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
[Footnote 42: These same craftsmen probably made the beautiful
ceilings in the Combination Room at St. John's College (which is
copied from that in one of the rooms in this Court), and in the
University Library.]
To appreciate the greatness of this debt, we must bear in mind that,
when he became Master of the College, Nevile found the ground occupied
by heterogeneous ranges of old buildings, the remains of the
suppressed Colleges and Hostels, running chaotically in all sorts of
directions. These are shown in the earliest map of Cambridge,[43] made
in 1592, just before he began his great work of pulling down, setting
back, building and rebuilding. He thus remodelled almost the whole;
the Chapel alone (built fifty years earlier) and the great eastern
gate-tower remaining as they were before his reconstructions. In
reality this Court, far more than the Cloister Court, deserves to be
called by his name, and to remind us of his motto _Ne vile velis_
("Nothing cheap and nasty").
[Footnote 43: See _Cambridge Described_, p. 443.]
Since his day, indeed, surprisingly little alteration has been made.
Plaster has been put on (and stripped off) here and there, stonework
has been touched up, the Master's Lodge has been altered and
re-altered, but the only radical change has been in the south-west
corner beyond the Hall, which was rebuilt in 1775, with results as
artistically deplorable as may well be, especially in comparison with
the older work. Nevile had left in this corner a beautiful oriel
window, still to be seen in Logan's view of the College (1680).
Of the three gate towers only one is of Nevile's own building, that on
the southern side of the Court, known as the Queen's Gate from the
statue of Anne of Denmark, the Queen Consort of James the First,
which stands above its inner archway. The gate of this tower is used
only on occasions. The other two both belonged to King's Hall; the
eastern being still in its original place, the northern, which
formerly aligned with it, having been moved back by Nevile to align
with the Chapel. Both set forth the glories of Edward the Third; the
former displaying over its entrance gate the armorial bearings of his
seven sons, while over the archway of the latter he stands himself,
with his three crowns (of England, France and Scotland) spitted on the
long naked sword which he holds erect in front of him, and the proud
motto "_Fama super aethera notus_" ("Known by Fame beyond the skies").
From his like niche in the eastern tower he has been displaced by
Henry the Eighth. The statues on the inside of this tower are James
the First, with his wife and son (afterwards Charles the First).
The northern tower is commonly known as the Clock Tower; being the
dwelling place of the famous timepiece referred to by Wordsworth in
the "Prelude" as breaking the silence of his rooms at St. John's
College, which were not many yards away:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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