Highways and Byways in Cambridge and ElyConybeare, John William Edward
History
Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely
Conybeare, John William Edward
Cambridgeshire (England) -- Description and travel; Isle of Ely (England) -- Description and travel
Spiked gates.--Old King's.--=University Library=, Origin, Growth,
Codex Bezae.--=Trinity Hall=, Colours, Library.--=Clare College=,
"Poison Cup," Court, Bridge, Avenue.--The Backs, Sirdar Bonfire,
College Gardens.--=Trinity College=, Michaelhouse, King's Hall,
Henry the Eighth, Boat-clubs, Avenue, College Livings, Bridge,
Library, Byron, Nevile's Court, Cloisters, Echo, "Freshman's
Pillar," Prince Edward, Royal Ball, Goodhart, Buttery, College
Plate, Grace-cup, Kitchen, Hall, Combination Room, Marquis of
Granby, Tutors, Old Court, Fountain, Gate Towers, Clock, Lodge,
Chapel, Newton, Organ, Bentley, Windows, Macaulay.
On leaving King's Chapel we should give a glance to the marked line of
demarcation between the whitish stone of which the lower courses are
built and that employed in the upper.[21] It is of historical interest
as showing how far the work had progressed before the long break
caused by the Founder's death. Then, passing round the West Front, and
noting the exquisitely delicate tracery of the canopies over the empty
niches on either side of the door (wherein the two saints Mary and
Nicolas to whom the building is dedicated were destined to stand) we
leave the College by the iron gate on the North.
[Footnote 21: The former is from Huddleston in Yorkshire, the latter
from Weldon in Northamptonshire.]
The formidable chevaux-de-frise which crown this gate are supposed at
once to figure and to emphasise the danger run by such presumptuous
students as dare to contemplate illicit exit from or entrance into the
College during prohibited hours. It has already been said that between
10 p.m. and 7 a.m. no undergraduate resident in College may leave its
precincts, and no outsider may enter, under divers pains and
penalties. Every College supplements this moral pressure by more or
less effectual and awe-inspiring physical barriers. None however are
more fearsome to see, and less effective in fact, than these. For not
only can the College be entered or left with comparative ease by way
of the Backs, but even this ghastly array of spikes is not unscalable
to those who know the trick of it. Tennyson, as will be remembered,
has referred to this exploit in his "Princess."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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