[Illustration: _Oriel in Library, St. John's College._] With regard to picturesqueness and architectural merit it is difficult to assign the pre-eminence to either place, so far as the University and Collegiate buildings are concerned. Of each distinctive feature, considered separately, the choicest specimen is to be found in Cambridge--the best College Chapel at King's; the finest College Hall and College Courts at Trinity; the most characteristic and beautiful Library at St. John's. But, out-taken these, Oxford can show several examples of each feature better than the next best at Cambridge. And, apart from the University buildings, the town of Cambridge, with its narrow streets and mean public edifices, is hopelessly outclassed by the beautiful city of Oxford. Invidious comparisons, however, are, in the case of sisters, more than ordinarily odious. CHAPTER II Entrance to Cambridge.--Railways.--Roman Catholic Church.--Street runlets, Hobson, Perne.--Fitzwilliam Museum.--=Peterhouse=, Chapel, Deer-park.--Little St. Mary's Church, Washington Arms.--Gray's window.--=Pembroke College=, Large and Small Colleges, "Querela Cantabrigiensis," Ridley's farewell.--St. Botolph's Church.--The King's Ditch.--=Corpus Christi College=, Cambridge Guilds, St. Benet's Church, Fire-hooks, Corpus Library, Corpus Ghost.--=St. Catharine's College.=--King's Parade.--Pitt Press.--Newnham Bridge, Hermits.--The Backs River, College Bridges, Hithes. Having thus given the reader a very meagre and sketchy outline of the sort of knowledge needful for a due appreciation of Cambridge, and leaving him to fill in such details as he pleases from the numberless histories and guide books, large and small (and for the most part excellent) which he will find quite readily accessible, we will now suppose him to be entering the town.