669 
 and 1674, some part of the cost being pro- 
 vided from College funds, the rest by dona- 
 tions from members of the College. On 
 the last or southern pier of the arcade, on 
 the west side of the Court, there are the 
 two inscriptions: "Flood, Oct. 27, 1762," 
 "Flood, Feb. 10, 1795," recording what 
 must have been highly inconvenient events 
 at the time. 
 
 The central arch on the western side of 
 the Court has some prominence, and was 
 probably intended from the first as the 
 approach to a bridge. Towards the end 
 of the seventeenth century Sir Christopher 
 Wren was consulted on the subject, and 
 a letter from him to the then Master, Dr. 
 Gower, has been preserved. Sir Christo- 
 pher's proposal was a curious one : he sug- 
 gested that the course of the river Cam 
 
 7
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 should be diverted and carried in a straight 
 line from the point where it bends near 
 the Library of Trinity College. A new 
 channel was to be dug, and a bridge built 
 over this; the water was then to be sent 
 down the new channel, and the old one 
 filled up. He pointed out that this would 
 give "a parterre to the river, a better access 
 to the walks, and a more beautiful disposal 
 of the whole ground." This scheme was, 
 however, not carried out, but a stone bridge 
 was built outside the range of the buildings 
 on the site of an old wooden bridge, which 
 then gave access to the grounds. This is 
 the bridge which still exists; it was built, 
 apparently from Wren's designs, under the 
 superintendence of his pupil, Nicholas 
 Hawksmoor. More than a century now 
 passed before further building operations 
 were undertaken. In 1825 tne College 
 employed Mr. Thomas Rickman and his 
 partner, Mr. H. Hutchinson, to prepare 
 designs for a new Court, with from 100 to 
 1 20 sets of rooms. This work was started 
 in 1827, and completed in 1831. The 
 covered bridge connecting the old and new 
 parts of the College was designed by Mr. 
 Hutchinson ; it is popularly known as the 
 " Bridge of Sighs." The style of this Court 
 is Perpendicular Gothic. The site was un- 
 suited for building operations, consisting 
 mostly of washed and peaty soil; it had 
 been known for generations as " the fish- 
 ponds close." The modern concrete foun-
 
 THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS 
 
 datidns were then unknown, and the plan 
 adopted was to remove the peaty soil and 
 to lay timber on the underlying gravel. 
 On this an enormous mass of brickwork, 
 forming vaulted cellars, was placed ; this 
 rises above the river level, and the rooms 
 are perfectly dry. The total cost of the 
 building was 78,000, most of which was 
 provided by borrowing. The repayment, 
 extending over a number of years, involved 
 considerable self-denial on the Fellows of 
 the College, their incomes being materi- 
 ally reduced for many years. Crossing 
 the covered bridge and passing down the 
 cloisters of the New Court, we enter the 
 grounds by the centre gate; these extend 
 right and left, being bounded on the east 
 by the Cam, and separated from the 
 grounds of Trinity by a ditch. 
 
 From the old, or Wren's, bridge over 
 the Cam two parallel walks extend along 
 the front of the Court ; according to tra- 
 dition the broader and higher was reserved 
 for members of the College, the lower for 
 College servants. At one time an avenue 
 of trees extended from the bridge to the 
 back gate, but the ravages of time have 
 removed all but a few trees. 
 
 At the western end of the walk we 
 have on the left the (private) Fellows' 
 garden, known as "The Wilderness," 
 an old-world pleasance, left as nearly as 
 may be in a state of nature. Towards 
 the end of the eighteenth century the 
 
 9
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 College employed the celebrated Mr. 
 Lancelot (" capability ") Brown to lay out 
 the grounds and Wilderness. The planta- 
 tion in the latter was arranged so as to form 
 a cathedral, with nave, aisles, and tran- 
 sept, but here also old age and storms have 
 brought down many of the trees. On the 
 right, opposite to the Wilderness, there is 
 an orchard, the subject of much legend. 
 One popular story is that this orchard 
 formed the subject of a bequest to " St. 
 John's College," and that the testator, 
 being an Oxford man, was held by the 
 Courts to have intended to benefit the 
 College in his own University. As a 
 matter of prosaic fact, the orchard origi- 
 nally belonged to Merton College, Oxford, 
 being part of the original gift of their 
 founder, Walter de Merton, and it was 
 acquired by St. John's College by ex- 
 change in the early years of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 The long walk terminates in a massive 
 gate with stone pillars, surmounted by 
 eagles. Outside and across the road is the 
 Eagle Close, used as the College cricket 
 and football field. 
 
 The visitor in returning should cross 
 the old bridge, thus getting a view of the 
 Bridge of Sighs, and re-enter the College 
 by the archway on the left. 
 
 10
 
 'Trie (fate house: S*Jofm'<f Co
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 THE visitor has been conducted through 
 the College without pausing to enter 
 any of the buildings. We now retrace our 
 steps to describe these parts of the College 
 open to inspection. It must be understood 
 that during a great part of the year the 
 inspection of these interiors is subject to the 
 needs of a large resident Society, and as a 
 rule it is best to inquire at the gate for 
 information as to the hours when these 
 parts of the College are open. 
 
 The Chape/. 
 
 The present Chapel was built between 
 the years 1863 and 1869, from the designs 
 of Sir George Gilbert Scott ; it was conse- 
 crated by the Bishop of Ely, I2th May 
 1869. As we approach it we see on the 
 right the outline of the old Chapel, which 
 had served the College and the Hospital 
 which preceded it for something like six 
 hundred years. This former Chapel was a 
 building quite uniform and simple in ap- 
 pearance, filling the whole of the north 
 side of the Court. Originally built to serve 
 
 13
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 the needs of the Hospital of St. John, it was 
 considerably altered when the College was 
 founded. Side Chantries were then, or 
 shortly afterwards, added. In early times 
 a good deal of the life of the College 
 centred in the Chapel, in addition to its 
 uses for worship. It was regarded as a 
 place in which the Society was formally 
 gathered together. In it the statutes, or 
 rules for the government of the Society, 
 were read at stated times, so that all might 
 become aware of the rule under which 
 they lived. The names of those who had 
 not discharged their College bills were 
 publicly read out by the Master. The 
 elections of the Master and of the Fellows 
 and Scholars were held within it ; of this 
 practice the sole part that remains is the 
 election of a Master, which by the present 
 statutes must be held in the Chapel. The 
 scholastic exercises of Acts and Oppon- 
 encies, in which certain doctrines were 
 maintained and opposed, took place there. 
 The seal of the College was kept in the 
 vestry, and the sealing of documents took 
 place in the Ante-Chapel. Though docu- 
 ments are now sealed elsewhere, the stock 
 of wafers for the College seal is kept by the 
 Chapel Clerk. 
 
 The erection of a new Chapel for the 
 College was contemplated for about 200 
 years before it was carried out. Dr. Gun- 
 ning, who was Master from 1661 to 1670, 
 afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 and jof Ely, left by his will the sum of 
 300 "to St. John's College, towards the 
 beginning for the building for themselves 
 a new Chapel." Gunning died in 1684, 
 and in 1687 the College paid to Robert 
 Grumbold the sum of 3 for "a new 
 ground plott modell of the old and new 
 designed Chappell." Nothing, however, 
 came of the proposal at that time, though 
 the idea seems always to have been before 
 the Society. 
 
 Preaching on Commemoration Day (May 
 6), 1 86 1, Dr. William Selwyn, Lady Mar- 
 garet Professor of Divinity, and a former 
 Fellow, pointing out that the College was 
 celebrating "its seventh jubilee," just 350 
 years having passed since the charter was 
 granted, pleaded earnestly for the erection 
 of a larger Chapel. The matter was taken 
 up, and in January 1862 Sir (then Mr.) 
 George Gilbert Scott was requested " to 
 advise us as to the best plans, in his opinion, 
 for a new Chapel." The scheme grew, 
 and in addition to the Chapel it was de- 
 termined by the end of that year to have 
 also a new Master's Lodge, and to enlarge 
 the Dining Hall. It was then intended 
 that the scheme should not involve a greater 
 charge on the corporate funds of the College 
 than 40,000. As a matter of fact, before 
 the whole was carried out and paid for, 
 the cost had risen to 97,641 ; of this 
 17,172 was provided for by donations 
 from members of the College, the rest was 
 15
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 met, partly out of capital, partly by a charge 
 on the College revenues, which ran for 
 many years. 
 
 The Chapel was built on a site to the 
 north of the old Chapel, and through this 
 site ran a lane from St. John's Street to the 
 river. An Act of Parliament had to be 
 obtained before this lane could be closed, 
 and the consent of the borough was only 
 given on condition that St. John's Street 
 should be widened by pulling down a row 
 of houses on its western side, and throwing 
 their site into the street. 
 
 The foundation-stone of the new Chapel 
 was laid on 6th May 1864 by Mr. Henry 
 Hoare, a member of the College, and of 
 the well-known banking firm. As origi- 
 nally designed the Chapel was to have had 
 a slender flkhe instead of a tower. This 
 had been criticised, and Mr. Scott, the 
 architect, designed the present tower ; the 
 additional cost being estimated at .5000. 
 This Mr. Hoare offered to provide in yearly 
 instalments of 1000, but had only paid 
 two instalments when he died from injuries 
 received in a railway accident. The finial 
 on the last pinnacle of the tower was fixed 
 on 1 3th December 1867 by Mr. (now Sir 
 Francis) Powell, M.P. for the borough of 
 Cambridge, and a former Fellow of the 
 College ; Mr. Powell was accompanied on 
 that occasion by Professor John Couch 
 Adams and the Rev. G. F. Reyner, the 
 Senior Bursar of the College. 
 16
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 The new Chapel was, as we have said, 
 opened in 1869, and the old Chapel then 
 cleared away. The woodwork of the stalls 
 had been transferred to the new Chapel, but 
 most of the internal fittings were scattered. 
 The ancient rood-screen stands in the 
 church of Whissendine, in Rutlandshire, 
 and the old organ-case in Bilton Church, 
 near Rugby, and other parts of the fabric 
 were dispersed ; it was perhaps inevitable. 
 Sir Gilbert Scott's idea was that the new 
 Chapel should be of the same period of 
 architecture as the old, but it is absolutely 
 different in design ; in the lover of things 
 old there must always be a feeling of regret 
 for what has gone. The mural tablets in 
 the old Chapel were removed to the new 
 Ante-Chapel, the slabs in the floor were 
 left. It is worth noting that Eleazar 
 Knox, a Fellow of the College, and one ot 
 the sons of John Knox, the famous Scotch 
 Reformer, was buried in the Chapel in 
 1591. His elder brother, Nathanael Knox, 
 was also a Fellow. To the north of the 
 old Chapel, and bordering on the lane 
 which has been mentioned, stood the In- 
 firmary of the Hospital which preceded 
 the College. This was originally a single 
 long room, of which the eastern end formed 
 an oratory. In this the poor and sick, for 
 whose benefit the Hospital was founded, 
 were received, and Mass said for them, and 
 in their sight, as they lay in their beds. 
 This Infirmary, after the foundation of the 
 17 B
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 College, was devoted to secular uses. For 
 some time it was used as a stable and 
 storehouse for the Master. Then later it 
 was fitted up with floors and turned into 
 chambers. It was approached by a tortuous 
 passage at the eastern end of the Chapel, 
 and was popularly known as the Labyrinth. 
 When the Infirmary was taken down a very 
 beautiful double piscina was found covered 
 up on the walls ; this is preserved in the 
 new Chapel. 
 
 The new Chapel is built of Ancaster 
 stone, and is in the style of architecture 
 known as Early Decorated, which pre- 
 vailed about 1280, the probable date of the 
 Chapel of the Hospital. Sir Gilbert Scott 
 very skilfully made the most of the site, and 
 by the device of the transeptal Ante-Chapel 
 made full use of the space at his disposal. 
 
 At the springs of the outer arch of the 
 great door are heads of King Henry VIII. 
 and of Queen Victoria, indicating the date 
 of the foundation of the College and of the 
 erection of the Chapel. On the north side 
 of the porch is a statue of the Lady Mar- 
 garet, and on the south one of John Fisher, 
 Bishop of Rochester. 
 
 The statues on the buttresses are those of 
 famous members of the College, or of its 
 benefactors. Those facing the Court are 
 William Cecil, Lord Burghley ; Lucius 
 Carey, Viscount Falkland ; John Williams, 
 Lord Keeper to James I. ; Thomas Went- 
 worth, Lord Strafford ; William Gilbert, 
 18
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 author of De Magnete, in which the theory 
 of the magnetism of the earth was first 
 developed, and physician to Queen Eliza- 
 beth ; Roger Ascham, and the Countess of 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 We enter the Ante-Chapel. This has a 
 
 MONUMENT OF HUGH ASHTON 
 
 stone-vaulted roof ; over the central bay the 
 tower is placed. On the south wall are 
 placed the arches from Bishop Fisher's 
 Chantry in the old Chapel. The monu- 
 ment with the recumbent figure is that of 
 Hugh Ashton, comptroller of the household 
 
 9
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 to the Lady Margaret, a prebendary and 
 Archdeacon of York. He was buried in 
 the old Chapel, and this tomb originally 
 stood in a chantry attached thereto. He 
 founded four fellowships and four scholar- 
 ships in the College, the Fellows being 
 bound to sing Mass for the repose of his 
 soul. The carving on the tomb and on 
 the finials of the railing around it include a 
 rebus on his name, an ash-tree growing out 
 of a barrel (ash-tun). On the north wall 
 is a bust of Dr. Isaac Todhunter, the well- 
 known mathematical writer ; on the western 
 wall a tablet by Chantrey, to the memory 
 of Kirke White, the poet, who died in 
 College. He was buried in the chancel 
 of the old Church of All Saints, which 
 stood opposite to the College ; when the 
 church was pulled down the tablet was 
 transferred to the College Chapel. The 
 statue is that of James Wood, sometime 
 Master of the College, part of whose be- 
 quests went towards building the Chapel. 
 On the east wall is an old brass to the 
 memory of Nicholas Metcalfe, third Master 
 of the College, the words " vestras . . . 
 preces vehementer expetit" have been partly 
 obliterated, probably during the Common- 
 wealth. The roof of the Choir is of high 
 pitch, of quadripartite vaulting in oak, 
 and is decorated with a continuous line of 
 full-length figures. In the central bay at 
 the east end is our Lord in Majesty, the 
 other bays contain figures illustrating the 
 20
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 Christian centuries. Owing to the deep 
 colour of the glass in the windows, it is 
 only on a very sunny day that the figures can 
 be clearly discerned. The windows in the 
 Choir have been given by various donors, 
 the subjects being scenes from Scripture 
 at which St. John was present ; his figure 
 robed in ruby and green will be seen in 
 each. The five windows in the apse, the 
 gift of the Earl of Powis, High Steward 
 of the University, depict scenes from the 
 Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of 
 Christ. In the apse is preserved the double 
 piscina which was found covered up in the 
 walls of the Infirmary, and removed by 
 Sir G. G. Scott, with such repairs as were 
 absolutely necessary. It is probably one of 
 the oldest specimens of carved stonework 
 in Cambridge. 
 
 The steps leading up to the Altar are 
 paved with Purbeck, Sicilian, and black 
 Derbyshire marbles. The spaces between 
 the steps are decorated with a series of 
 scriptural subjects in inlaid work in black 
 and white marble, with distinctive inscrip- 
 tions. The Altar is of oak, with a single 
 slab of Belgian marble for its top. On the 
 sides of the Altar are deeply carved panels ; 
 that in the centre represents the Lamb with 
 the Banner, the other panels contain the 
 emblems of the four Evangelists. 
 
 The organ stands in a special chamber on 
 the north side ; the carved front was not 
 put in place till 1890. It was designed by 
 21
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Mr. J. Oldrid Scott, a son of Sir Gilbert 
 Scott. In 1635 the famous Robert Dallam 
 of Westminster built a " paire of new 
 orgaines " for the College. The organ 
 has been repeatedly enlarged, altered, and 
 improved ; it may be that some of Dallam's 
 work still remains, though this is uncertain. 
 The present organ is one of the best in 
 Cambridge ; its tone throughout is uni- 
 formly beautiful. 
 
 The brass reading-desk was given to the 
 old Chapel by the Rev. Thomas Whyte- 
 head, a Fellow of the College ; the pedestal 
 is copied from the wooden lectern in 
 Ramsay Church, Huntingdonshire ; the 
 finials, which are there wanting, having 
 been restored, and the wooden desk re- 
 placed by an eagle. 
 
 As we return to the Ante-Chapel we 
 may note the great west window, repre- 
 senting the Last Judgment ; this was given 
 by the Bachelors and Undergraduates of 
 the College. There are also windows in the 
 Ante-Chapel to the memory of Dr. Ralph 
 Tatham, Master of the College, and to the 
 Rev. J. J. Blunt, Lady Margaret Pro- 
 fessor of Divinity. 
 
 The oil-painting which hangs on the 
 south wall of the Ante-Chapel near the 
 door a Descent from the Cress is by 
 Anthony Raphael Mengs. It was given to 
 the College in 1841 by the Right Hon. 
 Robert Henry Clive, M.P. for Shrop- 
 shire. 
 
 22
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 The Hall. 
 
 We enter the Hall from the Screens, 
 between the First and Second Courts. The 
 southern end is part of the original building 
 of the College. It was at first about seventy 
 feet long, with one oriel only, the old 
 Combination Room being beyond it. When 
 the new Chapel was built the Hall was 
 lengthened, and the second oriel window 
 added. The oak panelling is of the old 
 " linen " pattern, and dates from the six- 
 teenth century ; that lining the north wall, 
 beyond the High Table, is very elaborately 
 carved, being the finest example of such 
 work in Cambridge. Within living memory 
 all this oak work was painted green. The 
 fine timbered roof has a lantern turret, 
 beneath which, until 1865, stood an open 
 charcoal brazier. From allusions in early 
 documents it would appear that members 
 of the Society gathered round the brazier 
 for conversation after meals. In addition to 
 its use as a dining-room, the Hall also served 
 as a lecture-room, and for the production of 
 stage plays. On these latter occasions it 
 seems to have been specially decorated, for 
 Roger Ascham, writing ist October 1550, 
 from Antwerp, to his brother Fellow, 
 Edward Raven, tried to picture to him the 
 magnificence of the city by saying that it 
 surpassed all others which he had visited, 
 as much as the Hall at St. John's, when 
 23
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 decorated for a play at Christmas, surpassed 
 its appearance at ordinary times. 
 
 Many of the College examinations are 
 held in the Hall, and in the days of the 
 brazier, examinees were warned by their 
 
 TTzi- ZJcUC, SZJohn's 
 
 Tutors not to sit too near the brazier ; the 
 comfort from the heat being dearly pur- 
 chased by the drowsiness caused by the 
 fumes of the charcoal. 
 
 Many interesting portraits hang on the 
 walls. That of the foundress in the centre 
 of the north wall is painted on wooden 
 24
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 panel, and is very old. She is flanked by 
 Lord Keeper Williams, and by Sir Ralph 
 Hare, K.C.B., both benefactors to the 
 College. Other noteworthy portraits are 
 those of Sir Noah Thomas, physician to 
 King George III., by Romney ; William 
 Wordsworth, poet-laureate, by Pickersgill ; 
 Professor John E. B. Mayor, by Herkomer; 
 Professor B. H. Kennedy, long headmaster 
 of Shrewsbury School, by Ouless ; Professor 
 E. H. Palmer, Lord Almoner's Reader of 
 Arabic in the University, and a famous 
 oriental scholar, by the Hon. John Collier ; 
 and Professor G. D. Liveing, by Sir George 
 Reid. 
 
 The shields in the windows are those of 
 distinguished members of the College, or 
 benefactors. The further oriel window has 
 busts of Sir John F. W. Herschel and Pro- 
 fessor John Couch Adams. 
 
 The Combination Room. 
 
 We enter by the staircase at the north 
 end of the Hall. This was originally about 
 187 feet long, extending the whole length 
 of the Second Court, and was used as a 
 gallery in connection with the old Master's 
 Lodge. The ceiling dates from 1600, and 
 the panelling from 1603. In 1624 about 
 42 feet were sacrificed to obtain a staircase 
 and vestibule for the Library ; the ceiling 
 can be traced right through. In the 
 eighteenth century partitions were put up, 
 25
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 dividing up the gallery into rooms. When 
 the new Master's Lodge was built these 
 partitions were removed, and the whole now 
 forms two Combination Rooms. 
 
 In the oriel window on the south side is 
 an old stained-glass portrait of Henrietta 
 Maria, Queen of King Charles I. The 
 tradition runs that the marriage articles 
 between Prince Charles and Henrietta 
 Maria were signed in this room ; King 
 James I. was at that time holding his Court 
 in Trinity College. 
 
 A number of interesting portraits hang 
 on the walls : George Augustus Selwyn, 
 Bishop of New Zealand, afterwards of Lich- 
 field, by George Richmond, R.A. ; a chalk 
 drawing (also by Richmond) of William 
 Tyrrell, Bishop of Newcastle, New South 
 Wales ; of Sir John Herschel and Professor 
 J. C. Adams ; of William Wilberforce and 
 Thomas Clarkson, the opponents of the 
 slave-trade. There is also a very beautiful 
 sketch of the head of William Wordsworth; 
 this study was made by Pickersgill to save 
 the poet the tedium of long sittings for the 
 portrait in the Hall. It was presented to 
 the College by Miss Arundale, a descendant 
 of the painter. The smaller Combination 
 Room contains many engraved portraits of 
 distinguished members of the College. 
 
 The institution of the Combination Room 
 
 seems gradually to have grown up in 
 
 colleges as a place where the Fellows 
 
 might meet together, partly about business, 
 
 26
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 partly for the sake of society. In early 
 times, as the Fellows shared their chambers 
 with their pupils, there could have been no 
 privacy. The room seems to have been 
 called the Parlour for some time; the name 
 Combination Room is now universal at 
 Cambridge, and may have arisen from the 
 fact that the cost of running the room was 
 met by the Fellows combining together 
 for the purpose. At the present time the 
 Combination Room is used for College 
 meetings, as a room where the Fellows meet 
 for a short time after dinner and for dessert 
 on those nights when there is a dinner in 
 Hall to which guests are invited. 
 
 The Library. 
 
 The Library is only open to visitors by 
 leave of the Librarian, or to those accom- 
 panied by a Fellow of the College. The 
 usual access is by staircase E in the Second 
 Court, but leaving the Combination Room 
 by the west door we find ourselves in front 
 of the Library door. The visitor may note 
 that the moulded ceiling of the Combina- 
 tion Room extends overhead. This portion, 
 as we have already seen, originally forming 
 part of the long gallery. 
 
 The door of the Library is surmounted 
 by the arms of John Williams, impaled with 
 those of the see of Lincoln. The original 
 position of the Library, as has been already 
 stated, was in the First Court, next the 
 27
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 street, and to the south of the entrance 
 gate. In 1616 the books were moved out 
 of this Library to a room over the Kitchen, 
 and in the succeeding year the Master and 
 Fellows wrote to the Countess of Shrews- 
 bury to intimate their intention of building 
 a Library, and hinting at the possibility of 
 her aid in the scheme. The answer of the 
 Countess, if there was one, has not been 
 preserved. In the year 1623, Valentine 
 Carey, Bishop of Exeter, and a former 
 Fellow, wrote announcing that an un- 
 named person had promised 1200 towards 
 a Library. After some little time Lord 
 Keeper Williams disclosed himself as the 
 donor, and some further advances were 
 promised. The Library was commenced 
 in 1623, and the books finally placed in 
 it in 1628. The style of the building is 
 Jacobean Gothic, and its interior, with the 
 whitewashed walls and dark oak roof and 
 bookcases, is singularly striking. John 
 Evelyn visited it while at Cambridge in 
 1654, and describes it as " the fairest of that 
 University"; after 250 years the descrip- 
 tion still holds good. 
 
 The upper part of the Library has been 
 little altered since it was built. The inter- 
 mediate (or lower) cases were heightened 
 to the extent of one shelf for folios when 
 Thomas Baker left his books to the College ; 
 but two, one on either hand next the door, 
 retain their original dimensions, with the 
 sloping tops to be used as reading-desks. 
 28
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 At the end of each of the taller cases, in 
 small compartments with doors, are class 
 catalogues written about 1685. These 
 catalogues have been pasted over original 
 catalogues written about 1640; small por- 
 tions of the earlier catalogues are yet to be 
 seen in some of the cases. Of the trea- 
 sures in manuscript and print only a slight 
 account can be given here. One of the 
 most interesting to members of the College 
 is the following note by John Couch 
 Adams : 
 
 "1841 July 3. Formed a design, in the 
 beginning of this week, of investigating, as 
 soon as possible after taking my degree, the 
 irregularities in the motion of Uranus, wh. 
 are yet unaccounted for ; in order to find 
 whether they may be attributed to the action 
 of an undiscovered planet beyond it ; and if 
 possible thence to determine the elements 
 of its orbit, &c. approximately, wh. w d . pro- 
 bably lead to its discovery." 
 
 The original memorandum is bound up in 
 a volume containing the mathematical cal- 
 culations by which Adams carried out his 
 design and discovered the planet Neptune. 
 
 Lord Keeper Williams, who was instru- 
 mental in building the Library, presented to 
 it many books; amongst others, the Bible 
 known as Cromwell's Bible. Thomas 
 Cromwell employed Miles Coverdale to 
 revise existing translations, and this Bible 
 was printed partly in Paris and partly in 
 London, "and finished in Aprill, A.D. I53Q." 
 Two copies were printed on vellum one for 
 29
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 King Henry VIII., the other for Thomas, 
 Lord Cromwell, his Vicar-General. This 
 College copy is believed to be that presented 
 to Cromwell, and is now unique, the other 
 copy having disappeared from the Royal 
 Library ; the volume is beautifully illus- 
 trated, and has been described as "the 
 finest book in vellum that exists." 
 
 One of the show-cases in the centre 
 contains the service-book which King 
 Charles I. held in his hand at his corona- 
 tion, and the book used by Laud on the 
 same occasion, with a note in Laud's hand- 
 writing : "The daye was verye faire, and 
 ye ceremony was performed w th out any 
 Interruption, and in verye good order." 
 The same case contains the mortuary roll 
 of Amphelissa, Prioress of Lillechurch in 
 Kent, who died in 1299. The nuns of the 
 priory announce her death, commemorate 
 her virtues, and ask the benefit of the 
 prayers of the faithful for her soul. The 
 roll consists of nineteen sheets of parch- 
 ment stitched together ; its length is 39 ft. 
 3 in., and its average width is about 7 in. 
 There are in all 372 entries of the ecclesi- 
 astical houses visited by the roll- bearer for 
 the purpose of gaining prayers for the soul 
 of Amphelissa. The roll-bearer visited 
 nearly all parts of England : there are 
 entries by nouses at Bodmin and Laun- 
 ceston in Cornwall ; at Dunfermline and 
 St. Andrews in Scotland ; each house 
 granting the benefit of its prayers, and 
 
 3
 
 SOME INTERIORS 
 
 concluding in each case with the formula, 
 " Oravimus pro vestris : orate pro nostris" As 
 a collection of contemporary handwritings, 
 such a document has great value; and it is 
 interesting to note that in 600 years the 
 roll has had only two owners, the Priory 
 of Lillechurch and the College, which 
 succeeded to its possession. 
 
 In this case there is also an IOU of 
 King Charles II. : "I do acknowledge to 
 have received the summe of one hundred 
 pounds, by the direction of Mr. B., Brus- 
 selles the first of April 1660. CHARLES R." 
 The "Mr. B. " was John Barwick, a 
 Fellow of the College, afterwards Dean of 
 St. Paul's. The date seems to indicate that 
 the money was advanced to enable Charles 
 to return to England for the Restoration. 
 
 In the other show-case there is a very 
 curious Irish Psalter of the eighth century, 
 with crude drawings. Its value is much 
 increased by the fact that the Latin text is 
 interlined throughout with glosses in the 
 Irish dialect. 
 
 Of printed books one of the choicest is 
 a very fine Caxton, "The Boke of Tulle of 
 old age ; Tullius his book of Friendship." 
 The volume contains the autograph of 
 Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentary Gene- 
 ral, who entered the College in 1626. It 
 was presented to the College by Dr. New- 
 come, Master from 1735 to 1765. To Dr. 
 Newcome the College owes a very fine 
 collection of early printed classics ; among 
 
 3 1
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 these is a copy of Ovid, printed by Jacobus 
 Rubaeus at Venice in 1474; this was 
 formerly in the possession of Lorenzo de 
 Medicis. 
 
 Dr. Newcome and Thomas Baker share 
 between them the distinction of having 
 added many of the chief glories of the 
 Library. Matthew Prior, the poet, a 
 Fellow of the College, presented his own 
 works and many interesting French and 
 Italian works on history. There is also a 
 presentation copy from Wordsworth of his 
 poems. 
 
 The Kitchen. 
 
 The Kitchen (opposite to the Hall) may 
 sometimes be visited when the daily routine 
 permits. The whole has been recently 
 modernised, and a picturesque open fire 
 with rotating spits done away with. To 
 gain more air-space it was necessary to 
 incorporate in the Kitchen some rooms in 
 the floor above. One of these was the set 
 occupied during his College life by the poet 
 Wordsworth, and the fact is commemo- 
 rated by a stained-glass window.
 
 THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN 
 
 CIRCA 1135-1511 
 
 ST. John's College, as we know it, was 
 founded in 1511, and opened in 1516. 
 But at the time of its foundation it took 
 over the buildings and property, and many 
 of the duties, of an earlier and then a vene- 
 rable foundation, that of the Hospital of 
 St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge. The 
 origin of the old house is obscure, and its 
 earlier history lost, but it seems to have 
 been founded about 1135 by Henry Frost, 
 a burgess of Cambridge. It consisted of a 
 small community of Augustinian canons ; 
 its site was described about 140 years later 
 as "a very poor and waste place of the 
 commonalty of Cambridge." 
 
 Whatever its early history and endow- 
 ments may have been, it formed a nucleus 
 for further gifts ; and its chartulary, still in 
 the possession of St. John's College, shows 
 a continuous series of benefactions to the 
 old house. . 
 
 Founded before the University existed, 
 the brethren were occupied with their re- 
 ligious duties, and with the care of the poor 
 and sick who sought their help. An Infir- 
 35
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 mary, part of which was adapted for wor- 
 ship, was built. In the thirteenth century a 
 chapel was added, afterwards adapted as the 
 College Chapel, and used as such down to 
 1869. 
 
 Of the domestic buildings practically 
 nothing is known. When some years ago 
 trenches were dug to lay the electric cables 
 for the lighting of the Hall, some traces of a 
 pavement of red tiles were found near the 
 entrance gate of the College. 
 
 The Hospital had the opportunity of be- 
 coming the earliest College in Cambridge. 
 Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, obtained 
 in 1280 a licence from King Edward I. 
 to introduce a certain number of scholars 
 of the University into the Hospital, to 
 be governed according to the rules of the 
 scholars of Merton. The regular canons 
 and the scholars were to form one body and 
 one College. The Bishop gave additional 
 endowments to provide for the scholars, but 
 the scheme was a failure. Thomas Baker, 
 the historian of the College, suggests that 
 " the scholars were overwise and the breth- 
 ren over good." All we do know is that 
 both were eager to part company. The 
 Bishop accordingly removed the scholars in 
 1284 to his College of Peterhouse, now 
 known as the oldest College in Cambridge. 
 His endowments were transferred with the 
 scholars, and perhaps something besides, for 
 shortly afterwards the brethren complained 
 of their losses. It was then decreed that 
 36
 
 THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN 
 
 Petefhouse should pay twenty shillings 
 annually to the Hospital, an acknowledg- 
 ment of seniority still made by Peterhouse 
 to St. John's College. 
 
 For another two hundred years the 
 Hospital went on, not however forgetting 
 its temporary dignity, and occasionally de- 
 scribing itself, in leases of its property, as 
 the College of St. John. 
 
 Towards the end of the fifteenth, or 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, the old 
 house seems to have fallen into bad ways. 
 The brethren were accused of having 
 squandered its belongings, of having granted 
 improvident leases, of having even sold the 
 holy vessels of their Chapel. 
 
 At this juncture the Lady Margaret came 
 to the rescue. She had already founded 
 Christ's College in Cambridge, and in- 
 tended to still further endow the wealthy 
 Abbey of Westminster. Her religious ad- 
 viser, John Fisher, sometime Master of 
 Michael-House and President of Queens' 
 College in Cambridge, then Bishop of 
 Rochester and Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, persuaded her to bestow further 
 gifts on Cambridge, suggesting the Hos- 
 pital of St. John as the basis for the new 
 College. The then Bishop of Ely, James 
 Stanley, was her stepson, and in 1507 an 
 agreement was entered into with him for 
 the suppression of the Hospital and the 
 foundation of the College, the Lady Mar- 
 garet undertaking to obtain the requisite 
 
 37
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Bull from the Pope, and the licence of the 
 King. Before this could be carried out 
 King Henry VII. died, 2ist April 1509, 
 and the Lady Margaret on the 2Qth June 
 following. 
 
 By her will she had set aside lands to 
 the annual value of 400 for the new Col- 
 lege ; but innumerable difficulties sprang up. 
 King Henry VIII. was not sympathetic; 
 the Bishop of Ely raised difficulties ; the 
 Lady Margaret's own household claimed 
 part of her goods. Fisher has left a quaintly 
 worded and touching memorandum of the 
 difficulties he experienced, but he never 
 despaired. He ultimately got the licence 
 of the King, the requisite Papal Bull, and 
 the consent of the Bishop of Ely. From 
 a letter to Fisher, still preserved in the 
 College, it appears that the " Brethren, late 
 of St. John's House, departed from Cam- 
 bridge toward Ely the I2th day of March 
 (1510-11) at four of the clokke at after- 
 none, by water." 
 
 All facts which have been preserved show 
 Fisher to have been the real moving spirit 
 to have been the founder in effect, if not in 
 name, and the College from the first has 
 always linked his name with that of the 
 foundress. Of the foundress' estates only 
 one small farm, at Fordham, in Cambridge- 
 shire, came to the College, and that because 
 it was charged with the payment of her 
 debts. What did come was part of what 
 would now be called her personal estate 
 
 38
 
 THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN 
 
 moneys she had out on loan, and what 
 could be realised from the sale of her plate 
 and jewels, the furniture and hangings of 
 her various mansions. Rough priced-lists of 
 these, probably handed over by Fisher, are 
 preserved in College. 
 
 One personal relic, a manuscript Book of 
 Hours, which belonged to her, was in 1902 
 presented to the Library by Dr. Alexander 
 Peckover, Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridge- 
 shire. 
 
 39
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 1511-1612 
 
 THE Hospital being closed, the way 
 was cleared for the new College. 
 The Charter, signed by the Executors of 
 the Lady Margaret, is dated gth April 1511; 
 in this Robert Shorten is named as Master. 
 He held office until on 2gth July 1516 the 
 College was opened, when Alan Percy, 
 of the Northumberland House, succeeded. 
 He again was succeeded in 1518 by 
 Nicholas Metcalfe, a member of the Met- 
 calfe family of Nappa Hall, in Wensley- 
 dale. Metcalfe had been Archdeacon of 
 Rochester, and was no doubt well known 
 to Fisher as Bishop of that Diocese. 
 
 The building of the College commenced 
 under Shorton, but was not finished until 
 about 1520. 
 
 It must be remembered that the College 
 was founded before the Reformation, and 
 that these three Masters were priests of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 Metcalfe was more of an administrator 
 than a student, and his energies were chiefly 
 devoted to the material side of the Col- 
 lege interests. Fresh endowments were 
 40
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 obtained in place of those which had been 
 lost. King Henry VIII. was persuaded 
 to hand over to the College the estates 
 
 THE OLD BRIDGE 
 
 ot three decayed religious houses the 
 Maison Dieu at Ospringe, the Nunnery of 
 Lillechurch in Higham, both in Kent, and 
 the Nunnery of Broomhall in Berkshire.
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 As these houses, as well as the Hospital, 
 had allowed their affairs to fall into dis- 
 order, it is probable that the identification 
 of their lands, and the reduction of these 
 to effective possession, was a matter of some 
 difficulty. Metcalfe was much absent from 
 College ; the accounts of his private ex- 
 penditure on these journeys have survived, 
 and letters to him from the College during 
 his absences show that his skill and wisdom 
 were much relied on. 
 
 Fisher also gave largely to the College, 
 and through his example and influence 
 others were induced to endow fellowships 
 and scholarships. He gave three successive 
 codes of statutes for the government of the 
 College in 1516, 1524, and 1530. These 
 present no novel features, being for the 
 most part based on existing statutes of 
 Colleges at Oxford or Cambridge. They 
 are long, and, as the fashion then was, lay 
 down many rules with regard to minor 
 matters. A few of the leading provisions 
 may be given. One scholar was to be 
 Chapel clerk, to assist the sacrist at Mass ; 
 another was to ring the great bell at 4 A.M., 
 as was done before the College was founded, 
 and again at 8 P.M., when the gates were 
 closed ; another was to be clock-keeper. 
 These three scholars were to be exempt 
 from all other domestic duties, except that 
 of reading the Bible in time of plague. 
 Seven scholars were told off to serve as 
 waiters in Hall, to bring in and remove the 
 42
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 food ^and dishes ; an eighth was to read the 
 Bible in Hall while the Society were at 
 dinner. When in honour of God, or the 
 Saints, a fire was made up in Hall, the 
 Fellows, scholars, and servants might stay 
 to amuse themselves with singing and re- 
 peating poetry and tales. The Master, 
 Fellows, and scholars were to wear clerical 
 dress ; red, white, green, or parti-coloured 
 boots were forbidden. 
 
 One-fourth part of the Fellows were 
 always to be engaged in preaching to the 
 people in English ; Bachelors of Divinity, 
 preaching at Paul's Cross, were to be al- 
 lowed ten days of absence for each sermon. 
 No arms were to be borne, though archery 
 was allowed as a recreation. No Fellow or 
 scholar was allowed to keep hounds, ferrets, 
 hawks, or singing-birds in College. The 
 weekly allowance for commons was is. 
 for the Master and each Fellow, jd. for 
 each scholar. The President or Bursar 
 was to receive a stipend of 405. a year, a 
 Dean 265. 8d. No one under the standing 
 of a Doctor of Divinity was to have a 
 separate room ; Fellows and scholars were 
 to sleep singly, or not more than two in a 
 bed. Each room was to have two beds the 
 higher for the Fellow, the lower or truckle- 
 bed for the scholar ; the truckle-bed being 
 tucked under the other during the day. 
 
 The College made an excellent start, and 
 was soon full of earnest and successful 
 students. It is sufficient to mention the 
 
 43
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 names of Sir John Cheke, the famous Greek 
 scholar ; of Roger Ascham, the tutor of 
 Queen Elizabeth ; and, in another sphere, 
 William Cecil, first Lord Burghley, to give 
 an idea of the influence the College was 
 spreading through her sons. 
 
 In all this Metcalfe had his share. He 
 is the "Good Master of a College" in 
 Fuller's Holy State^ where we read : " Grant 
 that Metcalfe with Themistocles could not 
 fiddle, yet he could make a little city a 
 great one." And Ascham in The Schole- 
 master writes of him : " His goodnes stood 
 not still in one or two, but flowed abound- 
 antlie over all that Colledge, and brake out 
 also to norishe good wittes in every part 
 of that universitie ; whereby at his depart- 
 ing thence, he left soch a companie of 
 fellowes and scholers in S. Johnes Colledge 
 as can scarce be found now in som whole 
 universitie : which either for divinitie on 
 the one side or other, or for civill service 
 to their Prince and contrie, have bene, and 
 are yet to this day, notable ornaments to 
 this whole Realme. Yea S. Johnes did 
 then so florish, as Trinitie College, that 
 princely house now, at the first erection 
 was but Colonia deducta out of S. Johnes, 
 not onelie for their Master, fellowes and 
 scholers, but also, which is more, for their 
 whole both order of learning, and discipline 
 of maners ; and yet to this day it never 
 tooke Master but such as was bred up 
 before in S. Johnes ; doing the dewtie of a 
 44
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 good'co/onia to her metropolis, as the auncient 
 cities in Greice, and some yet in Italic at 
 this time are accustomed to do." 
 
 But troubles were in store both for Fisher 
 and Metcalfe. The Reformation, the divorce 
 of Henry VIII. from Queen Catherine, the 
 Act of Succession, and the sovereign's views 
 on the royal supremacy, were the stumbling- 
 blocks. Fisher went to the Tower, and on 
 22nd June 1535, to the scaffold ; Metcalfe 
 was compelled to resign in 1537. 
 
 Fisher had by deed of gift presented his 
 library to the College, but retained its use 
 for his lifetime the greatest loan of books 
 on record, as has been said. This magni- 
 ficent collection was now lost, a loss more 
 lamentable than that of the foundress' 
 estates. Endowments might be replaced, 
 but " the notablest library of bookes in all 
 England " was gone for ever. It is to the 
 credit of the Fellows of the College that, 
 no doubt at some risk to themselves, they 
 stood by Fisher. They visited him in his 
 prison, and in a nobly worded letter stated 
 that as they owed everything to his bounty, 
 so they offered themselves and all they were 
 masters of to his service. 
 
 In 1545 King Henry VIII. gave new 
 statutes to the College, adapted to the re- 
 formed religion ; but all mention of Fisher 
 and his endowments is cut out ; thfle Col- 
 lege even had to pay 3d. for removing his 
 armorial bearings from the Chapel. 
 
 During the reign of King Edward VI. 
 45
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 the outspoken and eloquent Thomas Leaver 
 was Master ; on the accession of Queen 
 Mary he, with many of the Fellows, had 
 to fly to Switzerland. In Ascham's words : 
 " mo perfite scholers were dispersed from 
 thence in one moneth, than many years can 
 reare up againe." 
 
 The reign of Queen Mary did not extend 
 over much more than five years, but while 
 it lasted a resolute and unflinching effort 
 was made to re-establish the Roman Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 The accession of Queen Elizabeth re- 
 sulted in an equally rapid and fundamental 
 revolution of opinion on the most vital 
 points which can interest mankind. A few 
 selected extracts from the College Account 
 Books for this period bring before us, with 
 almost dramatic effect, the changes which 
 occurred. (Queen Mary succeeded in 
 1553, Queen Elizabeth on iyth November 
 1558.) 
 
 " I 555> To the joyner for setting up the 
 rood, id. ; A new graell printed in parch- 
 ment 40*. ; 1556, In Spanish money given 
 to the goldsmyth by Mr Willan to make 
 a pixe to the highe Aultar, 24.5. lid. ; A 
 redde purple velvet cope, with the border of 
 imagrie, having the assumption of our Ladie 
 behinde and three little angels about her 
 and the greater being full of floure de luces, 
 4.6s. &d. ; 1557, To William Allom for two 
 antiphoners, one masse book and hymnal 
 and processioners 6 13*. 4^." 
 46
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 " 1558, To John Waller and his man for 
 a dayes working pulling down the hye Altar 
 and carrying it away 2od. ; For pulling down 
 the aulter in Mr Ashton's Chapel 6^. ; 1563, 
 Received for certain old Albes and other 
 popishe Trashe, sold out of the Revystry 
 the last yere, 26;. lod. ; Paid to Mr Baxter 
 for ten Geneva psalters and six service 
 psalters, bought at Christmas last, 225." 
 
 This last entry gives us the key to the 
 troubles at St. John's ; the Marian exiles 
 had returned with strong Calvinistic lean- 
 ings. The unrest was, of course, not 
 confined to St. John's, but was general 
 throughout the University. But for the 
 greater part of the reign of Elizabeth there 
 was a strong leaning toward Puritanism in 
 the College. There was a rapid succession 
 of Masters, most of whom were thrust on 
 the College by Court influence ; and about 
 this time the Fellows of St. John's acquired 
 the reputation of being " cunning practi- 
 tioners " in the art of getting rid of unpopular 
 Masters. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge in 
 August 1564, and was received with all 
 honour. She rode into the Hall of St. 
 John's on her palfrey and listened to a 
 speech from Mr. Humphrey Bohun, one 
 of the Fellows, in which for the last time 
 the restitution of the Lady Margaret's 
 estates was hinted at, without result. 
 
 Richard Longworth, a man of Presby- 
 terian sympathies, was at this time Master. 
 47
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 In 1565 he, with the Fellows and scholars, 
 appeared in Chapel without the surplice. 
 Lord. Burghley, ns Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, wrote a sharply worded letter to 
 Longworth, expressing his grief that such 
 a thing should happen in " my dear College 
 of St. John's " ; adding, " truly no mishap in 
 all my service did ever plunge me more 
 grievously." 
 
 Fortunately affairs were in strong and 
 capable hands. With the authority and in 
 the name of Queen Elizabeth, Whitgift, 
 at this time Master of Trinity, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cecil pro- 
 vided new statutes for the University in 
 1570, and for St. John's in 1580. By 
 these much more power was put in the 
 hands of the Master, and government 
 rendered easier to a resolute man. 
 
 Matters improved, if not at once, at least 
 gradually, and the Anglican rule became 
 firmly established. But during the master- 
 ship of William Whitaker (1586-1595) 
 we still hear of troubles with " Papists." 
 Whitaker was a learned scholar and an 
 acute theologian, but he does not seem to 
 have been a ruler of men or a judge of 
 character. He got involved in an unfortu- 
 nate dispute with Everard Digby, one of 
 the Fellows, a man of considerable literary 
 reputation, but of a turbulent disposition. 
 Whitaker, who clearly wanted to get rid 
 of Digby, seized upon the pretext that 
 his bill for a month's commons, amounting 
 48
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 to 8s. 7^d., was left unpaid, and deprived 
 Digby of his fellowship. An appeal was 
 lodged with Whitgift and Cecil, who ordered 
 Whitaker to reinstate Digby. Whitaker 
 replied that Digby was a Papist, was wont 
 to blow a horn in the Courts and to holloa 
 after it, and that he had threatened to put 
 the President in the stocks ! He seems to 
 have succeeded in getting rid of Digby for 
 good. 
 
 On the death of Whitaker in 1595, 
 Richard Clayton became Master. If not 
 a brilliant scholar, he commanded respect, 
 and the tenor of many letters which have 
 come down from that time shows that the 
 Fellows in residence were on good terms 
 with each other, and with those of the 
 Society who had gone out into the world. 
 The College was prosperous, and the build- 
 ing of the Second Court was the visible 
 sign of returned efficiency. Clayton lived 
 on into the reign of King James L, dying 
 2nd May 1612 ; besides being Master of St. 
 John's, he was also Dean of Peterborough 
 and a Prebendary of Lincoln. 
 
 During this period the College enjoyed a 
 considerable reputation as a training ground 
 for medical men. Thomas Linacre, phy- 
 sician to Henry VIII., founded in 1534 a 
 medical lectureship in the College, endow- 
 ing it with some property in London. 
 The stipend of the lecturer was to be 1 2 
 a year, no mean sum in these days being, in 
 fact, the same as the statutable stipend of 
 49 D
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 the Master. In the Elizabethan statutes 
 special and detailed provisions are made for 
 the continuance of the lectureship. These 
 lay down that the lecturer must be versed 
 in the works of Aristotle, and that he should 
 lecture on the works of Galen, which 
 Linacre had translated. The effect of the 
 foundation was to attract a number of 
 medical students to the College, many of 
 whom seem to have obtained fellowships, 
 for we find the Fellows petitioning Queen 
 Elizabeth, while her code of statutes was 
 under consideration, that Divines should be 
 preferred to Physicians in the election of 
 Senior Fellows ; otherwise, they submitted, 
 an undue proportion of Physicians would 
 get on the seniority and rule the College. 
 Further, they asked that the medical 
 Fellows, as some return for their privi- 
 leges, should attend on poor students free 
 of charge. That the College school of 
 medicine was a noted one is confirmed by 
 the fact that three successive Presidents of 
 the Royal College of Physicians were Fel- 
 lows of St. John's: Richard Smith (1585- 
 1589), William Baronsdale (1589-1600), 
 and William Gilbert (1600-1601). Smith 
 and Gilbert were physicians to Queen 
 Elizabeth ; Baronsdale and Gilbert had 
 been Senior Bursars of the College. Of 
 these Gilbert is the most celebrated ; his 
 treatise, De Magnete, is a scientific classic. 
 Galileo spoke of Gilbert as " great to a 
 degree which might be envied." Francis 
 50
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY 
 
 Bacon mentions the book with applause, 
 and Hallam describes Gilbert as "at once 
 the father of experimental philosophy in 
 this island, and by a singular felicity and 
 acuteness of genius, the founder of theories 
 which have been revived after the lapse of 
 ages, and are almost universally received 
 into the creed of science." Gilbert, who 
 always signs his name Gilberd or Gylberd 
 in the College books, was Senior Bursar of 
 the College in 1569, and President in the 
 succeeding year. 
 
 Amongst others who have held the Lin- 
 acre lectureship, and attained to scientific 
 distinction, was Henry Briggs, who was 
 appointed lecturer in 1592. He afterwards 
 became Gresham Professor of Geometry 
 and Savilian Professor at Oxford. He 
 took up Napier's discovery of logarithms ; 
 the idea of tables of logarithims having 10 
 for their base, and the calculation of the 
 first table of the kind, is due to him.
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 1612-1716 
 
 THE second century of the College his- 
 tory opened quietly. Owen Gwyn 
 was elected Master by the choice of the 
 Fellows ; John Williams, then a Fellow, 
 afterwards Lord Keeper, Dean of West- 
 minster, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop 
 of York, exerting himself on Gwyn's behalf. 
 It appears that Williams in after years re- 
 pented of the choice, and Thomas Baker, the 
 historian of the College, speaks slightingly 
 of Gwyn. Still, under his rule the College 
 flourished, and Williams himself marked the 
 period by providing the greater part of the 
 funds for the new Library. 
 
 King James I. and Prince Charles (after- 
 wards Charles I.) frequently visited the 
 University ; James holding his Court at 
 Trinity, but being entertained at St. John's. 
 On one of these occasions, comparing the 
 great Court of Trinity with the two then 
 existing Courts of St. John's, he is said to 
 have remarked that there was no greater 
 difference between the two Societies than 
 between a shilling and two sixpences. 
 
 With the advent of the Stuart kings the 
 52
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 practice arose of sending mandatory letters 
 to Colleges, directing the election of named 
 persons to fellowships. In theory it may 
 have been correct enough ; the statutes 
 as enacted by Queen Elizabeth reserved 
 to herself and her successors the power 
 of rescinding or altering them. To direct 
 that the statutory provisions as to elections 
 should be dispensed with in favour of an 
 individual was thus within the sovereign's 
 power, however inconvenient it might prove 
 in practice. One of the special grievances 
 at St. John's was that King James directed 
 the College to elect a Scotchman, George 
 Seaton, M.A., to a fellowship, though there 
 was none then actually vacant. The College 
 obeyed, informing his Majesty that they 
 had made their statutes wink to fulfil his 
 bidding, and maintained an extra Fellow for 
 a time. The practice was, however, fol- 
 lowed by others ; and Gwyn seems to have 
 been deluged with letters from persons in 
 high places, begging for his favour at elec- 
 tions. At some Colleges the device of 
 " pre-elections " seems to have been resorted 
 to ; a promising man being elected to the 
 next fellowship which should be vacant. 
 Thus, when the vacancy became known, 
 the College could, with a clear conscience, 
 say that it had been already filled up ; there 
 is, however, no trace of this practice at 
 St. John's. 
 
 On Gwyn's death in 1633 there was a 
 disputed election to the mastership, which 
 
 55
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Charles I. settled by nominating William 
 Beale. Beale was originally a Trinity man, 
 but had been for about a year Master of 
 Jesus. He was a supporter of Laud ; he em- 
 bellished the Chapel, and introduced a more 
 ornate ritual ; under his influence St. John's 
 seems to have been the only College at 
 Cambridge which fully complied with Laud's 
 instructions. Thus when the Puritans got 
 the upper hand, Beale and his College were 
 the subject of their displeasure. 
 
 In 1642 King Charles applied to the 
 University for supplies. The contribution 
 of St. John's was 150 in money and 2065 
 ounces " grocers weight " of silver plate. 
 The list of the pieces of plate and of the 
 donors' names is but melancholy reading ; 
 suffice it to say that among those sent were 
 pieces bearing the names of Thomas Went- 
 worth, Lord Strafford, and of Thomas 
 Fairfax. The fact that this plate actually 
 reached the King did not endear the College 
 to the parliamentary party. Oliver Crom- 
 well surrounded the College, took Dr. Beale 
 a prisoner, and, to equalise matters, con- 
 fiscated the communion plate and other 
 valuables. 
 
 Beale, after some imprisonment and wan- 
 dering, escaped from England and became 
 chaplain to Lord Cottington and Sir Edward 
 Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) in their 
 embassy to Spain ; he died at Madrid, and 
 was there secretly buried. A number of 
 the Fellows were also ejected, and for some 
 56
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 time'the College was used as a prison. The 
 Chapel was stripped of the obnoxious orna- 
 ments, and other damage done. A little 
 bundle of papers labelled " Receipts for 
 Army taxes during the Commonwealth " 
 still reposes, as a memento of these days, in 
 the Muniment Room. 
 
 St. John's, which dabbled in Presbyterian 
 doctrines during the days of Elizabeth, now 
 had these imposed upon it by superior 
 authority. The two Commonwealth 
 Masters, John Arrowsmith (1644-1653) and 
 Anthony Tuckney (1653-1661), were able 
 men of Puritan austerity, the rule of the 
 latter being the more strict ; judging from 
 the after careers of its members, the College 
 was certainly capably directed. A well- 
 authenticated College tradition relates that 
 when, at an election, the President called 
 upon the Master to have regard to the 
 " godly," Tuckney replied that no one 
 showed greater regard for the truly godly 
 than himself, but that he was determined 
 to choose none but scholars ; adding, with 
 practical wisdom, "They may deceive me 
 in their godliness ; they cannot in their 
 scholarship." 
 
 On the Restoration, Dr. Peter Gunning, 
 afterwards Bishop of Ely, was made Master ; 
 and the Earl of Manchester, who, as an 
 officer of the Parliament, was the means of 
 ejecting many of the Fellows, now directed 
 that some of them should be restored to 
 their places. An interesting College custom 
 
 57
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 dates from this period : on the 2gth of 
 May in each year the College butler deco- 
 rates the Hall and Kitchen with fresh oak 
 boughs; there is no order to that effect, but 
 " it has always been done." 
 
 The rest of this century of the College 
 existence, with the exception of one exciting 
 
 THE COLLEGE ARMS 
 
 event, passed quietly enough. Such troubles 
 as there were in College were but eddies of 
 the storms in the world outside. Of the 
 " seven Bishops " sent to the Tower by 
 King James II. in 1688, three were of St. 
 John's : Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely 
 (who had been Master of the College 
 from 1670 to 1679) ; John Lake, Bishop of 
 58
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 
 
 Chichester ; and Thomas White, Bishop 
 of Peterborough. 
 
 The event of College interest was the 
 fate of the nonjuring Fellows. The Non- 
 jurors were those who, on various grounds, 
 honourable enough, declined to take the 
 oath of allegiance to King William and 
 Queen Mary. Under the law they were 
 liable to be deprived of their places and 
 emoluments. At St. John's twenty Fellows 
 and eight scholars took up the nonjuring 
 position. In the rest of the University 
 there were but fourteen in all, and the 
 same number at the University of Oxford. 
 No explanation seems to be forthcoming as 
 to why there was this preponderance of 
 opinion at St. John's. It is difficult to be- 
 lieve that it was enthusiasm for the cause 
 of James II. ; for when in 1687 that King 
 directed the University to admit Father 
 Alban Francis, a Benedictine monk, to the 
 degree of M.A. without making the sub- 
 scription or taking the oaths required for a 
 degree, Thomas Smoult and John Billers, 
 members of the College (the latter after- 
 wards a Nonjuror), maintained the right of 
 the University to refuse the degree before 
 the notorious Judge Jeffreys, after the Vice- 
 Chancellor and Isaac Newton had been 
 silenced. 
 
 Humphrey Gower was at this time 
 Master of the College ; he was of Puritan 
 origin, and entered the College during the 
 Commonwealth. After the Restoration he 
 
 59
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 joined the Church of England, and though 
 his sympathies were with the Nonjurors, 
 he took the oaths and retained his master- 
 ship after the flight of King James. He had 
 been for less than six months Master of 
 Jesus before becoming Master of St. John's. 
 Abraham de la Pryme, a member of St. 
 John's, has handed down an irreverent jest 
 on his appointment. " Our master, they 
 say, is a mighty, high, proud man. . . . He 
 came from Jesus College to be master here, 
 and he was so sevear that he was commonly 
 called the divel of Jesus ; and when he was 
 made master here some unlucky scholars 
 broke this jest upon him that now the divel 
 was entered into the heard of swine ; for us 
 Johnians are abusively called hoggs." 
 
 In 1693 the Court of King's Bench issued 
 a mandamus calling upon Gower to remove 
 those Fellows who had not taken the oath. 
 Defence upon the merits of the case there 
 was none ; but Gower or his legal advisers 
 opposed the mandate with great skill on 
 technical points, and after much litigation 
 the Court had to admit that its procedure 
 was irregular, and the matter dropped for 
 some twenty-four years. During this period 
 some of the Fellows in question died, others 
 ceded their fellowships owing to the com- 
 bined action of the general law and the 
 College statutes. Under the latter Fellows 
 were bound, when of proper standing, to 
 proceed to the B.D. degree, but the oath 
 of allegiance was required of those who took 
 60
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 the degree, and so fellowships were forfeited. 
 Thomas Baker, the historian, who was one 
 of the Nonjurors, had taken the B.D. degree 
 before 1688, so this cause did not operate 
 in his case. But on the accession of King 
 George I., an abjuration oath was required, 
 and the meshes of the net being now smaller, 
 the then Master, Dr. Jenkin, had no other 
 course but to eject Baker and others. The 
 College did all it could to soften the blow, 
 and allowed Baker to reside in College until 
 his death in 1740. He worked unweariedly 
 at his manuscript collections and at the 
 history of the College. The latter was 
 first published in 1869, under the editorship 
 of Professor John E. B. Mayor ; with the 
 editor's additions it forms a record of a 
 College such as almost no other foundation 
 can show. Baker's learning and accuracy 
 are undoubted ; but it may be permitted 
 (even to a member of his College) to hint 
 that Baker's judgments are a little severe, 
 and his views somewhat narrow. 
 
 One notable improvement in the College 
 records dates from this century. In early 
 days no record was made of the names of 
 those who joined the College. The statutes 
 of King Henry VIII. enjoined that a register 
 should be kept of all those admitted to 
 scholarships and fellowships or College 
 offices. This was begun in 1545, and has 
 been continued to the present time. The 
 entries of scholars and Fellows are in the 
 autograph of those admitted, and if they 
 61
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 possessed no other interest, have that of 
 providing numerous examples of contem- 
 porary handwriting. But of those not 
 admitted on the foundation, or of those 
 admitted prior to 1545, there is no official 
 College record. 
 
 Dr. Owen Gwyn and the seniors of his 
 day passed a rule that " the register of the 
 College should have a book provided him 
 wherein he should from time to time write 
 and register the names, parents, county, 
 school, age, and tutor of every one to be 
 admitted to the College." This was com- 
 menced in January 1629-30, and has been 
 continued, with varying care and exactness, 
 ever since. It seems probable that the 
 initiative in this matter was due to Gwyn, 
 as few Masters have so carefully preserved 
 their official correspondence. 
 
 Just before this general register com- 
 menced, three notable men joined the 
 College : Thomas Wentworth, afterwards 
 Earl of Strafford ; Thomas Fairfax, after- 
 wards Lord Fairfax, the victor at Naseby ; 
 and Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland, who 
 fell in Newbury fight in September 1643. 
 Complimentary letters to the first and last 
 of these, with the replies, have been pre- 
 served. Falkland, in his reply, complains , 
 that of the titles given to him by the 
 College " that which I shold most willingly 
 have acknowledged and mought with most 
 justice clayme you were not pleased to 
 vouchsafe me, that of a St. John's man." 
 62
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 Of others who entered we may name : 
 Sir Ingram Hopton, son of Ralph, first 
 Baron Hopton, who entered as a Fellow 
 Commoner I2th May 1631. Sir Ingram 
 fell at the battle of Winceby, nth October 
 1643. He there unhorsed Oliver Cromwell 
 in a charge, and knocked him down again 
 as he rose, but was himself killed. 
 
 Titus Gates, " the infamous," first entered 
 at Caius 2Qth June 1667, migrating to St. 
 John's, where he entered 2nd February 
 1 668-69. Thomas Baker for once abandons 
 his decorous reticence and states of Oates : 
 " He was a lyar from the beginning, he 
 stole and cheated his taylor of a gown, 
 which he denied with horrid imprecations, 
 and afterwards at a communion, being ad- 
 monisht and advised by his Tutor, confest 
 the fact." 
 
 Matthew Prior, the poet, was both scholar 
 and Fellow of the College, holding his 
 fellowship until his death. Robert Herrick, 
 though he graduated at Trinity Hall, 
 was sometime a Fellow Commoner here. 
 Thomas Forster of Adderstone, general 
 to the " Old Pretender," and commander 
 of the Jacobite army in 1715, entered 
 the College as a Fellow Commoner 3rd 
 July 1700. Brook Taylor, well known 
 to mathematicians as the discoverer of 
 "Taylor's theorem," entered as a Fellow 
 Commoner 3rd April 1701. While David 
 Mossom of Greenwich, who entered the 
 College as a sizar 5th June 1705, after 
 63
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 being ordained, emigrated to America, 
 and became rector of St. Peter's Church, 
 New Kent County, Virginia. He was 
 the officiating clergyman at the mar- 
 riage of George Washington in St. Peter's 
 Church. 
 
 We get an amusing glimpse of the 
 importance of the Master of a Col- 
 lege in the following anecdote : " In 
 the year 1712 my old friend, Matthew 
 Prior, who was then Fellow of St. 
 John's, and who not long before had 
 been employed by the Queen as her 
 Plenipotentiary at the Court of France, 
 came to Cambridge ; and the next morn- 
 ing paid a visit to the Master of his 
 own College. The Master (Dr. Jenkin) 
 loved Mr. Prior's principles, had a great 
 opinion of his abilities, and a respect for 
 his character in the world ; but then he 
 had much greater respect for himself. He 
 knew his own dignity too well to suffer 
 a Fellow of his College to sit down in his 
 presence. He kept his seat himself, and 
 let the Queen's Ambassador stand. Such 
 was the temper, not of a Vice-Chancellor, 
 but of a simple Master of a College. I 
 remember, by the way, an extempore epi- 
 gram of Matt's on the reception he had 
 there met with. We did not reckon in 
 those days that he had a very happy turn 
 for an epigram ; but the occasion was 
 tempting ; and he struck it off as he was 
 walking from St. John's College to the 
 64
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY 
 
 Rose, "where we dined together. It was 
 addressed to the Master : 
 
 " ' I stood, Sir, patient at your feet, 
 
 Before your elbow chair ; 
 But make a bishop's throne your seat, 
 
 I'll kneel before you there. 
 One only thing can keep you down, 
 
 For your great soul too mean ; 
 You'd not, to mount a bishop's throne, 
 
 Pay homage to the Queen.' "
 
 THE THIRD CENTURY 
 1716-1815 
 
 THE third century of the College 
 history coincides roughly with the 
 .eighteenth century. It was not a period 
 of very high ideals, and " privilege " was 
 in full force. For the first time in the 
 College registers men are entered as 
 " Noblemen." These were allowed to 
 proceed to the M.A. degree direct in two 
 years without passing through the inter- 
 mediate stage of B.A. The College was 
 also full of Fellow Commoners, who sat 
 with the Fellows at the High Table in 
 Hall ; until the close of the century these 
 do not seem to have proceeded to any 
 degree. The other two classes were the 
 pensioners, who paid their way, and the 
 sizars. A sizar was definitely attached to 
 a Fellow or Fellow Commoner, and in 
 return for duties of a somewhat menial 
 character passed through his College course 
 on reduced terms. Among other duties, 
 a sizar had, with some of the scholars, to 
 wait at table, a service not abolished until 
 6th May 1786. 
 
 Speaking in general terms, the College 
 66
 
 THE CHAPEL TOWER FROM THE RIVER.
 
 THE THIRD CENTURY 
 
 seems gradually to have acquired the re- 
 putation of being the Tory College in the 
 Whig University ; it became exceedingly 
 fashionable, and towards the end of the 
 century had more students in residence 
 than any other College. At the same time 
 its reputation for efficiency was very high. 
 This was due to the policy of Dr. William 
 Samuel Powell, Master from 1765 to 
 1775. He introduced various administra- 
 tive changes on the financial side of College 
 management, and also started annual ex^ 
 aminations in the College, then a novelty 
 in the University. These examinations 
 were not very severe, and to the some- 
 what overtaxed undergraduate of the present 
 day might seem almost trivial. They were 
 not competitive, there was no order of 
 merit, but no one seems to have been 
 exempt ; their object was simply to test 
 the knowledge of the students. The suc- 
 cess of the plan attracted much attention ; 
 it was proposed to institute similar exami- 
 nations for the University at large, but 
 Powell opposed this on the ground that 
 candidates ought to be examined by those 
 who taught them. From this date it would 
 appear that Fellow Commoners, at St. 
 John's at least, began to take degrees in 
 the University. 
 
 During Powell's mastership an observa- 
 tory was established on the top of the 
 western gateway of the Second Court, and 
 regular astronomical observations taken. 
 69
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Two sets of observations there made by 
 Fellows of the College have been pub- 
 lished ; one set made by William Ludlam 
 in 1767 and 1768, the other by Thomas 
 Catton between 1796 and 1826, the latter 
 being published by the Royal Astronomical 
 Society in 1854. 
 
 We find members of the College taking 
 part in all the movements of the time. 
 In the rebellion of 1745, James Dawson, 
 a captain in the Manchester Regiment, was 
 taken prisoner at Carlisle, and executed in 
 July 1746 on Kennington Common ; while 
 Robert Ganton, afterwards a clergyman, 
 was excused one term's residence in the 
 University, during which, as one of " his 
 majesty's Royal Hunters," he was fighting 
 the rebels. 
 
 Charles Churchill, satirist, was for a short 
 time a member of the College in 1748. 
 William Wordsworth, afterwards Poet 
 Laureate, entered the College as a sizar, 
 and was admitted a foundress' scholar 
 6th November 1787. Many adopted 
 military careers ; of these we may mention 
 George, first Marquis Townshend, who 
 joined the College in 1741, afterwards 
 entered the army, and was present at 
 Fontenoy and Culloden ; he went with 
 Wolfe to Canada, and took over the 
 command when Wolfe fell. Daniel 
 Hoghton entered in 1787, he also became 
 a soldier, and was one of Wellington's 
 men in the Peninsular War ; he was killed 
 70
 
 THE THIRD CENTURY 
 
 at the battle of Albuera, being then a 
 major-general. 
 
 Of another type were William Wilber- 
 force (entered 1776) and Thomas Clarkson 
 (1779), whose names will always be asso- 
 ciated in connection with the abolition 
 of slavery. The saintly Henry Martyn, 
 Senior Wrangler in 1801 and Fellow of the 
 College, went out as a missionary to India 
 in 1805, and died at Tokat in Persia in 
 1812. There have been many missionary 
 sons of the College since his day, but his 
 self-denial greatly impressed his contem- 
 poraries, and Sir James Stephen speaks of 
 him as " the one heroic name which adorns 
 the annals of the Church of England from 
 the days of Elizabeth to our own." With 
 Martyn curiously enough is associated in 
 College annals another name, that of Henry 
 John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston, 
 sometime Prime Minister of England ; for 
 Martyn and Temple appear as officers of 
 the College company of volunteers in the 
 year 1803. 
 
 Thomas Denman, afterwards Lord Chief 
 Justice, entered the College in 1796 ; he 
 resided in the Second Court, staircase G, at 
 the top. When he brought up his son, 
 the Hon. George Denman, to Trinity he 
 pointed the rooms out to him, and the 
 latter pointed them out to the present 
 writer, "in order that the oral tradition 
 might be preserved." 
 
 Alexander John Scott, who, as private 
 7 1
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 secretary and interpreter to Lord Nelson, was 
 present on the Victory at Trafalgar, entered 
 the College in 1786, and became a scholar of 
 the College 3rd November 1789. Fletcher 
 Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons 
 from 1770 to 1780, and first Lord Grantley, 
 entered the College in 1734. With him, 
 in a way, was connected John Home 
 (afterwards Home Tooke), who entered in 
 1754 ; for Home, for purposes of his own, 
 libelled Fletcher Norton when Speaker. 
 Home Tooke's stormy career belongs rather 
 to political than College history ; but it is 
 worth noting that when he presented him- 
 self at Cambridge for the M.A. degree, 
 and the granting of this was opposed in 
 the senate on the ground that he had 
 traduced the clergy in his writings, the 
 members of St. John's, headed by Dr. 
 Richard Beadon, then Public Orator, after- 
 wards Bishop of Bath and Wells, carried 
 the grace for the degree. Home and 
 Beadon entered the College in the same 
 year. 
 
 We have already mentioned Charles 
 Churchill. Another Johnian poet of this 
 period was William Mason, who entered 
 the College in 1742. Mason afterwards 
 became a Fellow of Pembroke, where he 
 was the intimate friend of Thomas Gray. 
 As the biographer of Gray he is perhaps 
 better remembered than for his own poetry, 
 though during his lifetime he enjoyed con- 
 siderable fame. 
 
 7 2
 
 THE THIRD CENTURY 
 
 A somewhat unusual career was that of 
 William Smith, who entered the College 
 from Eton in 1747, but left without taking 
 a degree. He is reported to have snapped 
 an unloaded pistol at one of the Proctors, 
 and rather than submit to the punishment 
 which the College authorities thought proper 
 to inflict, left the University. He became 
 an actor, arid was very popular in his day, 
 being known as " Gentleman Smith." He 
 was associated with David Garrick, and 
 Smith's admirers held that he fell little 
 short of his master in the art. 
 
 The reputation of the College as a 
 medical school was maintained by Dr. 
 William Heberden, who entered in 1724. 
 Heberden attended Samuel Johnson in his 
 last illness, and Johnson described him as 
 " ultimus Romanorum, the last of our learned 
 physicians." A description which may be 
 amplified by saying that Heberden was in 
 a way the first of the modern physicians. 
 
 73
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 THE time has probably not yet come 
 when a satisfactory account of Col- 
 lege and University development during the 
 nineteenth century can be written. The 
 changes have been fundamental, involving 
 perhaps a change of ideal as well as of 
 method. In early days the College was 
 filled with men saturated with the spirit 
 of the Renaissance ; casting aside the studies 
 of the Middle Ages, they returned to the 
 literature of Greece and Rome. The ideals 
 of the present day are not less high, but 
 more complex and less easy to state briefly ; 
 the aim is perhaps rather to add to know- 
 ledge than to acquire it for its own sake 
 alone. 
 
 For the first half of the century College 
 life was still regulated by the statutes of 
 Elizabeth. These were characterised by 
 over-cautious and minute legislation. Now 
 that they are superseded, the chief feeling is' 
 one of surprise that a system of laws, in- 
 tended to be unchangeable, should have 
 endured so long in presence of the changing 
 character of the wants and habits of man- 
 kind. 
 
 74
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 It must be remembered that each member 
 of the corporate body, Master, Fellow, or 
 Scholar, on admission, each officer on his 
 appointment, bound himself by oaths of 
 great solemnity to observe these statutes 
 and to seek no dispensation from their 
 provisions. To a more logical race the 
 difficulties must have proved intolerable 
 the practical Englishman found his own 
 solution. 
 
 The forms were observed juramenti gratia, 
 but much practical work was supplemental 
 to the statutes. This could be illustrated 
 in more than one way the most interest- 
 ing is the development of the educational 
 side and the tutorial system. 
 
 The statutes prescribed the appointment 
 of certain lecturers even the subjects of 
 their lectures. Space need not be occupied 
 in showing that such provisions soon be- 
 came obsolete. The working solution was 
 found in the tutorial system. In early days 
 it was contemplated and prescribed that each 
 Fellow should have the care of two or three 
 students, living" with them, teaching them 
 daily ; the exact date when this system 
 passed away has not been traced with any 
 certainty, but gradually the number of 
 Fellows taking individual charge of the 
 undergraduates diminished until it became 
 reduced to two or three. Those in charge 
 became known as Tutors, and with each 
 Tutor was associated one or two others 
 called Assistant Tutors or Lecturers. A 
 77
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 charge was made to the undergraduates 
 for tuition, and the svim so received was 
 shared by the Tutors and their assistants. 
 But the Tutor was not a College officer 
 in the eye of the statutes, nor the money 
 received for tuition treated as part of the 
 College revenues. The system worked, be- 
 cause it was meant to work, and as it was 
 not subject to obsolete rules could be 
 modified and adapted to changing con- 
 ditions. So long as the chief subjects of 
 study were few in number, practically 
 restricted to classics and mathematics, Col- 
 lege provision for teaching was possible and 
 simple. The multiplication of studies, the 
 needs of the studies generally known as the 
 Natural Sciences, with their expensive 
 laboratories and equipment, are entailing 
 further changes, and the tendency, more 
 especially in the newer subjects, is to 
 centralise teaching under the control of 
 University professors and teachers. The 
 subject is one of great interest, but cannot 
 be further touched upon here. To return 
 to the history of St. John's. 
 
 Dr. James Wood became Master in 1815. 
 He was a man of humble origin, a native of 
 Holcombe, in the parish of Bury, Lanca- 
 shire. According to a well-authenticated 
 tradition he "kept," as an undergraduate, in 
 a garret in staircase O in the Second Court, 
 and studied in the evening by the light of 
 the rush candle which lit the staircase, with 
 his feet in straw, not being able to afford 
 78
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 fire or light. He became a successful and 
 popular College Tutor, and his mathematical 
 writings were long the standard text-books 
 in the University. At the time of his death 
 in 1839 he held, with his mastership, the 
 Deanery of Ely and the Rectory of Fresh- 
 water in the Isle of Wight. He made the 
 College his residuary legatee, but during his 
 life had handed over large sums for College 
 purposes, and the total of his gifts cannot 
 have been less than 60,000. 
 
 In Wood's time we find the first move- 
 ment in favour of change taken by the 
 College itself. St. John's then suffered 
 under a specially awkward restriction arising 
 from the joint effect of the general statutes 
 and the trusts of private foundations. By 
 the statutes not more than two Fellows 
 could come from any one county in Eng- 
 land, or more than one from each diocese 
 in Wales. 
 
 There were thirty-two foundation Fellows, 
 and twenty-one founded by private bene- 
 factors, the latter having all the privileges 
 and advantages of the former. Each of 
 these private foundations had its own special 
 restriction ; the holders were to be perhaps 
 of founder's name or kin, or to come from 
 certain specified counties, parishes, or schools. 
 The effect of these special restrictions was 
 that many fellowships had to be filled by 
 men possessing the special qualification with- 
 out, perhaps, any great intellectual distinc- 
 tion. But once a county was " full " no 
 
 79
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Fellow could be elected who had been born 
 in -that county ; and even if a vacancy 
 occurred a promising man might be again 
 cut out by some special restriction. Dr. 
 Wood and the Fellows addressed themselves 
 to this point and obtained in 1820 the Royal 
 consent to a statute throwing open the 
 foundress' fellowships without restriction as 
 to county ; the private foundations were 
 left untouched, but the College was em- 
 powered to transfer a Fellow on the found- 
 ress' foundation to one of the special 
 foundations, if qualified. 
 
 Dr. Wood was succeeded as Master by 
 Dr. Ralph Tatham, whose father and grand- 
 father (of the same names) had been members 
 of the College. He was Public Orator of 
 the University from 1809 to 1836, an office 
 for which he was well qualified by a singular 
 dignity of person and courtesy of manner. 
 " He brought forth butter," said the wags, 
 "in a lordly dish." In the year 1837 the 
 Earl of Radnor and others raised the ques- 
 tion of University reform, and tried to induce 
 the House of Lords to pass a bill for the 
 appointment of a University Commission. 
 In the end the matter was shelved, the friends 
 of the University undertaking that the Col- 
 leges, with the approval of their Visitors, 
 should prepare new statutes for the assent 
 of the Crown. The change in St. John's 
 was opposed by some ultra-conservative Fel- 
 lows, who urged that as they were bound 
 by oath to observe and uphold the statutes, 
 80
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 and to seek no dispensation from them, they 
 were precluded from asking for any change. 
 The Bishop of Ely, however, gently put this 
 objection on one side, and the statutes then 
 prepared were approved by Queen Victoria 
 in 1849. The more ardent reformers have 
 described this code as merely legalising the 
 customs and " abuses " which had grown up 
 around the Elizabethan statutes without 
 introducing any effective change. 
 
 On the death of Dr. Tatham (igth Janu- 
 ary 1857), Dr. William Henry Bateson was 
 elected Master ; he had been Senior Bursar 
 of the College from 1846, and Public Orator 
 of the University from 1848. Dr. Bateson 
 was a man of scholarly tastes, but he was 
 above all a practical man of affairs and of 
 broad views. He served on more than one 
 University Commission appointed to ex- 
 amine into and report upon the University 
 and Colleges. The College statutes were 
 twice revised during his mastership; the first 
 code becoming law in 1860, the second was 
 prepared during his lifetime, though it did 
 not become law till a year after his death. 
 These statutes are much less interesting 
 reading than the early statutes, though un- 
 doubtedly more useful. While aiming at 
 precision in the matter of rights and duties, 
 they leave great freedom in matters of study, 
 discipline, and administration. All local 
 restrictions on scholarships and fellowships 
 have been abolished. The government of 
 the College is entrusted to a Council of
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 twelve, elected by the Fellows, and presided 
 over by the Master ; a simple method has 
 been provided of altering them if necessary. 
 Independently of the changes thus intro- 
 duced the College, on its own initiative, was 
 providing for the newer studies. In 1853 
 a chemical laboratory was built, and a 
 lecturer in chemistry appointed, and other 
 lecturers appointed from time to time as the 
 scope of University teaching was widened. 
 St. John's at an early date began to elect 
 men to scholarships and fellowships for 
 Natural Science. In all this we may trace 
 the influence of Dr. Bateson, one of whose 
 guiding principles was to widen and increase 
 the teaching power of the College, and to 
 reward intellectual distinction of any kind. 
 Dr. Bateson died 2yth March 1881, and was 
 succeeded by Dr. Charles Taylor, the present 
 Master. 
 
 Of men who have added lustre to the 
 College roll of worthies we may mention 
 Sir John F. W. Herschel, the astronomer, 
 who was Senior Wrangler in 1813, and died 
 in 1871, laden with all the honours which 
 scientific and learned bodies could bestow 
 upon him ; he lies buried in Westminster 
 Abbey close to the tomb of Newton. John 
 Couch Adams, Senior Wrangler in 1843, 
 in July 1841, while yet an undergraduate, 
 resolved to investigate the irregularities in 
 the motion of the planet Uranus, with the 
 view of determining whether they might be 
 attributed to an undiscovered planet. The 
 82
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 memorandum he made of his resolve is, as 
 has been stated, now in the College Library. 
 It is a matter of history how Adams carried 
 out his purpose, and how through a series of 
 unlucky accidents he did not get the sole 
 credit for his discovery of the planet Neptune. 
 Adams became a Fellow of the College in 
 1843, but had to vacate his fellowship in 
 1852 as he was not in orders. The College 
 tried to induce a Mr. Blakeney, who then 
 held one of the very few fellowships tenable 
 by a layman, to resign his fellowship and 
 make way for Adams ; offering to pay him 
 tor the rest of his life an income equal to 
 that of his fellowship. Mr. Blakeney, how- 
 ever, refused, and a fellowship was found for 
 Mr. Adams at Pembroke College, which he 
 held till his death. 
 
 It is perhaps a delicate matter to allude to 
 those still living, but two may perhaps be 
 mentioned. The Hon. Charles A. Parsons 
 by his development of the steam turbine 
 has revolutionised certain departments of 
 engineering. Dairoku Kikuchi, the first 
 Japanese student to come to Cambridge, 
 after graduating in 1877, in the same year 
 as Mr. Parsons, returned to Japan, and has 
 held many offices, including that of Minister 
 of Education, in his native country. 
 
 We may say that the changes introduced 
 in the nineteenth century have restored to 
 the College its national character, admitting 
 to the full privileges of a University career 
 certain classes of students who had been 
 
 83
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 gradually excluded. During the reigns of 
 Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and 
 Elizabeth, there was always a part of the 
 nation, Protestant or Roman Catholic, 
 which found the entry barred to it. The 
 establishment of the Anglican rule in the 
 reign of Elizabeth led to the exclusion of 
 Roman Catholics, and for three hundred 
 years the doors of the University were 
 closed to them. 
 
 The Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, 
 and the Restoration produced religious 
 difficulties of another kind; the wholesale 
 ejections in 1644 and 1660 testify to the 
 troubles men had to face for conscience' 
 sake. After the Restoration the Puritan, 
 the Protestant Dissenter, was excluded with 
 the Romanist. 
 
 In the eighteenth century a certain 
 variety was introduced by the entry of 
 students from the West Indies, sons of 
 planters ; one or two individuals came from 
 the American colonies. The constant wars 
 drew off men to military careers, and the 
 religious movements towards the close of 
 the century attracted men, after leaving 
 College, to Unitarianism or Wesleyanism. 
 The celebrated Rowland Hill was a mem- 
 ber of the College ; Francis Okeley, after 
 leaving, became a Moravian or a Mystic. 
 Such dissenters as entered the College, and 
 they were very few, were obliged to leave 
 without graduating. 
 
 The removal of all religious tests has 
 84
 
 THE CURRENT CENTURY 
 
 thus restored to the ancient Universities a 
 national character they had not possessed 
 since the early days of Henry VIII., when 
 all could come, as all were practically of the 
 same faith. 
 
 Thus a wider field is open to the College 
 'to draw on, not only in the British Islands, 
 but in all its colonies and dependencies. 
 On the other hand, it is no less true that 
 her sons are to be found more widely scat- 
 tered. A hundred and fifty years ago one 
 could say of a selected group of men that 
 the majority would become clergymen or 
 schoolmasters, a few would become barris- 
 ters, others would return to their country 
 estates, one or two might enter the army ; 
 with that we should have exhausted the 
 probabilities. Now there is probably not 
 a career open to educated men in which 
 members of the College are not to be 
 found ; the State in every department, 
 civil, ecclesiastical, or military, enlists her 
 sons in its service. The rise of scientific 
 industries has opened new careers to trained 
 men. We talk of the spacious days of 
 Elizabeth ; if space itself has not increased 
 it is at least more permeated with men who 
 owe their early training to the foundation 
 of the Lady Margaret.
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 HITHERTO we have confined our- 
 selves to an outline of the College 
 history on what may be called its official 
 side. In what follows we deal briefly with 
 some features of the life of the place. 
 
 The original, and perhaps the chief, 
 purpose of the College in the eyes of those 
 who founded it was practically that it should 
 form a training ground for the clergy. The 
 statutes of King Henry VIII. distinctly lay 
 down that theology is the goal to which 
 philosophy and all other studies lead, and 
 that none were to be elected Fellows who 
 did not propose to study theology. The 
 statutes of Elizabeth provided a certain 
 elasticity by prescribing that those Fellows 
 who did not enter priests' orders within six 
 years should vacate their fellowships ; but 
 that two Fellows might be allowed, by the 
 Master and a majority of the Senior Fellows, 
 to devote themselves to the study of medi- 
 cine. King Charles I. in 1635 allowed a 
 like privilege to be granted from thenceforth 
 to two Fellows who were to study law. 
 These privileges were not always popular, 
 and we occasionally find the clerical Fellows 
 86
 
 THE NEW COURT
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 complaining that while the duties of teach- 
 ing and catechising were laid on them, a 
 man who had held one of the law or 
 medical fellowships sometimes took orders 
 late in life and then claimed presentation to 
 a College benefice in virtue of his seniority 
 as a Fellow, having in the meantime escaped 
 the drudgery to which the Fellow in orders 
 had been subject. 
 
 The emoluments of members of the 
 Society in early times were very modest, 
 and as prices rose became quite inadequate ; 
 the amounts being named in the College 
 statutes were incapable of alteration, and 
 indirect means were taken to provide relief. 
 In Bishop Fisher's time it was considered 
 that an endowment of 6 a year sufficed to 
 found a fellowship, and ^3 a year to found 
 a scholarship. The statutable stipend of 
 the Master was only 12 a year, though he 
 had some other allowances, the total amount 
 of which was equally trivial. James Pilk- 
 ington, Master from 1559 to 1561, when 
 he became Bishop of Durham, wrote to 
 Lord Burghley on the subject of his suc- 
 cessor, stating that whoever became Master 
 must have some benefice besides to enable 
 him to live. Richard Longworth, Master 
 from 1564 to 1569, made a similar com- 
 plaint, putting the weekly expenses of his 
 office at 3. We accordingly find that 
 many of the Masters held country benefices, 
 prebends, or deaneries with their College 
 office. Lord Keeper Williams, who gave
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 to the College the advowsons of Soulderne 
 in Oxfordshire, Freshwater in the Isle of 
 Wight, and the sinecure rectories of St. 
 Florence and Aberdaron in Wales, made it 
 part of the conditions of his gift that the 
 Master should always be entitled to take 
 one of these livings if a vacancy occurred. 
 Many of the Fellows also held benefices or 
 curacies near Cambridge. In the eighteenth 
 century the business of holding ecclesiastical 
 preferment in plurality became almost a fine 
 art ; thus Sir Isaac Pennington, who was 
 President of the College and Regius Pro- 
 fessor of Physic, left to the College by his 
 will a fund to provide the sum of 200 a 
 year for the Master " if he be rector of 
 Freshwater and not otherwise," a direct 
 and curious incentive to holding in plurality. 
 A Fellow was entitled to his commons, and, 
 in addition, to allowances of 135. 4d. under 
 each of the three heads of " corn," "livery," 
 and "stipend," or, as we may say, food, 
 clothes, and pocket-money. The College 
 officers received but small salaries, the most 
 highly paid being the President and Senior 
 Bursar, who each received ^2. 
 
 An effort was made by the Statutes of the 
 Realm to improve the condition of members 
 of colleges. It seems to have been assumed 
 that the rent of a college farm, like its 
 statutes, could not be altered ; but by an Act 
 of Parliament passed in the eighteenth year 
 of Elizabeth, known as Sir Thomas Smith's 
 Act, it was enacted that from thenceforth 
 90
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 one-third of the rents were to be paid in 
 wheat and malt ; the price of wheat for 
 the purposes of the Act being assumed to be 
 6s. 8d. a quarter, and of malt 5. a quarter. 
 Thus if before the Act the rent of a farm 
 was 6 a year, after it became law the 
 tenant had to pay ^4 in money, three- 
 quarters of wheat, and four quarters of malt, 
 these two latter items coming to i each. 
 But the tenant now paid a rent varying 
 according to the prices of the day namely, 
 the money rent plus the cash value of the 
 wheat and malt according to the best prices 
 of these commodities in Cambridge on the 
 market-day preceding quarter-day. Thus 
 as the prices of wheat and malt rose the 
 College benefited. By the Act this variable 
 one-third, or "corn-money," went to in- 
 crease the allowance for commons. As 
 time went on the amount of the corn- 
 money was more than sufficient to pay for 
 the commons, and a further modest allow- 
 ance out of the surplus was made to all who 
 participated in the College revenues, whether 
 as Master, Fellow, scholar, or sizar, under 
 the name of pr&ter. 
 
 In process of time another source of 
 revenue arose. Leases of College estates 
 were usually granted for a term of forty 
 years, and there was a general custom that 
 the tenant might surrender his lease at the 
 end of fourteen years and receive a new 
 one for forty years. As prices rose tenants 
 were willing to pay a consideration for the 
 
 9 1
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 renewal known as a " fine " this was calcu- 
 lated on the full letting value of the estate at 
 the time of the renewal, the rent reserved 
 remaining at its traditional amount. At first 
 this fine-money was regarded as a species of 
 surplus, and grants were made from it to 
 Fellows or scholars who were ill or in special 
 need of temporary assistance. The cost of 
 entertaining royalties or other distinguished 
 visitors, and part of the cost of new buildings, 
 were defrayed from this source. In the year 
 1629 the practice arose of dividing this fine- 
 money up among the Master and Fellows in 
 certain shares, and the money so paid became 
 known as the "dividend." At the present 
 time the College property is managed like 
 any other landed estate, and after the neces- 
 sary expenses of management and mainten- 
 ance have been met, and certain fixed sums 
 paid to the scholars and exhibitioners, and 
 to the University, the remainder is by the 
 statutes divided up into shares called divi- 
 dends, each Fellow getting one dividend, the 
 Master and the members of the College 
 Council receiving certain additions calcu- 
 lated in dividends ; there is a general re- 
 striction that the dividend shall not exceed 
 250 a year. The fall in the value of land 
 at present automatically provides that this 
 limit is not exceeded ; if the revenues be- 
 come more than sufficient for the purpose, 
 additional fellowships and scholarships must 
 be established. 
 
 The reader will gather that the chief 
 92
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 endowment of the College arises from land. 
 The College estates lie scattered over most 
 of the eastern side of England, from York- 
 shire to Kent. There is no large block of 
 property anywhere. The estates in past 
 times, when means of communication were 
 poor, must have been difficult to visit. In 
 the leases of the more distant farms it was 
 usual to stipulate that the tenant should 
 provide " horse meat and man's meat " for 
 the Master and Bursar and their servants 
 while on a tour of inspection. That some 
 care was bestowed on the management is 
 clear from the regular entries, in the books 
 of accounts, of the expenses of those " riding 
 on College business." Probably the estates 
 were visited when leases came to be renewed, 
 and an effort made to discover the actual 
 letting value of the property. Land agents 
 seem to have been first employed to make 
 formal valuations towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century, and about the same 
 time plans of the estates were obtained, some 
 of these, made before the enclosures, showing 
 the land scattered in many minute pieces, 
 are very curious and interesting. 
 
 The actual life within the College walls 
 is not so easy to describe with any certainty. 
 At first, as we have seen, the undergraduates 
 actually lived with Fellows of the College, 
 and overcrowding must have been a constant 
 feature of College life. On i5th December 
 1565 a return was made to Lord Burghley 
 of all students, " whether tutors or pupils," 
 
 93
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 residing in the College, with notes as to 
 whether they had come into Chapel in their 
 surplices or not. The return concludes with 
 this summary : "The whole number is 287, 
 whereof there came into the Chappell with 
 surplesses upon the last Saturdaie and Sondaie 
 147 ; and abrode in the country 33. And 
 of thother 107 whiche cumme not in as yet, 
 there be many cumme to the Colledge of late 
 and be not yet provided of surplesses." At 
 this time we have to remember that the 
 buildings of the College consisted only of 
 the First Court, the Infirmary or Labyrinth, 
 and a small block of buildings in a corner of 
 the ground now occupied by the Second 
 Court, swept away when that was built. 
 The arrangement seems to have been as 
 follows. The ground-floor rooms were 
 occupied by junior Fellows, each with a 
 few pupils. The rooms on the first floor, 
 known in the College books as the " middle 
 chambers," were in greater request ; with 
 these went the rooms on the second floor, 
 with sometimes- excehes or garrets over them 
 these could accommodate a senior Fellow 
 with several pupils. In the older parts of 
 the College the rooms occupied the whole 
 depth of the building, and so were lighted 
 from both sides; in the corners, when light 
 could be obtained, cubicles or studies were 
 partitioned off. From a sanitary point of 
 view, life under such conditions must have 
 left much to be desired, and the burial 
 registers of All Saints' parish (in which the 
 94
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 older part of the College is situated) leave 
 the impression of frequent and almost epi- 
 demic illness in the College during the 
 sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 The undergraduates in early times were 
 much younger than the men of the present 
 day. The statutes prescribed that the oath 
 should not be required from scholars who 
 were under sixteen years of age ; the frequent 
 occurrence of nan juratus in the admission 
 entry of a scholar shows that many came 
 to the College before that age. Probably 
 the average age was about sixteen ; the idea 
 being that after the seven years' residence 
 required for the M.A. degree they would 
 be of the proper age to present themselves 
 for ordination. Those under eighteen years 
 of age might be publicly whipped in the 
 Hall for breaches of discipline. 
 
 Students from distant parts of England 
 probably resided continuously in College 
 from the time they entered it until they 
 took their degrees. The statutes of King 
 Henry VIII. contemplate a period of some 
 relaxation at Christmas ; providing that 
 each Fellow in turn should be " Lord " at 
 Christmas, and prepare dialogues and plays 
 to be acted by members of the College 
 between Epiphany and Lent. The brazier 
 in the Hall seems to have been kept burning 
 in the evening about Christmas time ; of 
 this practice a curious relic survived until 
 comparatively lately, it being the custom to 
 95
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 leave a few gas-jets burning in the Hall until 
 midnight from St. John's Day (December 
 27) until Twelfth Night. 
 
 There were three classes of students. 
 The Fellow Commoners, sons of noblemen 
 or wealthy land-owners, who sat at the High 
 Table, or, as it was phrased, were in Fellows' 
 commons. Some came in considerable state. 
 In 1624 the Earl of Arundel and Surrey sent 
 his two sons, Lord Maltravers and Mr. 
 William Howard, to the College. The 
 Earl's chaplain, or secretary, in making 
 arrangements for their coming, wrote to 
 request that they should have one chamber 
 in the College, with a " pallett for the 
 gromes of their chamber " ; the rest of 
 " his lordships company, being two gentle- 
 men, a grome of his stable and a footman, 
 may be lodged in the towne near the 
 College." At this period the Second Court 
 had been built, and the accommodation for 
 residence thus somewhat greater than in 
 Elizabethan times. The Fellow Commoner 
 wore a gown ornamented with gold lace, 
 and a cap with a gold tassel. The last 
 Fellow Commoner at St. John's to wear this 
 dress was the present Admiral Sir Wilmot 
 Hawksworth Fawkes. 
 
 The next class in order of status were 
 the Pensioners men who paid their ex- 
 penses without assistance from the College, 
 sons of middle-class parents. In times of 
 which we have any definite record this was 
 the most numerous class in College. Lastly, 
 96
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 we have the sizars. A sizar was definitely 
 attached to a Fellow or Fellow Commoner ; 
 he was not exactly a servant, but made him- 
 self generally useful. For example, those 
 members of the College who absented them- 
 selves from the University sermon were in 
 the eighteenth century fined sixpence, and 
 the sizars were expected to mark the 
 absentees. The sizar at Cambridge had, 
 however, always a better status than the 
 servitor at Oxford, and in the days when 
 scholarships were strictly limited as to locality, 
 a sizarship was something of the nature of 
 what at the present day we should describe 
 as an entrance scholarship or exhibition, the 
 assistance given consisting in a reduction of 
 expenses rather than in actual direct emolu- 
 ment. At the present time there is no 
 difference in status among members of the 
 College ; the foundation scholars, however, 
 having special seats in Chapel and a separate 
 table in Hall if they choose to make use 
 of it. 
 
 Until 1882 the condition of celibacy 
 attached to all fellowships in the College ; 
 Queen Elizabeth held strong views on the 
 matter, even discouraging the marriage of 
 Masters. The necessity of taking orders 
 was somewhat relaxed in 1860. The 
 system had its advantages it tended to pro- 
 duce promotion ; for the natural inclination 
 of mankind to marry, vacated fellowships ; 
 the disadvantage was that men with a real 
 taste for study or teaching had no certain 
 97 G
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 career before them. The question of 
 allowing Fellows to marry was raised in 
 the eighteenth century, but met with little 
 support and much opposition. Even in 
 
 THE "BRIDGE OF SIGHS" 
 
 the middle of the nineteenth century a 
 University Commission inclined to the 
 view that celibacy was inseparable from 
 the collegiate system. 
 
 The clerical restriction had the effect of 
 chiefly confining selection to College offices
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 to those who were in orders. These in due 
 course went oft to benefices in the gift of 
 the College, these acting as a species of 
 pension. One form of benefaction frequently 
 bestowed by past members was the gift of 
 an advowson ; one or two benefactors left 
 estates, the revenues from which were to 
 accumulate, and with the sums so raised 
 advowsons were to be purchased. Presenta- 
 tion to livings went by seniority of standing, 
 and this practice, with the restriction on 
 marriage, gave rise to the belief, still pre- 
 valent in many parishes where the College 
 is patron, that the College on a vacancy 
 always chooses for the next incumbent 
 " the oldest bachelor." It seems probable, 
 without any minute statistical inquiry, that 
 most of the Fellows left the College before 
 the age of forty. A few remained on for 
 life. 
 
 It is difficult now to reconstruct a picture 
 of the High Table, made up as it was for 
 many years of a group of middle-aged or 
 elderly men, with a considerable admixture 
 of youthful Fellow Commoners. During the 
 eighteenth century the proportion of Fellow 
 Commoners was probably from one-fourth to 
 one-third of those dining together, and con- 
 straint on both sides must have been almost 
 inevitable. The terms " don " and "don- 
 nishness " seem to have acquired their un- 
 complimentary meaning about this period. 
 The precise significance of " don " is not 
 easy to express concisely ; the most felicitous 
 
 99
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 is perhaps that of the Oxford Shotover Papers, 
 where we read that don means, in Spain, 
 a gentleman ; in England, a Fellow. The 
 abolition of the Fellow Commoner was 
 perhaps chiefly due to the rise of the 
 democratic spirit and a general dislike of 
 privilege, but there are other grounds for 
 welcoming it. 
 
 Of the individuals who make up the 
 stream of youthful life which has ebbed 
 and flowed through the College gate there 
 is but little official record. An Admonition 
 Book exists, in which more than a century 
 ago those who were punished for graver 
 offences against discipline signed the record 
 of their sentence and promised amendment. 
 One youth admits over a trembling signa- 
 ture that he was " admonished by the Master, 
 before the Seniors, for keeping strangers in 
 my chamber till twelve o' the clock, and 
 disturbing the Master by knocking at his 
 gate in an irreverent manner at that hour 
 for the keys of the gate." When the 
 College gate was closed it may be explained 
 that the keys were placed in the Master's 
 keeping. We are, however, left in ignorance 
 of what passed in that chamber until the 
 midnight hour. Yet no doubt the student 
 in past days had his amusements as well as 
 his successor of the present day rougher 
 perhaps, but not less agreeable to him. 
 
 In Bishop Fisher's statutes archery was 
 encouraged as a pastime, and we know 
 from Ascham's writings that he indulged 
 100
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 in it. In the sixteenth century the College 
 built a tennis-court for the use of its mem- 
 bers. John Hall, who entered the College 
 in 1646, recommended " shuttlecock" as 
 fit for students " it requires a nimble arme 
 with quick and waking eye." We hear of 
 horse matches and cock-fighting, but in 
 terms of disapproval. Football is mentioned 
 in 1574, when the Vice-Chancellor directed 
 that scholars should only play upon their 
 own College ground. In 1595 "the hurt- 
 ful and unscholarly exercise of football " was 
 forbidden, except within each College and 
 between members of the same College. 
 Certain general orders for the discipline 
 of the undergraduates, which gave rise to 
 much controversy about 17 50, forbade cricket 
 between the hours of nine and twelve in 
 the morning. In 1763 the Vice-Chancellor 
 required that no scholar, of whatever rank, 
 should be present at bull-baiting. We read 
 in the eighteenth century of " schemes " or 
 water-parties on the river, but these appear 
 to have been more of the nature of picnics 
 than exercises of skill. Riding was probably 
 very common, the student arriving on his 
 nag, perhaps selling it and using the proceeds 
 as a start in his new life. The phrase 
 " Hobson's choice " took its rise from the 
 rule in the livery stables of Hobson the 
 carrier that a man who hired a hack had 
 to take the one that stood nearest to the 
 stable door. In later days stage-coaches 
 supplied a more regular means of conveyance. 
 101
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 Students leaving Cambridge for the North 
 betook themselves to Huntingdon, and were 
 housed at the George Inn there till places 
 could be found for them in the coaches. 
 The landlord of the George sending over 
 to Cambridge to let it be known that one 
 batch were gone and that another might 
 come over. 
 
 Traditions linger in parishes round Cam- 
 bridge that the University " gentlemen " 
 used certain fields or commons for the pur- 
 pose of riding races ; the Cottenham steeple- 
 chases are presumably a survival of this 
 practice. Shooting and coursing, with a 
 little hunting, came into vogue at the end 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The rise and organisation of athletic sports 
 as an essential element of College life would 
 require a bulky history in itself. The first 
 to take definite form was rowing. The 
 historic boat club of the college is the Lady 
 Margaret Boat Club ; this was founded in 
 the October term of 1825. The actual 
 founder of the club seems to have been the 
 Hon. Richard John Le Poer Trench, a son 
 of the second Earl of Clancarty. Trench 
 afterwards became a captain in the 52nd 
 Regiment, and died 1 2th August 1841. The 
 club was the first to start an eight-oared 
 boat on the Cam, though some Trinity 
 men had a four-oar on the river a short 
 time before the Lady Margaret was started. 
 Among the first members of the club were 
 William Snow and Charles Merivale, after- 
 
 102
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 wards Dean of Ely. Trench acted as stroke 
 of the original first boat crew in the Lent 
 Term of 1826. There were at first no 
 regular races, but impromptu trials of speed 
 with other crews frequently took place. In 
 1827 the University Boat Club was started, 
 and regular bumping races begun. The 
 first challenge to Oxford was determined on 
 at a meeting of the University Boat Club 
 held 2Oth February 1829, when it was 
 resolved : "That Mr. Snow, of St. John's, 
 be requested to write immediately to Mr. 
 Staniforth, Christ Church, Oxford, propos- 
 ing to make up a University Match." The 
 match was made up, and the race rowed 
 at Henley on loth June 1829, and from 
 this the annual boat-race between Oxford 
 and Cambridge takes its rise. Snow acted 
 as stroke of the Cambridge boat, George 
 Augustus Selwyn, successively Bishop of 
 New Zealand and Lichfield, rowed " seven," 
 and Charles Merivale " four." Snow (after- 
 wards Strahan) became a banker, and died 
 at Florence 4th July 1886. In after years 
 when, from 1861 to 1869 inclusive, Oxford 
 had uniformly beaten Cambridge, the Lady 
 Margaret supplied the late John H. 
 D. Goldie to break the spell and restore 
 hope and confidence to Cambridge crews. 
 Thus the College club has taken an im- 
 portant part in the establishment and 
 maintenance of Cambridge rowing. Two 
 verses of the College boat song run as 
 follows : 
 
 103
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 " Mater regum Margareta 
 Piscatori dixit laeta 
 
 ' Audi quod propositum ; 
 Est remigium decorum 
 Suavis strepitus remorum 
 Ergo sit Collegium.' 
 
 Sic Collegium fundatum 
 Et Johannis nomen datum 
 
 Margareta domina, 
 Ergo remiges gaudendum 
 Triumphandum et canendum 
 
 In saeclorum secula." 
 
 So that, if we can trust the historic in- 
 sight of the author (Mr. T. R. Glover), the 
 intentions of the foundress have been duly 
 carried out. 
 
 The uniform of the club was at first 
 much what it is now, a white jersey with 
 pink stripes ; with this was worn a jacket 
 of scarlet flannel, popularly known as a 
 " blazer " a name which has passed into 
 the English language as descriptive of the 
 coloured jackets of all clubs. It is said that 
 some one, whose feeling for analogy was 
 stronger than for decorum, described the 
 surplice as "the blazer of the Church 
 of England." Organised cricket clubs, 
 athletic clubs, and football clubs grew up, 
 and in process of time clubs for the pursuit 
 of every kind of athletic exercise have been 
 started. Originally each club in College 
 had a subscription, paid by its members, 
 towards the expenses of the special game. 
 About twenty years ago all the clubs in 
 St. John's were united into one club 
 104
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 "The Amalgamation." The subscription 
 to this entitles a member to join in any of 
 the recognised games. The funds are ad- 
 ministered by a committee consisting of the 
 representatives of those interested in the 
 different games, and grants made from the 
 general fund towards the expenses of each 
 game. The presence of a few senior mem- 
 bers of the College on the committee pro- 
 vides the continuity so difficult to maintain 
 with the short-lived generations of under- 
 graduate life. The College provides the 
 ground for the cricket, football, and lawn- 
 tennis clubs, while through the generosity 
 of members of the College of all standings a 
 handsome boat-house has recently been built 
 on the river. The College also possesses 
 flourishing musical and debating societies, 
 and from time to time clubs arise for literary 
 and social purposes, dying out and being 
 refounded with great persistence. 
 
 In another sphere of work the College 
 has taken a leading part. St. John's was 
 the first College in Cambridge to start a 
 mission in London the Lady Margaret 
 Mission in Walworth. Preaching in the 
 College Chapel on 28th January 1883, the 
 Rev. William Allen Whitworth, a Fellow 
 of the College, then Vicar of St. John's, 
 Hammersmith, afterwards Incumbent of All 
 Saints', Margaret Street, suggested that the 
 College should support a mission in some 
 neglected district of London. The matter 
 took form a little later in the year, and 
 105
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 
 
 since then the College Mission has been 
 a College institution. Members of the 
 College visiting the mission district, and 
 visitors from Walworth coming for an 
 annual outing, including a cricket match, 
 in August. 
 
 Another flourishing institution is the Col- 
 lege magazine, The Eagle. Founded in the 
 year 1858, it has maintained its existence 
 for nearly fifty years, being now the oldest 
 of College magazines. It has numbered 
 among its contributors many who have 
 subsequently found a wider field and audi- 
 ence : some of the earliest efforts of Samuel 
 Butler, author of Erewhon, are to be found 
 in its pages. 
 
 I now bring my sketch of the College 
 history to a close. I have endeavoured, 
 within the prescribed limits, to give an 
 outline of the corporate life of an ancient 
 and famous foundation. In writing it two 
 classes of readers have been borne in mind : 
 the visitor who, within a short compass, 
 may wish to learn something more than 
 can be picked up by an inspection of the 
 buildings ; members of the College who 
 feel a lively interest in the habits and pur- 
 suits of those who have preceded them. 
 I have, perhaps, thought more of the latter 
 than of the former class. 
 
 Members of the College have always 
 been distinguished for a certain independ- 
 ence of thought and adherence to principle, 
 1 06
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 not always guided by motives of mere 
 worldly prudence ; they have always been 
 noted for that strong corporate feeling 
 which finds expression in the words of 
 Viscount Falkland's letter, before alluded 
 to : "I still carry about with me an indel- 
 ible character of affection and duty to that 
 Society, and an extraordinary longing for 
 some occasion of expressing that affection 
 and that duty." 
 
 To one who has spent much of his life 
 in the service of the institution to which 
 he owes so much, the words of the Psalmist 
 (a Scot naturally quotes the version en- 
 deared to him by early association) seem 
 to put the matter concisely 
 
 " For in her rubbish and her stones 
 
 thy servants pleasure take ; 
 Yea, they the very dust thereof 
 do favour for her sake." 
 
 I0 7
 
 INDEX 
 
 ADAMS, J. C., 16, 25, 26, 
 
 Commons, 43, 90 
 
 29, 82 
 
 Corn Rents, 91 
 
 Admonition Book, 100 
 
 Cricket, 101 
 
 Armorial Bearings, 2 
 
 Cromwell, O. , 56, 63 
 
 Arrowsmith, J. , 57 
 
 Cromwell, T., 29, 30 
 
 Ascham, R. , 19, 23, 44 
 
 
 Ashton, H., 19 
 
 DALLAM, R., 22 
 
 BAKER, T. , 28, 32, 61 
 Balsham, Hugo de, 36 
 Baronsdale, W. , 50 
 
 Dawson, J., 70 
 Denman, T. , 71 
 Digby, E., 4 8 
 Dividend, 92 
 
 Barwick, J. , 31 
 
 
 Bateson, W. H., 81 
 
 
 Beale, W. , 56 
 
 Eagle, The, 106 
 
 " Blazer," 104 
 
 Eagle Close, 10 
 
 Blunt, J. J., 22 
 
 Edward VI., 45 
 
 Boat Club, 102 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 46, 47 
 
 Bohun, H., 47 
 
 Estates, 93 
 
 " Bridge of Sighs," 8, 10 
 
 Examinations, 24, 69 
 
 Briggs, H. , 51 
 
 
 Brown, " Capability," 10 
 Bull-baiting, 101 
 Burghley, Lord, 18, 48 
 
 FAIRFAX, T. , 31, 56, 62 
 Falkland, Viscount, 18, 62, 
 107 
 
 CAREY, V., 28 
 Catton, T., 70 
 
 Fawkes, Sir W. H.,g6 
 Fellow Commoners, 66, 96, 
 
 Caxton, 31 
 Celibacy, 97 
 
 97. 99 
 Fisher, John, 37 
 Floods, 7 
 
 Chapel, New, 13-17 
 Chapel, Old, 4, 13 
 Charles I. , 26, 30, 52, 56, 86 
 Charles II., 31 
 
 Football, 101 
 Forster, T. , 63 
 Frost, H., 35 
 
 Cheke, Sir J. , 44 
 
 
 Churchill, C. , 70, 72 
 
 CANTON, R., 70 
 
 Clarkson, T. , 26 
 
 Gilbert, W., 18. 50, 51 
 
 Clayton, R., 49 
 
 Glover, T. R. , 104 
 
 Clive, R. H.,22 
 
 Goldie, J. H. D., 103 
 
 College Leases, 91 
 
 Gower, H., 7, 59, 60 
 
 Combination Room, 5, 23, 
 
 Gunning, P., 57 
 
 25. 27 
 
 Gwyn, O. , 52, 62 
 
 IO9
 
 INDEX 
 
 HALL, THE, 23 
 
 Mayor, J. E. B., 25, 61 
 
 Hare, Sir R. , 25 
 
 Mengs, R. A. , 22 
 
 Hawksmoor, N., 8 
 
 Merivale, C., 102, 103 
 
 Heberden, W. , 73 
 
 Metcalfe, N. , 20, 40, 42 
 
 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 26 
 
 Mission, Walworth, 105 
 
 Henry VII., 38 
 
 Mortuary Roll, 30 
 
 Henry VIII., 18, 38, 41, 
 
 Mossom, D. , 63 
 
 45,86 
 
 
 Herrick, R., 63 
 
 NEWCOME, J., 31 
 
 Herschel, Sir J. F. W.,25, 
 
 Nonjurors, 59 
 
 26, 82 
 
 Norton, F. , 72 
 
 High Altar, 46 
 
 
 Hill, R. , 84 
 
 OATES, Titus, 63 
 
 Hoare, H., 16 
 
 Okeley, F., 84 
 
 Hoghton, General, 70 
 
 Organ, 22 
 
 Hopton, Sir I., 63 
 
 Ospringe, 41 
 
 Home Tooke, 72 
 
 
 Hospital of St. John, 14, 35 
 
 PALMER, E. H., 25 
 
 Howard, Lord Thomas, 3 
 
 Palmerston, Viscount, 71 
 
 Hutchinson, H., 8 
 
 Parsons, Hon. C. A., 83 
 
 
 Paul's Cross, 43 
 
 INFIRMARY, 17 
 
 Peckover, Dr. A., 39 
 
 
 Pennington, Sir I., 90 
 
 JAMES I., 26, 49, 52 
 
 Percy, A. , 40 
 
 James II., 58 
 
 Peterhouse, 36, 37 
 
 Jenkin, R., 61, 64 
 
 Pilkington, J., 89 
 
 
 Powell, SirF. S., 16 
 
 KENNEDY, B. H., 25 
 
 Powell, W. S., 69 
 
 Kikuchi, D., 83 
 
 Powis, Earl, 21 
 
 Kirke White, H., 4, 20 
 
 Prater, 91 
 
 Kitchen, 32 
 
 Prior, M. , 32, 63 
 
 Knox, E. , 17 
 
 
 Knox, John, 17 
 
 REFORM, University, 80 
 
 Knox, N., 17 
 
 Registers, 61, 62 
 
 
 Reyner, G. F., 16 
 
 LABYRINTH, 17, 18, 94 
 
 Rickman, T. , 8 
 
 Lady Margaret, i, 2, 37 
 
 Rowing, 102 
 
 Laud, 30 
 
 
 Leases, 92 
 
 ST. JOHN'S Street, 16 
 
 Library, 25, 27, 28 
 
 Scott, A. J. , 71, 72 
 
 Lillechurch, 30, 41 
 
 Scott, SirG. G., 15, 17 
 
 Li nacre, T. , 49 
 
 Scott, J. O. , 22 
 
 Liveing, G. D. , 25 
 
 Seaton, G., 55 
 
 Longworth, R. , 47, 89 
 
 Selwyn, G. A., 26, 103 
 
 Ludlam, W., 70 
 
 Selwyn, W. , 15 
 
 
 Seven Bishops, 58 
 
 MARTYN, H., 71 
 
 Shittlecock, 101 
 
 Mary, Queen, 46 
 
 Shorton, R., 40 
 
 Mason, W. , 72 
 
 Shrewsbury, Countess of, 5, 
 
 Master's Lodge, 15, 25 
 
 19, 28 
 
 110
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sizar, 97 Tuckney, A., 57 
 
 Smith, R., 50 
 
 Tutorial System, 77 
 
 Smith, W., 73 
 
 Tyrrell, W., 26 
 
 Snow, W. , 102, 103 
 
 
 Stag Staircase, 4 
 
 VICTORIA, Queen, 18 
 
 Stage Plays, 23, 95 
 
 
 Staincoat, 5 
 
 WASHINGTON, Geo. , 64 
 
 Stankard, 5 
 
 Whitaker, W. , 48 
 
 Statues, 1 8 
 
 Whitgift, T. , 48 
 
 Statutes, 42, 43, 61, 74, 79, j Whitworth, W. A., 105 
 
 81 
 
 Whytehead, T. , 22 
 
 Strafford, Lord, 18, 56, 62 
 
 Wilberforce, W., 26 
 
 
 Wilderness, The, 9, 10 
 
 TATHAM, R., 22, 80 
 
 Williams, John, 7, 18, 25, 
 
 Taylor, B., 63 
 
 27, 28, 29, 52 
 
 Taylor, C., 82 
 
 Wood, J., 20, 78 
 
 Thomas, Sir N. , 25 
 
 Wordsworth, W., 25, 26, 
 
 Townshend, Marquis, 70 
 
 32 
 
 Trench, R. J. Le P., 102 
 
 Wren, Sir C., 7 
 
 Trinity College, 44 1 Wren's Bridge, 8, 9 
 
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