THE LESSER COLLEGES
PETERHOUSE.--Taking the smaller colleges in the order of their
founding, we come first of all to Peterhouse, already mentioned more
than once in these pages on account of its antiquity, so that it is
only necessary to recall the fact that Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely,
founded this the first regular college in 1284. Of the original
buildings of the little hostel nothing remains, and the quadrangle was
not commenced until 1424, but the tragedy which befell the college
took place in the second half of the eighteenth century, when James
Essex, who built the dreary west front of Emmanuel, was turned loose
in the court. His hand was fortunately stayed before he had touched
the garden side of the southern wing, and the picturesque range of
fifteenth-century buildings, including the hall and combination room,
remains one of the most pleasing survivals of mediaeval architecture
in Cambridge.
Dr. Andrew Perne, also known as "Old Andrew Turncoat," and other names
revealing his willingness to fall in with the prevailing religious
ideas of the hour, was made Master of Peterhouse in 1554, and
subsequently he became Vice-Chancellor of the University. He added to
the library the extension which now overlooks Trumpington Street, and
to him the town is largely indebted for those little runnels of
sparkling water to be seen flowing along by the curbstones of some of
the streets. The chapel was added in 1632 by Bishop Matthew Wren in
the Italian Gothic style then prevalent, and its dark panelled
interior is chiefly noted for its Flemish east window. The glass was
taken out and hidden in the Commonwealth period, and replaced when the
wave of Puritanism had spent itself. All the other windows are later
work by Professor Aimmuller of Munich. Before this chapel was built
the little parish church of St. Peter, which stood on the site of the
present St. Mary the Less, supplied the students with all they needed
in this direction.
CLARE.--Michael House, the second college, was, as we have seen, swept
away to make room for Trinity, so that the second in order of
antiquity is Clare College, whose classic facade of great regularity,
with the graceful little stone bridge spanning the river, is one of
the most familiar features of the "Backs." The actual date of the
founding of the college by Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of Gilbert de
Clare, was 1342, and the court, then built in the prevalent Decorated
style, continued in use until 1525, when it was so badly damaged by
fire that a new building was decided upon, but the work was postponed
until 1635, and was only finished in the second year of the
Restoration. Although no shred of evidence exists as to the architect,
tradition points to Inigo Jones, whose death took place, however, in
1652. The bridge is coeval with the earliest side of the court, having
been finished in 1640. In the hall, marred by great sheets of
plate-glass in the windows, there are portraits of Hugh Latimer,
Thomas Cecil (Earl of Exeter), Elizabeth de Clare (foundress), and
other notable men.
PEMBROKE.--Like Clare, Pembroke College was founded by a woman. She
was Marie de St. Paul, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, and on her
mother's side was a great-granddaughter of Henry III. She was also the
widow of Aymer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke, whose splendid tomb is a
conspicuous feature of the Sanctuary in Westminster Abbey.
Instead of the usual modest beginning with one or two existing hostels
adapted for the purposes of a purely academic society, the foundress
cleared away the hostels on the site nearly opposite historic
Peterhouse, and began a regular quadrangle, the first of the
non-religious type Cambridge had known. An existing hostel formed one
side, but the others were all erected for the special purpose of the
college. A hall and kitchen were built to the east, and on the street
side opposite was a gateway placed between students' rooms. Marie de
St. Paul also received permission from two successive Avignonese Popes
to build a chapel with a bell tower at the north-west corner of the
quadrangle, and to some extent these exist to-day, incorporated in the
reference library and an adjoining lecture-room. Of the other
buildings to be seen at the present time the oldest is the Ivy Court,
dating from 1633 to 1659. Since then architect has succeeded
architect, from Sir Christopher Wren, who built a new chapel in 1667,
to Mr. G.G. Scott, the designer of the most easterly buildings in the
style of the French Renaissance. Between these comes the street front
by Waterhouse, for whose unpleasing façade no one seems to have a good
word. There has indeed been such frequent rebuilding at Pembroke that
the glamour of association has been to a great extent swept away. This
is doubly sad in view of the long list of distinguished names
associated with the foundation. Among them are found Thomas Rotherham,
Archbishop of York, who was Master of Pembroke; Foxe, the great Bishop
of Winchester and patron of learning; Ridley; Grindal, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury; Matthew Hutton and Whitgift. Beside these
masters Edmund Spenser, the poet Gray, and William Pitt are names of
which Pembroke will always be proud.
CAIUS.--In the year following the founding of Pembroke Edmund de
Gonville added another society to those already established. This was
in 1348, but three years later the good man died and left the carrying
on of his college to William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, who had just
founded Trinity Hall. He found it convenient to transfer Gonville's
foundation to a site opposite his own college, and from this time
until the famous Dr. Caius (Kayes or Keyes) reformed it in 1557, the
college was known as Gonville Hall.
[Illustration: THE GATE OF HONOUR CAIUS COLLEGE. On the left is the
Senate House, in the centre the East End of King's College Chapel, and
on the right the University Library.]
The buildings now comprise three courts, the largest called Tree
Court, being to the east, and the two smaller called Gonville and
Caius respectively, to the west side, separated from Trinity Hall by a
narrow lane. Tree Court had been partly built in Jacobean times by Dr.
Perse, whose monument can be seen in the chapel; but in 1867 Mr.
Waterhouse was given the task of rebuilding the greater part of the
quadrangle. He decided on the style of the French Renaissance, and
struck the most stridently discordant note in the whole of the
architecture of the colleges. The tall-turreted frontage suggests
nothing so much as the municipal offices of a flourishing borough. The
present hall, built by Salvin in 1854, was decorated and repanelled by
Edward Warren in 1909. Two of the three curiously named gateways built
by Dr. Caius still survive, and one of them, the Gate of Honour,
opening on to Senate House Passage, is one of the most delightful
things in Cambridge. Dr. Caius had been a Fellow of Gonville Hall,
and, having taken up medicine, continued his studies at the University
of Padua; and after considerable European travel practised in England
with such success that he was appointed Physician to the Court of
Edward VI. Philip and Mary showed him great favour, and his reputation
grew owing to his success in treating the sweating sickness. Having
acquired much wealth, he decided to refound his old college, and the
Italian Gothic of the two gateways is evidence of his delight in the
style with which he had become familiar at Padua and elsewhere. He
built the two wings of the Caius Court, leaving the Court open towards
the south. The idea of his three gates, beginning with the simple Gate
of Humility, leading to the Gate of Virtue, and so to that of Honour,
is very fitting, for such sermons in stones could scarcely find a
better place than in a university. Caius has many famous medical men,
treasuring the memory of Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the
blood, and of Dr. Butts, who was Henry VIII.'s physician.
TRINITY HALL.--As already mentioned, Trinity Hall was founded two
years after Gonville made his modest foundation. It is specialized in
relation to law as its neighbour is to medicine. Although
architecturally of less account, its modern work is free from anything
obtrusively out of keeping with academic tradition. Salvin's
uninspired eastern side of the court containing the entrance was built
after a fire in 1852, and is typical of his harsh and unsympathetic
work. Behind the Georgian front of the north side of this court, there
is a good deal of the fabric of the Tudor buildings, and some of the
lecture-rooms, with their oak panelling and big chimneys, are most
picturesque.
On the west side is the hall, dating from 1743, and the modern
combination room, containing a curious old semi-circular table, with a
counter-balance railway for passing the wine from one corner to the
other. The chapel is on the south side, and is a few years earlier
than the hall.
CORPUS CHRISTI.--Within two years from the founding of Trinity Hall
Corpus Christi came into being, the gild of St. Benedict's Church, in
conjunction with that of St. Mary the Great, having obtained a charter
for this purpose from Edward III. in 1352, Henry Duke of Lancaster,
the King's cousin, being alderman at that time.
This was the last of the colleges founded in the first period of
college-building, and it has managed to preserve under the shadow of
the Saxon tower of the parish church, which was for long the college
chapel, one of the oldest and most attractive courts in Cambridge.
Several of the windows and doors have been altered in later times, but
otherwise three sides of the court are completely mediaeval. Having
retained this fine relic, the college seems to have been content to
let all the rest go, when, in 1823, Wilkins, whose bad Gothic we have
seen at King's College, was allowed to rebuild the great court,
including the chapel and hall. Sir Nicholas Bacon and Matthew Parker,
Archbishop of Canterbury, are two of the most famous names associated
with Corpus Christi. Parker left his old college a splendid collection
of manuscripts, which are preserved in the library. This college has a
strong ecclesiastical flavour, and it is therefore fitting that it
should possess such a remarkable document as the original draft of the
Thirty-nine Articles, which is among the treasured manuscripts.
QUEENS'.--After the founding of Corpus there came an interval of
nearly a century before the eight colleges then existing were added
to. Henry VI. founded King's in 1441, and seven years later his young
Queen Margaret of Anjou, who was only eighteen, was induced by Andrew
Docket to take over his very modest beginning in the way of a college.
It was refounded under the name of Queen's College, having in the two
previous years of its existence been dedicated to St. Bernard. As in
the case of King's, the progress of Margaret's college was handicapped
by the Wars of the Roses, but fortunately Edward IV.'s Queen,
Elizabeth Woodville, espoused the cause of Margaret's college when
Docket appealed to her for help.
Above all other memories this college glories in its associations with
Erasmus, who was probably advised to go there by Bishop Fisher. There
are certain of his letters extant which he dates from Queens', and it
is interesting to find that he wrote in a querulous fashion of the bad
wine and beer he had to drink when his friend Ammonius failed to send
him his usual cask of the best Greek wine. He also complained of being
beset by thieves, and being shut up because of plague, but it need not
be thought from this that Cambridge was much worse than other places.
Of all the colleges in the University Queens' belongs most completely
to other days. Its picturesque red brick entrance tower is the best of
this type of gateway, which is such a distinctive feature of
Cambridge, and the first court is similar to St. John's, with which
Bishop Fisher was so closely connected as Lady Margaret Beaufort's
executor. In the inner court, whose west front makes a charming
picture from the river, is the President's Lodge occupying the north
side. Its oriel windows and rough cast walls of quite jovial contours
overhanging the dark cloisters beneath strike a different note to
anything else in Cambridge. Restoration has altered the appearance of
the hall since its early days, but it is an interesting building, with
some notable portraits and good stained glass. The court, named after
Erasmus, at the south-west angle of the college was, it is much to be
regretted, rebuilt by Essex in the latter part of the eighteenth
century; but for this the view of the river front from the curiously
constructed footbridge would have been far finer than it is. Like the
sundial in the first court, this bridge, leading to soft meadows
beneath the shade of great trees, is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton.
ST. CATHERINE'S.--This college was founded in 1473 by Robert Woodlark,
Chancellor of the University, and dedicated to "the glorious Virgin
Martyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria." Undergraduate slang, alas!
reduces all this to "Cat's." It was originally called St. Catherine's
Hall, and is one of the smallest of the colleges. Although not
claiming the strong ecclesiastical flavour of Corpus, it has educated
quite a formidable array of bishops. From Trumpington Street the
buildings have the appearance of a pleasant manor-house of Queen Anne
or early Georgian days, and, with the exception of the wing at the
north-west, the whole of the three-sided court dates between 1680 and
1755. Both chapel and hall are included in this period.
JESUS.--Standing so completely apart from the closely clustered
nucleus, Jesus College might be regarded as a modern foundation
ranking with Downing or Selwyn by the hurried visitor who had failed
to consult his guide-book and had not previous information to aid him.
It was actually founded as long ago as 1497, and the buildings include
the church and other parts of the Benedictine nunnery of the Virgin
and St. Rhadegund.
Bishop Alcock, of Ely, was the founder of the college, and his badge,
composed of three cocks' heads, is frequently displayed on the
buildings. The entrance gate, dating from the end of the fifteenth
century, with stepped parapets, is the work of the founder, and is one
of the best features of the college. Passing through this Tudor arch,
we enter the outer court, dating from the reign of Charles I., but
finished in Georgian times. From this the inner court is entered, and
here we are in the nuns' cloister, with their church, now the college
chapel, to the south, and three beautiful Early English arches, which
probably formed the entrance to the chapter-house, noticeable on the
east. In this court are the hall, the lodge, and the library, but the
most interesting of all the buildings is the chapel. It is mainly the
Early English church of the nunnery curtailed and altered by Bishop
Alcock, who put in Perpendicular windows and removed aides without a
thought of the denunciations he has since incurred. In many of the
windows the glass is by Morris and Burne-Jones, and the light that
passes through them gives a rich and solemn dignity to the interior.
CHRIST'S.--Perhaps the most impressive feature of Christ's College is
the entrance gate facing the busy shopping street called Petty Cury.
The imposing heraldic display reminds us at once of Lady Margaret
Beaufort, who, in 1505, refounded God's House, the hostel which had
previously stood here. Although restored, the chapel is practically of
the same period as the gateway, and it and the hall have both
interesting interiors. From the court beyond, overlooked on one side
by the fine classic building of 1642 attributed to Inigo Jones,
entrance is gained to the beautiful fellows' garden, where the
mulberry-tree associated with the memory of Milton may still be seen.
[Illustration: THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE. The Large stained
glass window of the Hall is seen on the right, and beyond that the
window of the Combination Room. The Dormer window of Harvard's room is
seen on the extreme left.]
MAGDALENE.--This college is the only old one on the outer side of the
river. It stands on the more historic part of Cambridge; but although
an abbey hostel was here in Henry VI.'s time, it was not until 1542,
after the suppression of Crowland Abbey, to which the property
belonged, that Magdalene was founded by Thomas, Baron Audley of
Walden. In the first court of ivy-grown red brick is the rather
uninteresting chapel, and on the side facing the entrance the hall
stands between the two courts. It has some interesting portraits,
including one of Samuel Pepys, and a good double staircase leading to
the combination room, but more notable than anything else is the
beautiful Renaissance building in the inner court, wherein is
preserved the library of books Pepys presented to his old college. In
the actual glass-covered bookcases in which he kept them, and in the
very order, according to size, that Pepys himself adopted, we may see
the very interesting collection of books he acquired. Here, too, is
the famous Diary, in folio volumes, of neatly written shorthand, and
other intensely interesting possessions of the immortal diarist.
EMMANUEL.--The college stands on the site of a Dominican friary, but
Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder, or his executors, being imbued with
strong Puritanism, delighted in sweeping away the monastic buildings
they found still standing. Ralph Symons was the first architect, but
all his excellent Elizabethan work has vanished, the oldest portion of
the college only dating back to 1633. From that time up to the end of
the eighteenth century the rest of the structures were reconstructed
in the successive styles of classic revival. Wren began the work, but
unluckily it was left to Essex to complete it, and he is responsible
for the dreary hall occupying the site of the old chapel.
SIDNEY SUSSEX.--At the foot of the list of post-Reformation colleges
comes Sidney Sussex, founded, in 1589, by Frances Lady Sussex,
daughter of Sir William Sidney, and widow of the second Earl of
Sussex. During the mania for rebuilding, all the Elizabethan work of
Ralph Symons was replaced by Essex, and in the nineteenth century the
notorious Wyatville, whose Georgian Gothic removed all the glamour
from Windsor Castle, finished the work.
DOWNING.--The remaining colleges belong to the period we may call
recent. Downing, the first of these, was not a going concern until
1821, although Sir George Downing, the founder, made the will by which
his property was eventually devoted to this purpose as early as the
year 1717.
RIDLEY HALL came into being in 1879, and is an adjunct to the other
colleges for those who have already graduated and have decided to
enter the Church.
SELWYN COLLEGE, founded about the same time, is named after the great
Bishop Selwyn, who died in 1877. The college aims at the provision, on
a hostel basis, of a University education on a less expensive scale
than the older colleges.
Of the two women's colleges, Girton was founded first. This was in
1869, and the site chosen was as far away as Hitchen, but four years
later, gaining confidence, the college was moved to Girton, a mile
north-west of the town, on the Roman Via Devana. Newnham arrived on
the scene soon afterwards, and, considering proximity to the
University town no disadvantage, the second women's college was
planted between Ridley and Selwyn, with Miss Clough as the first
principal.