In the Screens are posted up the current College Notices--the hours and subjects of the lectures, the dates and results of the College examinations,[40] and the various tutorial admonishments of the Term. There is usually only one Tutor in a College, but the great size of Trinity requires the services of four; each being responsible for his own "Side," as it is called, consisting of some 150 students, to whom he is supposed (and the supposition is no unfounded one) to be "guide, philosopher, and friend," keeping a wise eye to their progress, moral, social, and intellectual. [Footnote 40: Besides the University Examinations needed to obtain a Degree, every College keeps its students up to the mark by extra examinations of its own, held usually twice a year. There are also competitive examinations for the College Scholarships, and (at Trinity) for the Fellowships. About seventy per cent. of Trinity students are "Honour men"; reading, not for the ordinary (or "Poll") Degree, but for one or other of the various Triposes. And of these "Honour" candidates of Trinity, over thirty per cent. attain a First Class; which is thus gained by nearly twenty-five per cent. of Trinity students, the highest College average in the University.] [Illustration: _Trinity Bridge._] Passing through the eastern doorway of the Screens we meet what is perhaps the most ideal academic view in the world. From our feet descends a semicircular stairway with steps of worn stone leading down to a vast enclosure of greensward, surrounded and traversed by broad walks of flags and pebbles, and enclosed on all sides by venerable Collegiate buildings with battlemented parapets. These buildings are not very lofty; which makes the court look even larger than it is, and gives the greater effect to the three grand gate towers, one of which adorns each of the three sides before us. In the midst of the Court (which is not far from square but delightfully irregular in shape) rises the inspired gracefulness of the fountain--with its octagonal base of broad steps (surrounded by bright flowerbeds) and its crocketed canopy upborne upon slender pillars with beautifully proportioned arches.[41] The whole is a veritable miracle of design, and would hold its own with any fountain even in Italy. It is, indeed, the work of Italian craftsmen of the best period,[42] brought over specially by Dr. Nevile, to whose genius we owe this most splendid of all College quadrangles, the "Old Court" (sometimes called the "Great Court") of Trinity. [Footnote 41: The water is from an ancient conduit made originally to supply the Franciscan Convent, and comes from a spring some two miles to the west. Till recently this was the only supply for Trinity, and (by a charitable tap outside the Great Gate) for many neighbours also. Now it is supplemented by an artesian well behind the chapel, bored to a depth of 120 feet into the Greensand.]