The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, though inheriting much
from the earlier college--King's Hall--which was set up by Edward II
and his son Edward III, owes almost everything to King Henry VIII.
It was typical of this monarch that, after somewhat maltreating
Wolsey's foundation at Oxford and paying not too much attention to
Henry VI's or King's College at Cambridge, he should have set about
founding Trinity with the plain intent of eclipsing both. The
College as we see it to-day, is the largest and wealthiest in either
University. It is founded for a Master, sixty Fellows at the least,
and eighty Scholars. In full term the resident members number nearly
eight hundred souls. From the first, the buildings were set out to
accommodate an unusually large society. The Great Court, with its
Chapel, Gatehouse, Hall, Master's Lodge, and rows of chambers, broken
here by a tower, there by a turret, occupies over two acres of
ground. The character of its architecture is for the most part
Tudor; for the restorations and alterations which have from time to
time taken place have not been permitted to stray far from the
traditional style of the Court. A further court--the Cloister or
Neville's Court--consists of two ranges of Jacobean design, modified
by later hands so as to fare better than they otherwise would beside
Sir Christopher Wren's great Library building, which here occupies
the entire western side of the quadrangle, even projecting above and
beyond it on either side. In addition to these two spacious courts
there are three other quadrangles, all of recent date. These are
fortunately so situated that the sightseer can easily avoid looking
at them.
[Illustration: GATEWAY, ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE]
Emmanuel College possesses one court of the founder's time, and
beautiful it is. It is rarely shown to the ordinary visitor, but
those who care for simple unpretending work of this period (1584)
have only to ask for the dovecot garden. The main Court of the
College is of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Wren made the
design for the Chapel, which was built between 1668-78. The Court is
finely proportioned and has always been admired.
Sidney Sussex College, the last college to belong to the sixteenth
century, has been harshly dealt with. A charming Elizabethan college
has been ruthlessly turned into a thoroughly bad stucco dwelling
gothicized in the Wyatt manner. It has its treasures: a fine garden,
good pictures, and some handsome plate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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