Cambridge (England) -- Pictorial works; University of Cambridge -- Pictorial works
In 1389 the college acquired Cosyn’s Place, and later Bolton’s, and in
1451 a perpetual lease of S. Thomas’s hostel. University hostel retained
its name till the last quarter of the xvi century, and it was only
pulled down in 1659 to make room for the Hitcham building which now
forms the south side of the second court. There is nothing left of the
xiv and xv century structures. The present lodge, hall, and library and
the other new buildings in stone and red brick have all been erected
since 1870. The chapel occupies part of the site of S. Thomas’s hostel,
and was built by Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely and Master of
[Illustration: THE OLD COURT, PEMBROKE COLLEGE
The Dining Hall is seen on the right of the picture.]
Peterhouse, at his own charges; the architect being his nephew
Christopher Wren. The bishop had already built Peterhouse chapel and
this new work was undertaken in fulfilment of his intention to make some
pious offering if he were ever liberated from the Tower, where the
Parliament kept him between the years 1642 and 1658. The fine
combination room is panelled with the oak from the xvii century hall.
The portrait of Marie de Saint-Paul presides in the present hall with
that of Henry VI. flanked by busts of Pitt, Gray, and Stokes.
Two spiritual relationships were bequeathed by the founder to the
college. One with the Franciscan friars, the other with the Minoresses
of Denney. The former connexion ceased almost as soon as it was devised,
for the existing edition of the statutes (made after the founder’s
death) omits all mention of it.[131]
No college but Trinity outshines Pembroke for the fame of its scholars
and none for the antiquity of its fame. Henry VI. in a charter granting
lands speaks of it as “this eminent and most precious college, which is
and ever hath been resplendent among all places in the university.”[132]
The king so favoured it that it was called his “adopted daughter”; and
when Elizabeth rode past it on her way to her lodging at King’s she
saluted it with one of those happy phrases characteristic of the Tudors:
“_O domus antiqua et religiosa!_” words which sum its significance in
university history.
Pembroke is the _alma mater_ of Edmund Spenser,[133] of Gray,[134] of
the younger Pitt,[135] of Thixtil, fellow in 1519, whose extraordinary
erudition is praised by Caius, of Wharton the anatomist, Sydenham the
xvii century physician, Gabriel Harvey the “Hobbinoll” of the
_Shepherd’s Calendar_,[136] Sir George Stokes the mathematician, and Sir
Henry Maine.[137] *Grindal and *Whitgift[138] of Canterbury, *Rotherham
and *Booth of York, *Richard Fox Master of the college, Bishop of
Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi Oxford, the two Langtons
Bishops of *S. David’s and Winchester, *Ridley the martyr Bishop of
London, *Lancelot Andrewes Bishop of Ely, then of Winchester, with
[Illustration: A COURT AND CLOISTERS IN PEMBROKE COLLEGE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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