Cambridge and Its CollegesThompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
History
Cambridge and Its Colleges
Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
University of Cambridge
Long the lawyers’ college, Trinity Hall maintains a staid legal
appearance. Its present arrangement is essentially modern, and the
earliest remaining portion is the ivy-covered range of chambers forming
the northern side of the Garden Court. This is not earlier than 1560,
but, as at Caius, much of the interior work of the main court is
original. In the upper storey of this range is the primitive Library,
fitted in the sixteenth century with low bookshelves, the tops of which
form a double reading desk. This very comfortable arrangement has been
followed in the small bookshelves of many of the other libraries.
The bulk of the College, including the entrance courts and the small
quadrangle, was entirely remodelled in the last century, during the
mastership of Sir Nathaniel Lloyd (1710-35) and Sir Edward Simpson
(1735-64). The Chapel, south of the large court (an unusual position)
belongs to 1729, and the Hall on the west side to 1743. Its interior is
very creditable to Georgian taste, although not positively faultless. In
1852, the façade of the college was burned down. The present front is
due to Salvin, who built the neighbouring hall of Caius much about the
same time. The old gate of the college, which opened into the smaller
court, is still commemorated by an opening in the wall, affording a
picturesque view of the ivy-covered interior. To a later period belong
the new buildings in the Garden Court. The Tutor’s House, of white stone,
by Mr W. M. Fawcett, is not exactly in harmony with Messrs Grayson &
Ould’s brick building on the north side, but the latter has been arranged
so as to slope obliquely northward, and front the garden; and a too
obvious discord has thus been avoided. In itself, this red-brick work,
of a Renaissance order, is one of the best things in modern Cambridge,
and fulfils, at least from an outside point of view, all the ideal
requirements of a collegiate building.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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