Cambridge (England) -- Pictorial works; University of Cambridge -- Pictorial works
Peterhouse hall, in common with the halls of all other colleges,
contains the portraits of its great men: here, however, they look down
upon us not only from the wall above the high table but from the stained
glass of the windows. Holbroke Master of the college, chancellor of the
university during the Barnwell process, and an early student of science;
Cardinal Beaufort scholar of the house who represented Henry V. at the
Council of Constance, and was himself, perhaps, _papabile_; Warkworth
writing his Lancastrian Chronicle--are in their doctor’s scarlet: here
also are Whitgift, Cosin, and Crashaw, who is depicted as a canon of
Loreto; the poet Gray, the third duke of Grafton chancellor of the
university and Prime Minister, and Henry Cavendish the physicist. The
panel portraits were removed here from the Stone parlour. The painting
of Bishop Law by Romney (?) reminds us that many of the Laws were at
Peterhouse, including the first Lord Ellenborough. Over the high table
is Lord Kelvin the latest famous son of the house. Among these must also
be noted Thomas Heywood “a prose Shakspeare,” Hutchinson “the regicide”
one of the first Puritan gentlemen and one of the best, Peter Baro,
Markland the classical critic, and Sherlock who measured himself against
Bossuet.
Peterhouse owes nothing to royal endowments but it has not lived outside
the stir of national movements either political or religious. There were
fervent Lancastrians within its walls in the xv century, fervent
partisans of the Stuarts in the xviith. It was, second to none in
England, the anti-Puritan college, numbering among its masters Wren and
Cosin, and that Doctor Andrew Perne who was among its most munificent
benefactors.[109] Perne was a Petrean first and a theologian afterwards,
and, as vice-chancellor, was to be found burning the remains of Martin
Bucer and Paul Fagius[110] in order to ingratiate the university with
Mary, and signing the Thirty-nine Articles on the accession of
Elizabeth. The letters AP AP on the weather cock of his college are said
to mean: Andrew Perne, “a Papist” or “a Protestant,” as you will; and in
Cantabrigian language a coat that has been turned is a coat that has
been _perned_, and _pernare_ signifies to change your opinions with
frequency.
Since the xvii century Peterhouse has been connected with no great
movements. In the xv century and again in the early xixth it produced
eminent physical and mathematical students; and in the xviii century
Sir William Browne, President of the College of Physicians, learnt here
his science. Scotchmen have a predilection for the college; and a
nucleus of history men is being formed under the present Master’s
guidance.
[Sidenote: Little S. Mary’s.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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