Christ's College, the other "Lady Margaret" foundation, has undergone
a great deal of rebuilding and not a few additions. The gateway from
the street and most of the chambers to right and left of it are of
the sixteenth century. The finest architectural possession of the
college is its block of Fellows' buildings towards the garden. It
would seem to be by a pupil of Inigo Jones, if not actually by the
Master himself.
Magdalene is the only college in Cambridge which, in a sense, is of
monkish origin. It was originally a cell of Croyland; and being
endowed by Henry, second Duke of Buckingham, it soon came to be known
as Buckingham College. In 1483 it is styled "Bokyngham College" and
its inmates are described as "monachi". Lord Chancellor Audley, who
changed the foundation into Magdalene College, refounded it for an
ordinary academical society, after the house, as a cell of Croyland
Abbey, had escheated to the Crown. This college does not elect its
Master: the headship of the House being in the gift of the "owner of
Audley End". At present, therefore, the Lords Braybrooke present to
the Mastership. Magdalene is a picturesque and commodiously arranged
college, and, though small, has many attractive features. The most
interesting building is that erected in the seventeenth century,
primarily with the idea of providing suitable accommodation for the
library of Samuel Pepys the diarist. The latest addition, a range
brought close to the riverside, is perhaps the most successful in
design and colour of any of the more recent buildings in the
University.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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