Cambridge and Its CollegesThompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
History
Cambridge and Its Colleges
Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
University of Cambridge
Theophilus Dillingham succeeded Cudworth, and was Archdeacon of Bedford
as well as master. He continued the buildings, and a successful
completion was reached under the subsequent mastership of Samuel
Blythe. From this time forward the history of Clare was peaceful and
monotonous. It produced a very eccentric son in William Whiston, known
as the admirable translator of Josephus. Whiston was an astronomer and
a proficient mathematician. He preceded Sir Isaac Newton as Lucasian
Professor, resigning his chair in 1711. He was always open to the
influence of new and uncommon theories, and died a Baptist with a strong
tendency to Fifth-Monarchy principles.
Clare was the college of that famous statesman, Thomas Holles Pelham,*
Duke of Newcastle, whose personal peculiarities are ridiculed in
Smollett’s _Humphrey Clinker_. Pelham was Chancellor of the University
from 1748 to 1768, having previously filled the office of High Steward.
His Chancellorship is the last important event in the history of the
College. It has, since then, under the fortunate and prolonged rule of
four masters, extending over a century and a half, maintained its ancient
prestige, and now, although one of the smallest of the colleges in point
of buildings, the number of its undergraduates is exceptionally large
and shows no signs of decreasing. Among its present members it numbers
several men of great eminence, of whom, to Cambridge men, the most
familiar is the present Woodwardian Professor, Dr McKenny Hughes.
V
PEMBROKE COLLEGE
Modern architects have taken such delight in seeing what can be done
with Pembroke that we have scarcely any vestiges of the old building.
The long, low street front of the first court, a reminiscence of Oxford,
with its double oriel, was refaced in 1726. It was the era of Gibbs
and Burrough, and the treatment is therefore thoroughly conservative.
But since then, Archbishop Rotherham’s fine, monastic plan has been
ruthlessly spoiled. The oldest existing part is the Ivy Court, a pretty
double range of rooms at the back of the Hall. The north side dates
from 1633; the south, or Hitcham Building, from 1659, at which period
Rotherham’s Library still formed the upper storey of the Hall, and the
Chapel stood in the north-west corner of the first court. Bishop Wren’s
chapel superseded the latter building after the Restoration. It was
consecrated in 1667, and is in curious contrast with the same prelate’s
chapel of 1632 at Peterhouse. His nephew, the great Sir Christopher Wren,
was the architect of this building and the adjoining cloister, which is
so pleasant a feature of the western side of the court. Wren’s genius is
clearly visible in the stately unpretentious exterior; but inside, the
chapel is cold and ineffective. Stained glass of the type which has been
employed at the east end of St Paul’s Cathedral, is wanted to complete
the design.
[Illustration: Pembroke College]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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