Cambridge (England) -- Description and travel; University of Cambridge
The library of St. John's is rich in examples of early printing by
Caxton and others whose books come under the heading of incunabula,
but it would have been vastly richer in such early literature had
Bishop Fisher's splendid collection--"the notablest library of books
in all England, two long galleries full"--been allowed to come where
the good prelate had intended. When he was deprived, attainted, and
finally beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as supreme head
of the Church, his library was confiscated, and what became of it I do
not know. Over the high table in the hall, a long and rather narrow
structure with a dim light owing to its dark panelling, hangs a
portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the foundress of the college, and
on either side of this pale Tudor lady are paintings of Archbishop
Williams, who built the library, and Sir Ralph Hare. The most
interesting portraits are, however, in the master's lodge, rebuilt by
Sir Gilbert Scott on a new site north of the library.
[Illustration]
It was through no sudden or isolated emotion that Lady Margaret was
led to found this college in 1509, the year of her death, for she had
four years earlier re-established the languishing grammar college,
called God's House, under the new name of Christ's College, and had
been a benefactress to Oxford as well. On the outer gateways of both
her colleges, therefore, we see the great antelopes of the Beauforts
supporting the arms of Lady Margaret, with her emblem, the daisy,
forming a background. Sprinkled freely over the buildings, too, are
the Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis.
St. John's Hospital, which stood on the site of the present college,
had been founded in 1135, and was suppressed in 1509, when it had
shrunk to possessing two brethren only. The interest of this small
foundation of Black Canons would have been small had it not been
attached to Ely, and through that connection made the basis of Bishop
Balsham's historic experiment already mentioned.
The founding of St. John's by a lady of even such distinction as the
mother of Henry VII. could not alone have placed the college in the
position it now occupies: such a consummation could only have been
brought about by the capacity and learning of those to whom has
successively fallen the task of carrying out her wishes, from Bishop
Fisher down to the present time. To mention all, or even the chief, of
these rulers of the college is not possible here, and before saying
farewell to the lovely old courts, we have only space to mention that
among the famous students were Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford,
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; Matthew Prior, the poet-statesman; William
Wilberforce, and William Wordsworth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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