Cambridge (England) -- Description and travel; University of Cambridge
Shortly before Henry made such drastic changes, King's Hall had been
enlarged and had built itself a fine gateway of red brick with stone
dressings, and this was made the chief entrance to the college. The
upper part and the statue of Henry VIII. on the outer face were added
by Nevile between 1593 and 1615, but otherwise, the gateway is nearly
a whole century earlier.
It is interesting to read the founder's words in regard to the aims of
his new college, for in them we seem to feel his wish to establish an
institution capable in some measure of filling the gap caused by the
suppression of so many homes of learning in England. Trinity was to be
established for "the development and perpetuation of religion" and for
"the cultivation of wholesome study in all departments of learning,
knowledge of languages, the education of youth in piety, virtue,
self-restraint and knowledge; charity towards the poor, and relief of
the afflicted and distressed."
To the right on entering the great gateway is the chapel, a late Tudor
building begun by Queen Mary and finished by her sister Elizabeth
about the year 1567. The exterior is quite mediaeval, and all the
internal woodwork, including the great _baldachino_ of gilded oak, the
stalls and the organ screen dividing the chapel into two, dates from
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the ante-chapel the memory
of some of the college's most distinguished sons is perpetuated in
white marble. Among them we see Macaulay and Newton, whose rooms were
between the great gate and the chapel, Tennyson, Whewell--the master
who built the courts bearing his name, was active in revising the
college statutes, and died in 1866--Newton, Bacon, Wordsworth and
others.
On the west side of the court, beginning at the northern end, we find
ourselves in front of the Lodge, which is the residence of the Master
of the College. The public are unable to see the fine interior with
its beautiful dining- and drawing-rooms and the interesting
collection of college portraits hanging there, but they can see the
famous oriel window built in 1843 with a contribution of £1,000 from
Alexander Beresford-Hope. This sum, however, even with £250 from
Whewell, who had just been elected to the mastership, did not cover
the cost, and the fellows had to make up the deficit. It was suggested
that Whewell might have contributed more had not his wife dissuaded
him, and a fellow wrote a parody of "The House that Jack Built" which
culminated in this verse:
This is the architect who is rather a muff,
Who bamboozled those seniors that cut up so rough,
When they saw the inscription, or rather the puff,
Placed by the master so rude and so gruff,
Who married the maid so Tory and tough,
And lived in the house that Hope built.
The Latin inscription, omitting any reference to the part the fellows
took in building the oriel, may still be read on the window.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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