When we leave the Chapel, and proceed towards the Great Gate, we are treading on classic ground. For it was along this flagged path that Macaulay, while at Trinity, used to take his daily exercise, pacing assiduously up and down, always the while devouring some author, whose pages he turned over with incredible rapidity, and at the same pace whether they were filled with the weightiest thought or the lightest fancy. Yet whether the book were profound philosophy or exquisite poetry or the trashiest of rhyme and fiction, he was ever afterwards able to recall its whole scheme and even to quote lengthy portions of it verbatim. His rooms were in the staircase facing us--the set on the ground-floor to the left of the entrance. This particular staircase has been the home of more great men than any other in the University. The ground-floor rooms opposite Macaulay's were those of Thackeray,[56] and the set above Thackeray's are hallowed as the habitation of Sir Isaac Newton: for whom the College built an observatory on the roof of the Gate Tower, and who also had the use of a small bit of ground which we see outside the gate, now a railed-in lawn, but then a pretty little garden, as Logan's view shows, with trees and flower-beds, surrounded by a high wall. [Footnote 56: Readers of _Esmond_ will remember that Thackeray quarters that hero on this same staircase, "close by the gate, and near to the famous Mr. Newton's lodgings." Thackeray was in residence 1829-31, Macaulay 1818-24, Newton 1662-1717.] CHAPTER V Whewell's Courts.--All Saints' Cross.--The Jewry.--Divinity School.--=St. John's College=, Trinity and John's, Lady Margaret, Fisher, Hospital of St. John, Gate Tower, First Court, Hall, Wordsworth, Compulsory Worship, Combination Room, Second Court, Library, Great Bible, Third Court, Bridge of Sighs, New Court, Roof-climbing, Blazers, Wilderness.--=Caius College=, Gonville, The Three Gates, Kitchen, "Blues."--=Senate House=, Congregations, Vice-Chancellor, Voting, Degree-giving.--=University Church=, Mr. Tripos, Golgotha, Sermons, Tower, Chimes, Jowett.--Market Hill, Peasant Revolt, Wat Tyler, Bucer and Fagius, Bonfires, Town and Gown. We are now outside the Great Gate of Trinity; but, across the street, in front of us, rises yet another gate belonging to the College, and leading into its two newest Courts, named from Dr. Whewell, who left this noble memorial of his Mastership.[57] Those who list to enter them will at once see why the first is popularly known as "the Spittoon," and the second as "the Billiard Table"; but there is little more to see or to say about them. [Footnote 57: Whewell was Master of Trinity from 1841 to 1866.]