Let us now take a brief review of the seventeen colleges of Cambridge.
In Trinity Street is Trinity College, founded in 1546 by Henry VIII. It
consists of four quadrangular courts, the Great Court being the largest
quadrangle in the university, and entered from the street by the grand
entrance-tower known as the King's Gateway. On the northern side of the
quadrangle are the chapel and King Edward's Court, and in the centre of
the southern side the Queen's Tower, with a statue of Queen Mary. In the
centre of the quadrangle is a quaint conduit. The chapel is a plain
wainscoted room, with an ante-chapel filled with busts of former members
of the college--among them Bacon and Macaulay--and also a noble statue
of Newton. Trinity College Hall is one hundred feet long and the finest
in Cambridge, its walls being adorned with several portraits. It was in
Trinity that Byron, Dryden, Cowley, Herbert, and Tennyson were all
students. There are said to be few spectacles more impressive than the
choral service on Sunday evening in term-time, when Trinity Chapel is
crowded with surpliced students. In the Master's Lodge, on the western
side of the quadrangle, are the state-apartments where royalty is lodged
when visiting Cambridge, and here also in special apartments the judges
are housed when on circuit. Through screens or passages in the hall the
second quadrangle, Neville's Court, is entered, named for a master of
the college who died in 1615. Here is the library, an attractive
apartment supported on columns, which contains Newton's telescope and
some of his manuscripts, and also a statue of Byron. The King's (or New)
Court, is a modern addition, built in the present century at a cost of
$200,000. From this the College Walks open on the western side, the view
from the gateway looking down the long avenue of lime trees being
strikingly beautiful. The Master's Court is the fourth quadrangle.
[Illustration: HALL OF TRINITY COLLEGE.]
Adjoining Trinity is its rival, St. John's College, also consisting of
four courts, though one of them is of modern construction and on the
opposite bank of the river. This college was founded by the countess
Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., and opened in 1516, having
been for three centuries previously a hospital. It is generally regarded
from this circumstance as being the oldest college at Cambridge. The
gateway is a tower of mingled brick and stone and one of the earliest
structures of the college. Entering it, on the opposite side of the
court is seen the New Chapel, but recently completed, a grand edifice
one hundred and seventy-two feet long and sixty-three feet high, with a
surmounting tower whose interior space is open and rises eighty-four
feet above the pavement. The roof and the windows are richly colored,
and variegated marbles have been employed in the interior decoration.
The eastern end is a five-sided apse; the ceiling is vaulted in oak,
while the chapel has a magnificent screen. Between the first and second
courts is the hall, recently enlarged and decorated, and the library is
on the northern side of the third court. It is a picturesque room of
James I.'s time, with a timbered roof, whitened walls, and carved oaken
bookcases black with age. The second court is of earlier date, and a
fine specimen of sixteenth-century brickwork. On the southern side is an
octagonal turret, at the top of which is the queer little room occupied
by Dr. Wood, whose statue is in the chapel. When he first came to
college from his humble home in the north of England he was so poor that
he studied by the light of the staircase candle, and wrapped his feet in
wisps of hay in winter to save the cost of a fire. He became the Senior
Wrangler, and in due course a Fellow, and ultimately master of the
college. To this was added the deanery of Ely. Dying, he bequeathed his
moderate fortune for the aid of poor students and the benefit of his
college. Of the third court the cloister on the western side fronts the
river. The New Court, across the Cam, is a handsome structure, faced
with stone and surmounted by a tower. A covered Gothic bridge leads to
it over the river from the older parts of the college. In the garden
along the river, known as the Wilderness, Prior the poet is said to have
laid out the walks. Here among the students who have taken recreation
have been Wordsworth and Herschel, Wilberforce and Stillingfleet.
[Illustration: ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL.]