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
Not so long ago oaken railings (still to be seen in places) ran
between it and the road, till a visit from Lord Kitchener (then Sirdar
of Egypt, fresh from his Ethiopian victories) was made the occasion of
a gigantic bonfire in the Market Place, to feed which the whole were
torn up and carried away by gangs of enthusiastic undergraduates. A
like fate befell the wooden palings and gates of the College gardens
across the road, now replaced by iron, and altogether the damage done
ran into hundreds of pounds; while the town police and the University
proctors waited for each other to act until too late. There are three
of these College gardens on end--King's, Clare, and Trinity; and
rarely lovely they are, with their wide "smooth-shaven" lawns, broken
into glades by clumps of ornamental trees. But each can only be
entered under the aegis of a Fellow of its own respective College, and
they are so carefully planted out from the road that scarcely even a
glimpse can be gained of the delights within, "where no profaner eye
may look."
Leaving these on our left we proceed along the northward-leading path
till we reach the fine iron gate which bears the escutcheon of
Cambridge's mightiest College, Trinity, a College more than twice as
large as any other, numbering something like 700 residents, students
and teachers together. Like London, which an Indian visitor once
described as "not a city, but a herd of cities," Trinity may be
described as a conjoined herd of colleges, for it was created by the
amalgamation of no fewer than nine earlier institutions. Two of these,
Michaelhouse[25] and King's Hall, were amongst the most noteworthy
colleges in Cambridge. The former was founded by Henry de Stanton,
Chancellor to King Edward the Second, in 1323, and was thus, next to
Peterhouse, the oldest college in Cambridge. And King's Hall was but a
few years younger, being founded by King Edward the Third in 1336.
Indeed, it may claim to be actually the elder in embryonic existence,
for Edward the Second, in 1317, was already maintaining
scholars--"children of our Chapel" as his writ calls them--in
Cambridge. And that these "children" (who were required to be at least
fourteen years of age on coming into residence) were quartered
hereabouts is evident from King's Hall having been built across the
line of an ancient street running down to the river and known as
"King's Childer Lane." The town agreed to the expropriation of this
lane in consideration of one red rose annually to be paid by the
College to the Corporation on Midsummer Day. The remaining seven
foundations incorporated in Trinity College were hostels (institutions
for lodging students, more or less organised in college fashion, but
not recognised by the University as colleges). These were St.
Catharine's Hostel, Physwick Hostel, Crutched Hostel, Gregory's
Hostel, Tyled Hostel, Oving's Inn, and St. Gerard's or "Garret"
Hostel; which last, as we have seen, is still kept in memory by the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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